School is in Session!

We hopped on the school wagon a bit early this year so we can take a baby break when #4 comes this fall.  Truly we finished most of our lessons by late April this spring so the children still had a nice two months off to frolic and play.  I've found that, when you homeschool, so much of the transition and shuffle of traditional schooling is cut out that there is still plenty of time for young children to frolic about and play as they wish.

Yesterday, our first day of school, was magical and filled with butterflies and fairy dust tanked.  Mike and I miscommunicated and scheduling got off and (to not be a whiner) quite frankly, by 9 a.m. my attitude sucked.  You heard me.  It hard core stunk.  As did the attitudes of my young pupils.  LE SIGH.  

What's that?  You thought it was all butterflies and fairy dust over here at the Joyful Jamboree?  Ba ha!  NOW.  That said, it's our job as good stewards (of time, of education, of our children) to pull up our bootstraps and chug forth, so at 11 a.m. (instead of my scheduled 9 a.m. hour) we began school and finished mid afternoon.  The children DID enjoy their new curriculums and the year WILL be successful, however it was not the dreamy "first day of school" I'd anticipated.

I did take our traditional "first day of school" pictures before the day fell into the toilet...

The resident Kindergartener.  He's not in pain, he's just Xabe...

The resident 1st grader...

The class clown!

Traditional first day of school "teacher" picture!

Xavier is loving his math and reading.  He loves having his own books, loves feeling like a big boy, loves the responsibility...

Using a highlighter for children to trace instead of making dotted lines is one of the finest teaching tips I ever received in my years in public school!

 

Natalee LOVES her reading and is tolerating her math.  Ha!  As per usual!

This year as part of our Sonlight Core B we'll be studying World History part 1.  Most of Natalee's readers and all of our history reading books will be focused on people and cultures from around the world.  I'm pretty much stoked (love history) and am enjoying the new Sonlight curriculum already!

At the NICHE homeschool conference Mike and I went to (I keep thinking I'll blog in depth about it and haven't made the opportunity!) a speaker gave us the idea to put maps under a clear tablecloth.  The kids LOVE this.  We had the US map under there until this week and then covered it with the world map to start our unit.  

(Clear table covering bought off the bolt at Jo-Ann's...use a 50% off coupon and get if for <$10.)

Today, day 2 of school, was much better.  The routine went as planned, the attitudes were better (mine included) and we had a great time and good discussion.

While I loved the readers for the Sonlight program (and loved that we could choose the readers for her ability instead of her grade/age) I didn't love the Language Arts program but hadn't decided what to do for Natalee, if anything, regarding Language Arts.  

At the suggestion of a friend I looked into the Rod and Staff readers/workbooks and easily loved them.  I bought the books used (thanks ebay!) and the workbooks at NICHE and Natalee began Unit 1 Lesson 1 today.  It sounds like a lot but reading is not a struggle for her so she zooms through her historical reader for Sonlight in less that five minutes a day.  

The Rod and Staff readers are Bible stories - we chose Grade 2 for her and purchased the reading workbooks to go with them.  Deciding she is quite grounded in phonics, we are choosing to skip the phonics workbooks that go with the same readers and do just the reading workbook that will focus on vocabulary, dictionary skills, word parts, etc. 

Today I set a timer and told Natalee that when it went off she could have a math break.  (Math isn't her favorite subject.)  It turns out that the timer kept her quite on track and she was almost done with the practice pages when the timer went off!  Yesterday she was very distracted in comparison so I'm pretty pleased with the effect of the timer, even if it wasn't what I intended!

We picked up our Bible Study Guide for All Ages where we left off last year and the kids love it as much as ever.  In Science we've begun a study of Planet Earth and there's much excitement about the upcoming topics of weather, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, and more!

Overall, forgiving the incident yesterday, we've had a successful start to our school year.  It's going to be a fine year, yes indeed!