Our first days of homeschooling

Well, we've completed two days of homeschooling, which makes me an expert!

Or, maybe not quite an expert. Truth be told, I'm figuring this out as I go along. But I'm having fun doing it!

The kids were so excited to start their first day of homeschool!

Chickie, 1st grade

Zoodle, Pre-K

We have a daily schedule (that may be tweaked through the year!)

So yesterday morning, we had breakfast and read a Bible story/devotion from this book:

(Click the picture to see the listing on Amazon.)

The Kindle version of this book is currently $3.99, but Amazon Prime members can borrow it for free. My kids have really been responding well to it. It's interactive, with questions at the beginning and the end, and the Bible story is short--appropriate for their ages (six and four.)

We then did the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag, using a computer flag image. (We did the same with our state flag and the Christian flag.)

Then it was time to get to work! I'm having Chickie start each day with 15 minutes of free journaling. I instructed her to fill up all the lines on the page with writing, and then to draw a picture to go along with what she wrote. Zoodle wanted to get in on the action too.

Today I took a video of them explaining what they'd written and drawn.



Next I pulled out our calendar so we could review the day and date, and the kids took a quick trip outside to check out the weather, which we briefly discussed. I ordered a wall calendar that will facilitate this calendar/weather time, and I'm looking forward to its arrival.

Each week we'll be focusing on one character trait that I want the kids to incorporate into their lives. This week it's respect. We talked about how to be respectful, and reviewed a pertinent Bible verse.

Then it was time to do the work I'd planned for the day. Both kids did various worksheets. Chickie's covered reading, writing, math, and social studies. Zoodle is currently doing worksheets that help him learn to recognize and write letters, but he also watches some of what his sister does.

Next it was time for science. The kids were very excited to do this project! We went outside, where they collected various small nature items.

Back inside, Chickie taped her items to paper and wrote brief observations about each item. (The ladybug was dead before we picked it up and taped it to the paper....)

Zoodle turned his into a nature art project. (Wow, that kid can use a lot of tape!)

Finally, it was time for Chickie to do 20 minutes of quiet reading, a very important part of our daily schedule! So far she's been happy to read out loud so that Zoodle can share the stories too. I'm so glad my girl has inherited my love for reading! She really has an aptitude for it!

And that completed our first day of homeschooling. Today was similar. Chickie is really enjoying it. Zoodle told me it's boring (except the science part), and I assured him he doesn't have to sit there the whole time. He's just in pre-K, and I don't mind if he's playing during much of our "school day." So we'll try to find a good balance for him. He likes learning, but his attention span is shorter than his sister's, and that's okay.


Now that this happy mommy is a happy, homeschooling mommy, I imagine I'll be writing a lot about our adventures in home education. Whether or not you're a homeschooler, I appreciate you reading!