First Day of First Grade 7/2/2012

 School started early this year.  We usually start on the same day the public schools do, but I was needing some motivation and a change.  So we started a month and a half early.  Here are the "First Day of School Pics".  Here are the pictures from the last two years.  I still think of him as being as old as the one from two years ago.  I don't know how he grew so fast.  He's now six and 1/3 of his childhood is already gone.



And his shorts look super big in this picture, almost like a kilt.  Sorry for not noticing earlier, Pigby.

 Pigby

 Pigby and Digby

 Pigby, Digby and Chuck.  Is that not the cutest outfit ever (the one Chuck is wearing)?  Oh my heck, I love it. 

 They couldn't get her to hold still

 She's so stinking cute.  And when did she get so big?  *sniff sniff*

 He didn't like smiling.

 Digby doing "math"

 Pigby trying to get out of doing math.

 Pigby working on a letter to his aunt.  Slowly but surely, he'll get there someday.

 We started Story of the World and the first chapter is about history and archaeology.  Instead of putting together my own archaeological dig, we bought this dinosaur dig.  He was so excited, but didn't realize it would take FOR.EV.ER!  I told him it was like a real paleontologist, a lot of searching and digging and only occasional finds. 

 Digby wanted a picture with it too. 

Scrape, scrape, scrape. 

















Our plans for the year are constantly shifting and changing.  My friend told me about a charter school in PG that is starting to do the home distance education program.  It's much the same as any other charter school in the area; they reimburse you for curricula, you have to do standardized tests and keep track of your hours.  We've applied, they'll be doing a lottery and we'll find out in a week if we got in.  There is an option to do classes at the school, but I won't know what the schedule is for those classes unless we get in.

On one of my nights off, I went to Barnes and Noble and got their copy of Well Trained Mind, sat on a comfy couch and took copious notes of EVERYTHING they recommend for first grade.  From that list, I saw what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to scratch off.  The two big goals for the grammar stage (grades 1-4ish) are 1) to get the child reading well and habitually and have them enjoy it. 2) Fill their minds with all kinds of stories.  So those two goals are what is guiding me this year.  I'm trying to relax about it because really, those goals aren't hard.  He already reads well, habitually and loves it.  All I need to do really is fill his mind with wonderful stories.

What we're doing right now:

Math-continuing on with Math U See.  He also does XtraMath.org for practice of his math facts.

Spelling-Still in level 1 of All About Spelling.  We've slowed down a lot so that we can go through the rules and review and practice.  He still misses somethings from A Reason For Spelling.  So I went through all the spelling lists and made the word outlines on graph paper.  I also need to get some cheap shaving cream so he can write his words in there.  Corey has some, but it doesn't foam much at all.

Handwriting-still practicing cursive with the StartWrite program.  He's writing a letter to his auntie, but he's back to practicing individual letters.  Slow and steady, slow and steady.  I don't know why this one freaks me out like none other.  But it is my least favorite because it seems so difficult to teach him.  I get anxious and mad and frustrated and really need to just chill.

We are not doing Writing With Ease (copywork and narration) and First Language Lessons (grammar) anymore.  There was just too much to fit in and I wanted to add the fun stuff in.  If someday things calm down (meaning Digby and Chuck grow out of the wild toddler phase), I think we can add those back in without much fuss.  It worries me about being behind, but I think with those two, he can catch up easily without any long lasting damage.  I hope.

Science-Going through Elemental Science still.  Sorta.  At least that's the plan. Although I'm rearranging the order of the animals so that they make sense (pachyderms together, monkeys together, rodents together, etc).  Apparently I'm a very uptight person and it drives me crazy when there's no logical order to things.  I'm also hoping to embrace the Charlotte Mason that's not inside of me.  I'm not relaxed, I'm not go with the flow, I'm not fun....but I really want to be.  So we'll hopefully do some nature walks and some nature sketches.  Again hard to do when the little two are crazy.  Digby knows how to get out of the stroller now, so locking him up in that might not be so helpful.

History-Story of the World.  He hates the first chapter of it, the one about archaeology and history.  Luckily we got through it ok with the dino dig and the book Archaeologists Dig for Clues.  He's really enjoying the other chapters, the ones with actual stories.  I don't think he remembers much of it at all, even though we do the narration questions and everything, but I'm not worried about it.  I might buy the audiobook version so he can listen to bits over and over again.

I'm also hoping to earn enough money to buy this (the CD)so we can have a pretty timeline.  I bought a sketchpad from Hobby Lobby and drew a line through the middle to make our timeline.  This is one of those "Megan's trying to be perfect before she starts on it" kinds of things.

I'm sure things will change about 50 times before the end of the year, but this is where things are now.