While it does seem a bit early, we officially kicked off our school year on Monday, August 6. Starting now helps us to build some cushion into the year and take off planned (or unplanned) days without feeling like we’re behind where we should be.
Rosemary’s First Day of First Grade
There was a pretty big contrast between prep for last year and prep for this year. I don’t know if it was that I had a better idea of what to do or if I just was less neurotic, but it seemed much less complex.
I ran out the day before school started (in a torrential downpour) to pick up some first day of school gifts for Ben and Rosemary. I hadn’t planned on getting them anything this year, but they remembered their little gifts from last year, so we decided to get a couple of books for each. Ben is really into the Titanic so he got a Titanic reference book and a Magic Treehouse Titanic story (which we finished on Tuesday). Rosemary really wanted the McKenna book when we went to pick out her Barnes and Noble free book from their summer reading program. She ended up picking out a National Geographic Kids Titanic book as her free book, but since I knew she wanted the other too, it made it easy to know what to get. The paper doll book was also a hit.
Here’s all of our stuff ready for the first day. I had some activities ready for Ben too.
And our first grade curriculum is:
- Saxon Math 2
- First Language Lessons Level 1
- Writing with Ease Level 1
- Zaner Bloser Handwriting 1
- Explode the Code 3 and 4
- First Grade Spelling Lists and Dictation Sentences found online
- Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
- Story of the World, Ancients
- Leading Little Ones to God
- Artistic Pursuits, Book 1
- Family Time Fitness
- Elemental Science, Biology for the Grammar Stage (modified through our co-op)
That list seems overwhelming, but since a number of the subjects aren’t everyday subjects, it makes our mornings full, but not crazy. Math takes the longest, but some of the other subjects are not at all lengthy. I got a little panicky before I sat down and made out our schedule, thinking it would be overwhelming, but seeing it planned out made it much less daunting to me.
Also, I’m trying to be more intentional about our memory work so I am hoping to have our memory work all in one place to make it easier to refer to throughout the week…like Classical Conversations, but with our own information that is relevant to what we are working on at the time. For the first two weeks, here’s what I have, all pulled directly from our various curricula:
I just need to keep it up. Knowing me, this is where I will struggle when things get busy during the year. So maybe by mentioning this here, I will feel more responsible to continue doing it.
Both Rosemary and Ben were excited about their new books.
I never cook breakfasts on weekdays, we’re a cereal and granola bar kind of family, but on Monday we had pancakes. Rosemary and I enjoyed them with chocolate chips, Ben requested blueberries. Charlotte’s were plain…because they’d be less messy.
At breakfast everyone wanted to make funny faces.
Charlotte can be such a ham!
After breakfast, Rosemary got dressed and immediately started getting her paper dolls and accessories punched out. We’re going to Williamsburg later in the year so I’m hoping that we can do some fun stuff with the Felicity dolls to get ready for our trip.
Our first grader!
I am so thankful that these two are such good friends. Yes, there are times when you couldn’t tell that, but every so often I hear them tell each other, “I love you,” and it just brings me so much joy.
Best pic I got of the four of us. Poor Ben is covered in my hair, but little Charlotte is even looking at the camera!
Rosemary and I stepped outside for a couple pics at the door. Ben wanted to be in them too. :-)
Pretty first grader
Once inside, it was time to ring the school bell to start the day. All of the kids actually ring the bell. And it is SO loud.
Pledge to the American flag
Pledge to the Bible
Getting to work
My plan is to start the day off with all three kids at the table. Rosemary will work on Math, Ben on some pre-writing things or puzzles, and Charlotte will color then have a snack. Since Charlotte isn’t napping in the morning anymore and is at a stage where she is in to EVERYTHING, I think we’ll be doing more work at the table than at Rosemary’s desk since one of Charlotte’s favorite things to do is pull items out or off of things. We’ve finished four days so far and this has been working. Sure, Charlotte makes it exciting when she’s down, but it’s not been too bad as long as I keep the bathroom doors shut. :-) We’ve just got to get the routine going again. Ben has really enjoyed his ‘school work’ too. It’s really been a great first week so far!
Rosemary worked so well Monday morning and Charlotte and Ben did such a great job too, that we decided to take a break and head over to the Y to swim a bit and then wrap up our reading in the afternoon. Rosemary has been contemplating taking the swim test so that she can swim in the deep part of the pool on her own. At first, she planned to take it later in the week, but after practicing treading water a couple times with me in the shallow end, she decided she was ready. So Ben and I (Charlotte was in childcare) went over to watch Rosemary take her swim test. And SHE DID IT! She was so proud. Ben said that Rosemary was swimming like she was in the Olympics. She kept her green wristband on the rest of the day so she could show her daddy. This is a girl who wouldn’t swim without me holding her when we started going to the pool in May. What a difference!
Rosemary with her first deep end swim band
That afternoon we wrapped up our school day. One of Jonathan’s former co-workers was going to be in Gainesville that night so we met up with Jeremy, Wendy, and Joshua at Mi Apa for dinner then headed over to Sweet Dreams for ice cream.
She still had the band on
Ben wanted a pic too
It’s been a full but not hectic week. The transition back to schoolwork has been fairly smooth. Thankfully the curriculum eases us back in, which I think we needed, and it’s giving Rosemary confidence as much has been review this week. And I am really trying to be more intentional about commitments that I make to help keep our family more in balance this year. Last year was rough at times and I don’t want that to happen again. Next week, soccer for Ben and ballet for Rosemary kick back off, then in September Ben heads back to preschool and Rosemary should start Daisies again, so we’ve got some more things to look forward to starting!
