Germs Day 1...First day of school!!!

Today was our first "official" day of homeschooling! To sum it up, it was GREAT!!! If only all of our school days could be like this!!

We started off with our morning snuggles in Daddy and Mommy's bed as Daddy readied himself for work. Watch a little show, put away laundry that had been sitting in our room for eons!, took a shower, dressed, had breakfast together, washed dishes while the kiddos played and then started school.

We did thing a little differently then how I had planned, but so is life! One thing I knew before writing out our tentative schedule for the day was that in no way would we stick to the time constraints. I just put them in there to give me a guide. The other thing that was glaringly obvious (do you like how I make up my own words?....I do!) was that I need to have the lesson plan in front of me. So, I need to make a binder and hopefully will get that done by next week.

The other thing that I have been learning during the times that Charlie and I do academic things is to watch him closely for signs of frustration or tiredness. When I see those red flags I either need to end the lesson we are working on or I need to inject something funny and silly into it to keep him going. I think there is nothing wrong, actually it is something he needs to learn, but nothing wrong with letting him get a little frustrated or keeping at something until he finishes it even if it is hard. But there is a fine line, and if I push him to far then I have lost him. That happened today during our copy work. He did the first assignment so well, he was excited, participating in the decision making, easily accepting correction, writing so nicely. But then we did a second lesson and by the 2nd line I should of called it quits but didn't and we both ended up frustrated. But he drew a cool picture of a bucket excavator! :)

Group Learning time:

Sorting craft noodles based on color. Charlie knows his colors so he was the old pro and helped Tommy despite the fact that Tommy really knew all of them too. But that is just the older bossy brother coming out in Charlie! We also used a large kitchen spoon and thongs to put the noodles into different containers, working on fine motor skills for both, but primarily Tommy.
We then made silly creations out of the noodles by dipping them in water. Surprisingly this activity took up about 45 minutes and the boys really liked it!

Charlie made a picture frame out of the noodles

Then Tommy washed the containers in the sink while Charlie and I read You Are What You Eat!, talked about eating healthy food, the food pyramid etc. I then asked Charlie some questions about the book and he reiterated some of what we had just read. I think that as we do this more, his narration will expand. Charlie then did his copy work, using the words Milk and Sick. Like I said before, he did great with Milk. Picked out the word from the book, was excited to be writting etc. On his own he drew a milk truck etc.

Individual learning Time:

After Tommy was down for naps Charlie and I did a Math game with the craft noodles. This time he put them into piles by color and counted them. We also did some simple addition, he was able to do 5+1=6 and 6+2=8.

Our school day was about 1.5 hours long which is just about where I would like to keep it for now.

Books to read:
You are what you eat! By Sharon Gordon

Achoo! Achoo! By Patricia Brennan Demuth