Our First Week of 4th Grade and 1st Grade! (Aug 18-22, 2014)

So, I am a little late with this post. We had our first week of school last week. It has been a whirlwind of a weekend though! My sister was in town and I had to get paperwork in order for the first day of classes at the studio, hire a new teacher, make sure everyone knew their schedules, and prepare for a staff meeting! It's been crazy!

Anyway, back to our first week of school. We finished everything I had planned! Need I say more? That really is quite an accomplishment! (Really, we even did a little extra work. I know, I know - now I am bragging! I'll stop!) We took first day of school pictures. I thought we would get a cute picture on the dome in the back yard. You can see how that turned out.

Our attempt at a fun first day of school picture...they were a mess!

First day of 1st grade.

Monday started out great! I woke my sleepy head, Lilly, up by blasting the Veggie Tales song "Billy Joe McGuffery" through the whole house. I love this song! All of the kids loved it and we had a dance party as we played it a few times. After breakfast we did math, science, history, a president report, Latin, Greek, English grammar, literature, and art. I was so proud of my hard working kiddos!

He would not let me take his picture! He kept making faces!

Tuesday we started the day with a playdate at the splash pad. The kids had fun, and I had a nice visit with friends I had not seen in a few months. It was great! I did totally fail at taking pictures though. We were all too busy having fun. Aidan finished all of his work when we got home. Lilly and I did short school, she is no good for school work in the afternoon. We ended the day with our first FLL meeting. Aidan cannot wait to start programming a robot!

Wednesday and Thursday were just normal school days. They were smooth sailing.

Friday, I attempted something new. We packed up school and went to the library. We waited for Lilly to wake up and so we got there late. Everyone brought their preschoolers after morning preK was over. It was not the quiet, relaxed environment I was looking forward to. Plus, I failed to be sure that my box of school goodies would fit in the stroller - it didn't. This made everything more difficult. I had to lug the heavy box in and trust Aidan to push the stroller with the Matthew.

The kids enjoyed the change of scenery. Matthew played with the trains and puzzles. Aidan and Lilly found a pile of books and movies. I found a few good books as well.

I had promised a trip to the YMCA to swim. It was a good thing I called first - the pool is closed for a couple of weeks! I had one very disappointed fish named Lilly.

Not everything went as planned, but schoolwork happened with little to no fighting. I know that not every week will be so smooth, but I am thankful for such a great start to the year! Now on to week two!

Free Kindle Books!

I am always looking for new books on education to read. I have read everything our library has on home education and a few on general education theory. I have been reading and studying homeschooling for 5 years now. I still learn something new from every book I read. I gain new inspiration with each book. This is the time of year that I need a few new books to get me ready to start the new year. I decided to search the Amazon.com free Kindle library for some new reading today. Here is what I found:

Education in The Home, The Kindergarten, and The Primary School by Elizabeth P. Peabody

The Montessori Method Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in 'The Children's Houses' with Additions and Revisions by the Author 

and

Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook

by Maria Montessori
School Options: Discover your options for schooling your kids (Them Kids Book 2)by Them Kids

And for some fun classic reading:

The War of the Worldsby HG Wells

Fables for Children, Stories for Children, Natural Science Stories, Popular Education, Decembrists, Moral Talesby Leo Tolstoy

I am excited to start reading through this list. They are all downloaded to my Kindle and ready to go! I hope you find something interesting!

Plans for the Year

I love to see what everyone has planned for the new school year! It is so much fun to look at how many different curricula combinations are out there, but it is also nice to see that some families are doing similar things to us. Even though I know that I have made good choices for our family and for each child's needs, it is validating to see that someone else feels the same way. That said, for those who want to know, this is what we will be doing starting on August 4!

Aidan: 4th Grade

Rod and Staff English 4
Spelling Plus (4th and 5th Grade Lists) with Dictation and Homophones
IEW: Following Narnia
McGuffey's Eclectic Readers
Latina Christiana II
Memoria Press' Greek Alphabet Book
SM Primary Mathematics, Standards Edition 5B, 6A, and maybe 6B

*We will also continue typing and cursive practice.

Lilly: 1st Grade
All About Spelling 1
McGuffey's Eclectic Readers
Bob Books
Explode the Code
Song School Latin
SM Primary Mathematics, Standards Edition 1A and 1B
Life of Fred

Together:
Finish our study of the world's biomes (learn all about that here.)
RS4K Astronomy PreLevel 1
RS4K Biology PreLevel 1/Level 1
Story of the World Volume 4
Memoria Press Geography 1

I plan to be more purposeful with bedtime reading time this year. We have always just let the kids pick from the 100s of books we have in the house and we usually end up reading the same book for weeks! This month it has been Food Hates You Too, which is a great little book of silly poems - but reading it over and over gets old!

Bedtime reading is going to be a part of "school." My husband is on board with reading more classic literature to the kids at bedtime so I have made a list of books I want to finish this year.

I really had no idea where to start! I have lists of good literature for kids, some is broken down by age and others by subject. I have a house full of wonderful literature, I just could not narrow it down to a manageable number for a year of school! My solution was to look at what various companies suggest for each grade. I love everything I have tried from Memoria Press, so I looked there first. I pulled a couple books from the 1st grade list and a couple from the 4th grade list. Some I just knew I wanted to be sure we got to this year. We have already started The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe because good literature just can't wait until the first day of school!

Literature Selections:
Beatrix Potter's Tales of Peter Rabbit and Friends
The Courage of Sara Noble
Charlotte's Web
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Little House on the Prairie
Farmer Boy
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair

If we finish all of these selections, I have a list ready for next year too!

What are some of your favorite literature selections for elementary aged kids?