Well, to-day was the day!
We started school today, with some very last minute house cleaning and straightening and re-arranging done over the weekend, and I am happy to report that it went quite well!
I got up at 6, to an alarm. I was not the least bit horrified, although I was sleepy, I put on my outfit that was laid out for me :) and went to start my coffee when I heard Charlie crying--darn! So much for having special time to myself. thats ok....so he had his morning diaper change, nursey, and was happy to trot around while I got out breakfast stuff and fed the outside birds. So hilarious that he is SO happy/surprised to see me outside and waves and yells HI MAMA! when I go outside :)
Casey came out of his bed soon after, and we enjoyed cuddling for the two minutes every morning that I get to savor when he is all warm and still and sweet and cozy. Then SNAP! he starts up in his special Casey way, and I tighten the bolts on my resolve and my patience and my sense of humor, trying to steer him away from destruction and downright rudeness, and towards the more positive sides of his personality which are energetic cheer, hilarious observations, creativity, and curiosity to rival anything I have ever seen. This is my nice way of saying I took away his knife and gave him some scotch tape instead. This is my nice way of saying I ignored him when he told me that my coffee "smells like horse poo", but that when he shoved his breakfast on the floor, he was punished.
I was going to get Greta and Mickey up, when I discovered that they were already awake--at 7:30, I was surprised! They seemed chipper enough, and, seeing as I am trying to be somewhat LESS of an all day chef, I requested that they join us for breakfast. We all ate the embellished granola bars I made last week, except Mickey, for whom they were really made, who pretended he wasn't hungry and then begged for "butter bread". Ack.
Greta and Mickey, as per the plan of me doing nursery school in the mornings, and that being their "freetime" for the most part, decided to watch the first Harry Potter movie on the TV that has been newly installed in their bedroom, displaced from it's original home in our backroom which is now a gym. Still with me? :)
It doesn't have cable or any antenna or any capabilities besides watching DVDs and playing GameCube, so we are not worried about them langushiing in bed watching weird broadcast shows, so that's cool by me and Steve, the whole TV in your bedroom thing. We needed there to be no one watching a movie or playing a video game in the living room when I was having preschooley times with Casey and Charlie--too too distracting. (We have no basement or upstairs, it is a long one story house.)
So, with the big kids tucked away with Harry Potter, Charlie and Casey and I dug into some crafts! Pipe cleaners, googly eyes, rubber bands, glue, stickers, felt, and tape tape tape tape tape were the objects of our creation, and no, I wasn't reading the New York times, looking at email, or folding clothes. I was truly truly with my little ones. We listened to Woody Guthrie and The Babysitters on the CD player, and I tried not to look at the clock. (I knew it was barely into the 8 o'clock hour and the school room was already obliterated with the signs of our fun.)
Then, we sat down at our newly placed love seat that faces right out the window, and watched the chipmunks for a few minutes, wondering aloud if any would dare be brave enough to come and take the peanuts we put on our windowsill (they weren't). We then had story time, and after fumbling through a few board books that seemed to be more suited for Charlie, Casey and I really had a blast with an old book about signs. Signs, signs, he was really enthralled pointing to each one and asking "What is that one? What does that say? What about that one?"--It was cool.
After the sign book, we decided to paint. I put both Casey and Charlie in the high chairs, with smocks (we found so much of our cool stuff in the garage this weekend--even though we have lived here a year now, the garage is still quite unpacked) and they watercolored for a while. Charlie seemed fondest of painting and painting in one spot until the paper shredded through to the high chair tray, where as Casey was really into mixing colors. After that, the schoolroom was truly, truly decimated, and we needed to just get out of there, and so me and the 2 little boys went into the backroom, a.k.a. the "gym".
They ran and jumped and kicked and drove little bikes around, and it was only then that I took one or two phone calls and snuck in a load of laundry. It was 10 am.
Greta and Mickey were done with Harry Potter and we all went outside to hang up clothes and t play on the swing set before it got too hot out. The pool has been drained for almost a week, but somehow no one had noticed until now, and they were complaining, begging for me to refill it. We'll see. I know it will most likely be hot out for a few more weeks, but they just weren't swimming, and the water gets neon green every time it rains, so we drained it for the second time this summer.
Around 10:30 I started making lunch preparations, we were having grilled cheese and lentil soup and macaroni and cheese and applesauce. Steve was a bit late, but ended up eating with us. While he was here, I mostly tried to tidy up some of the outrageous fall-out from the crafting, and did have a mini panic attack about how in the world would I possibly get anything down with the big kids with our schoolroom so blown out...but I reassured myself by remembering it is the first day, and that being NOT crabby was the main thing....
I put Charlie to bed at noon, and he laid down without a fuss--he was truly tired!
I checked email, and by the time I got back, Greta Mickey and Casey were playing some big, big game involving all the craft stuff. Cutting and stapling and writing furiously, Greta making play money, Casey filling some old toy with pom poms, Mickey under the table making a shoebox into something......ok, do I "let" them be happy, or do I enforce the schedule? Hmmmm...
We compromised, with me telling them that I was so happy that they were all doing such cool stuff, but that Charlie's naptime was really supposed to be for me and the big kids to do our schoolwork, and so I let them do 1/2 hour of their miscellanea, and then it was gonna be time for Casey's couch-nap.
It kind of didn't go as well as I wanted, but, being very determined to not turn evil, we went on with our school stuff, even though Casey was being a pain in the___. He laid on the couch for about 2 minutes and then was determined to just be bad. I offered him to watch TV, to play a game, to go outside, to have a Popsicle. No no no he seemed to want to make weird noises and interrupt me when I spoke. Mickey was getting really flaky and I was starting to panic that this whole idea was already horrible. But, we continued on. Casey was vaguely placated by doing his craft stuff on the couch.
Greta and Mickey and I first did a reading of the book Ferdinand the Bull. A simple little book that we only "did" because it is the ONLY book we own that is in the Five In A Row curriculum--our interlibrary loan has not been able to get the book we wanted to do first, called Owl Moon to us yet.
We read Ferdinand and made our way through a bit about Spain, and its culture. We found Spain on the globe, and talked about the Straights of Gibraltar. And maps. and how stuff that looks tiny on a globe could actually be hundreds of miles across, etc.
Following along in the Five In A Row book, we talked about how the illustrator of the book used emotion and symbolism to great comedic effect, and tried our own hand at drawing simple faces with different eyebrows and facial feature placement to create different emotions. We talked about how in one picture, Ferdinand, the bull, had his back to the crowd, and how that was showing his disinterest, etc.
We then switched gears and talked about the 12 months of the year, which ones have how many days, when the seasons really are, how does that match up with the weather here in the midwest, and we looked up on Wikipedia what was the real deal with leapyear. We talked about babies that are born on February 29th and stuff.
We cannot afford to order our math program yet, so we rifled through some of our very sub-par mathy stuff we have and just went over greater than/less than. It actually ended up surprisingly fun, because I wrote out some "tricky" ones, such as 209___209.0001 and we talked about how the second number was greater, even though by a tiny amount. For some reason I said it was like "Which is heavier, Mickey, or Mickey with a chocolate chip on his head?" and that broke the icy/awkward vibe that was going on. We laughed and started drawing all sorts of funny, funny pictures on the dry erase board.
Charlie cried and it was almost 3pm. (A good nap, if I do say so!) they got to eat some sweets. I haven't kicked these completely out of our lives, and this seemed the "best" time of day to allow a cookie or brownie.
Wrong.
4pm, everyone is whining, fighting, begging for more sweets. Bad call.
4:30pm, and my fantasy that they will all play in the "gym" while I make dinner is sort of a flop. Greta is flopped on my bed, Mickey is extremely tense, driving Casey nutso in subtle ways, Charlie is pretty happy driving the little bikes around, but the other boys seemed hell bent on disrupting him. Grrr.
5pm dinner is ready, too early. I eat my portion and set up all the drinks, toppings, etc for tacos.
by 5:45 Casey and Charlie are being bathed by Steve and I get to relax for a sec. Steve and the kids cleaned up the giant mess in the schoolroom in about 10 minutes, and I couldn't believe how fast they did it! I love him so much :)
By 6:30 I read a book to Casey and he went to bed. Yikes--so early! But he was completely and utterly MENTAL. (Hope he sleeps 13 hours! )
Charlie played while I took a phone call from my mom, and our friend came over. Charlie went to bed a little before 8.
Greta and Mickey played around and ran around a little and then read in their room until 9.
So that was our first day!
Thanks for reading.
We started school today, with some very last minute house cleaning and straightening and re-arranging done over the weekend, and I am happy to report that it went quite well!
I got up at 6, to an alarm. I was not the least bit horrified, although I was sleepy, I put on my outfit that was laid out for me :) and went to start my coffee when I heard Charlie crying--darn! So much for having special time to myself. thats ok....so he had his morning diaper change, nursey, and was happy to trot around while I got out breakfast stuff and fed the outside birds. So hilarious that he is SO happy/surprised to see me outside and waves and yells HI MAMA! when I go outside :)
Casey came out of his bed soon after, and we enjoyed cuddling for the two minutes every morning that I get to savor when he is all warm and still and sweet and cozy. Then SNAP! he starts up in his special Casey way, and I tighten the bolts on my resolve and my patience and my sense of humor, trying to steer him away from destruction and downright rudeness, and towards the more positive sides of his personality which are energetic cheer, hilarious observations, creativity, and curiosity to rival anything I have ever seen. This is my nice way of saying I took away his knife and gave him some scotch tape instead. This is my nice way of saying I ignored him when he told me that my coffee "smells like horse poo", but that when he shoved his breakfast on the floor, he was punished.
I was going to get Greta and Mickey up, when I discovered that they were already awake--at 7:30, I was surprised! They seemed chipper enough, and, seeing as I am trying to be somewhat LESS of an all day chef, I requested that they join us for breakfast. We all ate the embellished granola bars I made last week, except Mickey, for whom they were really made, who pretended he wasn't hungry and then begged for "butter bread". Ack.
Greta and Mickey, as per the plan of me doing nursery school in the mornings, and that being their "freetime" for the most part, decided to watch the first Harry Potter movie on the TV that has been newly installed in their bedroom, displaced from it's original home in our backroom which is now a gym. Still with me? :)
It doesn't have cable or any antenna or any capabilities besides watching DVDs and playing GameCube, so we are not worried about them langushiing in bed watching weird broadcast shows, so that's cool by me and Steve, the whole TV in your bedroom thing. We needed there to be no one watching a movie or playing a video game in the living room when I was having preschooley times with Casey and Charlie--too too distracting. (We have no basement or upstairs, it is a long one story house.)
So, with the big kids tucked away with Harry Potter, Charlie and Casey and I dug into some crafts! Pipe cleaners, googly eyes, rubber bands, glue, stickers, felt, and tape tape tape tape tape were the objects of our creation, and no, I wasn't reading the New York times, looking at email, or folding clothes. I was truly truly with my little ones. We listened to Woody Guthrie and The Babysitters on the CD player, and I tried not to look at the clock. (I knew it was barely into the 8 o'clock hour and the school room was already obliterated with the signs of our fun.)
Then, we sat down at our newly placed love seat that faces right out the window, and watched the chipmunks for a few minutes, wondering aloud if any would dare be brave enough to come and take the peanuts we put on our windowsill (they weren't). We then had story time, and after fumbling through a few board books that seemed to be more suited for Charlie, Casey and I really had a blast with an old book about signs. Signs, signs, he was really enthralled pointing to each one and asking "What is that one? What does that say? What about that one?"--It was cool.
After the sign book, we decided to paint. I put both Casey and Charlie in the high chairs, with smocks (we found so much of our cool stuff in the garage this weekend--even though we have lived here a year now, the garage is still quite unpacked) and they watercolored for a while. Charlie seemed fondest of painting and painting in one spot until the paper shredded through to the high chair tray, where as Casey was really into mixing colors. After that, the schoolroom was truly, truly decimated, and we needed to just get out of there, and so me and the 2 little boys went into the backroom, a.k.a. the "gym".
They ran and jumped and kicked and drove little bikes around, and it was only then that I took one or two phone calls and snuck in a load of laundry. It was 10 am.
Greta and Mickey were done with Harry Potter and we all went outside to hang up clothes and t play on the swing set before it got too hot out. The pool has been drained for almost a week, but somehow no one had noticed until now, and they were complaining, begging for me to refill it. We'll see. I know it will most likely be hot out for a few more weeks, but they just weren't swimming, and the water gets neon green every time it rains, so we drained it for the second time this summer.
Around 10:30 I started making lunch preparations, we were having grilled cheese and lentil soup and macaroni and cheese and applesauce. Steve was a bit late, but ended up eating with us. While he was here, I mostly tried to tidy up some of the outrageous fall-out from the crafting, and did have a mini panic attack about how in the world would I possibly get anything down with the big kids with our schoolroom so blown out...but I reassured myself by remembering it is the first day, and that being NOT crabby was the main thing....
I put Charlie to bed at noon, and he laid down without a fuss--he was truly tired!
I checked email, and by the time I got back, Greta Mickey and Casey were playing some big, big game involving all the craft stuff. Cutting and stapling and writing furiously, Greta making play money, Casey filling some old toy with pom poms, Mickey under the table making a shoebox into something......ok, do I "let" them be happy, or do I enforce the schedule? Hmmmm...
We compromised, with me telling them that I was so happy that they were all doing such cool stuff, but that Charlie's naptime was really supposed to be for me and the big kids to do our schoolwork, and so I let them do 1/2 hour of their miscellanea, and then it was gonna be time for Casey's couch-nap.
It kind of didn't go as well as I wanted, but, being very determined to not turn evil, we went on with our school stuff, even though Casey was being a pain in the___. He laid on the couch for about 2 minutes and then was determined to just be bad. I offered him to watch TV, to play a game, to go outside, to have a Popsicle. No no no he seemed to want to make weird noises and interrupt me when I spoke. Mickey was getting really flaky and I was starting to panic that this whole idea was already horrible. But, we continued on. Casey was vaguely placated by doing his craft stuff on the couch.
Greta and Mickey and I first did a reading of the book Ferdinand the Bull. A simple little book that we only "did" because it is the ONLY book we own that is in the Five In A Row curriculum--our interlibrary loan has not been able to get the book we wanted to do first, called Owl Moon to us yet.
We read Ferdinand and made our way through a bit about Spain, and its culture. We found Spain on the globe, and talked about the Straights of Gibraltar. And maps. and how stuff that looks tiny on a globe could actually be hundreds of miles across, etc.
Following along in the Five In A Row book, we talked about how the illustrator of the book used emotion and symbolism to great comedic effect, and tried our own hand at drawing simple faces with different eyebrows and facial feature placement to create different emotions. We talked about how in one picture, Ferdinand, the bull, had his back to the crowd, and how that was showing his disinterest, etc.
We then switched gears and talked about the 12 months of the year, which ones have how many days, when the seasons really are, how does that match up with the weather here in the midwest, and we looked up on Wikipedia what was the real deal with leapyear. We talked about babies that are born on February 29th and stuff.
We cannot afford to order our math program yet, so we rifled through some of our very sub-par mathy stuff we have and just went over greater than/less than. It actually ended up surprisingly fun, because I wrote out some "tricky" ones, such as 209___209.0001 and we talked about how the second number was greater, even though by a tiny amount. For some reason I said it was like "Which is heavier, Mickey, or Mickey with a chocolate chip on his head?" and that broke the icy/awkward vibe that was going on. We laughed and started drawing all sorts of funny, funny pictures on the dry erase board.
Charlie cried and it was almost 3pm. (A good nap, if I do say so!) they got to eat some sweets. I haven't kicked these completely out of our lives, and this seemed the "best" time of day to allow a cookie or brownie.
Wrong.
4pm, everyone is whining, fighting, begging for more sweets. Bad call.
4:30pm, and my fantasy that they will all play in the "gym" while I make dinner is sort of a flop. Greta is flopped on my bed, Mickey is extremely tense, driving Casey nutso in subtle ways, Charlie is pretty happy driving the little bikes around, but the other boys seemed hell bent on disrupting him. Grrr.
5pm dinner is ready, too early. I eat my portion and set up all the drinks, toppings, etc for tacos.
by 5:45 Casey and Charlie are being bathed by Steve and I get to relax for a sec. Steve and the kids cleaned up the giant mess in the schoolroom in about 10 minutes, and I couldn't believe how fast they did it! I love him so much :)
By 6:30 I read a book to Casey and he went to bed. Yikes--so early! But he was completely and utterly MENTAL. (Hope he sleeps 13 hours! )
Charlie played while I took a phone call from my mom, and our friend came over. Charlie went to bed a little before 8.
Greta and Mickey played around and ran around a little and then read in their room until 9.
So that was our first day!
Thanks for reading.
6 comments:
Today seemed to sneak up on me! When I realized what day it was, I thought about you guys and wondered how your first day went! It sounds like a huge success!
You are an inspiration! I love the chart - I think I'll have to "steal" that idea :-) No times, just what order it all needs to be done in - love it!
Sounds like a great day :-)
Whew...all in all it sounds pretty good! Of course just reading that made me so very sleepy. We started today too, well yesterday actually, but considering that mine are 2 and 9 months our "school" mostly consists of singing, crayons, play dough and attempting to read to Gage, who then gets mad and throws the book across the room because he prefers to just hang on the floor and turn the pages....hmmmm....kiddos. Oh, and today tried to copy his daddy and draw a circle with his crayon, and Logan scribbled a little too...in between Gage snatching the crayons from her, or me doing the same thing when she insisted on munching on them. =) Fun!
Hi, Joy!!
Yay! You made it through the first day and the rest will be a breeze, right ???? :) Thanks for keeping it REAL!! I love your descriptions--it sounds like you guys are off to a really great new year!!
Barb
PS--my goal (ha!) dream is to have Friday as one of my off days this year and make it field trip day. While I have my fingers crossed for this, maybe some Friday we can get together with all the kiddos soon!!
WOW! I am seriously impressed. I can tell that you have this homeschooling thing down! You have some great ideas. I'll have to remember some of them.
Good luck as the week, month, year pans out. I look forward to hearing all about it.
hey i was thinking about you guys this week too! sounds like you did a great job!
oh, and we have ferdinand the bull too! that's not the most popular book in the library, i was surprised when i saw you guys read it:)
Ferdinand is such a strange little book, that we bought at a church sale for maybe a dime.
For whatever reasons, FiveInARow has this as one of their books they use and it is the only one in the whole curriculum that we actually owned!
I have to get the rest from the library.
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