Day 1: Monday
Turned in my affadavit to the School Board!!! It's REAL!
2 hours of math "complete curriculum" unit 1 (math)
1 hour ice skating practice (healthy living/PE)
Day 2: Tuesday
2 hours park play with Marley (S.S. & Healthy Living)
2 hours math "complete curriculum" Unit 2 (math)
2 hours math (computer play)
Day 3: (official first day of school) funny. . .received my affadavit in the mail this morning just as we were beginning. Wednesday
35 minutes Yoga
30 minutes reading "Sylvie"
1 hour "complete curriculum Unit 3 (math)
30 minutes writing ("First Day of First Grade" sheet)
2 hours church small group (arts-singing, S.S., healthy living/PE)
1 hour math games online
Today was our first official day of school, at least the day I'd prepared for with a little planning. I've apparently misplaced Alani's history book. . .UGH. . .I am so excited about using this. I still don't know what we're supposed to do for science, but I think maybe we'll go with some of the books Miss Kay gave us a couple of years ago and start with the body! So many subjects intersect that sometimes I'm not sure where they fit, but I'm just counting everything we do as we go along each week. I'm going to TRY to log it weekly. It won't be a curriculum, it won't always have a certain order, but I do want to track what life-learning we do.
Monday night we went out to get a new "first day" outfit and a backpack. I wasn't sure I wanted to do a backpack, because it's just one more "bag" in our house, but I decided that I actually love all of those "back to school" traditions, I'm not doing this to be "non-traditional" or "buck commercialism" I'm just doing this because this is the way that seems right for US. I'm not even in a place where I think it's right for ALL kids, but it's right for MY kids. Since I'm also photo crazy, of course I want a "first day of school" photo! Airi REALLY wanted a backpack too, but I just decided we'd hand down Alani's ladybug backpack. I promised Airi there was a backpack waiting for her at home, thankfully this was good enough. As a birthday gift from last year, she had a little soft lunch pail which still had the tags on it, so I was also able to present that to her as "brand new."
You won't believe what kind of impact a back pack can have on the confidence of EVERYONE in the house! Alani was so proud to show hers off to her dad and Airi was a proud little monster toting her own new backpack around. In the end, the reason I decided on a backpack was multi-fold 1) I struggle with organization, at least this would offer a specific bag that could and would hold school supplies and books so we wouldn't be searching for books EVERY single day (case in point, I can't find Story of the World at the moment, when I thought it was with the math art books, all of which I CAN find) 2) It would make Alani feel more official at the start of the year and also feel responsible for her school belongs and 3) Well, it's just plain fun isn't it? To get a new backpack at the start of the school year? Surely we don't have to give up all rituals, routines and traditions of "going back to school" even though we never left!
Alani has been so excited about math, she insists on doing math each day, even though I didn't want to start until Wednesday. She asks to do math every day "When can I do more math?" and is really just a crack up "OOH, YAY, more graphs!" This whole week has been exciting for her. We went to get fitted for a violin on Tuesday, so this new thing she wants to do will also add to her list of activities that "count" for school (the arts). It's going to be a fun adventure!!!
Wednesday:
Today we officially started school with 35 minutes of yoga. Airi enjoyed part of it, then played with her foam craft clay stuff on her yoga mat the rest of the time. She actually SEEMED to do quite well for the entire morning as Alani did school. BUT. . .
I was ill prepared that though my toddler seemed contended to hang out, coloring on her TY notes for her birthday, while Alani and I worked on school all morning, and even participated in about half of the yoga "class" she became a complete bear in the afternoon due to 1) giant sugar cookie 2) no other food 3) daddy being home when it should have been naptime 4)no AM stimulation either social or physical and 5) severe lack of focused attention on her. She was nasty all afternoon, shouting at me, slamming doors, saying "PINE" and "I don't like you!" sweeping things ON to the floor from other surfaces. I put her in the bedroom for like a single minute as she cried "no mommy, no mommy, no mommy" because I needed to cool off and pick up a mess she'd made, during which time she peed in the corner of the room because she was mad at me. Later she would say "PINE I will go in the bedyume by myself" or tell me how I had to go into the bedroom and be alone if i was naughty . . it really hurt her feelings that i'd done that, but I needed the moment!!! I also kept telling her she needed to spend time alone if she was going to be hurtful and nasty towards people. Eventually Alani was playing a game on the computer, so Airi and I went into the bedroom where she performed shows and I read to her and she put on jewelry and this seemed to smooth us over, she just wanted me undivided attention, even saying things when I'd leave the room "don't leave me mama" and "are you coming back to be with me mama?" POOR kid. . .obviously this AM school schedule is not going to work, she needs friends and stimulation and attention before naptime if she's going to get down to a nap easily and securely. So I think we might need to start with yoga, then plan to leave the house for an hour or so, doing focused school time with alani during naptime and beyond. We also need to cut a LOT of sugar!!! ALL OF US!!! And I need to get them eating better, more consistently and more protein.
Day 4: Thursday
1 hour of crying (mom)
3 hours of playing with friends: dress up, problem solving, washing babies
2 hours of math (I swear, she does this on her own!)
I often forget to note how long she plays on the computer, but she's learning some computer proficiency as well as always playing a math game, it's nearly an hour each day
Thursday was a normal day as we've always known it. The morning was rough, carry over from yesterday. We headed to Melissa's at noon and spent 3 hours there, just playing. Social interaction. I guess we can cross of three hours of social studies or maybe the arts (dress up), or "healthy living" (mothering their dollies) or eh, I'm SURE recess is counted too, right? There is so much learning in just socializing with other kids during this age particularly, and working with kids of other ages too (the little sisters). .. learning never really stops.
Back at home we had another 2 hours of math. Alani has decided she will not work on any other part of the "complete curriculum" workbook until she finishes all of the math. There are seven units of math and she's doing nearly a full unit each day. I also found her history book!
Day 7: Friday
2 hours math
Reading
Friday we picked up Alani's violin. We also started a new "allowance" system, which is going to continue to solidify the concepts surrounding money we've begun working on, first in Girl Scouts a month ago and now, today, as the math unit Alani worked on, coins. Another 2 hours of math and some practice reading.
Day 6: Saturday
30 minute walk
1 hour at farmer's market (SS)
Purchased music stand from woman in Bountiful, it has a rich history and is over 50 years (probably much older) old
Saturday, yeah, we even did some learning on Saturday, another hour working on "time" and beginning a unit on geometry and measurement. I'm really excited about moving on from this curriculum. I think she's really able to pick up on math concepts, at least on first grade math. We're going to do Life of Fred from here and also get her a workbook for the "gifted" math student, to see how she does with that.
We also did the Farmer's market on Saturday and the girls insisted on walking, so 30 minutes of "healthy living" added to an hour of farmer's market, Alani spending her own money and learning even more about "healthy living."
The learning is in life, and by logging here I want to remind myself and others that we are learning these "core" and basic things so much of the day. I hope in the coming weeks we'll be able to get a better handle on how the flow of school will work. At this point it's really easy to work on math with Alani, but every day she talks about how excited she is to do school work. I think she likes the mind stimulation but more than anything, she enjoys the focused attention from her mom. I hope this continues to spill into her life and I can find a balance for our whole family as we school in years ahead.
I have to admit this first week had significant struggles and difficulties, but I have to put on my "problem solver" hat and start working things out with my girls instead of being reactionary.
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