Kindergarten - Day Two

I am certainly sure that I won't have time to blog about our school days every day, but I will do it on the days that I have extra time in the evenings. I like keeping up with what we're doing, and who knows - there may be someone out there interested in how we spend our days!

A lot of what we'll be doing daily is routine, and so I won't take pictures of the "old" stuff every day.

The first thing we did today was go over our prayer list. Then we did pledges and read our Pledge of Allegiance book again. I really like that book because I feel like it's making it easier for her to remember the pledge and know why we say it.

We read our Bible story, which was Adam and Eve today.  We also went over our scripture again (Romans 3:23) and she's already got it memorized!

 Then we went to the encyclopedia and read about the timeline of how people have changed (cave people, Egyptians, Medieval Times, etc.) and talked about how the cave people survived. Brianna loved that. If anyone has any good books regarding this subject, will you pass them on? I'd love to look further into it if it interests her.

 I also read her a new dinosaur book while she colored a picture.

We finished her Kindergarten assessment, which we began yesterday. It was fairly lengthy. I can't wait to see how far she comes throughout the year. She already knows a lot but I'm excited to see her learn in the next few months. Her two goals for the school year? Start adding big numbers together and learn to read. Two very good goals, I'd say!

Next was math. Again, math for the first few weeks is going to be very easy for her. I don't mind her doing review activities because it is still helping her get into the routine of school.

Then we read our poetry. Today's Mother Goose rhymes were "A Week of Birthdays" and "Girls and Boys Come Out to Play". We also read a poem called "Hello, Goodbye" from the book "The Llama Who Had No Pajama".

We also watched a short YouTube video which paraphrases the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg. We're into fables right now.

After that, we worked on the letter "F" again.

Fairly simple stuff, but I'm proud of Bri for learning new things (like the pledge, and being still for the things that aren't her favorite). Her two favorite things are math and being read to, but she is so patient for all the other things we have to get done. Hunter is doing great playing independently, by the way! I'm so proud of them both.

We even had time to have a play date with Grandma and Grandpa! Here's a picture with their new picnic table!

After dinner we were able to go out on the porch and swing, eat Italian Ices and read more of Ralph S. Mouse. We're almost done with it. I feel like I could just live my life on that porch swing with my family. These are some pretty awesome days.

First Day of Kindergarten!!

Wow, I have to admit I am a little baffled at how quickly Kindergarten came around. I can't believe my baby girl is so grown up!

I think most people know that we chose homeschooling this year. That decision will continue until we feel led for Brianna (and/or Hunter) to be in a different schooling situation. For those who are interested, we chose a variety of curriculum this year: Horizons math, A Beka science, social studies/community helpers, Sonlight reading/language arts/phonics and Bible/history, and Little Hearts For His Glory history.

 The first thing we did was go over our prayer list, and pray for the people on it and for our school day. We have a small journal we usually write in, but today Brianna wanted to write down the people she was praying for. It was really sweet, I thought.

 The next thing we did was say the pledges and went over the rules. Our rules are pretty simple: Listen when someone else is speaking, Raise your hand to speak, Follow directions quickly, Be kind with your words and hands, and Always do your best work. We have the Pledge of Allegiance, the pledge to the Christian flag, and the pledge to the Bible. I found a great book this past weekend at a yard sale which explains why we say the pledge. It really breaks down the Pledge of Allegiance so it's easily explained to a young child. I read it this morning and will probably do it every morning this first week.

The Pledges:

 The Rules:

 We read our Bible story, which was the creation story.

This went along with what we read in the encyclopedia, about dinosaurs and cavemen.

While Brianna colored a picture of our Bible verse of the week (Romans 3:23), I read a book about dinosaurs to her.

 Next we did math. The first few weeks are going to be review for Brianna, but I am choosing to do the activities anyway to help her transition into the routine of school. Today we learned about the number one.

 After math, I realized we'd already been working for over an hour without a break. So - recess!

 After playing outside, we needed a snack. So while the kids had something small to eat, I read out loud to them. Today's Mother Goose rhyme was the original "Old Mother Goose". We also read "Pirates Go To School", "Shhhh! Everybody's Sleeping" and "Extra Yarn".

 After that it was time to finish our school work. Next up was social studies/community helpers. Brianna learned all about people in the community who provide goods and services. She also learned about reading a map. Even at the end of the night she still remembered all the points of the compass, which I was so happy about! Part of her work was to draw a picture of her family and house. She dedicated her picture to her dad of course!

 Next was our work on phonics. This week we are talking about the letter F. We went through the dictionary to talk about the words she recognized in the "F" section.

 Then Brianna completed a couple of copywork sheets for the letter "F".

 After we finished our work it was lunch time. After lunch we sat on the porch and ate Italian Ices and read almost three chapters of the book we're reading right now, "Ralph S. Mouse".

All in all, a great day! Hunter did an amazing job entertaining himself while we did our work. I am so proud of him! And of course I'm proud of Brianna. She didn't complain once during our work time and she did her best with everything.