First Day of School Sept 2017

Today was our first day back to school after an extra long summer. We started a bit later this year, because Daddy had surgery. I actually liked having a few extra weeks of summer and starting school with the public schools. I might make this our new normal. I really think this was the best first day of school that we've had.

Our morning started out with breakfast and then we dressed and headed out for our annual 1st day of school pictures. The night before I got the idea of making props for our photo shoot, (because I'm crazy like that) so I got out a cardboard box and some paints and made them a frame. The kids thought it was cute and fun.

After out little photo shoot we came back inside for Bible time. I'm glad that we have Dad home for the first couple months of school. I asked him the night before to prepare something for our first day since our Bible curriculum wasn't scheduled to start until day 2. He read to us about Paul's perseverance and how although he faced many trials he ran his race till the end. Then he encouraged the girls that when school work gets frustrating to remember what's more important, to always remember to keep their eyes on Jesus and stay focused on eternity rather than the frustrations and trials of this life. Then We had a time of prayer laying hands on each child and praying a blessing over them for the new school year. As we headed to the table for our lessons I felt a real sense of peace knowing we are following God's will for our family.

This year we began What My Father's World calls the "Family Cycle." The main concept is for children of different grade levels to learn as much together as a family as they can without having to be separated for school time and it helps Mom by not having to be teaching multiple grade level curriculum at once. So Sis and Boo will be doing Bible, Vocabulary, History, Science, and Art together this year. These are all subjects that are not necessarily grade leveled but can be taught at any age. The girls will separate everyday for Math, English and Reading working on their own levels. Baby Bear will sit in and tag along with anything she wants. She will also be doing her own Kindergarten curriculum. She so excited to finally have her own "big girl" school work.

We've  decided to start off each morning after bible time with a calendar time. This is for Boo and Baby Bear since Sis already knows all about calendars, but she is a great helper to her younger sisters. We use our big wall calendar to put up today's date and then each girl has her own personal calendar inside her binder to fill in the date.Sis is glad to have hers to record special dates coming up each month. We are also all helping Baby Bear to learn our months of the year song.

Sis and Boo will be using MFW: Rome to The Reformation this year. These are their "History Notebooks," where they will keep all of their work. Sis finished up last school year learning a little about Ancient Rome and this year begins with Rome, so some of it will be review for her but a lot of it new.
Today was pretty much an intro to the first 13 weeks of learning about Rome. We learned about Roman school and how it differed from school today. The girls had a picture of a Roman classroom to file in their notebook. We read the Legend of Romulus and Remus, a story of how Rome began that all young kids in Ancient Rome were taught.. Then the girls drew pictures and wrote about the legend in their notebooks. We also read a little about the founding of Rome in a couple of our new history books.



 Sis (left) wrote her narration on the back of her picture.

 

One new thing that we are doing this year is learning Latin roots. At first I was hesitant and asking "why?"Now I'm so glad we are doing this. I've never studied Latin myself and I didn't realize so many of the words in the English language derive from Greek and Latin. Today we learned the Latin word "UNUS" meaning "one." We had to think of English words that come from this Latin root. UNICORN! Boo shouted! I thought this was going to be hard for her, but she loved it. Uni-corn = one horn. Uni-cycle = one wheel.

After Roman School Baby Bear did her first day of K. Mostly practicing her ABC's and learning numbers (wish I had remembered to take a picture.) Then we went for a special lunch. Since we learned that much of Roman culture was influenced by the Greeks our curriculum suggested we try Greek Gyros for lunch. The girls had never tried one (even though it was a childhood fav of mine.) So we went and got gyros for lunch. I was afraid Boo wouldn't eat it when Dad told her the meat was lamb, but they both loved it. Baby Bear was not so brave, she ordered a cheeseburger and then insisted I take her picture with it.

 Also, before we came back home we took a trip to a new library that we've never been to. Each of the girls checked out a few books for their quiet reading time.

Our first day we didn't do any of our regular subjects like Spelling, Reading, Math or Science. It was mostly a fun introduction to our History theme and new books. We would look at our new English books on day 2 and I decided to hold off on math for a week. I like to start the school year out gently adding a few new subjects at a time until we're eventually back to a full schedule. I did sneak in a little math though, by teaching the kids Roman numerals when we got back from lunch. We made a poster with construction paper and craft sticks to display on the wall for the next few months while we're  learning about Rome.

Overall it was a perfect start to our school year. All the girls were good and excited about starting. There were no tears and they finished the day saying they loved it. Sis and Boo both told me they think this year is going to be "much more fun than last year" and they're so happy to finally be doing school together again.