It was a very good day, but not really what a typical day will be like for us. The boys were very excited to start school today. They got up and got dressed quickly. When they came downstairs they discovered a special surprise. I had made "kindercones" for them, based on a German tradition of giving children school-related gifts on the first day of school. The boys were thrilled! The cones contained harmonicas and shaker eggs for music class, pencils, stickers, some snacks, and tubes of action figures (one had space figures and one had knights).
During breakfast my mom called to continue a tradition that my grandma had for us when we were growing up: she sang, "School Days" to the boys. Adam accidentally hung up on her! ;) After breakfast we started a new tradition of gathering for family prayer before Daddy left for work. Jon took this picture of us --- our official first day of school picture I guess!
Here's a picture of our prayer corner / circle time space:
This is where we will begin school each morning. We will talk about the date and the weather and any holidays or feast days. We will practice our prayers and poems. Then we will move into music time (We are using "Making Music, Praying Twice), religion lesson/discussion, and/or special story or theme presentation.Here are some shots of our school room:
The cloth bins are workboxes that I will fill on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. (These will be our most concentrated school days. On Mondays we will be doing circle time and academic work in the morning and then going to an enrichment program in the afternoon. On Fridays we will once again be attending a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and Montessori session all morning and then we'll take the afternoon off.) The work boxes will contain several activities to be completed independently (puzzles, worksheets, flashcards, learning activities, etc). The boys have been waiting for this day to begin their workboxes. Adam especially loved this independent work.
Our main work table
A smaller desk for sitting and writing and concentrating. Ray used this area today for his Math and Phonics work.
Here's Adam working on a sticker mosaic page from his workbox.Today we did our circle time, a religion lesson and craft, and then recess outside! After that we did some book work and their workboxes. Ray did Math, Writing, and Phonics. Adam did some workbook pages. Then we had some reading time and worked on our project binders (more about those soon).
Next we had lunch and played outside.
My favorite part of the day was beginning our year-long tree study. We went to the side of the house where we have a lovely cherry tree. We sat down on a blanket, looked at the tree, made a list of all of the things we noticed about the tree, examined the bark/leaves/cherries with magnifying glasses, and made some sketches and rubbings that will go in their nature notebooks. Ray really enjoyed taking several pictures of the tree as well. We know it's a cherry tree of some sort, but couldn't find the exact name for it in our field guide.
Next we painted pictures of the tree. This was awesome! I almost cried as I watched them concentrating so hard and enjoying this so much. I thought, "This is it. This is what it's all about. This is where and how I want them to learn." I know that I won't have these blissful learning moments every day, so I am really savoring this.
Just when I thought the day couldn't get better, my friend Sara called and asked if she and her boyfriend could come visit. Matthew is an artist! He came and talked with the boys about their paintings and showed them some of the cool stuffed monsters he's been making. He even did a little art therapy activity with us! So cool! Here's a shot of Matthew and Sara:
Here's Matthew teaching Ray about how to make a stuffed animal:
So, after that, I was spent. The boys sat down to watch a video and I grabbed a Diet Coke, checked email, and then started folding some laundry. Lo and behold.... another surprise arrived on our porch. Packages from Pappy and Mary (my dad and his wife)! The boys were so excited! (I had no idea that so many "presents" would be involved with the first day of school!) The packages contained lots and lots of fun school supplies and even some holy cards and rosaries. Our living room looked like Christmas once all of the unwrapping was done!
We ended this exciting day by going to dinner at Bob Evans, stopping at church for a few minutes of Adoration, and then playing on the church playground. Both of the boys are eager to do school again tomorrow.... so I need to get off the computer and get some rest!
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