Our First Week

We made it through our first week of homeschooling!  I honestly had no idea what to expect...no idea how it would go.  I knew there would be good parts and hard parts, but beyond that, I really had no idea.  And now that we are done, here are my observations:

1. I love that I get to work one on one with my kids -- to take the time to explain things in a way that they will understand.

2. I love that I have the ability to tweak things as I go, change things as I need to, take breaks when squirmy kids need it, and not have to follow a specific time schedule

3. I have some reworking of stuff to do for the kids.  As much I love having them together for everything, if I continue with that in all subjects I will lose Caleb and bore Alaina.  They are only 15 months apart but much farther in ability and interest levels.  As the mom, I get to do what is best for each individual child.

4. Caleb needs much more hands-on and multi-sensory lessons.  Working on that now.

5. My kids will not retain every thing I tell them.  And that is okay. Repetition throughout the year and throughout their life will lead to them retaining info. School isn't about memorizing a bunch of facts that have no meaning attached.

6. I need a new verse memory program.

7. Levi is one smart kid!  I need to find some more activities that he can do with me and independently.

8. I am going to learn as much, if not more than my kids!

And now, the week in pictures...

Caleb works to have his rabbit find the carrot (and more importantly, working on his fine motor skills)

Alaina enjoying our first Muffin Tin Monday (though we did it on Tuesday) meal.  We enjoyed food like the first people ate: snails (peanut butter and bread rolled up, ham and cheese rolled up), nuts, berries, leaves (salad), fish (goldfish), and more.

Playing Bingo to learn our Indonesian colors

Coloring our trees to match the seasons.  Alaina works on Spring.  We had to do two pages -- one for life at grandma's (North America, which has four seasons) and Indonesia (which has only two seasons -- wet and dry). 

Getting ready to sew "animal skins" (handmade paper -- and no, I didn't make the paper, I bought it.)  We used sticks for needs (instead of bones -- ew!) and my handy Crop A Dile for our "borer."

And the finished product

A rainbow that we made to remember God's promise to Noah (and all of humanity).  It was also a great way to sneak in fine motor skills for Caleb (crumbling up all that paper take a long time!)

Thursday is jammie day (all other days I expect them -- and me! -- to be dressed for school with hair done.)  We painted like some of the first people using things found in nature (sticks, rocks, plants, leaves, etc.)  For our colors we used natural colors (egg yolks, coffee grounds, tomato juice, and leaf rubbings).

  

Comments

[Kimberly Geswein]

for verse memory- have you seen the "Seeds" line of cd's? They are CUTE catchy songs and are 100% scripture with most of the songs having the tag (chapter/verse) in the song. I can't get enough of them for my kids. They are like Seeds of Faith, Seeds of Courage, etc...

And thank you for the note earlier today! :) I appreciate what you said! :) I hope I wasn't too sensitive! Just felt bad because while I'd said "yay school" I didn't mean "eww kids" :) I *do* get what you mean, too, and agree.

[Christin]

What a wonderful first week!! I love all your ideas. :) Great job!

[Laura]

It looks like you had a fun first week!
And I definitely agree with your #8. My mom always said she learned more teaching us kids than she ever learned in school herself. I'm already finding that to be true!

[Carrie Papon]

I use the bible study guide for all ages and enjoy it with my 6 and 4 yr olds.

[Gretchen]

I loved reading about your first week, as I am getting ready to embark on mine. :)