The First Week of School - And a Fun Saturday!

 This week we started school! And we all had fun with it. 

Monday morning, the girls started on their lists and Parker said to me, "Mom, I'm going to miss you while I'm at school." 

I looked at her and said, "Parker, I'm your teacher. I'll be with you during school."

Parker very excitedly gave me a big hug, squealing. As she walked away, she said to herself, "I love my teacher ... and my teacher is ... my mom??"

Then, as we were nearing the end of our school activities, Parker asked me, "So, when are we going to start doing school?" I had to laugh. 

Despite this, Parker and Ashtyn are both disappointed they don't get to "go" to school. After our first day, when Ben came out from work, we asked her how she liked school. She said, "This isn't school! This is our home!" 

They do love the homeschool things we do, though, for the most part. We start off by all doing our "lists", which consist of eat breakfast, doing the breakfast dishes (the girls clean off the table and under the table for homeschool), getting dressed, and doing our hair. 

When the girls are finished with their list, they get to get out their white boards and draw on them while I finish up anything (usually I'm finishing Parker and Rylee's hair at this point). When I'm ready, I come to where they are drawing and sit down with them. 

We start with a prayer and then we sing through the hymn we've chosen for the week. I pick a couple lines to talk through, explaining what they mean, and then we sing it again. The goal isn't necessarily to help the girls memorize each song, but to simply familiarize them with some of them (especially right now, when they don't hear them each week at sacrament meeting). 

When we're done with our hymn, we put away the whiteboards and sit down on the couch to read. I start with Dr. Seuss' ABC's, reading the 4 letters that we are focusing on that day. Then I move to our picture books. We have at least one "for fun" book, and then at least one "learning" picture book (a math book, a history/biography book, etc.). Then we read something out of the Friend magazine before I read a chapter from our current chapter book (right now we're reading The Wizard of Oz). 

Before we move away from the couch, Ashtyn reads to me from one of her books. Right now, she is transitioning from Level 1 to Level 2. 

When we're done reading, we move to the table, which is the kids' favorite part (except maybe Rylee). Ashtyn gets her "Art Notebook" and my computer and I help her set up an art lesson off of YouTube. She loves this. While she does that, I do letters with Parker and Rylee. 

Since we do homeschool four days a week, we do four letters a week, or one a day. I just started at the beginning (we did A, B, C, and D this week), since Parker knows some of her letters already and we're simply familiarizing Rylee with the letters (not necessarily trying to get her to memorize them all). I had made some flashcards and printed off two pages (a coloring page of the letter and a page they could trace the letters). Parker's favorite part is learning how to draw each letter, she spends most of her time drawing the letter on any blank space she can find. Rylee's just happy she gets to draw with markers and pens. 

Once they are done with the letters, I let them draw a picture in their journals. Then, if Parker wants me to, I write down a line or two about what she drew. Ashtyn usually writes her own. Again, Rylee is just happy to be drawing with pens. 

After I put away all the homeschool stuff, we do an activity. On Monday, we colored Mandalas together for an "art" project. We ran out of time to go outside and make one in nature, but Ashtyn still wants to do that. On Tuesday, we did a "magic milk" science experiment, which all three girls absolutely loved, but which also made a big mess. One Wednesday, we did some dances together from YouTube, for gross motor. On Thursday, we were going to make cinnamon rolls for some neighbors, but our AC was broken, so I didn't want to turn on the AC and I was having a harder day, so we watched a documentary about sharks together. 

After our activity, we do yoga together. I try to do it with the girls, unless I'm having a harder time that day. They really like it when I do it with them. There's a channel on YouTube that does yoga for kids, with a story to go along with it, and I really like the channel (and so do the kids!).

After yoga, we all pick some books and sit down on the couch together for silent reading time. Sometimes Ashtyn complains about it, but even just being consistent with it this week, she complained less by the end of the week. I think Parker really likes silent reading time, when she can sit and look at books while snuggled up to me. 

We usually read until lunch time, five to twenty minutes, depending on how long our other activities take. And lunch time marks the end of our homeschool day. 

Friday, we do the same morning routine, with our lists, a prayer and hymn, and reading time, but then instead of moving to the table, we do chores in the morning. I help the girls do their chores, and then while I'm doing mine, I turn on what we call "homeschool" videos, or just something more educational. This week, they watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy on colors. 

Saturday mornings, we just relax and don't really do anything. The kids watch movies and I read. Yesterday afternoon, we went to the park with a friend of ours named Holley. It was really fun to catch up with her and the kids had a blast at the park. With all the Covid stuff this year, we just haven't gone to the park as much. 

There was a rope net that stretched between two slides that Parker and Ashtyn absolutely loved to climb. They spent most of their time there, or climbing up and down a slide with another boy they met at the park. 

Rylee loved climbing all over the playground and going down slides. She would do the slide over and over again. 

All three also loved the swings. They stayed there as long as the adults could stand (it was hot and the swings were right in the sun!). 

It was a fun way to end the first week of school and still enjoy the warm weather outside!

I love having the time from 9-12 dedicated to the kids. I feel really connected to them afterwards and I can tell they feel the same. They have a lot of fun and are really enjoying learning the things we are focusing on. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance everything else I want to do with my new focus on homeschool, but I feel good about where my priorities are.