Day One

Today is the big day! Day numero uno! We are going to be easing into home learning, so it is a pretty relaxed day today. We trimmed down the schedule to Daniel Tiger, then recess, then centers, lunch, rest time, and lastly chores. Today is mostly about saying "Yes, we are doing this" than it is about anything else.

I waited until they were in a calm place to start out this morning so that we could start without any complaining, and get them excited for it. 

They watched Daniel Tiger and had their gummy vitamins, then we went outside. I didn't take any pictures of recess, I should have. Now I know for next time. They just ran around screaming and picking flowers, driving their cars and playing in the sandbox. Typical recess.

After they came inside they were still kind of rowdy, so I let them calm down for a bit as I set up the centers.

Here is S at the volume center, where he can pour goldfish into different sized cups and bowls to explore volume. Or he can organize them by color. Pretty easy, but he LOVED it. I think he liked the dumping part more than he liked munching on goldfish.

Here is C at the dice math center. He had a lot of fun rolling the dice, counting the dots, and matching them on the sheets. Then there is the more advanced part, where he rolls a die and adds the die to a drawn die on the sheet to make a new number.

D wanted to do centers too. She played dominoes better than I expected, and for longer than I thought she would. Big girl!

I set up an easel with paper. Only D wanted to scribble some pink on it. No one else cared to try. Bummer. I thought the math games would be the big losers, and the easel would be the winner. WRONG!

Every 10 minutes they rotated to a new center. I also set up pbskids.org on the computer for them, as well as a cut and glue center, and a Lego building center was in there too at the behest of C.

They liked doing centers more than I thought they would. Maybe homeschooling will work!

We picked everything up, and then it was lunch time.

Tomatoes, strawberries, pickles, yogurt, cheese, and a little bread.

I read them chapter 6 from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe while they ate.

Right now they are supposed to be down for rest time. I don't think they are resting, as I can hear the boys in their room jumping around. In a little bit I will let them get up, we will do some chores, and then they are off the hook for the rest of the day. 

Tomorrow I will try to take more pictures of the kids actually DOING the things. Also, we are going to try adding in an hour of subject exploration by going to the library and picking out books, and then reading for the rest of the time.