First Week of School
Monday
I got my housecleaning day in, and we made a venture out to a quiet in-town “naturalized” area for our first nature walk of the school year.
Tuesday
First day of school. We started the day with our typical yogurt-and-granola fare. I learned my lesson last year and did not start the day off with sugar.
We actually got started only ten minutes after scheduled, even though I was still a bit scattered when it came to the organization. I did not do all the finishing touches I had been hoping to do during swim lesson weeks. I pretty much did nothing but keep my head above water during swim lessons. So I was scrambling a bit, but we hit the ground running anyway.
We were able to cross out everything on our checklist for the day, a feat very rarely managed last year. Not only that, but we all kept cheerful attitudes to boot! Jaeger was thrilled to have his own independent checklist. Hans is thrilled to be beginning Latin. Ilse is thrilled to have her own Mommy-time with her own Bible story book. Knox is not so thrilled with his arrangements:
On Wednesday my neighbor-friend came in during Circle Time to borrow a stick of butter. Knox was all grins for her, until she started heading for the door. He yelled. He rattled the wall of his cage. He cried to her, “Don’t you see how they’re treating me?! You aren’t going to leave me here like this, are you?! Where are you going? Free me!!“
And that was his general attitude about being confined in the pack and play every day. Unless, that is, he realized he was being photographed.
Who’s fussy? He’s mister charming.
But if he’s not contained, he is actually not all over the house getting into toilets and outlets, he’s in everybody’s business.
So I’m working on plan B for K-Bomb.
Wednesday
Our adjusted schedule which we are doing the entire summer worked like a charm all week, and allowed us plenty of time to prepare for and leave for playgroup at a sprinkler park on Wednesday. One-and-a-half hours in the morning, and two hours in the afternoon. As long as I give up my afternoon zone-out time in front of the computer screen, and actually take a short power nap instead, it works splendidly. This adjusted schedule will be our typical Wednesday plan, so that we can continue meeting with our friends. Playgroup has been a good part our kids’ education in life: sharing, honoring house rules, being kind, being friendly — all important skills.
The quote of the day was from Jaeger: “Last school didn’t go so well, but this term is so good!”
Wednesday was another stellar, hardly-believably-good day. Everything planned was done.
Thursday
Remember Jaeger’s Wednesday quote? Well, this was his face when I handed him his math sheet next morning:
Thursday the hiccups finally started coming out. It was rough, and Hans didn’t finish his work until 5pm (learning a lesson on dawdling, we hope). Ilse was still upbeat.
That is, as long as her will wasn’t being crossed. And I’m such a mean mommy. I insist upon crossing it frequently.
This is Circle Time, immediately following the above math lesson. As you can see, a bit of Scripture, a prayer, and some singing, can help brighten attitudes considerably (even a Mommy’s, turns out). Plan B for Knox Sir this morning was “fussy babies go to bed,” so we could actually hear ourselves sing this time! Um, not that that was actually anything anyone would want to hear.
Even though things got rougher, we still accomplished all the work planned for the day.
As long as you don’t count housework.
Friday
Friday was an action-packed day. We got in our hour-and-a-half in the morning, then ran errands (including a Costco lunch) until 2pm. We then had our first afternoon tea — which the children have been looking forward to since they read my notes a couple months ago — at 3pm.
It went very well for a first attempt. I think Hans will be more prepared in the future, now that he knows he’s going to be accountable for remembering and thinking on his readings longer than 5 minutes after reading them. I used Buck Holler’s outline on discussing literature, and I think it’s sound, even for young students. Jaeger — who remembered what he had read — did great!
And 95% of everything planned for Friday was accomplished.
A whole week with a checked off checklist for school? I don’t think I’ve accomplished such a thing yet in our brief career.
Here’s hoping to this becoming a habit.
Can you tell me more about your Friday tea time? What do you expect from your children in terms of narrations or remembering what they’ve read? (I found your blog through a link from someone else’s blog and have been enjoying reading a bit here and there. This is my third year homeschooling but my first year to try to really do CM methodology.)
Well, my 8yo son gave me practically nothing, and I did expect more. :) I guess my minimum I’d hope they remember would be the names of the people they read about (they were reading short biographies) and at least one thing about that person’s life. Then I am hoping that during the tea we can go beyond narration to discussion. I’d like to model for and introduce to them thinking about “should” and “ought” in what they read.
This is new for us; so it’s rather experimental and I’m waiting to see how it really turns out.
Thanks, Mystie! Today was our third day of the year but our first with almost a full schedule, and I feel like I’m (once again!) making it all up as I go along. :-) I’m really gleaning a lot of help and encouragement from your archives, though.
Making it up as I go along is all I do, too. :) I think it’s fun that way.
thank you for sharing your week. It was encouraging. We don’t start school for a few weeks. I am excited about it, but past difficulties do persist in giving me moments of panic. I really appreciate your sharing Buck Holler’s method. I plan to use it too.
Hi! I am new to your blog and look forward to reading back in the archives. I just wanted to offer a suggestion for your youngest who doesn’t like the pack n play (I can’t blame him for that, who wants left out?). We train each of our little ones to sit at the table with us for part of school from a young age, and we use a booster seat that has a seatbelt to keep them from climbing all over the table and everyone’s work. In the beginning it is 10 minutes of them seatbelted with us, given an activity to play with. If they toss it on the floor then they are welcome to simply watch what we’re doing, but I do not hand the activity back. They learn quickly that it is much more fun to keep the activity on the table. As that 10 minutes becomes easy we increase their table time by about 5 minutes every week or so, until they will happily sit with us for an hour. As their time increases they are given a change of toy/activity partway through the table time.
Some of our favorite things for this time: - playdoh - a small set of math manipulatives - Melissa and Doug wooden slicing food - Melissa and Doug Magnetic dolls - coloring or craft materials - a small set of blocks
By the way, I’ve had lots of practice – my children are 10, 6, 5, 3, 2, and 8 months, with baby # 7 coming in January. :) We use a lot of booster seats…LOL.
Welcome to my blog. :) Thanks for your suggestions.
I did something similar with #3 when she was the same age, but school was shorter and wasn’t right after breakfast. The only reason I was trying the pack’n'play instead of the chair was because when we start school our little guy has only just finished eating his breakfast — buckled into his chair for 20 minutes or so. And of all mine so far, he is the most energetic. Perhaps just moving his chair over to the other part of the room where we are and giving him a different activity will be enough change to keep him occupied. But our table time stuff is an hour and a half, and I’m not too keen on making an active little guy sit in a chair for 2 hours (once you add in his breakfast time). When my daughter was his age, she had no problem staying with us happily for an hour and a half, coloring or playing with the pegboard or other such thing. :)
He can sit for an hour, and do so mostly quietly. He sits with us in church and sits for dinner and family devotions. But he needs moving and exploring and noise-making play time, too, and I don’t want to keep him cooped up in a chair just because it’s convenient for me. Instead, I’m hoping to train him to play by himself for a time. He is my most social guy so far, and doesn’t like to be anywhere but in the middle of the action. He should be able to go play in our fenced backyard by himself (I’m near the window looking out that way) or in the living room with his trucks. But training a toddler and keeping the 8 & 6 yo boys on task in their place at the same time is a trick. :)