"School is so AWESOME, Mom!"

... like music to my ears!

We've finished two good days of homeschooling. Everyone is very happy and motivated which makes this pretty easy. I'm sure it won't always be that way so I'm trying to live it up now.

We were up, dressed, and ready to start at 8:00am, a bit earlier than I had planned. I really was craving a second cup of coffee so I told the kids they could have "free play" until 8:30. Colin said, "You mean, like recess?" I answered, "Yeah, I guess you can call it that." He replied, "Wow! We get to have recess first???" I answered, with equal enthusiasm, "Yeah! Isn't that great???" He then trotted off happily to play outside. Who knew it would be that easy to start our day off right?

For our first activity, I decided to start with a bang and have a "starting school treasure hunt." Anna had picture clues to direct her where to go to find her next prize (backpack, notebook, stickers, pencils, etc.). Colin had more complicated word clues to follow for his things. Just for fun, Colin wore his pirate hat and Anna wore her pirate bandanna. Colin proclaimed it to be his favorite part of the day. I'm thinking I might have to work in more treasure hunts in the future. It was a big hit.

Next we used Foamie stickers to decorate their newly found pencil boxes. Colin spelled out his name and used a couple of outer space stickers to finish it off. Anna just grabbed random letters, numbers, and pictures to put hers together. Following that, Anna and I talked about the theme for the week, cows, and she colored a cow picture and then did a cow puzzle. We also talked about the week's new word, calf, and read a book called Little Calf. Colin did his first Math U See lesson, the first page in his Handwriting Without Tears book, and we read the first chapter of The Knight at Dawn, the second Magic Tree House book. For their last activity I put a "Surprise Activity" sheet in their workboxes. The surprise was that we made cookies because, really, homemade cookies can always make a day special. Colin decided he had to measure his cookie with his new ruler.

I was pleased with our first day but also surprised at how tired it left the kids. We really got everything done in about an hour and a half (not including making cookies) but Colin had the "my brain hurts" look on his face. I was glad we had the rest of the day to play and enjoy the amazing weather. I think we'll probably break up some days into two chunks, doing an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.

Today was more of the same. Anna learned about the shape of the week, square, and then we went on a square hunt to find squares around the house. She wasn't really into it. I worked in a game of Monopoly, Jr. with Colin but Anna was having a difficult moment so, as much as I wanted to include her, she ended up watching a Blue's Clues while we finished up. My kids are really into games and they are a great way to sneak in some learning so I'm all for it. The surprise activity today was making our own play doh. It was even an educational experience for me. That's when I got the "School is so AWESOME, mom!" comment from Colin, which made my day.

After school was over, we hit the library and Colin got his first library card. The children's librarian was adorable and congratulated him and gave him a "I got my FIRST library card." sticker. We bumped into some people from our YMCA and found out they homeschooled as well. They even have a boy Colin's age. I exchanged phone numbers with the mom and we hope to hook up for field trips and other activities. After a stop at Chic Fil'A for lunch (sure beats cafeteria food) we went to the playground for an hour to enjoy the perfect weather we've been having.

Tonight we had some friends over and stayed up a little later than normal. I got the workboxes filled for tomorrow in about 5 minutes flat. I have 11 weeks of workbox planning done thanks to a visit from my in-laws so it's just a matter of putting the necessary supplies in boxes. Putting the planning in up front makes things go so much smoother.

I hope to update this blog regularly. I want to keep a log of what we're doing so that family and friends can be in the loop and so I can look back and remember what we've done and how it all went. I'd love your comments if you have any!