This is my second time typing about our first day of school. I did a minute by minute recap but realized, who in the world is going to want to read this? So, here it is in a nutshell as much as possible.
Above is our first day of school picture (got the idea from a blogging friend, thank you!) The sign was a last minute decision. What you don't see is ds2 running in front of his sister everytime I tried to take a picture. I took 6 pictures of the same thing! This is the best *smile* I could get out of her but also leave ds2's head out of the picture.
I got a wake up call from ds2 at 6:00 a.m., I wasn't meaning to get up at 6, but I realized it was a good thing. We sat together (he likes to cuddle first thing in the morning) and then we played *cars* in his room. We went to wake up dd6 and she was not happy. I told her she would be late for school if she didn't get up now...she smiled. That was a common thing for me to say when we had to go to public school.
After my *morning* shower (this is rare lately, doesn't usually happen til ds2's nap at 11am), we had breakfast. Then we talked about "school". What is expected, behavior rules, etc. We started our Bible lesson. That went fine except I should have had dd6 repeat the memory verse 3x instead of just 2x.
Handwriting next, had her write the memory verse 4x, she accomplished 3x. She started to complain of stomach ache. I told her to ignore it and finish. I then had her write rule #1, Be Kind, 4x. She liked that one, it seemed short to her. Then to finish off handwriting, she practiced her A's. Handwriting took about 40 minutes, double the time it should have due to her procrastination.
Math. I explained what a number line was and realized I didn't understand it from what I had said. She complained of a stomach ache when I put her worksheet in front of her. I sent her to her room so I could cry. I looked around at our "learning room" and saw all the wonderful books and activities and games we have for "school".
I went to my dh (there are times I am so grateful he's a pastor and he's able to be "around") and told him that about her stomach ache. He wisely told me that the kids (ds2 was causing problems too, getting into EVERYTHING and making a mess) would figure out how things work in time. That I can't just snap my fingers and make them understand a new schedule. There are moments like this that I cherish so much between us.
I went to dd6 in her room and explained that her job was to do the best she can and my job was to show her how to do new stuff. I promised I would try to make things fun but in life not everything is fun and we have to do it anyway. Her job as a student is to do her work, my job as her teacher is to enable her to do it. We went back and did our work, praise the Lord! We finished our Math with no tears and dd6 said, "that was easy".
I'm so glad that we had done some reading lessons over the deschooling break. DD6 picked up right away what we needed to do. I still need to read a selection from A Child's Garden Of Verses for narration but I'm torn whether to use that or a reading from Egermeier's Bible Storybook. We're going to do this when ds2 is taking his nap.
Confession time: I had to turn on Baby Einstein DVD for Ds2, he was being too disruptive during our handwriting lesson so I put the dvd on for our math lesson. I tried reading him a book, playing with the magnetic letters with him, etc. Nothing held his attention long enough for dd6 to finish her work uninterrupted and I didn't want to leave the room. DH said that whatever I needed to do was okay and that ds2 would get used to the schedule soon enough.
I know I could have done somethings differently but I think all-in-all it was a great first day. We started at 8 a.m. and was done by 10:15 am.
I got a wake up call from ds2 at 6:00 a.m., I wasn't meaning to get up at 6, but I realized it was a good thing. We sat together (he likes to cuddle first thing in the morning) and then we played *cars* in his room. We went to wake up dd6 and she was not happy. I told her she would be late for school if she didn't get up now...she smiled. That was a common thing for me to say when we had to go to public school.
After my *morning* shower (this is rare lately, doesn't usually happen til ds2's nap at 11am), we had breakfast. Then we talked about "school". What is expected, behavior rules, etc. We started our Bible lesson. That went fine except I should have had dd6 repeat the memory verse 3x instead of just 2x.
Handwriting next, had her write the memory verse 4x, she accomplished 3x. She started to complain of stomach ache. I told her to ignore it and finish. I then had her write rule #1, Be Kind, 4x. She liked that one, it seemed short to her. Then to finish off handwriting, she practiced her A's. Handwriting took about 40 minutes, double the time it should have due to her procrastination.
Math. I explained what a number line was and realized I didn't understand it from what I had said. She complained of a stomach ache when I put her worksheet in front of her. I sent her to her room so I could cry. I looked around at our "learning room" and saw all the wonderful books and activities and games we have for "school".
I went to my dh (there are times I am so grateful he's a pastor and he's able to be "around") and told him that about her stomach ache. He wisely told me that the kids (ds2 was causing problems too, getting into EVERYTHING and making a mess) would figure out how things work in time. That I can't just snap my fingers and make them understand a new schedule. There are moments like this that I cherish so much between us.
I went to dd6 in her room and explained that her job was to do the best she can and my job was to show her how to do new stuff. I promised I would try to make things fun but in life not everything is fun and we have to do it anyway. Her job as a student is to do her work, my job as her teacher is to enable her to do it. We went back and did our work, praise the Lord! We finished our Math with no tears and dd6 said, "that was easy".
I'm so glad that we had done some reading lessons over the deschooling break. DD6 picked up right away what we needed to do. I still need to read a selection from A Child's Garden Of Verses for narration but I'm torn whether to use that or a reading from Egermeier's Bible Storybook. We're going to do this when ds2 is taking his nap.
Confession time: I had to turn on Baby Einstein DVD for Ds2, he was being too disruptive during our handwriting lesson so I put the dvd on for our math lesson. I tried reading him a book, playing with the magnetic letters with him, etc. Nothing held his attention long enough for dd6 to finish her work uninterrupted and I didn't want to leave the room. DH said that whatever I needed to do was okay and that ds2 would get used to the schedule soon enough.
I know I could have done somethings differently but I think all-in-all it was a great first day. We started at 8 a.m. and was done by 10:15 am.
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1 comment:
Thank you for posting so much information about your homeschooling experience. I took my daughter out of school in January and I would say in a month's time, we've probable done about two weeks worth of work. I am very unhappy with how I am going about her education. I truly appreciate getting to look through what has and hasn't worked for you. I am at so many crossroads in my life and I feel like I've stumbled upon a beacon. Thank you.
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