Thursday, August 20, 2009

Our First Day of "School"!



Our homelearning year officially started on Monday. Here are some of the things that we did....

We started the day with a bike ride by the American River....


Next, it was time for a treasure hunt! First, the kids followed clues around the house and yard.


Then, the kids were each given a math problem which lead them to a "treasure". Ricky and Joey each received wood knitting needles, and Wilson received a snail...each one with their name woodburned by Daddy.


Circle Time included our Circle Time song (see our first blog posts for the song), Daddy's Good Day verse, and Mommy reading an individual verse to each child.

Wilson was introduced to the letter "A" through a Romanian tale, a verse from LMNOP with movements, and singing with Mommy. We sang "The Ants Go Marching" and looked for ants in the yard. We will be doing a 3-day rhythm for each vowel, and then move into the consonants. We are using the Earthschooling curriculum this year (it's wonderful--more to come on how we use it).

We did form drawing, using the "Write Approach" book 1 as our guide.


Daddy started Joey and Ricky on a woodworking project. They made plans to build a small sandbox for Wilson.
Joey and Ricky designed and drew the first pages of their Main Lesson Books for the year.
Ricky had clarinet lesson and Joey had jazz dance class. We all had "vruit" (beets, carrots, apples, kale through the juicer, mixed with orange juice) in the afternoon.
We ended the day playing with cousins, picking tomatoes from the garden, and then "camping out" on the back deck overnight! A memorable first day at Syrendell.

9 comments:

renee ~ heirloom seasons said...

How wonderful Jennifer. Such creativity! I like the treasure hunt, my mom used to do things like that for us when we were little. I decided we won't begin lessons until it's officially autumn, but it's nice to see others getting started. Hope all is well!
Renee

Tammy said...

See, this is what homeschooling is. A lovely, precious (and even learning) time spent with dear family. Couldn't get that in public school...no way, no how...

Lisa said...

I love your first day! Especially the camp out! I just checked out your curriculum. It looks really great! I am going to investigate further. I love seeing what other homeschooling families are doing!
Take care
Lisa

dongdong said...

so much sweetness. I can see you and your hubby really put a lot of thought of this.

I'll have to try your juicer recipe sometimes. We have been trying many different ones and I just bought beets today.

Unknown said...

Inspirational!

Andrea said...

wow, what a great first day! :] sounds like these kids are in for a awesome year of school.

Jen said...

What an incredible way to begin this school year! You continue to inspire!!!! Thanks for sharing :)

leaningapplemama said...

this is a great post. the first picture and idea of a bike ride to start the first day of school. yes. that is why i will homeschool my kids. sometimes i get nervous or overwhelmed but seeing things like this always keep me on track. thanks for this one!!! *pennie*

Kelly said...

Such a memorable first day. Inspirational as always!