First day of school

During the past couple of weeks I have done a lot of fretting over this first day back to school. Did I have the right books? Enough books? Too many books? Were the closets organized, and the chandeliers all dusted? Plans enumerated for the next 36 weeks? Too much anticipatory stress I tell you!

Well, I am happy to report that although I haven't pulled together all the hundreds of possible variable loose threads to our school year, we none the less had a fantastic first day together. And that stress is gone.

Here's a little about our day.

The boys started the morning out listening to a little Prokofiev..Peter and The Wolf while I fixed a breakfast of home- made waffles with Soy Whip and blueberries. The blueberries serving to remind us that it is good to eat lots of fruit every day (on your whipped cream) to stay healthy. See?! Learning is happening all the time around here!

And of course there was a big bowl of latte for Mom.

After breakfast we read a short bit about Sergei Prokofiev's life from Lives of the Musicians- Good Times, Bad Times (and what the neighbors thought). Then each boy filled in a "favorite things" survey to put in a school year time capsule. We'll do another one at the end of the year to see what has changed.

Then came everyone's favorite part about the first day of school...Schultueten! In Germany, it is a tradition to give each child a "school cone" on their first day of school. A Schultuete (or school cone) is filled with school supplies and treats to help kids through the first day of going away to school. I first heard of this idea from a friend of mine who had done it for her kids (who are older than mine by a few years) and I thought it was such a neat idea that I presented one to Ben when he began homeschooling. Now, to follow the "rules", the kids should only get one at the start of Kindergarten or first grade, but we look forward to it so much that it has become tradition for every year around here. Who needs rules, anyway? The wrapping and contents vary from year to year depending on what kinds of art supplies are needed, but there is always a book and always some kind of candy that normally should not be eaten in the AM hours.

Here they are patiently waiting to explore the contents

And finally digging in...



And of course it is endlessly funny to turn the school cone into a dunce hat.

OK. So after all the merry-making we finally got around to some math. Ben is getting back into the swing of computation after a month away from it. (We did math all the way through July, taking August off). He was only a little rusty and the wheels began turning faster the more he worked on it. He is still happy to be using Math U See. Will is continuing with Horizons math and had no problem picking up today where we left off in July.

Ben did a little practice with his cursive this morning, too. For the first few weeks of this year he will be using Cursive Connections to review. While Ben is reviewing and mastering cursive, Will is just getting a start. He began his cursive book this morning, New American Cursive.

The boys also began working on a little poetry memorization today. The Owl and The Pussycat by Edward Lear is their selection to commit to memory over the next several weeks.

Of course there was some reading done today, too. History, religion and just plain for fun. We didn't get into all of our subjects today. Just easing into things. We have the weeks ahead of us to explore and immerse.

In the midst of the academics, Charlie spent time playing with Will, and with me. We sat down for some reading this morning with Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. I love that book! Charlie does, too. After we read and giggled about the mix-ups in the book, we decided to see if blueberries really do go "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!" in a little tin pail of our own. They do! And I just love that he has chocolate on his shirt and blueberry juice around his mouth. All before 10:00am.


Having just turned four, I don't see this as the year to go academic with Charlie. So, aside from lots of playtime, messy art and silliness, this is what I expect Charlie's year to look like:

Lots and lots of stories to read together.

Ok. There you have it. The first day of school for us. It was a great one! Now, we'll see how it goes tomorrow when the whipped cream can is empty and nary a chocolate is in sight. (The kids will do fine, I'm sure. It's me I'm worried about!)