Day 1

Well, it's here! The day we've dreamed of and feared! Since I was pregnant, Charles has had the desire to home school. I was not entirely on board. I definitely wanted to be involved in my children's education, but more like my parents were. I remember them reading with me, and helping me with projects and homework.

Owen, Gordy(class pet) & Leif

However, as our little guys have grown up, the idea of teaching them at home has become more and more appealing. This year Leif started Kindergarten in a public school. We discovered that he enjoyed taking time on his work, time that he didn't really have in the classroom. He learned how to color faster, and sloppier, and he started to think of himself as slow, or behind. He was stressed about school, and about learning. Sometimes when he came home he wouldn't even work with us on it, because he felt that it was just impossible. It was really hard to watch.

Owen was entertained by Leif's lessons!

He was learning, and we could see it. Sight words started to become easier to learn. Bob books were mastered faster. He also became curious about math concepts such as square roots and multiplication. We worked with him at home, and he was obviously learning a lot at school as well. I decided that I did want to start home schooling, but I was flexible with when we started. So, we gave him the choice either to start home school after Christmas break, or start home school for first grade next Fall. It took him a little while to come to a final decision, but about 3 weeks before Christmas break, Leif decided to start homeschooling in January.
This was exciting and a little scary. I didn't have much time to prepare. But, I had been looking at a few options, so we settled on Time For Learning as a base curriculum, and I will supplement with other stuff that I come up with, or that they suggest. I like Time For Learning so far because the lessons are entertaining enough that my 3 year old usually watches along as my 5 year old answers questions. We may change and explore other options eventually, but this gives a good start.

Enough processing... Here's a glimpse at the highlights of Day 1:
We started with Circle Time, which we renamed Triangle Time for obvious reasons. We did the Pledge of Allegiance, read Jesus Calling for today, discussed the weather, the date, and what the day was going to look like.





We interrupted our lessons to run outside and catch snow on our tongues. This is Georgia after all. If you want to see snow, you have to seize the moment! I thanked God for this special experience, because I don't think any of us will ever forget that it snowed on our first day of home school.











We played hide-and-seek to demonstrate camouflage, a concept that came up in one of Leif's lessons.

Cute chewing.

 We played with our class pet, Gordy, who has been slightly neglected as a house pet, but I'm thinking that re-naming him "class pet" will get him more attention.

Eating cheerios with Gordy.

One of Leif's lessons was differentiating between plants and animals, so we discussed how God cares for plants and animals, and looked up verses about it and decided on a drawing/writing project for the week. Each day Leif will add 1 to each page, so that by the end of the week we will have 5 on each page. Here is how I paraphrased the verses:
"See the FLOWERS of the field, they do not worry, they don't even work, and yet I have dressed them more beautifully than any king has ever dressed!" Matt 6:27-29
"Every forest creature belongs to me, all the cows on all the hills. I know each little bird by name, the scampering field mice are my friends." Psalm 50:10,11