Back to School
I thought I'd do a quick review of our first few days back to school. I'm sure this school year has been difficult for many families, with New Year's Day on a Friday, and back to normal for most schools on Monday, it can feel a bit rushed. The adults still feel the need to get all our shopping and errands done over the weekend, and suddenly it's like there was no holiday at all!
We had some neighbors over for dinner Sunday night. They mentioned as they left, that the Kindergarten age daughter has to wake up at 6:30am to get ready for school. Granted, when I was in high school I had to get up at 5:30 because we had to leave by 6:30am, but still it seems a bit excessively early for a Kindergarten student. I'm so glad that we are able to homeschool (and I get to sleep in too).
Monday morning, we woke up at about 8am, ready to get back to school. There was relatively little resistance, even though we had taken a full two weeks off. I had started using a "morning notebook" idea (that I stole from someone else) and got my big kid started on that as I still had a headache (all this crazy weather has been wreaking havoc on my sinuses). He said that he wanted his "other school" (Little Hearts for His Glory). Validating my decision to continue using the program next year, thank you very much. Once my headache was gone and I was able to eat a quick bite, we got started on "regular school" at about 9am (although he did do his morning notebook before then). My little one worked on a laminated printout of the letter G for a little while and then scribbled in his Rod and Staff workbook (to be like big brother). We sat down together on the couch to read Jesus Blesses the Children and then practiced taking their fingerprints (which they both loved). We sang our rhyme and reviewed our Bible verse. We did a review page in handwriting and read a chapter in our Burgess book. We did some counting of equal sets with buttons and action (my littlest wanted to keep playing this game, so I let him count as I snapped my fingers and he made it up to 12 with one-to-one correspondence - pretty awesome for a not-quite 3-year-old). He kept playing with the buttons while the big kid finished up a quick two pages of his math workbook.
All in all, it was a very quiet school day. After school we went to the library for story time, played for a few minutes in the park, and made it back in time to have lunch at home with dad.
Since Tuesday was our first day back at co-op, we skipped our "regular school" and I spent the morning packing lunches and ensuring all of my great ideas for our preschool kids were ready. It turned out pretty fabulously. Our "preschool" class leans more towards the young 3/older 2 year old at this point, so my youngest fit in pretty well. We did some counting and number recognition, read Ten Apples Up on Top (which the kids all loved). We dissected an apple (which had no seeds believe it or not). We cut and colored a picture of an apple and worked on the letter a. We blew cotton balls around the room with plastic straws, and just played. All in all it was a good time, and I enjoyed my "mom time" too, now that my littlest is finally over his separation anxiety (for the most part, after almost 2 years of it).
How was your "back to school"?
We had some neighbors over for dinner Sunday night. They mentioned as they left, that the Kindergarten age daughter has to wake up at 6:30am to get ready for school. Granted, when I was in high school I had to get up at 5:30 because we had to leave by 6:30am, but still it seems a bit excessively early for a Kindergarten student. I'm so glad that we are able to homeschool (and I get to sleep in too).
Monday morning, we woke up at about 8am, ready to get back to school. There was relatively little resistance, even though we had taken a full two weeks off. I had started using a "morning notebook" idea (that I stole from someone else) and got my big kid started on that as I still had a headache (all this crazy weather has been wreaking havoc on my sinuses). He said that he wanted his "other school" (Little Hearts for His Glory). Validating my decision to continue using the program next year, thank you very much. Once my headache was gone and I was able to eat a quick bite, we got started on "regular school" at about 9am (although he did do his morning notebook before then). My little one worked on a laminated printout of the letter G for a little while and then scribbled in his Rod and Staff workbook (to be like big brother). We sat down together on the couch to read Jesus Blesses the Children and then practiced taking their fingerprints (which they both loved). We sang our rhyme and reviewed our Bible verse. We did a review page in handwriting and read a chapter in our Burgess book. We did some counting of equal sets with buttons and action (my littlest wanted to keep playing this game, so I let him count as I snapped my fingers and he made it up to 12 with one-to-one correspondence - pretty awesome for a not-quite 3-year-old). He kept playing with the buttons while the big kid finished up a quick two pages of his math workbook.
All in all, it was a very quiet school day. After school we went to the library for story time, played for a few minutes in the park, and made it back in time to have lunch at home with dad.
Since Tuesday was our first day back at co-op, we skipped our "regular school" and I spent the morning packing lunches and ensuring all of my great ideas for our preschool kids were ready. It turned out pretty fabulously. Our "preschool" class leans more towards the young 3/older 2 year old at this point, so my youngest fit in pretty well. We did some counting and number recognition, read Ten Apples Up on Top (which the kids all loved). We dissected an apple (which had no seeds believe it or not). We cut and colored a picture of an apple and worked on the letter a. We blew cotton balls around the room with plastic straws, and just played. All in all it was a good time, and I enjoyed my "mom time" too, now that my littlest is finally over his separation anxiety (for the most part, after almost 2 years of it).
How was your "back to school"?
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