Our First Week of School

We finished our first week of school today. Our first "official" days were last Saturday and Sunday. The state of Alabama requires that I keep attendance, so I decided that two field trips (the aquarium and the museum) were a great way to start the year!

We started our curriculum on Monday morning. We are continuing to use Sonlight for history, geography, Bible and read alouds this year. It has a four day program which allows us lots of flexibility. We are also sticking with Math-U-See, which seemed to work well for us. I am returning to Handwriting Without Tears after a year of A Reason for Handwriting. I am trying out a new program for Science. We are doing Chemistry 1 from Noeo. It uses children's literature to teach the concepts, and includes pre-packaged experiments that correlate with the concepts. I am also adding in First Language Lessons to work on beginning language concepts.

I have been thinking a lot about how I wanted to teach reading to Isaac and Bailey this year. I read Reading Reflex, which I am going to use a lot this year. I am also adding in some activities that I did when I taught first grade. We will also use the readers from Sonlight and Explode the Code workbooks. I am going to really focus on frequently used sight words for the first part of the year.

Olivia is not one to be left out! She demands her school, so I have been spending a few minutes working with her before I get to the others. That satisfies her, and she will entertain Anna Grace for a little while during some of my teaching time with the older ones. We are working through the Handwriting Without Tears preschool book, which includes some manipulatives. We are also working through an early math book and doing a few other activities. I do it for as long as she is interested, because she is too young to push. So far, we have learned about E, L and F this week. Anna Grace sits at the table with us, not wanting to be left out.

All in all, our first week went well. I am a bit exhausted from getting used to our new schedule. It is a challenge to do school and keep the household running, and the first few weeks seem to be the hardest. I am glad that we are starting so early, so that we can get into a routine before our new little one arrives. It also gives us the flexibility to take a few weeks off after his birth.