Kindergarten - Day 3

I was wondering how our first Wednesday would go. I work part-time on Wednesdays, in the morning, which means our school time is in the afternoon instead of the morning. I was concerned about getting out of our routine so quickly into our school year. I am so ecstatic to report that today went just as smoothly as every other day!!

I have the best job in the world. I start off the day with these cuties!

On our way home, I just explained to the kids that we would eat lunch, and then Hunter would go upstairs to quiet time, while Brianna would skip quiet time and do school instead. There was no argument, surprisingly. When it came time to do the split, neither complained. Hunter went upstairs and went straight to sleep and Brianna went straight to the table and got out her prayer journal. Score!

First is prayer time and pledges. Brianna colored in her prayer journal and wanted me to share the picture. (If you look closely you can see our most recently added prayer request - her eczema. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get it looked at!)

 

Next we read our Bible story (Noah's Ark) and she repeated our weekly Bible verse a few times (Romans 3:23). She's doing great with the scripture.

Next we read from this book - "Living Long Ago". We talked about clothing and shelter and how these things changed over time. This stuff is so interesting to Bri! It really holds her attention. I love the pictures in the book and the phrasing of everything. It makes it very easy for her to understand.

 Next was math. We played a game similar to Simon Says. I'm hoping it will help Bri distinguish her left from her right. She used to do great with that but lost it somewhere along the way. Before you mention it - yes, she knows the hand trick where your left hand makes an "L" shape. But she doesn't always think of that. So this is a reflex game where I just shout out things like "Left finger on your nose! Right finger in the air! Left finger on your ear! Left finger on your neck!" and then she'll do it a few times. A fun way to get it in her brain :-)  (P.S. She's checking herself out in the reflection from our cabinets...)

 I have already noticed how much neater she is writing. This is not coming from anything I have said to her. I think she is just starting to take it seriously what with all these dotted lines and what-not!

 Most of the awesome incredible super duper resources I use can be found on my Pinterest board labeled 2014/2015 school year! I try to link to all of them from there! Many are from Teacherspayteachers.com.

After math we read some Mother Goose rhymes: "To the Bat", "Higglety, Pigglety", "The Flying Pig" and "Three Ghostesses".

Next was our story of the day - Henny Penny. This is from our book "Language and Thinking for Young Children". I read through the story once. Then I asked her to draw a picture of the story while I read it. At first she refused, saying she couldn't draw any of the animals. So I told her I'd draw with her. After my first drawing of a duck she exclaimed, "Mom, that looks like a BIRD! You forgot the tail feathers! And the beak!" and proceeded to show me exactly how to draw a duck. Then came another baby duck, and a fox, and some claws, some water, etc. etc. Oh, and a rainbow. Every picture needs a rainbow. I also had her say the phrase, "May I go with you?" every time it was supposed to be said in the story. I was surprised how easily she paid attention to the story while drawing her picture.

Next, for language, we did what is called a picture book narration. I told her to go pick any book off the bookshelf, and come back and tell me about it simply by looking at the pictures. She was not allowed to read it, only tell me the story in her own words. She picked a new book I got last week which we only read once. (This video is 5 minutes long - my phone cut off recording or it would have been longer. I get it if you don't want to watch! It's just her telling the story.)

Then we read out of our History for Little Pilgrims book. We talked about what history is and how God is the only one without any history since He doesn't have a beginning or an end. We talked about Brianna's history and then our family tree. Right before I put away our paper with our family tree on it, she grabbed it and added "God" on there. What a sweetie!

End school day. 

Enter: Italian Ice time on the front porch! Yes, I know this is becoming part of our routine. I have boxes and boxes of Italian Ices that I got for free last summer, so we are putting them to good use! We had a gorgeous summer rain while we were outside, too.

 Later we took a spontaneous trip to our friend Shane's barber shop to get a haircut for Hunter. We were pleasantly surprised to see a rainbow on the way! May not be very visible in these pictures, though.

 I guarantee the cuteness factor of some of his facial expressions are PRICELESS! He obviously had no idea what to expect with his first barber's haircut!

Then we came home and my daughter shocked me by asking me... no, begging me... to cut her hair. Her whole life has been all about growing her hair out, so to say I was speechless is pretty accurate. I cut almost 3 inches. She still wants it shorter but I told her I wanted her to look at some pictures of haircuts on the Internet before I just start chopping away.

  

And then this cuteness happened, so there won't be any chopping of hair going on tomorrow!

Going to bed tonight feeling very, very, very, very, very blessed.