First Day of School - Homeschool Style

I love the first day of school. I love the supplies.  I love the excitement.  I love the beginning.

Today, my kidlets begin 2nd Grade and Kindergarten.  Honestly, I did not anticipate homeschooling this far. Ha!  Kindergarten with Abby was more of an experiment.  But each year, I fall more and more in love with teaching my kids at home.

We started out with breakfast.  "K" and "2" pancakes:

Seriously, it took 5 tries to get this picture.  It's hard to sit still when you are so excited to start Kindergarten.          

These are fake glasses.  Not only do they make her look smart, the arms pop off and become pens.  She calls them her Spy Glasses.

This year, I wanted to do something a little differently to make our "school time" stand out from the rest of the day.  So, I told the kids to pack up their backpacks and get their shoes on.  They were so confused and wanted to know where they were going.  They became extra confused when I opened the door and told them they were walking to school.  Abby was actually looking for the school bus.  I think she thought I had changed my mind about homeschooling them this year.

Where are we going?

We are WALKING to school?

Deciding on the best route to the back door. ha!

See you later, Mom!

 It was fun to greet them at the back door, which happens to open up into our homeschool area.  It really made for a successful separation of home time and school time.  They came in ready to get started (after pictures, of course)!

It was a great 1st Day full of science, reading, history, Bible and art. In fact, we were so busy that I forgot to take any pictures of actual school work.  We only had one melt down.  I'm using the same curriculum for K that I used for Abby.  Caedmon sat in on most of that K program, and now feels like I'm making him redo Pre-K.  Oops!  Guess I need to revise my plan a bit to make it more challenging.  But that's a nice problem to have!  Abby loved her 2nd grade curriculum.  Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE the My Father's World curriculum?

Today's snack was "build your own patriotic goodness".

And of course, there is a unique beauty to homeschooling...you can do your "Reading Time" with your adorable kittens, on your parent's bed:

I'm not sure who is more content. 

And, of course, they had to walk home from school too. Who knew that walking from the back door to the front door would make such a difference?  They were very happy to be "home" again.

They even told me some details about their day.  It's nice to hear good things about their teacher! :)

  Overall, it was a great start to our year!  I've added a few extras to the schedule this year such as "Book Basket Time", a time they have to read (or look through) specific books on our topic for the week.  And "Reading Time", when I let Caedmon practice using Bob Books and Abby can read anything of her choice.  And finally, I added "Alone Time", in which everyone (ahem...Mommy) gets space to be alone in order to regroup and relax a bit.
 

Here's to another great year of homeschooling!