First Day of School!

Today started out as any other day. Dave got up at 6:00 am, showered and dressed. He took our new puppy (S) out in the backyard for a few minutes, and fed her breakfast. Just before 7:00 Dave woke me up, then went around and kissed all the kids goodbye, and left for work.

I got out of bed, dressed, and helped B (who was now awake) get a baby food pouch while I gathered breakfast (cold cereal). M woke up about this time too, and after I made my bed, I helped her make her bed and get dressed, then set out bowls of cereal for both B and M. With them happily eating, I took S on a quick walk around 7:30. We got back about 10 minutes later. B and M were both done with breakfast and were chatting happily together. I made myself some breakfast, got B changed and dressed, and sat down on the couch to check email & such while waiting for the other kids to wake up.

By 9:00 the kids were up, dressed, and had gotten themselves breakfast. Time for chores. I pulled out our jar of chore sticks and found the jobs I needed done for the day. Each kid chose a job and got started. Each job has a different "star" rating, noted by the number of star stickers on the chore stick. And each child has a "star quota" for the day based on their age. Chores were finished by 9:30 which meant the kitchen and family room were clean (wiped down, swept, mopped & vacuumed), the laundry had been moved, the dishwasher unloaded, the dog poop from the backyard had been picked up, and a couple small garbages had been taken out.

But today wasn't the same as every other day this summer. Today was the first day of school!

Now, as homeschoolers, we usually don't care about the first day of school. Every day is a learning day, whether we do "formal school" or not. This year was a bit different though. We had a very adventurous summer, full of vacations, weddings, and of course, the packing/unpacking/stress/living-with-family that comes with moving to a new house in a new state.

With all the craziness happening, formal learning was abandoned in favor of the lessons of life.

But today was the day to get back into our routine. As part of our summer craziness, I spent some time re-reading some homeschool theory books, articles, and blog posts, and decided to adjust our focus a bit as we began this year. So far, so good, because today pretty much went exactly as I planned. :)

After chores were done I gathered the kids in the family room explaining that we were going to "do school" today. The first thing I told them was that they would have no free play time, and were, in fact, not even allowed downstairs again (to the basement playroom) until after lunch. They all protested, but I moved on quickly. We usually like to start with a circle time, which has slowly evolved to simply include the three "Ps", Prayer, Pledge, Planning. We used to have a formal pre-school weather chart & calendar & blah, blah, blah... too much work. We cover calendar & weather in our planning discussion for the day, and I don't need so many bright colored charts on my walls.

Anyway, about 10:00 we opened with a prayer, then stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. We don't have our flag unpacked yet, so we just faced the wall where it will be soon (hopefully). Then we sat down again and discussed our appointments for the day. I explained that we would do school until lunch, then they would have free-time until K & D need to leave for an Activity Days activity at 4:15pm.

Then I asked K to go to the living room and choose a book. She came back with "The Bearenstain's B Book" which I read. Then I asked C to take the book back to the living room and choose another. She returned with "Green Eggs and Ham." After reading the second book, I declared that read-aloud time was over, and it was now quiet reading time. I explained that I had a book I wanted to read, and they were each supposed to choose a book and find somewhere on the main floor to read. They mostly chose to squish together on the couch, as you can see from the pictures. We read quietly for about 30 minutes, until around 10:50.

I love that they enjoy squishing on the couch.

B playing on the stairs with some trains during reading time.

M & B both looking at books

I know it looks peaceful, but don't worry, there was plenty of "he took my spot" and "move over, I don't have enough room!"

Sometimes books make great train tracks.

J1 had chosen an earth and space book and C was helping to explain parts of it. K also kept leaning over to help read things C couldn't. 

When our reading time ended, the kids put their books away, and I told them to all gather to the kitchen table for writing time. I grabbed my stack of new back-to-school-clearance-sale notebooks and our can of pencils, along with the pencil sharpener, because our can of pencils had been squished in a bin during the move and most of the tips had broken. Each child grabbed a newly sharpened pencil, and chose a notebook. As I went around writing their names in sharpie on the cover of their notebook I explained that their assignment was simply to write, and if they couldn't think of anything to write about they could answer the optional "question of the day." Today that question was "What do you want to learn about this year?"

Some of the kids brought books to the table to copy from.

K's list of "This year I want to learn"

J2 immediately told me that he wanted to learn to read this year, because he didn't know how yet. Then he had me write that on his page for him. It was fun to see the kids listing things that interested them, and trying to figure out how to spell various things. J1 had me help him spell "animal" and then tried to figure out the sounds in "bug" and later asked me to help him spell "math journey" which is apparently a math game on starfall.com. D couldn't figure out how to spell "universe" so K helped her find the word in a book about earth and space. C spent most of the time copying words and phrases from a nature book. M & B fought over pencils and scribbled on each other's papers, and dropped a pencil or two for the dog to eat. I tried to write my own list of things I want to teach this year, or take notes on things the kids said they were interested in... but there were a lot of distractions and interruptions (helping kids with spelling, and taking pencils away from S) so I didn't get much written.

J1 concentrating hard.

J1 wants to learn about "animal"

So much concentration happening.

We ended writing time about 11:25 and put away the notebooks and pencils so we could start lunch. I announced that we were having sandwiches for lunch and asked everyone to do what they could to help. Without any prompting D & C offered to fix plates for their younger "buddies" (J2 & M respectively) in addition to their own plates. K & J1 prepared things for themselves, and I helped get food for B and myself.

By 11:50 everyone was done eating, and had cleared their places. D did a Teaching Textbooks math lesson on my computer while K helped me wipe down the kitchen (since she hadn't helped a buddy get lunch), and then K did a Teaching Textbook lesson while I put B down for a nap and moved the laundry.

It's now 2:00pm and the kids have mostly been playing downstairs in the basement playroom since finishing lunch and Teaching Textbooks. A few of them took S for another walk, and found a neighbor playmate in the process. K has decided she wants to write a story and came back upstairs to sit near me on the couch and write in a notebook while she writes. D has come up a couple times also to sit on the couch with a book. (Can you tell the two of them are flirting with the Love of Learning phase?) B is still napping. :)

It's been a great First Day of School.

Some quotes from the students:

Can we do this every day? This was the best school day ever! - D

You're the best mom ever. - J2 (After I offered everyone half a cookie as a lunch dessert.)