Official Start Day

I have been telling the kids that we would start school "officially" the Monday we get back from vacation. The kids went to church camp, David and I went to Vegas, so I felt like it was time to get back in the swing of things. Their old school started last week and they are on the year round schedule and I really want to stick close to that.

My big problem is I still don't have a math curriculum or a grammar curriculum for Riley. Oh well, time to jump in, right?! So it didn't exactly go as I had planned. My plan was somewhat ambitious I guess, I wanted to be up at 8 (which isn't likely to happen after staying up until 1) and have the kids spend a few minutes cleaning up in their room, and then eat breakfast, do our devotional and then start on school.

In actuality, we didn't start until around noon, I passed out the school supplies I bought for the kids, we went over some of the rules, which are basically the same as what they've had in school before, no name calling, no talking while I'm talking, and other than that, I'm pretty flexible. Then I went over the subjects that we'll be doing this year, and let them know if it's too easy or too hard, we can adjust, this is to see where we are. We started off with our Bible Devotional which we all really enjoyed, and they had some things to add that they had learned in church, which makes me think they DO actually listen back there!

I had them each start their Spelling Workout book, chapter one, and they both thought it was super easy, but Regan misspelled one word, and Riley misspelled two, so I think we're okay there. Then I did some grammar work with Regan while Riley worked on some spelling some more, he has twice as many words as Regan so it took him a little longer. We did two lessons in her grammar book because it's a 1st/2nd grade combined book, and I didn't want to start in the middle, so I figured we would double up as much as we can, so she can get a better foundation.

And then I had them each do a few pages in their cursive handwriting books, which they both enjoyed. I know it won't always be this short, easy, or pain free, but for today, I feel like it was a success.

Another thing I did, I got them each a cute mini-notepad, and a pack of smiley face stickers. I told them each time they impress me, either with good behavior or with getting their work done in a timely fashion, I would give them a sticker, they can earn more than one a day, and they won't ever lose any. After one page gets filled (I'm thinking it might take about 15 on Regan's, 20 on Riley's since his notebook was bigger) then they can pick a random toy out of the bag, or a special field trip or treat. I picked up some small items at Target this week too, just for this occasion, so I hope it works. They did pretty good today and they each got one sticker.

And Ricky is our new mascot kitty, he jumped up in the middle of the table and stayed right smack dab in the middle of us until we were all done.