Today was our first "official" day of homeschool!
We started our day with devotions centered around Romans 12:9-21, about living peacefully together and blessing even those who treat us badly.Next, we began our work cycle. My son is in 5th grade, and my daughter is in 2nd grade so their work is differentiated according to their interests and needs. The kids chose which order they wanted to do their assignments. They journaled about the first day of school and what their expectations are for this school year. They also had some math review and a chapter book to read and respond to in their journals. I made sure to chose the chapter books from series that the kids already were reading: The American Girls and I Survived.
After work cycle we ate lunch and then went outside to ride bikes for recess. My son tried to declare indoor recess so he could sit around and watch TV, but I nipped that in the bud. ;)
Following our recess, we had our first official Spanish class. Our family is bilingual, but I've always wanted time to give our kids more direct instruction regarding grammar, etc. I bought the Abeka Spanish series on ebay because I remember my Christian high school using it for their classes. It went very well for the first day! :) We were able to skip or just review a lot of the first sections and get right into the masculine/feminine exercises. This Spanish curriculum is typically used for middle or high school students, but given our family's Hispanic background and the reading ability of my kids, it works out just fine even though my daughter is 6 and my son is 11.
After Spanish, my son worked on math games on the computer while I gave my daughter a piano lesson, and then they switched. We ended the day with a song and prayer and then prepared supper for Papi.
I think we accomplished a lot for our first day of homeschool!
A funny note: Choosing to turn an emotionally difficult day into a fun one: During our writing time this morning, my daughter suddenly threw her forehead down onto her writer's notebook. "Mommy, you said to put your thoughts on paper!" I'm so glad that there's room for laughter in homeschool!
