Starting First Grade and Kindergarten

We never intended on taking the summer off, but when we found out we were pregnant in May and the stomach sickness, exhaustion, and food aversions set in this mom couldn't focus on much else. Then we lost the baby a couple days shy of reaching our eleventh week, so we took time off for healing. I had every intention of starting back up today, but I just don't have my act together. So, tonight is the night to get my schedule in place for the remainder of the week.

When students start back to school each year they typically start on a Wednesday or Thursday. Having a shorter week is implemented intentionally as it gives students a chance to readjust to the school year rather than just throwing them back into a 35 hour work week in a stuffy classroom. Although the environment in a home school setting is much more comfortable, shorter, and more enjoyable, I'm going to implement the same thinking into our first week back. We'll school Tues, Wed, and probably Friday, taking Thursday off. Then next week we'll get back to 5 days a week of 90 minutes of lesson time with our 1st grader and a 60 minute with our little Kindergartner.

Technically our daughter wouldn't start Kindergarten until 2008 since her birthday is in September, but since I have the luxury of being the mom and the teacher I'm in complete control! lol She'll be starting her Kindergarten year now. I have no doubt but that she's completely ready to tackle it. She's a sharp cookie and loves to learn.

My son doesn't love to school and has a short attention span, but has many interests that I can use to teach around. He's fascinated with anything related to outer space, including the thought of extra-terrestrial life, loves all things NASA too. He also loves to learn about pirates, dinosaurs, and most animals and insects, even plants. So, that gives me a lot of material. You can use anything your young child is into to teach math, spelling, interactive play, story composition, and can print coloring pages or mazes from the Internet. You can usually find history lessons and if it's something from nature it makes a great science lesson.

We'll be making a spelling/picture book this year. We actually started it last spring, but didn't get very far with it. Basically every lesson we have, we chose a word or two to spell. The child writes the word on a note card along with a picture drawn in colored pencil or crayon, then we place it in a small photo album. You instantly have a little book that's all their own! You can find index cards in the 4" x 6" size to fill the album pages... look for the albums with the pockets for the photos. Find a cute way to have your child decorate the album's cover too. It's a fun project and can last an entire semester, or depending on the size of your album, an entire year. I opted for small albums that would be easy for them to carry and return to the book shelf. The more they look at their books, the quicker they'll learn those words they wrote the days and weeks before. ; )

-Wendy