First Day - No Way!

Our Classical Conversations (CC) group doesn't start back until the end of this month. I decided to go ahead and start teaching Mary the 'basics' at home, and today was our very first day of school (no way this is really happening!). I like to be organized, so this weekend was busy with getting last-minute supplies and making sure everything was cut-out, laminated, and in the right folder (what would I do without my laminator?!). Mary is four, so the word for this year is F-U-N! A dear friend recently shared with me that the goal of this very first year is to get Mary to love learning. Yes! However, my type-A and (occasionaly) up-tight personaltiy has a tendency to suck the life right out of fun. I think this whole homeschooling-thing is going to be a bigger adjustment for me than for anybody. Also, I used to be a high school teacher, which (rather ironically) has been more of hindrance than a benefit. I like schedules. I like neat-and-tidy. My children do not. I can tell already that God is using this time to mold me and change me; I just need to stop fighting back and let Him take control. Anywho, here's what we've been doing today:

We're using Confession of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week (LOTW) curriculum (she's actually having a give-a-way for it right now on her blog), which is absolutely fabulous! However, I was a little concerned about where to put my LOTW weekly lesson plans and my CC weekly plans. I knew I didn't want to be running to different binders throughout the week and flipping, flipping, flipping. Thanks to a quick trip to Target yesterday, this problem is now solved! Above, you can see this amazing little invention that is essentially three page protectors with tabs on a big magnet - perfect! I now have this up in the school  dining room, where I can easily look and see what's next.

I'm not sure if the above picture will enlarge when you click on it, but that's our little schedule for the first day. We started with reading Bible stories at the breakfast table, then we moved to Calendar Time in the living room. After that, we sat on the couch and did our lesson in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (this has been great for us!). We took a break after reading; we actually ran some errands and ended up at the library. Then we did our LOTW stuff.

Last night I finished organizing all our curriculum and extras. If you saw one of first posts about organization, our little resource corner has grown a little since then. I had to get a bigger file box for CC Cycle 1, I added the LOTW and File Folder Games boxes, and I added some more colored bins to hold more stuff in the metal bookcase.

If you're looking for good folders, Staples has the BEST ones I've ever used. They have this rubber material on the spine, and it's super-durable; it's the only kind of folder I buy now. The little yellow folder you see above is for the first part of CC's Timeline cards. I have a different little binder for each section of cards, and my plan is to transfer the cards from the binder to the CC Memory Work Board (which I'm still working on; I don't want to put it up too soon, and I'm still waiting to officially become a member of C3 to print out some parts for it).

And here we go.... Mary's first day has begun! We have a 'Special Day' plate for each girl, so here's a little picture of Mary eating breakfast on her special day! Yes, she is dressed in her Sleeping Beauty dress (why wouldn't she be, right? I mean, it's a special day!). ;)

Our letter this week is F. This looks like such a sweet picture of her having just oh-so-much fun learning, right? Yeah... she was laughing because she 'learned' to do this gross thing that's almost like spitting, but not enough to get in trouble for it. And she thinks it's hilarious. And I was like, "I'm getting this picture, do whatever you want." Sheesh...

She really enjoyed matching the letter tiles and spelling out 'fish.' 

When she was finished, she got to play with glitter foam, because foam starts with F!

Little Sister liked the foam, too, but Mary was tired of it in 9.2 seconds. Go figure.

August 6, 2012, was a fantastic first day! Way to go, Mary!