Today we had our first day of the homeschool year. Ella is in Grade 1, Juliette is in Kindergarten, and Karis is in preschool. I am so excited to be teaching the girls from home again this year. It is the most rewarding, beautiful, and fulfilling job I've ever had.
Most days don't go as planned and not all of our moments are beautiful - that's for sure! Last year we had some books thrown on the floor, doors slammed, and tears shed. But I love that we can live our messy lives together and work through our struggles with Christ at the centre. The messy days only make us stronger and also help us appreciate the smooth ones even more.
The girls walked down the path and knocked on our door to officially start the school year. Karis opted to answer the door with Spencer and I. I love opening the door to these sweet faces.
First day of Kindergarten!
First day of Grade 1!
The girls began the day by meeting with Principal Dadda. He talked to them about the most important part of our learning - loving God and loving others. And then talked to them about having joyful hearts, and listening to their teacher. He then prayed over each one of them.
After the principal meeting, we had our traditional crêpe breakfast.
I gave the girls each a new pencil case with fresh pencils, erasers, and scissors.
And then I showed them the books we'd be using this year.
We then got down to learning...
Here is our plan for the year:
Devotionals: We start each day in prayer and in the Word. This is done around the breakfast table, before Dadda leaves for the day. We are using a devotional book called "Our 24 Family Ways." This book is amazing and is a great tool to help us grow. Each week there is also a new verse to memorize.
After our devotional time, we do our family read-aloud. We continue to sit at the breakfast table and I read from a chapter book while the girls finish eating / color in their art books. This year we have a specific focus to our read-alouds. We are going to be reading our way through history. This year we will cover Ancient Civilizations. So, I've found a list of age-appropriate historical fiction novels that are set in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, etc. It is going to be so much fun!
We then work on our Memory Board. This board will be changed weekly. The board includes our devotional verse, a History sentence (this will relate with our read-aloud), 7 events on a timeline, Science facts, and Math facts (skip counting, etc.) I'm really excited about our Memory Board! It even has a cd that goes along with it. Once the week has past, we will put our History event cards on a timeline and build the timeline over the year.
After we work on our Memory Board I do reading lessons with the girls. For Karis, this means that we read a book together on the couch and she points out letters to me on the page. For Juliette, this means that she reads a level 1 reader to me. Right now, she is loving Little Bear by Else Minarik. And Ella is into reading chapter books, so I sit with her as she reads me a chapter and catches me up on what is going on in her book. It is such a great way to enter her world!
We then do dictation - I sit with each girl for some more 1 on 1 time as they write something for me in their dictation books. I love this time, it is so valuable both for their learning and for our relationship.
Math - I am using Saxon math for Ella and Juliette this year. It is a great program that instills a strong base in math and has a lot of options for manipulatives to use.
Science - we will do nature journaling again this year. This year we will use "Journaling A Year in Nature" by Charlotte Mason. These books are beautiful. One of my favorite parts about them is that we will each be "adopting" a tree for the year. So we will observe the tree throughout the year and record the way it changes - we will do sketches, take pictures, etc. There are so many amazing ideas in these journals!
And on Fridays we will do Science Experiments :)
Geography - we will be working on locating all of the settings of our read-alouds. We are also going to be doing a lot of mapping this year. Mapping the continents, North America, and Canada. We will use a Children's Atlas, and of course our enormous World Map.
We will improve our drawing with the help of this book...
And - what do you do when all 3 of your daughters want to take ballet, but ballet is expensive and you are unable to find a class for the girls to go in together, meaning that you would spend the week driving them to their different ballet classes?
You buy a DVD and learn how to teach them ballet at home. Wednesday afternoons - ballet class with Momma... please don't pop in between 2:30 - 3:30 ;)
Ella, Juliette, and Karis all have music lessons on Tuesday mornings. E & J are learning violin, which requires me to be there with them so that I can help them practice during the week. So during this time on Tuesday mornings, Peter will have a date with Grandpa Rob. Thank-you Grandpa Rob!!
