The First Day of School! {How Did It Go!?}

The first day of the school year has come and gone and we declare it a success.  Only one person had tears over math, and it wasn't who you'd suspect.  Nothing that a little review can't take care of!  I had a little bug Sunday through the early morning and might have decided to push the first day of school off, but my pupils were just so excited I couldn't do it to them.  I powered through and I'm glad!

Prepped and ready the night before!

Zayden made me a back to school sign.  It says "teacher."  

I put our beginning of the day flow on the board so that everyone knew what to expect.  

Mike got up early with me and helped get breakfast together - doughnuts and egg/sausage/biscuit sandwiches (because #proteinisimportant.  He got the doughnuts (and treated to juice & chocolate milk - what a great principal!) and he fried the sausage patties while I got the scrambled eggs in the oven so that they were easy to cut squares for sandwiches and heated the biscuits.  While we got breakfast the kids thoroughly enjoyed the scavenger hunt that I laid out for them!  Evie tagged along, alternating yelling, "wait for me!" and skipping some clues altogether to play with the new Berenstain Bear dolls (thanks Dollar Tree!).  

Found their prizes!  Clipboards in their colors that open to store things.  Perfect for school on the road when we have appointments!

Daddy prayed over all of us individually and then we dove heartily into breakfast.  

Some of us were more patient during the prayer than others...

While we cleaned up it was time to say good-bye to Dad.  We finished our tidying and then everyone got dressed and went through the morning hair & teeth routines before heading out for our first day of school pictures.

Zayden made sure to get a picture of me with my sign.

Back at the house we played a couple of rounds of our new game, Rack-O.  I simultaneously played Rack-O with the big kids and Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel with Evalynn so that no one was left out but that we also weren't frustrated at our tiny helper.  

Our traditional first day of school self portraits were next on the list.  We put a fun spin on them and did monochromatic self-portraits this year.  The night before, I prepped all the old iPads and Kindle with the video tutorial for the art lesson so that everyone was able to spread out and work individually but at the same time.  This worked VERY well.  Natalee and Xavier chose to work in their rooms, Mia and Zayden at the table where I could help with devices, and then I was free to sit with Evie while she drew her self portrait.  

I guess no one felt like wearing glasses in their portraits today.  (I suspect the video tutorial didn't remind them to individualize to their own needs so they forgot.)

I adore these!

After the self-portraits, it was time to dive into our new studies and my pupils were certainly excited!  Zayden jumped into math (on the computer!), Mia chose reading, Natalee and Xavier looked through their literature guides and laid out a schedule for themselves, and I worked with Evie since she wasn't ready to get down from the table yet.

When I grow up my job is going to be a tech and a principal.  My family is going to [be] three boys and two girls.  I totally love the W for wife label in his picture.

Do I see a homesteading mama in our future?

Evalynn and I finished all the work I had mentally planned for her in about 10 minutes....and she wanted more.  Ha.  I gave her a dot picture and then I set her up with a sensory bin.  At first she put her Berenstain Bears in it but decided they were too big, so I gave her the bag of Paw Patrol figures and that left her contented for about 15 minutes.  

After that she was pretty cheery to get down and play, as there were other kids working in the living room and she could be near them (and get a bit of interrupted attention).  

Mia hit a lull in her schedule so she buttered all the bread for our grilled ham & cheese sandwiches and stacked them up for me.  Mike came home for lunch and we all paused what we were doing.  There was a lot to tell Dad about our morning even though it had just been a little over four hours since we'd seen him!

We ate, and then Dad headed back out.  

I took Mia and Zayden to the front porch swing (such nice weather!) to read their history books while the big kids worked on independent subjects.  That completed their lessons and took us to Evie's naptime.  While Ev was napping and the middle two were outside playing, I read aloud to Natalee and Xavier and then they were finished for the day.  It started to rain, which we very much needed, so everyone went downstairs to play while I did a little computer work and just took a minute to myself.  One room schoolhouses keep the teacher very busy.  A minute was all it seemed to be, however, before Evalynn was awake from nap!

Overall, it was a very good first day.  Things went smoothly and the work I did to get us organized seemed to bear fruit.  I was thankful for a menu plan and well thought out lessons that weren't overwhelming for the first day.  I'm grateful I made a point to do things together before individual lessons and would like to keep that up in some capacity.  

We did not get to our "morning basket" and I need to make a better point to be outside throughout the day (though had it not rained I do think they would have all been out this afternoon).  I also completely forgot to do science with Mia and Zayden.  

Since it was a nice gentle rain the younger two chose to play in it while Daddy grilled burgers for supper.  This was probably Evalynn's first notable time playing in the rain and I'm glad she chose to go out!  

We did get our World Watch news watched while we waited for the broccoli to finish roasting! and the kids ended the evening teaching Daddy to play Rack-O after supperl.

I found this notebook paper from Mia and thought it was sweet.

Blessings to all of you beginning your own schools years.  Private, homeschool, or public - I'm cheering you on!!