First Week of the 2012-2013 School Year

Our first week of school went by pretty successfully.  There were only a few minor glitches and frustrations, and the majority of that all happened on the first day!  So, yay!

Other than the first day, we have started a somewhat regular daily schedule with reading, writing, and math being the first subjects to bang out.  They are, really, the only ones actually required at this age, but without all the other subjects, we'd have an extremely boring school year.

Since I have all three children at home this time around, I knew this year would prove to be a little more hectic and time consuming for me.  I am going from having to teach one child to teaching two, plus having a baby to tend to!  So far, it hasn't been horrible, but holy cow is my 3 (almost 4) year old really challenging my patience!  You'd think it'd be the baby, but nooooooo!

We are starting each day with the Pledge of Allegiance, Calendar Time, a morning story, and after the first week, we'll also add a review of our Classical Conversations class that we will attend every Friday.  Then, we have our handwriting, reading/phonics, and math (with a snack break in there somewhere).  After that, we'll do art or music, and break for lunch.  The afternoon is saved for P.E. or playtime, science, character education or French, and free time for the boys (and mommy).

*and let me just add a disclaimer here that this schedule has already been breached.  We don't always do things in the same order, and there are some things that we just don't get to sometimes.  And honestly, we're doing a lot.  So I don't care.

Here is what we were able to accomplish for our first week:

Handwriting for Sawyer: I got him an Early Writing Practice workbook with the thought that he'd do one page every other day or so.  He insists on doing more than one page, sometimes more than two.  At this rate, we'll be through this book in a couple of months!  As you can see from his grip on the pencil, he's still in "that" stage.  Fortunately, I have managed to get him to switch the grip on his pencil.  He did have it so that his grip was reversed and the thumb was the closest to the tip of the pencil.

Reading/Phonics for Sawyer:  I found the perfect worksheets for letter hunts from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com.  They are great!  We talk about what sound(s) the letter of the week makes and then I read the sentence on the page and he finds all the letters (in this case, letter A) and blots them with a do-a-dot marker.  

Reading for Hayden:  This is one of many activities that Hayden is doing throughout the week for reading.  He cuts apart and assembles an early reader book.  Then he has to read it.  They are super easy readers.  The book for this week was "Zac the Rat" from www.starfall.com.  We focused on the -at and -an families throughout the first week.

Handwriting for Sawyer: Oh, we're back to the Early Writing Practice workbook.  It's just too much fun to put down.  I mean, c'mon!  When you have kites to decorate, and dot-to-dots to complete, what's not to love about this book?  And now, he can write his letters T, H, F, L, and E!

Handwriting for Hayden:  tracing sight words of the week

Phonics for Sawyer: a different little workbook that has letters on each page with 4 pictures below.  He has to color the letter, then cut out the pictures.  Only 3 of the 4 pictures begin with the same letter sound and he has to pick those 3 and glue them in the squares above.

Reading:  Hayden reads his book of the week to Riley

Reading/Phonics:  Hayden takes his turn on the computer program, Reading Eggs (which has been phenomenal for my kids, by the way)

For our math this year, I started using the curriculum, Right Start Math.  Just trying to lesson the workload on myself with the planning and whatnot.  We are beginning with Level B because it appeared that Hayden was probably a little advanced for Level A.  (Sawyer has no interest in it at all, so I'm having to figure out other things for him to do to keep him out of trouble!) 

So far, Level B is not very challenging either.  I'm hoping that it's just the initial "getting familiar with the manipulatives, etc" kind of thing going on.  However, I'm going to have to supplement activities for us to do if it doesn't pick up soon because we finish math in 10 minutes and feel like we haven't really done much of anything.

Here are a few pictures of Sawyer working on some math stuff.  Some of which seems to be a little easy for him as well.  But he's definitely getting some practice using his scissor skills and following directions which are two BIG things that need to be accomplished (the latter a lot more than the first)!

Matching the number of apples to the correct number on the apple tree.

Team UmiZoomi coloring/activity book.  He got to work on this after he finished one of his math lessons.

Since he INSISTED on sitting on the floor rather than his desk, I grabbed this t.v. tray for him to use.  He had good enough sense to thank me politely for it.  Ha!

Next on the agenda: Art and music!!

My goal is to alternate days with this because we just don't have enough time to do all that we want to do every single day.  Gotta pick and choose.  Sheesh.  I can't imagine what it's going to be like when they're even older and REALLY getting into individual activities outside the home.  We are going to be a crazy family!

For art this week (other than our awesome First Day of School Tie-Dye t-shirts), we focused on art appreciation and understanding art.  After looking at three different styles of artwork from some books we had in the house, the boys had to choose which one was their favorite, which was their least favorite, and which one was most likely to be displayed in our house if we had it.  Then, they did a watercolor of a scene in which they were supposed to elicit a feeling or mood (which is really hilarious if you think about a 3 and a 5 year old "eliciting feelings and moods" - at least, hilarious with MY kids).

Hayden painting a beach scene.

Sawyer painting....wait for it.....a motorcycle with big wheels.  He's so full
of feelings and moods.  Hahaha!

The first work of art they looked at: an oil painting of egrets on a pond.  This was the favorite of both of them (hence the hearts).  Sawyer also picked this one to be displayed in our house.

The second work of art: Ancient Greek marble idols.  This was Hayden's least favorite.

And the third work of art: an Ansel Adams b&w photograph of a church in New Mexico.  This was Sawyer's least favorite, but the one Hayden chose to be displayed in our house.

 Music for the week was all about rhythm and movement.  We also incorporated a little bit of French into it by listening to French songs.

Egg shakers are the bomb!

Getting down to French music with our egg shakers!

And finally, we come to the science part of our day!  For this month (and probably the next month as well), we are studying the classification of living things.  Actually, this week, we're starting with learning about living vs. nonliving things.  Then, we plan on moving into living things, habitats, etc.

The following pictures show the boys learning about what all living things have in common and how they were able to deduce certain things that were living....or not.

One of two charts that we did together.  This was the cooler one.  We picked out some pictures, taped them to the chart, then asked ourselves the 5 questions that were necessary in order to determine if it was living or non-living.  Some things were a little iffy as to whether or not we could answer yes or no to the question, but ALL the questions had to have a yes in order to be considered living.

Here, the boys work collaboratively to make their
own living vs non living poster.

As you can see, the boys were absolutely certain about every item they placed, except for one.  They decided to put that one in the middle.  They raised some pretty good questions with this one.  

A feltboard sorting activity.  The boys divided up the living and non living items on one side of the board or the other 

After the feltboard activity, they each had to pick two pictures to cut out and glue to a piece of paper.  Then they had to circle yes or no to each of the 5 questions that determine whether or not the item is living.

It was a GREAT first week!  (And boy am I exhausted!).  We also had our first Classical Conversations class which meets every Friday from 9am-12pm.  Hayden gave his very first oral presentation.  It was a 2 minute introduction about himself.  He was the first person in his class of 8 kids to do his presentation, and he was AMAZING!  No jitters, no fidgeting, no holding the paper in front of his face, and he spoke out clearly so everyone could hear him.  This boy does NOT have a fear of public speaking!  Go Hayden!!!