I can't believe I'm finally getting to write this post. For over five years I've been thinking and praying about the possibility of homeschooling our children. I've researched like crazy and have had my doubts and reservations at times, but overall, my initial gut feeling on homeschooling has never left. So today we started our very first year of homeschooling. Bubby G is 5 years old and excited to be starting kindergarten.
That first day we followed a very strict reschedule for the whole morning. We started with songs and prayer and then calendar time. I didn't get pictures of all that because I was very involved with it but it went smoothly. Here is Bubby changing the date on our decorative calendar.
Working on his calendar daily work that has the day of week and month and code date. Also what day of school it is, the color of the day, the season, and the weather. He did a great job but it did take much longer than I expected to have him write it out....mainly because he would get goofy and silly in between writing each letter, but we eventually got it done. Bubby is still getting used to the idea of school at home and I know it will be a learning process...especially this first week.
Sissy G is involved at times doing her own preschool learning and at other times she occupies herself with toys and other gadgets. Here she is getting out her Mr. Potato Head stuff.
Playing with counters and dice.
Proud of himself for getting the answer right on his calendar work.
Filling in the days of creation in his interactive notebook for Bible time.
This was his first time using Inchimals and he absolutely loved them. The first thing I had him do was put the animals in order from shortest to tallest.
Sissy had moved on to playing playdough.
After he got them in order he then started his math problems.
You could tell that he was very proud of himself. He couldn't wait till his dad got home from work to show him how he does math with his Inchimals.
Break time means snack and apparently running in circles.
Back to work starting our Reading workbook.
Sissy was then practicing her writing/drawing on the white board.
Little G spent most of "school time" taking a nap but when he woke up he was ready to start playing. He loves the pegs that I bought for school....but his favorite thing to do with them is to stack them up.
Pretty girl saying "cheese" for the camera.
Getting to work on his science workbook.
Little G loves to do exactly what his brother and sister are doing so that meant he wanted to color too. I just have to keep a close eye on him because he also likes to eat crayons.
Sissy doing her work tracing over the straight lines.
It was neat seeing my kiddos around the kitchen table getting their work done. Little G was dying to get involved too.
You can't see him but this is Little G behind the curtain looking for some work for him to do.
I love his focus.
The next day working on Draw, Write, Now. On this day we were learning to draw an elephant by following six steps.
Picking out a sticker to put on the math worksheet he had just completed.
This girl loves play dough.
But when she saw that you get stickers for doing your work....she quickly opened up her folder and started tracing circles.
After school we went outside to play and I told Bubby he should collect sticks and see if he can sort them from shortest to tallest. He was excited to do it.
And he did a very good job.
Sissy enjoyed helping him.
Bubby was telling me some story about how we could use the sticks and decorate them and use them for Christmas time.
Then they decided it would be fun to collect gumballs.
And leaves.
I look over and see Sissy laying under her bike.... don't worry....she was just pretending to fix her bike.
Jumping in puddles.
The next day these two were playing in mommy and daddy's bed. Sissy decided to pretend to tuck Little G into bed.
Little G was all for it.
Then Sissy decided to join him.
These two were being so sweet....giggling in bed.
And, of course, you need a good night kiss.
Working on reading his first book.
Sissy does a great job occupying herself.
We played a Math game where Bubby needed to roll the dice and color the correct picture.
But if he rolled a number that had already been used.....then he would have to run. Which at this age he loves.
And so does Sissy, who decided to join him in his penalty runs.
Next morning....Sissy was working on her shapes....and Little G was building towers.
Let me add, that in these pictures it appears that all three kids are always happy and always following directions. That most definitely isn't always the case. They have done a great job, but we still have fits and meltdowns and trouble sharing. Not long after this picture was taken, Little G decided he wanted to play with Sissy's shapes and tried taking them from her. Those moments aren't captured on camera, but I didn't want it appearing like we live in this dream world where my kids don't act like real kids.
Bubby was beyond excited to finally get to color his picture of the elephant. Each week he will learn to draw a new animal. On Mondays, I introduce him to the animal and we learn facts and read books about the animal. On Tuesdays, he draws the animal. On Wednesdays, he draws the background of the picture. On Thursdays, he copies a few sentences on facts about the animal, and on Fridays, he colors his picture.
Sissy wanted to color too. Her drawing is of a castle....
Then she added a princess which is on the left of the paper with a crown on her head and a king which is in black on the right of the paper.
Bubby's finished product of his elephant. I was very proud of him and he was proud of himself. We are going to keep each drawing in his Ninja Turtle binder so he can keep track of them.
Cutting out puzzle pieces and figuring out where they go.
That's another proud-of-myself grin after he found where the piece goes. He was then going to glue it down.
Of course, Sissy wanted to cut paper then too.
Working on math worksheets.
We hadn't done Inchimals since Monday so he was excited to do them again. He even made a video of exactly how he does it. Click the link below to watch the video.
Inchimals Video
Yesterday he had drawn Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.....he is now adding a snake to the picture after reading about the first sin.
We read a little bit about Cain and Abel and then Bubby drew Cain as a farmer and Abel as a shepherd. Bubby had lots of questions about why Cain was mean....and we had a good discussion on how when we make bad decisions we get punished, but Cain was never sorry for what he did and even lied which made his mistake even worse.
Yesterday, this big boy turned 18 months old. I can't hardly believe it. I'm holding back from putting on here a zillion baby pictures of this boy. It just seems like he should still be 3 months old. He's such a special little guy and is so much fun to be around. He loves to try to make people laugh, he loves giving knuckles, and you will often find this boy with his hand on his chin (we aren't sure why he likes to keep his hand on his chin a lot but it sure is cute). His favorite toys are balls, trucks, and our jack-in-the-box. He still takes 2 good naps for me a day and also sleeps all night long. He is very adventurous and keeps me moving all the time, but he loves exploring and climbing.
Sissy was back at her play dough time. She spent almost an hour just sitting there with her little dolls and play dough. She has an amazing imagination.
While Sissy played play dough and Little G was napping, Bubby and I went outside and played catch together.
The first week of school went fantastic. We had one moment of tears from Bubby G when he didn't want to practice his handwriting, but other than that we both had a great time learning together. School only takes 1-2 hours a day and we were able to do lots of fun things with that extra time. It's everything I dreamed of so far. Praising God for this wonderful experience.
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