Starting Back: Our First Day

After all the researching, reading, planning, scheduling, organizing, etc., it's finally here!! Our first day of school for the new year!!! I may not have finished all my planning work yet, but ready or not here we go....

At 7:00, I went back to wake the kids up. Jessie was just waking up. Violet and I played tug of war with the blankets for a minute or two until she woke up. Benny finally succumbed to the incessant tapping on his leg and opened one eye.

By 8:00, we had finished breakfast and were ready to start. Jessie and I started her first lesson in her new Singapore 4A books. After 15 minutes, Violet and I started working on some math drill and did some concept review. I check on Jessie only to discover that she's playing with baby Jonathan and sent her back to her math lesson. Then Benny and I broke out the letter magnets, matched them up, named them, and read a few random library books. Somewhere during Benny's schooling, baby Henry conked out on my shoulder. (He'd been up since about 6:30.)

At 9:00 (OK, 9:05 to be exact), we switched again. Violet and Benny disappeared to play castle. Meanwhile, Jessie and I went through her memory box, used a blank multiplication chart for drill, and wrote all of the capital letters in cursive (since I lost my notes on which one she needed to practice).

At 9:30 I sent Jessie off to practice piano and do her typing lesson, explained to Benny that he is supposed to play alone now, and sat down with Violet. We went through her memory box. I asked Benny to stop playing with the vacuum sweeper attachments. There was a brief pause while I went to get baby Henry out of the cradle. I told Benny to stop playing with the vacuum sweeper attachments (again) and go play quietly in his room. Then I watched Violet write the alphabet and noted which letters are written incorrectly. (Yes, those notes were on the same paper as above that disappeared mysteriously.) I had Violet do a few more math problems and sent her down to practice piano.

Since we aren't doing our full schedule this week, I had a few minutes to sit quietly and feed baby Henry. (OK, maybe not quietly). I explained to Jessie how to bring the computer screen back up so she can type. A few minutes later, Benny reported that Jessie made 7 mistakes on her first try. (Now I know what he's been doing.) I called to Jessie to try one more time and reminded Benny that he is supposed to be playing alone. Moments later I heard a dispute from the office and called Benny back into the living room with me until Jessie finished her typing practice. I reexplained for the 3rd or 4th time that after he plays with Megan he is supposed to play alone for 30 minutes. His reply, "OK. I can just hang out with you for 30 minutes." I tried explaining that next week, I'll be working with his sisters during that time and he's expected to play quietly in his room. I'm pretty sure that went over his head also.

At 10:30, we sat down to read about Deborah Sampson. That leaves Benjamen Franklin for tomorrow to finish up last years history reading. Baby Henry sat on my lap, and Benny was on the arm of the chair. Violet sat quietly on the sofa (most of the time) and listened (or maybe zoned). Jessie started out in the chair. Then she came over to look for pictures. Then she stood behind me to read over my shoulder. I asked her to come out from behind the chair, so she sat down on the floor and began making faces at baby Henry. I stopped reading again and sent her back to the brown chair. We finished the book (after I asked her to stop playing with the baby and sit in the chair a second time). I wrote down Jessie and Violet's narrations (we're going to have to work on listening carefully again), and we're DONE!!! Yeah!!!

It was a bit of a bumpy start, but overall not to shabby for a first day.