Back to School!

Last Monday was our first day of school.  We waited until we got back from our Orlando vacation to get started, and things will definitely feel different this year.  We made the decision to put Grant in a small, private, Christian school.  So, this year I will only be homeschooling the girls.  It will take us a few weeks to settle into our new routine as I now have to get breakfast ready earlier for Grant and get out the door to take him to school between 7:10 and 7:20am.  When I get home, the girls eat breakfast and then our school day begins.  After lunch the girls have a little bit of quiet time in their rooms, then it is off again to pick up Grant from school.  Once we get home I help Grant with his homework, and soon it is time to start dinner!  I will continue to teach Grant piano, and will also try and keep up with doing handwork with him once or twice a week, along with Johanna who I will teach to knit this year.  I will also keep teaching the girls French through fun verses and songs, but unfortunately, Grant will miss out on any more French lessons.  There's just not time to do it all!

After we dropped Grant off for his first day of school on Monday, the girls and I returned home, ate breakfast, and went for our morning walk around the pond.  Once we got to the school room I welcomed Johanna to first grade and told her what an important day this was and we talked about all the important things she would learn.  To read, to write, math, to play music, to sing, to speak well, to make beautiful things with our hands, and to be clever with our tongues, hands and feet.  We started off the morning with a circle time of seasonal verses and songs, and finished it off with a review of some of the French words and songs from last year.  Mondays will also be jump roping day for awhile, so we followed our circle time with that.  Afterward, Johanna had her first penny whistle lesson.

At this point, I read a story to Julia.  I will be telling her stories throughout the year about the adventures of a gnome named Super Sam.  This week introduced Sam and some of his friends.  On Monday I told her the story, and then we set up a scene with toys and played together for awhile.

After Julia's story, I told Johanna the first part of the container story which will carry us throughout the year, as well.  The story is about a 6 year old girl named Katie who takes a journey with her father and older brother to see the Wise Sophia who will give her the gift of knowledge.  Along the journey Katie's father introduces her to the letters through the telling of fairy tales.  I will be doing the same with Johanna, just as I did with Grant. 

 The first part of the story introduced the characters, and then I introduced the first form drawing to Johanna.  On Monday it was a straight line.  I drew a line in chalk on the driveway, and Johanna (and Julia) walked it forward and backward and with their eyes closed.  We drew it in the air and on each others backs with our fingers, and also got out play dough so the girls could make some straight lines.  After this, Johanna drew lines in her form drawing book. 

On Tuesday, we started off again with circle time, French and penny whistle.  It will also be beanbag day on Tuesday, so I will be going through different bean bag throwing sequences with Johanna. 

I re-told Julia the Super Sam story using the scene we had set out the day before. During the story, Sam harvests peaches and then cans them for the winter.  To keep with the peach theme, the girls and I made peach drop cookies once we were finished with lessons.

I told Johanna the second part of her story and introduced her to the second form drawing. This time it was a wavy line.  The girls had fun walking this form on the driveway, and we also used beeswax to make "snakes" before Johanna drew it in her lesson book.

 

 

On Wednesday, we added in zoo-robics after circle time where we moved around like different animals.  On this day we did a lot of frog hops!

I had Julia (and Johanna helped, too) re-tell the story of Super Sam using the toys, and then I told Johanna the third part of her story and introduced her to the third form drawing.  This one was definitely the most challenging for her so we practiced it over two days and she drew it in her form drawing book on Thursday.  (I didn't get a picture of this form drawing.  I will have to take one and post it in here later.)

We also collected some items on our walk around the pond, and the girls and I used those to make an Autumn mobile.

On Thursday, Dad gave the girls a ride around the lake, and we took some time to smell the roses.

In the school room, I reviewed the story with Johanna that I had told over the first three days, and asked her to remember as much as she could about the characters.

Afterward, we drew a picture of the Dad, Ben, the brother, and Katie in our main lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

 

Johanna's Drawing

 

This was the first time Johanna used block crayons to draw something specific. It was very challenging for her, but I told her it would take practice.

Johanna was very excited about school this first week, and when we finished up the lessons everyday she asked if we could do more.  I sure hope the excitement lasts for awhile!