We survived the first day:)

We survived our first day of homeschool together!  Thank goodness!

Before school, Bryce did his items on his checklist and we went for a quick walk/bike ride around the block.  Amazingly, we started right at 8 AM. 

We started the day with a ritual of lighting a candle, saying a poem and doing a song.  I still need to find a good song.  But we've got a "start of the day" ritual started!

I chose math to start with because I wanted us to be fresh for that.  It took only about 15 minutes.  Then I let Bryce choose next.  He picked science!  We talked about the earth and how it spins around the sun.  We did it with our bodies and balls.  We also talked about how the Earth is made up of the crust, mantle and core.  Sonlight suggested we compare it to an egg.  We opened up two eggs looking at "our earth."  That was fun!  Bryce also drew a picture of the Earth. 

Bryce then wanted to draw his own picture.  So I let him.  He drew a picture of a knight and wanted to cut out a sword.  Random but I wanted to let him explore some too. 

We then did history where we read about dinosaurs.  Bryce traced a picture of T-rex, we talked about how long ago dinosaurs where and learned new vocabulary words. 

We then did the read-alouds from Sonlight of the Boxcar Children and a poem about opposites.

After 1.5 hours, we were both ready for a break.  We took a 30 min break where we ate a snack and jammed to music. 

Then it was back to work.  By this point, Bryce's frustration level was higher.  He still kept at things but it was much harder.  We still had language arts to do.  (Note to self.  Do earlier in the morning).  Bryce read, we did spelling words and copy work.  Then we did handwriting.  Basic capital letters and Bryce hated this! 

Most of the school work was done at this point.  We took a break by playing an Uno game.  We then did "sewing" where Bryce did a little on his pot holder.  I've also added "life skills" so we then worked on tying shoes.  Neither of these things took that long but I figure a little each day will go a long way over time. 

Then we finished with violin after a longer break (cause I thought Andy might be home on Labor Day to do it with him).  Overall, we were done by 1230. 

I consider today a successful first day of school!  Bryce didn't get too frustrated and I didn't want to quit.

This is a picture of Bryce working on handwriting. A hard subject for him. Next time we won't do it at the end of our school time. I'm going to move it first thing next to Math.
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Whenever Bryce was reading or we read together, we would sit together on the big, comfy blue couch.  We both liked this:)
 

First Day of School

Today was our first day of school. We had to take the traditional "first day" picture! Here is Bryce going into first grade at the Huntoon Learning Academy. (Yes, we started on Monday, Labor day:)

Nagging & Daily Routines

I hate nagging Bryce about getting things done in the morning and at night.  You know those things. . . get dressed, brush teeth, make your bed, feed the dog, pick up your toys. . .oh, the list is long:)   I feel like I keep asking him over and over to get his responsibilities done.  Yes, I'm nagging.  Bryce hates it and so do I. 

Then we got a dry erase board.  I started writing his responsibilities on the board with a check box next to it.  Bryce likes it.  He still gets distracted and you have to ask him if everything is done on his checklist BUT he is starting to take ownership for things. 

However, writing the same items on the board everyday is repetitive so I decided to put it on paper in a page protector where he can mark it off with a dry erase marker.  The checklist is on a clipboard and Bryce gets to mark it off as we go. 

The goal is to create habits.  A habit like making his bed everyday.  The goal is that once these things are habits that Bryce won't need a checklist. 

Or we make a checklist for the next habit to instill:)  One thing at a time. . . .

Anderson Dairy Tour

Although we are raw milk drinkers, we went with a homeschool group and toured a local dairy processing plant.  Anderson Dairy has been in operation in Las Vegas since 1907.  They have a "barnyard buddy tour" specifically for kids and windows so you can see how the milk is processed.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any cows since they truck the milk in from Utah. 

But it was certainly interesting to see how they make milk and ice cream on a large scale.  It's very machine-dependent and I think the only two workers we saw are in this picture! 

I think we'll stick with our raw milk:)

 Anderson Dairy

Back to School Ice Cream Social

We continued our "not back to school" week by going to a homeschool ice cream social.  Bryce got to eat homemade ice cream that Andy made and he played in the splash park.  We're meeting lots of homeschoolers trying to make new friends in a new town with a new way of life:)

Cub Scouts

Every since Bryce attended a boy scout event with his cousin Joel, he couldn't wait to be a first grader so he could join Cub Scouts!  Last night, he went to his first cub event where they celebrated the "Magic of Scouting" with a magician and had a rock climbing wall. 

Clark County Children's Choir

Bryce attended his first choir practice with the Clark County Children's Choir. He is one of eight kids in the first grade "Cadet" class. The teacher, Miss Kelli has an amazing voice and I'm excited about everything Bryce will learn this year! The children’s musical education and creativity is based on the principles and philosophy of Zoltán Kodály. There will be a concert on November 15th and sometimes the kids get to do other performances. 

Clark County Children's Choir