Day One

Trusty Ticonderogas in hand, we began our school year today.

I don't know what I was so worried about.  Every year I get all freaked out about the first day of school and then when it comes it is really no big deal.  We pretty much do the same kinds of things we might do on a "non-school" day, except perhaps the day has a bit more directed feel.  In any case, it was a fun first day and we finished up our studies together by lunchtime.  Here are some highlights...

 Nourishment.

 I considered taking the kids out for breakfast this morning but couldn't think of anywhere to go with decent food nearby.  One of the coffee shops might qualify, but they're always too expensive.  Instead we stayed home and I made  some Chocolate Waffles and home-made Strawberry Syrup.  We were not disappointed. 

Tradition.

They love this tradition!

 We start each new school year with some little treats in a school cone.  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 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. 

Charlie has the honor of digging in first.

This year there was plenty of candy, some fruit snacks, and granola bars.  Everyone also got a new little notebook to do with as they please, because we all know that everyone likes to write stuff when there are no strings attached.  New pencils, erasers, tape, art supplies, and some random do-dads were also to be found.  I picked up a few things from Target's dollar shop, like Charlie's dinosaur workbook and jumbo bags of Welches fruit snacks, but had the most fun shopping the aisles of Lakeshore Learning.

Also a tradition of ours over the past few years is the "favorites" survey.  We fill out this sheet at the beginning of the school year and then again at the end. It includes questions about favorite color, movies, games, food, songs, where you would like to travel, and others.  We do height and weight as well. Ben is now an inch taller than me. It has been fun for them to see how their opinions change over the course of a few months.

Preview.

 After all the fun and games, we talked a little about our books and schedule for the year.  Thumbs up all around.  Whew.

History. 

Such hard work is the first day of school. Not.

We read the first chapter from E. H. Gombich's A Little History of the World, browsed some Usborne Encyclopedia pages on fossils and evolution, and visited a few quicklinks to view insects in amber and an interactive lesson on understanding geologic time. The boys took some notes on points of interest to put in their history portfolio when Mom gets around to making it. At the Little City Kids History website Charlie and I looked at some pictures of reptiles and discussed how they differ from mammals . Then he narrated some interesting facts back to me which I wrote in his science notebook.  He'll illustrate that at his leisure.  

Kindergarten.

  I got Charlie going on some easy Kindy work today too.  We talked about calendars and I helped him set up a September calendar page with stickers on important days. I printed a set of Dinosaur calendar pages here. He is forever asking me "How many days away is such and such?" or "What day is it tomorrow?", so this will be perfect for him.  It is posted on the fridge.  Also a little handwriting practice and he started working on memorizing our address.  Finally, we read from The Random House Book of Poetry (Me I Am by Jack Prelutsky), and also The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown-a family favorite since forever.


That was about it for today. It was so nice to have my new daily planner to remind me just what it was I intended to do.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow.