First day of homeschool!

Carli's first day of first grade, at home.

I moved the black cabinet/desk into the school room so for supplies and curriculum. It's nice for me to have a place to work at in preparing the lessons, etc. Sorry for the poor quality of pictures--that's cell phone pics for you! We need a new camera.

I love the alphabet flashcards! I was going to buy them at the aBeka materials display, but my friend Rhoda gave them to me. They are the same ones that were on our classroom wall in Kindergarten.

Our first day of homeschooling went a bit smoother than expected. Carli bounced out of bed when I woke her up, and turned down the offer of eggs and toast (normally a favorite) or oatmeal (a new favorite) because "cereal's faster!" She was eager to get on with it.

Our first Bible series is on salvation, and the first lesson was about Heaven. Among other things, we talked about Revelation's description of Heaven, and we looked at pictures of the 12 precious stones that the foundations are made of. At the end, Carli gave me a huge hug and said, "Thank you, Mommy, for showing me what's going to be in Heaven!"

I can tell that writing is not her favorite subject, but she was pleased with herself when she got it right. I'm sticking with manuscript this year. The First Presbyterian preschool that she went to followed Kokomo schools in printing style, but in between preschool and Kindergarten, Kokomo switched styles. So she's already learned two styles, and I didn't think she was strong enough in printing to move on to cursive. Three styles in three years just seemed a little too much.

Carli begged for math all morning. Wondering if she's going to love it as much as I did.

I was rather concerned with what to do with Olivia, but when she did wander in, we just had her work with us. She and I worked on a number floor puzzle while Carli was doing her math page, and she helped with the review of counting, using the abacus. She's been able to count to 10 for a long time and is almost up to 20 now, and she's constantly counting objects.

I got Maddy up an hour early to feed/cath/medicate her before I got Carli up, and that really help to cut out some of the distraction as well! All in all--a pretty good day!

From a while back: Olivia with her little friend Emma (Erynn's daughter). Erynn kept Madeline and Olivia in May when Carli had a field trip. So cute!