First Day of School 2012-2013!!!

Okay, so I know I said that we were going to school throughout the summer, but life happened, and it just didn't work out for us.  So, we took a break (or rather, the kids took a break!).  Instead, I used the time to learn how to cope with three boys vs. two, and I renovated the back room of the house into our now schoolroom/guest room.  So, without further ado, here goes our first day of school post!

First, let me show you the new room.  It really was a lot of work.  Seriously.  If I didn't have children, it probably would have been a week-long project, but then again, if I didn't have children, this project would never have taken place to begin with.  Therefore, it was a summer-long project.

The boys' desks (with dining room chairs because I can't find white chairs to go with the desks)!
Calendar on the wall to the left, a set of drawers on wheels I found at a yard sale for $25 (score!),
and some posters with vowels/consonants and numbers.

Opposite side of the room is my desk with a filing system that's already gone crazy,
a cabinet with all my teacher books and student workbooks, a magazine rack that has
a bunch of early reader books (big shout out to Susan Hampson and her two kids for those!),
and our keyboard and guitar for music fun.

The boys on our old living room sofa with a map of Animals of the World that they begged
me for at Costco on the new wall behind them.  The wall used to be a see through bar area with
the kitchen and garage door on the other side.  The sofa can be pulled out to a bed for guests
and I painted the wall with magnetic paint so we can use magnets to hold up all the artwork
I plan on them accomplishing throughout the year!

View from the boys' desk area.  New french doors close off the room from the rest of the
house which are really open most of the time, but will be beneficial for when guests are here.

So, that's pretty much the school room.  And now for the students that will be gracing this room with their presence each week:

If you want to know anything about dinosaurs, this kindergartner is YOUR MAN!

Now policeman?  I didn't really see that coming, but okay.  I'll roll with it.

Oh, the love!  Five seconds later, this became a wrestling match.
Don't let these two fool you.  They.  Are.  Crazy.

Our first day of school was not a real day of typical schoolwork.  I just had to get them excited.  Because I was excited.  Excitement is contagious, right?  Apparently, and then some.  I was exhausted by the end of the day!  

This was our "Countdown to the First Day of School" chain.  I will admit
(with utmost chagrin) that we kept forgetting to take off a chain each day.
But, I guess that just made it that much more fun to take off multiple chains
in one day.  Whoo hoo!

First Day of School Scavenger Hunt (please try to ignore the overturned chair
on the back patio.  Thank goodness that's ALL you can see of our backyard.
It is horrendous).

Oh the Places You'll Go on this scavenger hunt!

And the treasure is found!!! (In the laundry room, I might add.)

Yes, you are my little heroes!!  Which is why I have 20 new gray hairs this year.....

We actually did do some real schoolwork.  Here are the boys working hard at cutting out school related pictures and putting them in ABC order.

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ABC order is complete, and now the boys are working on their time capsule papers.
They had to draw a picture of anything they wanted, and then I helped them fill out
the rest of the worksheet.  It will be fun to see how they feel at the end of the school
year about these!

Math time:  Learning left and right orientation.  For this guy, it's more about
learning to follow the freaking directions.  After our lesson, they were supposed
to circle the animals that faced to the right and underline the animals that faced
to the left.  Sawyer just circled EVERYTHING.  Well played, Sawyer.  Well played.

Muffin Tin Monday!!
Came across this idea from another blogger (it might actually be Muffin
Tin Monday Blog).  For lunch every Monday, I plan on serving it to them
in muffin tins.  It's just too much fun NOT to!

And for the rest of the day.....

Making our school t-shirts!

What now?

Our school colors!

Shirts wrapped up and ready to go!
(We had to make an extra for Ri-Ri, our mascot)

The Finished Product! These boys are so awesome, I can't stand it.
(Disclaimer: this photo was actually taken 3 days later.  The shirts were not ready until the following day).