Friday, July 20, 2012

The First Day of School - Hooray!!

The books are in and the pencils are sharpened...today was our first day of school!!  Hooray! 
Public, Private, or Home, the first day of school is fun! 

We always take silly pictures on our first day!
That's my proud Spunk! 
And this is my happy Thoughtful.  He was really REALLY ready to get on with school.


The day began on time (squeal) with chocolate chip pancakes, as stolen from some bloggy-friends' family traditions.  So this one is new, and I think we'll keep it up for years to come.

3's for Thoughtful beginning 3rd Grade today, and 1's for Spunk starting 1st Grade!  (no more Kindy's in our home, sniff, sniff). 
We very quickly had our Bible Devotional time, where we discussed God's Great Creation, that is the universe and everything in it, (no small subject there), and why people might want to learn more about it.  Spunk decided that he definitely wants to travel to neighboring planets one day.  Thoughtful, not so much!  He's happy trusting that God made it, and we can learn about it from right here at home.


Normally, the boys would have about an hour to eat breakfast, make beds, etc., and P-L-A-Y!  They must get the wiggles out before we school.  However, today they were so excited to start learning, and I was happy to oblige!


So we began quickly.  The boys learned how to use their workbox systems.  They were really excited to tear into them!  I filled them with fun, school-ish things to work through. 

I snapped this when I caught both of them merrily working through those boxes.  Monday will be a little more challenging since we'll begin some real lessons.   Here's some of what they had today: 

Thoughtful: mapping, dictionary/vocabulary, building words with clay "once" vs. "one," reading, math flashcards in photo books, & piano practice. 

Spunk:  reading, sight word book & clay "away," place value practice with blocks, maze workbook, tangrams, and phonics charts practice.


We start every year MY FAVORITE TRADITION, shopping with Nana!  That happened the week before so today both kiddos made Nana a thank-you-card (she buys all of our school supplies, I know you're jealous, and No, you can't have her).

We always do some kind of candy schooling on our first day, and this year I chose M&M's for fun.
I saved this one for the last workbox!

Estimate how many M & M's are in the tube.  Then break down your estimation to guess how many of each color.  Then, sort and count the actual amount of each color.  Thoughtful had to add his all up for additional math practice.  You see that no matter how much Spunk practices, his 6's will always be backwards, I give up.




Then, graph your findings!  We found it interesting that both tubes of candy had more green, and less red, than any other colors. 

They both did a fantastic job estimating the amounts of each color!  I was amazed really, guessing this kind of thing is really not my thing, and my guesses were way off.  Proud Momma here!



We always hit the library on the first day to choose supplement books to coordinate with our science and history.  Spunk is a very eager emergent reader.  Thoughtful, not so much.  There is zero pleasure in reading for him.  (insert frowny face here)  So, I let them each choose their own books for the week.

This year, we started another new tradition.  A first day fill-in-the blank worksheet for fun, followed by a self portrait page.  I hope to look at this next year on our first day. 



Look at their answers to #9 of our First Day worksheet! 

Um, Wow, boys!








Now, we've just returned home from lunch with Grandparents and the library.  We're moving on to a brand new spider unit.



We found this guy on our spider hunt.  So sorry for the blurry pic.

We identified him as a "phlocus," read a bit, and drew pictures.  This is Thoughtful's.













Have you had your first day of school yet?  How'd it go?  If not, what do you anticipate on your first day? 

HERE'S TO THE NEW YEAR!  HOORAY!
First Day, Hooray!

14 comments:

  1. Sometimes I just want to go to someone else's homeschool.... and today it's yours!!! Sounds like fun!

    Kristy
    TheMessExposed.blogspot.com

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    1. awww thanks! But I'm in envy of your Olympic unit! I've yet to get there, but so want to!!

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  2. Awesome! Yay for a great first day. And yes, BOYZ! =p Mine would have probably said "snakes," too. =)

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    1. lol, even Daddy wanted to know, "what in the world?...."

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  3. I agree! What a great first day and cute school room! Have a blessed week!

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  4. Yay for back to school! It sounds like a wonderful first day back. We start on Monday so that's what Mommy will be doing this weekend. Getting those workboxes ready ;) Have a great weekend!!
    Jen
    http://bobjenjack.blogspot.com

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  5. I love the pics of the boys, Sounds like it was a great first day, I will have to do the m&m activity. My kiddos would love that!

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    1. Thank you, I'll have to add something similar every now and then to their last workboxes. :)

      Just for giggles.

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  6. Looks fun!I love the pictures.

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  7. Looks like you had a great first day! Thanks for linking up.

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  8. Sounds like you had a fun first day! And how nice to get to go shopping with Nana! :-)

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