First Day of School 2010 & Our Focus

Today is our first day of school. Sort of.... we are getting back in to our routine gradually. I realized mid-week that My Father's World recommends starting 1st Grade on a Thursday and after looking closer at the lesson plans I agree that is the best way to use this curriculum. Also, this is going to allow us to make a smoother more gradual transition into our year. Today and tomorrow we will only do 1st Grade with Savannah (4th) sitting in. There is nothing for Savannah to really do with us these first few days so we are focusing on character training with her. Our focus this week for her will be to not be a distraction. Savannah will do calendar time and those basic math activities and then, she can sit and read, etc. for this hour that I work with Sierra. Savannah tends to try to talk to us about what she is reading or show us everything which is a major distraction. I love that she wants to talk to us, but it makes what we are doing take twice as long. I think these two days will be a great chance for her to practice not being a distraction. As well, I want Sierra to learn to focus on her work and not allow the distraction to suck her in. During these days our focus with the two little ones is strictly character training. It seems some little boy thinks that every thing is to be throw wildly through the air like a grenade. So, Caden will be learning NOT to throw things and Sahara will be learning not to follow his lead in doing so. Caden will also be learning to clean up his messes, which is a big deal for him. He is still a baby in many ways and does not think clean up is "really" his job. Time to change that line of thinking. ;)


And because we do things just a bit different than everyone else this is all of the kids on our first "practice" day of school one day last week. Daddy was home still and let's just say that that week did not go as planned. The plan was to "practice" our school routine all week. It worked on the one day that Daddy was gone, but even on that day it was obvious I had to figure out really what I want this year to be like. I still don't fully know, but we will do this gradually instead of jump in trying to do school all day and burn them our before we get going good. I am thinking that next week we will step it up a notch with 1st grade and ease into some of Savannah's 4th grade. As the weeks progress we will add a little more to our day. I tend to try to take on the world from the beginning and end up in total frustration. This year I want them to love it... and it become their way of life... an enjoyable way of life. I will try to post more on that later and our curriculum choices, as well as, our extras (ya know.... what they call "electives" in public school"). We are going to have a lot of extras.

Our focus this year: Character and being helpers to one another while getting in some real learning.

1st grade today:
Calendar time and 100 day chart with calendar coloring time
Place Value cups
Days of the week song (I almost forgot the words ;) )
Letter Practice for A, B, C -- writing and sounds
Discussion of SCROLLS and the way they were used in Bible times
More Letter Practice for our scroll pages -- A, B, C
There was not a specific suggestion for books for today only that we do about fifteen minutes of reading, so we read:

• Zink The Zebra by Kelly Weil (about a zebra that is different.... the moral of the story is that is okay to be different)
• Smudge by Clare Newberry (about mischievious kittens... great charcoal drawings)
• Not THIS Bear! (about a little boy that is mistaken for a bear in his fur coat & hat on his way to visit his aunt)

And I guess I have resigned to the fact that we will be adopting a similar school year schedule as my husband's public school. I want to school year round, but it is not working well when he is home. I have wanted the flexibility of year round schooling, but it is just not working for us. Maybe someday. This does not mean we will be on their exact schedule. Public schools actually schedule in more days than required and so we will still take off most or all of December. Also, I am due to have a new baby the week AFTER his Spring Break, so we may have an extended Spring Break... who knows, but I am learning not to plan it all out too much and just roll with what life hands us.