The Beginning of Our Journey

Here's a rundown/self-evaluation of my first day teaching both Abby and Caedmon with our new curriculum.  I won't be blogging about each and every day of our school year (I can hear your sigh of relief) but it's always fun to document at least the first and last day. :)

We started out the day with 2 kids in our bed at 5 something AM.  Caedmon was complaining for "Sood" (i.e. Food).  Seriously, how is that child so small?...all he does is eat! Finally, got that one back to sleep and I slipped out of bed, grabbed a glorious cup of coffee (I love our 3 minute Bunn!!!) and headed out the back door for some time reading 1 John before starting the day.  I love watching the sun come up, listening to the birds and the cows, drinking coffee and hanging out with God and His Word!

Abby was dressed and ready to start by 7:30. She even fixed her own hair!  I had to continually convince her that 9:00 would be here soon enough. "Please eat your breakfast, child!" :)

Our roughed out schedule (which we ended up veering off from) is:
Bible
Math
Language Arts (Story telling, reading, writing)
Music and Movement
Snack
Art/Picture Study
Nature Study/Science
Geography (once a week)
Lunch
Rest time

 We begin at 9 and end around 2ish (including lunch/rest), though we had so much fun today with the nature study and the story telling that we carried it way over into the afternoon.  And several of the above are presented on alternate days rather than every single day.

We are reading out of the Children's Story Bible. I. Love. This. Bible.  It's so easy to understand, yet doesn't gloss over details. You read it as though you are talking with a good friend. Very cool!

Today, Math was all about measuring cups and recognizing basic numbers. Greater than and less than. The kids had quite an enjoyable time playing with different size measuring cups and spoons in the kitchen sink with water.  Maybe they had too much fun...but as least my floor was mopped and clean by 10am!  Then we carried over this lesson as I let them measure out ingredients for our black bean soup.  They took turns measuring, adding ingredients and stirring the soup in the crock pot. I was was thrilled with my multitasking here: teaching and cooking dinner before lunch!  That's a winner in my book!

At this point, I needed to do an "assessment" with Abby to determine her readiness/level for this curriculum. I was so proud of her!  Most of it is basic information, but she really took off on the "tell it back to me" section and the "tell me a story about the picture" section.   I was nervous about Caedmon being a distraction during this time, but he entertained himself with Lauri toys (particularly the Number Express) while I worked with Abby. In fact, I checked in, only to find that he had sorted all the pegs, stacked them by color and created a "sishing pole" (fishing pole). I didn't even know he knew how to sort by color yet! Cool!  Way to show initiative, Caed!

We spent a lot of time doing rhythms and beats to different songs as well as rhymes and finger play songs.  We also did several active games like finding all the body parts that bend/shake/stretch. Then the kids walked around the yard stretching like cats and dogs, then running like chipmunks. 

Great intro into our nature study. Today we looked at several flowers in our garden and a butterfly landed perfectly in front of Abby's nose on a flower while we were studying the flower. Great timing!  We noted several different leaf and petal shapes and colors. Then we searched for chipmunks.

I was most nervous about what to do with Caedmon all morning, but for the most part, he did everything that Abby did. He wanted to be part of it. Obviously, I didn't teach him about measurements while playing in the sink, but I did show him some basic info such as "this one is bigger; it holds more water. Which one is smaller?"  etc.  I also read in some homeschooling book that by giving the youngest child quality one-on-one time before beginning your day, you are are basically setting them up for success and getting them on your side. It proved to be true, today at least!

After lunch we read some wonderful nursery rhymes out of the Mother Goose book, then off to rest time for everyone!

Over all, I felt like today was very successful. I even found time to do the laundry! (Though, admittedly it's still sitting in a pile on our bed waiting to be folded).  However, I still need to work on my transitions from one subject to another. I felt I was very choppy with my starts and stops.  Also, I want to better discern good stopping points. I feel the pressure of moving onto the next thing even while the kids are enjoying the current task. Yet, today we didn't get to everything I wanted to do. We missed out on 2 short stories I wanted to read as well as our art project. But we did spend a lot of time on math and science. So tomorrow we'll pick up on the other subjects.

One other thing I've learned (since teaching Abby last year) is how to read her cues. I better know when to push her because she's almost got it verses she's acting disinterested because it's over her head. She starts acting very silly and using baby talk when she's had too much. So, I've learned to back off and review one point that I know she knows (so as to end on a positive note) then we break and move on to something new.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching my kids. This is what I want to be doing with my days. I'm excited to see Abby and Caedmon grow in knowledge and truth. But I'm also excited to see how God is going to change me and teach me through this experience!

Great first day...now if I can just keep up the stamina!

In true Charlotte Mason fashion, they are journaling about (drawing pictures of) leaves in their "Field Journals" I loved this part of the day because I actually got 10 minutes to do some flower sketching as well. I haven't taken the time to do that in quite a while!