First Day of School 2016

Everett, first day of 3rd grade

 Hampton, first day of 1st grade

 Eleanor, first day of Pre-K

 Thatcher, first day of Tot School 

And so it began today, the first day of balancing four curriculums! Here is how our first day went:

7:45-After breakfast, chores, and daily devotions, school began. My three older students did their Daily Learning notebooks and recitation. Thatcher watched Leapfrog Letter Factory. 

8:15-Hampton worked on his phonics worksheets and I began Everett's Latin lesson. Hampton worked independently as it was review concepts, and after Everett's lesson, he wrote his new vocabulary words in his Latin notebook. At some point during all of this Eleanor and I did circle time and Thatcher ran an errand with Daddy. 

8:45-Eleanor and I did a "pencil grip" lesson and some tracing, as well as practice writing her name. Hampton and I reviewed his spelling words and then he copied them into his spelling notebook (his first year for spelling). Everett finished up Latin and then moved on to math. Math was review concepts, so he did not require a lesson this morning. Then he went through his math facts flashcards. 

9:00-Hampton had finished spelling and looked through some books. Eleanor and I did a numbers lesson with focus on number recognition of "1" as well as understanding the quantity concept. Everett  completed math during this time and took a quick break.

10:00-Hampton did his art and handwriting lesson via Draw Write Now. Today's lesson was on Christopher Columbus. Everett had finished math and now worked on spelling. All of his spelling words are in cursive this year. He then had to read a paragraph in his spelling book and circled all the spelling words. Eleanor and Thatcher played with play dough. 

10:15-Everett moved on to cursive. In his cursive book he had to do an "All About Me" page. Hampton was still working on his art book and Eleanor/Thatcher were still playing with play dough.

10:30-Everett began literature. He is reading Farmer Boy. After a review of the table of contents, author/illustrator and copyright date, he silently read chapter 1. Hampton then did some more free reading. Thatcher and I did his calendar time as well as read his preschool book Jesus Knows Me. He also wanted to read a Mickey book (of course) after that. Eleanor was roaming around at this point, I believe. 

11:00-Hampton and I worked on reading. We read from his Classical Phonics book and then he read aloud a primary reader. After this he played with the play dough. Thatcher was roaming around at this point as well (playing) and Everett still reading.

11:15-Time for English grammar with Everett. I did a lesson on capitalization rules, then Everett did copy work for this lesson as well as a correcting exercise. Hampton worked a phonics puzzle.

11:30-Eleanor and I did our All About Reading lesson (letter A) and then read our literature book-Green Eggs and Ham as well as did some poetry. Eleanor then did a Do a Dot sheet for letter A. Thatcher was playing with his toys at this point and Everett read chapter 2 of Farmer boy. Hampton had listened in on Eleanor and I's lesson. 

11:45 (ish)-Hampton and I did our Bible lesson on Moses.

12:00-1:00-Lunch and free play! During lunch I read aloud Meet Felicity (chapter 1).

12:45-Thatcher went down for a nap.

1:00-1:30-Unit study of Apples and read aloud Johnny Appleseed. Science lesson via book How Do Apples Grow?

1:30-Hampton and Eleanor play quietly as Everett and I begin Christian studies. We are starting off with creation. After reading together in Genesis we did an activity where we look at a Bible illustration naming all the days of creation. 

2:00-Everett and I read chapter 3 of Farmer Boy together on the couch. Thatcher is asleep at this point and Eleanor/Hampton are still playing. 

2:30-For historical studies, I read Everett the first half of Leif the Lucky. He enjoyed it thoroughly and it was interesting how he connected the capitalization rule of not capitalizing the "g" when referring to the pagan gods and the worship of Greek gods. 

Around 3ish-All done! Rest time for all!

I am exhausted just typing that all out but it really was a solid first day! And we do it all over again tomorrow!