Day one...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009


Well it's 2pm & school work's been finished for a while.

One of the things that drew me to home schooling was that the children have so much more time for free play. I feel it is such an important way for them to learn. Now with the twins being that much older I'm finding all 4 are going & playing imaginary games together - they keep occupied for ages!!!
So how did today go...well besides myself being tired, Elijah being grouchy & some of the work I had set being too easy/hard....well good!

I'm not normally going to bore you with a day-by-day account of what we get up to (not that I have time, even if it was exciting), but I really wanted to get today's down so we can remember our first day - & probably laugh at how dodgy it was in a few years time!!!

Our schoolroom isn't ready, so we're starting off at the table!
Anyway...

Today we started with Devotions (this is such a positive to home schooling/Christian schooling - this is incorporated into their day!). We are starting with creation because our term topic is plants. We started with Day One & so I blindfolded them at one end of the house & let them find their way back to the table.

Only one casualty with Zai hitting a door frame quite hard with his forehead. Ellie ran into the wall at the end of the hallway, but no injuries (thankfully!!). They're both very glad God created light!



"Amazingly" Jud had no trouble walking to the table - love that little eye peeking there! -LOL


Our memory verse for this week is Gen 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens & the earth." - easy enough for even the twins to remember bits & pieces of!

For Maths Zai did a "alien detective" book where you have to get the correct answer to the maths problems to continue with the story - I found it here. Ellie also did a basic worksheet I found - it was about number recognition & counting - this was too easy for her - will have to try harder tomorrow!


English & Social Studies were just sheets I found on different websites (it's amazing what's out there!). Zai's English one was too easy - I'll be glad once we have the workbooks at their own levels!!

In science we used a kit to make this (thanks Aunty C!!):

For Word building Zai did some spelling words & we discussed ending in le or el (all his words for this week end in these - I have a game for Friday that incorporates this). He also did a find a word!


Ellie - I'm working on her phonics & I bought her back to "a" because she knows the sound "a" as in apple, however I introduced "a" as in alien & "a" as in armadillo - she grasped the concept well & then did some practice handwriting sheets & identification in sentences etc. I'll continue this tomorrow!


Our family reading book at the moment is "Where lions roar at night" by Rose Boom - this is a fantastic book about a family in NZ who live on land & it's about the adventures the children have (it is a true story!). It's a very hard book to put down - we never read just one chapter! We read 2 chapters this morning!

Picture taken from here!

I also read some other simpler books to Ellie & the twins while Zai was finishing his work.



Both Ellie & Zai told news - the favourite part of their day at normal school so I couldn't' leave it out!



Ellie then went on reading eggs (a wonderful program that both Zai & Ellie love) while Zai read "Big Red Hen" to me. This was a completely new book & he read it really well & very fluently.



My feelings: I'll be glad when the workbooks come so I don't have to try & find work at the correct level, however other than that I loved it!



Now off to Ellie's ballet lesson - the boys & I'll visit the library which is located just down from it during her lesson time.



12 comments:

Cassandra said...

What a great first day!
It is amazing what is 'out there' , i can download just about ANYTHING i have found off the WWW ;-)

We don't have a school room, (we'd need any extra rooms as bedrooms in this house LOL) we just use our dining table, I find its easier being a central part of the house anyway with the other little ones as i can keep an eye on them, although i would love a special room, maybe one day, when we build a house.... a girl can dream right LOL

Anyway i'm glad your day went well, Home schooling is great isnt it!

Cassandra xx

SF said...

Great job Renata! Sounds like you're very creative, and doing great things despite having no workbooks yet. :) I'm sure the children had a great day!

Good exciting news from our home too - we are pulling Saraya out of school at the end of this week!!! I am so thrilled to be starting homeschooling with her next week! A good birthday present for me, having my girl close again. :) (it's my birthday next Monday!)

Enjoy your children Renata, they are so blessed to have you as their Mum! :)

Mummy McTavish said...

I love the look on Ellie's face doing that worksheet. Great job on day one! They look like the had a blast!

Frizzy said...

Sounds like a great day of fun, prayer and learning. Do you have a worksheet for me too? I love the science project. What is it?

Aunty Sel said...

Hey Narn,
Sounds like so much fun!! Did you teach Ellie any of the a songs? Maybe when you get the workbooks??
There are some totally cool science experiments complete with worksheets for teachers and kids on the Bureau of Meteorology site
www.bom.gov.au go to the Learn about Meteorology section and then the stuff for school students section, looks like heaps of fun
;-)
Give us a call sometime when lessons are over.
luv
sel

Grandma said...

Hi there Narn, so glad to hear Day 1 went so well. Life will be much easier once the books arrive. Still, praise God for the internet - Life without it would be very difficult (How ever did we all cope??????). Looks like all had a good time. The treee looks lovely - I'm sure Aunty C will be delighted, especially as I'd suggested it was probably a bit old for the twins - glad all enjoyed it. Talk to you later. Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxMumxxxxxxxxxx

Haf Dozen Reasons....... said...

I wish you the very best on the homeschooling. It is very enjoyable for the entire family.

We homeschooled for 7 years. Socializing was never an issue as we are not people that live in a box 364 days out of the year. LOL

Smilie girl said...

It sounds like you all had a wonderful day of learning together.
It's so exciting to hear about it all.

Duckygirl said...

Sounds like a great first day! I'm betting that homeschooling and you are going to go great together, you sound very creative (and resourceful)!

-Laura

Mum-me said...

Great job of recording day one _ yes I'll bet you'll be laughing about it one day just like I look back and laugh when I remember the first few piano lessons I ever taught! Hope your cirriculum books arrive soon as that should help you a lot.

Kimmie said...

Wow Renata~ you sound like an old pro of a homeschooler. You really made it a great start and so full of fun. Your kids and you will love it and you are right, they will love looking back to see how much they learned and HOW much they were allowed to play and be children.

Kimmie
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted

Bobbie-Jo said...

That's a really good first day of homeschooling! (I wish I could erase mine!) Apart from your few bonked faces, there were no tears or fights at all!

Sounds like you've done a lot of research and gathering. You've been busy!

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