Our First Couple of Days

Our first two days of school have been wonderful.

In the evening, I have found that doing a quick review of the work for the following day works well for me, and having everything lined up on the dining room table in the order that they will be done works well, too.

Because I have a four year old, it works in her favor also. She is able to get excited in the morning at what she will be doing during her school time and it shows her how close she is to being finished with her school time for the day as we do each assignment.

For breakfast on her first day, I made her a piece of toast with bananas and raisins to look like a little bear (idea taken from Pintrest). She was super excited.... but skipped the raisins. Silly girl!

I have a few things that I must complete before we acually sit down at the table to begin our school time and they are written in a permanent list form. I have found that just having this list of things to complete instead of having times written down of when things need to be finished works best for me.

We sit at the table for our school time. I use one of the stools under our counter as my seat. It is easier to hold Ian that way. He gets a kick out of big sister... and she loves to show off for him.

School time has taken a broken 60-90 minutes. As I mentioned on Monday, we take a half hour break at 10:00 for a snack and Doc McStuffins episode.

In Bible, I am finding that I need to re-word our lesson so she can fully understand the account. (I'm not a fan of speaking to children in King James Version language. If they are going to "get it," it has to be in language they understand.) We are doing one lesson per week and reviewing the same account for the rest of the week. Getting through the book isn't my goal. Having Addie learn what the Bible teaches is. Brian was pretty impressed when we did a quick review at dinner.

Phonics, reading, and math are currently reviewing things that we have already learned. We are focusing a bit more on handwriting than we have previously. Not Addie's favorite subject but a very important subject anyway (especially since her mommy was once offered a job based solely on her penmanship!).

We are going to work through our science book for the first part of the school year, and we'll do history for the second half.  I'd rather keep her in one train of thought rather than going back and forth every other day.

School time also means doing fun, extra-curricular activities like making crafts. We have colored Easter eggs, made a handprint chick, and Lord willing, today we will be making home-made play-dough (her actual art assignment).  Pintrest has been wonderful for giving me ideas on crafts to do with Addie.

The first two days have been wonderful. And to think! We only have 178 days to go!