First day of school year 2013-2014

Our first day of school went so well, we were pretty much done by lunch time. With the exception of E, who had a 3-year-old moment and was sent to her room and ended up falling asleep. I am glad that today went well and I hope it sets a precedence. But I don't think most days we will end up having two sleeping girls during prime learning time. It was very nice to get started early in the morning when our minds are fresh and not feel the pressure to be accountable to anything else for the rest of the day but learning at our own pace. I hope my kids can always have a simple life full of learning and not be one of those families always going to and from and eating fast food all the time.

We started the day with history, reviewing the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. I am learning more about how to take on teaching history. I tried to pile it on too much last time, so this time I am taking it easier. Will likes doing the map work and suggested activities and projects, so we will be trying to do more things like that.

After lunch we had time to do some Happy Phonics. I bought this from the Love to Learn site when I got their complete First Grade curriculum kit for W a couple years ago. This came with it and I never even opened it because Will was already reading. I guess kids generally don't learn to read until first grade? I always thought they were taught to read in pre-school and Kindergarten. Anyway, over the summer I got it out and cut everything up and put all the games into sheet protectors and ziploc baggies and rubber bands and put it all in two huge binders. There is A LOT of stuff with it. As I was cutting it all up and learning about all the games I realized how cool it was. I don't think we will use all of the games for one single kid, but it is nice to have all the options and it all seems like such a fun way to teach reading.

This game is called The Muffin Game. It's the first game in the set, but the creator recommends to first teach them the alphabet song. That is easy. Then she recommends teaching them that the capital letters match the lowercase letters. That is where this muffin game comes in. I have had a hard time getting E interested in learning to read. The same techniques I used with Will do not work with E, but she LOVED this game. She thought it was so fun and felt so proud when she matched a muffin top to it's bottom. 

This game is fun too. You write down the letter they are suppose to find in this letter scramble and have them circle all of that letter on the page. E is trying to circle all the M's in this one. She is not quite ready for this game, but we will keep trying.

Brother helping sister.

I just love being at home with my kids. When we first decided to homeschool I was pretty worried about my mental well-being. I kept hearing all the other mom's around me talk about how they love when their kids are in school because they get that break during the day. I'm sure it would be nice to have that to get some errands done without the kids or be able to finish laundry all in one fell swoop, or do anything at all without interruption. But I can't help but feel happy that I get to spend my time with the three most awesome people in the world. They make me laugh and allow me to be myself and I get to be just like a kid with them. They like to help me and really want me to show them love. No one else in the world does that for me personally. I also know that they are getting the best life and the best upbringing possible by being with their mom most of the day, that is where children are meant to be. They aren't meant to be with strangers, it doesn't matter what their learning, they're meant to be with their mom and each other.