Our First Week is Over

Well, we've done it. We've finished our first full week of school...okay, well, not really full, since we had a holiday last Monday...but still. Four full days.

I had created an excel schedule for us to be able to see what we would be doing each day and for how long. Because dgd only comes three days a week, I had to tweak the schedule to include her on those days and not on the other two, and then tweak our Monday's to include short-term activities we will be doing during the school day. It took some time, but I did eventually get what looked like a doable schedule. After working through it for the (almost) full week, I am happy to say, it works! Yay! We didn't get to everything, but we did the important things. We didn't do any poetry or Spanish, but we did do daily devotionals, calendar time, dictation, copywork, phonics, math, history, science and storytime! We also added in on three different days a nature study, artist study and composer study! The kids seem to really enjoy those parts of our day, and I am glad I scheduled them last so that we have something to look forward to.

I know some who read this will think I'm a little ocd when I say I even scheduled in breaks with notes to self about housework. I think it's good for me...I have a goal of what I am tackling each day (thank you FLYLady!) and I can say that at the end of the week, I still have a clean house and laundry is not out of control! lol (Is there a way to maintain this over the weekend, without cleaning??) We even pulled out The Harris Family 21 Rules of this House, and have begun work on those again. It is great to see the little ones piecing the rules together (if you obey #17, you'll automatically be obeying #18 kind of thing.)

Today, the youngest grandchild has her first birthday. I cannot believe she is one already, where did the year go? She is a sweet, happy baby, and I am looking forward to the next year! Here's a scrapbook page I did of us recently:



*Ü* Blessings,

Our First Official Day Today!

We had a good day! I was sort of surprised that the kids didn't fuss more...but we got through all that I wanted to (though no poetry and no Spanish. We'll get to those eventually.)

Our day was like this...devotional, prayer, pledge, song, calendar time. I set the timer here to see if we could get it done in 20 minutes, but it took us a bit longer.

My ds5 had a break and dd6 did copywork page while I worked one on one with dgd7 for studied dictation. This will be the hardest part of her day for a while!

Then the girls did Explode the Code while I worked 1 on 1 with ds5 and his phonics/reading/writing. Again I set the timer for the allotted 15 minutes, but we were all done before it rang....and actually the girls did their first math journal page while I finished with ds!

We then had a 20 minute break...snack, recess, laundry, etc. Daycare kiddo arrived during this time, which worked out perfectly!

After break we did Math...dgd7 had to do 2 pages to get back on track with dd6...I think I will be sending the book home for Friday & Monday, so they will stay on the same page. (I'm homeschooling dgd Tuesday - Thursday, while mom does it Monday's and Friday's.)

We went right into History at this point...not too much complaining, though they wanted to read it outside, but I said no. (mean, mean, Mommy/Nonnie! lol)

Another 20 minute break... I was supposed to clean, but I needed to prepare for the science lesson, so no cleaning got done...plus I think I was having email withdrawl! lol It will certainly take a bit of time to get our schedule running smoothly...but I was happy to get two loads of laundry washed, dried, folded AND put away!

Science - we had read about George Washington and how he learned to write with chalk on a slate, then a quill and ink...so we wrote our names with chalk, (and every other writing implement I could find!) and finally with a quill and ink from our vacation in Colonial Williamsburg...they loved that! My dgd asked how chalk was made, so we looked it up...natural chalk is a very soft limestone rock...interesting.

We followed up with a walk to get the mail, but we were too early. Then I sent them out to find something interesting in nature. They all came back with something, and drew a picture of it, classified it and described it in their new nature journals. They loved, loved, loved this! My dgd told me at lunch that this was her favorite part of school. I told her I saved the best for last! We are going to keep the things in a box for examining all week.

Lunch. Poppie came home with the mail. He was so happy to see dgd. I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day had been. No surprise, ds5 said recess! lol He's in Kindergarten for Pete's sake! lol. Oddly enough, my dd6 said her favorite was the clock/time activity during calendar...that is, until dgd mentioned loving the nature study...dd had to agree that was great fun!

Storytime...I think they still had the wiggles...but we got through it!

A fun, productive day! I didn't take any other photos, though...just of the room last night, and these before we started our day:


My darling baby boy has started Kindergarten!


She is 1st/2nd this year...but we forgot to do her hair! Oh well!


She is getting SO big! Second grade this year!

*Ü* Blessings,

First Homeschool Meeting of the Year!

We had our first meeting for this year! It was very exciting. A wonderful husband and wife team lead us in song, another member of our group gave a stirring testimony/devotional, and our fearless leader got us all caught up on the latest happenings of the group!

I gave a small presentation on making learning fun. I didn't realize how passionate I was about this topic until I started! Normally, speaking before a large group is rather intimidating for me, and definitely not in my comfort zone! But God is good, and He took the lead!

I shared alot about our morning routine here, especially about our calendar time. I shared about how we learn through songs, games and different fun activities. There were a few ladies who approached me afterwards and asked for some of my songs and specifically the calendar notebook I use.

I can't claim that I came up with these ideas, but I did create each file that I will offer here. The ideas themselves came from various sources, including Dr. Jean Warren, Shari Sloane and Jessica Meachem.

I offer these two files to anyone who'd like them...

Found a Penny - pdf file of letter size posters, one for each often used coin:
~ download here ~

My calendar notebook pages here - excel file of my notebook pages:
~ download here ~

Enjoy, and if you look back at this post, you can see our calendar wall, and get an idea of how we use the calendar notebook pages!

I thought I should add here our schedule for calendar...you know, how we do things. The order in which we move from calendar piece to calendar piece. You can download it here.


*Ü* Blessings,