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Monday, August 19, 2013

First Day of School- Officially Kindergarteners!


  It's official, as of today, school is in session!  It's hard to believe that these two little boys of mine are Kindergarteners.  Time flies by way too quickly.  I must say, when I see that yellow school bus drive by, I am so happy that God has blessed us with the opportunity to school them from home.  This mama, is in no way, shape, or form, ready to ship them off to a public school.  For many more reasons than just the yellow school bus!
  We are not straying too far from the curriculum that we had chosen last year. 
            -We L-O-V-E-D Before Five In A Row last year, so we will move on to Volume 1 in Five In A Row.  It outlines various subjects on a specific book that you "row" every day for five days.  However, I always find that there is so much to do and not enough time.  So, our FIAR activities may extend for 6-10 days.  We'll see.  It integrates Geography, History, Language Arts, Art, Science, etc.   
            - Math-U-See is our math book of choice.  We'll be moving on to the Alpha book in the next couple of weeks. 
            - For our penmanship, we will be using Handwriting Without Tears again.   
            - Hooked On Phonics worked for us last year, so we will continue on to the First Grade level this year. 
            - I am still on the fence as to what I'm going to use for Bible curriculum this year.  This week, I have used Resource Well for ideas on top of Google/Pinterest for go-alongs.  This leads to a lot of late nights.  So, I will be exploring other avenues.  (Most likely, the FIAR Christian Supplement)
            - For spelling, the boys will be going through the first grade spelling lists from K12Reader.
            - And, I will be attempting to add in a composer/artist once every few months.  Ambleside Online has a lot of great resources.

Phfew!  That seems like a lot.  We may have to whittle that back.  But, at least it's a plan, right?  That has to count for something!  We started rowing Lentil, by Robert McCloskey, today.  And we are studying the Parable of the Talents in our Bible time.

Without further adieu...the classroom participants:
Mr. "B"

Mr. "C"

Baby "J"- who I'm sure will be getting into trouble most of the time

 See ya next week!



4 comments:

  1. I can't believe how grown up your little girl is. Sigh, where does the time go? My second youngest is five soon. Five! I only gave birth to her yesterday!
    Have a wonderful, wonderful year. I look forward to reading all your FIAR posts. We're still on BFIAR (for the second time), so we'll be able to steal all your lovely ideas when we switch!

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  2. I know how you feel. Time does fly by, way too quickly! She is quite a strong willed little lady. Might I ask, what worked best for you when your youngest (now 2?) was this age? We mostly try to get a lot in during nap time. The other parts of the day are hit and miss. Looking forward to seeing you re-row BFIAR. Those were great books!!

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  3. The only thing that worked was at around 20 months I included her in school and suddenly she started to improve. She was tricky too, but I think probably needed more time spent with her than my others had needed. When I finally (duh!) picked up on that fact and started to make a concerted effort to include her in everything, she was so much better and her crying (which she did more than all four older siblings put together) ceased (almost)completely.
    Things are much easier now, but it was very hard for a time, and yes nap time or when Gary was around were really the only times I was able to school. HTH!

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  4. Maybe I'll try to come up with some "school work" for her too. I'll keep you posted. Thanks!!

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