Sunday, January 1, 2012

"Mommy School" - Day One

Catherine and Sabrina have begun calling homeschooling "Mommy School."  We have been prepping them by telling them that they will now walk down the hall from their bedroom to the school room in the morning.  They helped Robby build little tables and chairs for the new classroom.  So, they were ready for Day One.

Catherine wanted to wear her school uniform on the first day.  I told her she could wear whatever she wanted, but she said it was Monday so she would wear her uniform.  Interestingly, she has chosen to wear regular clothes the other days. 

I created a cubby system for them.  Each child has a column of cubbies and each cubby has a different topic (Writing, Reading, Math, Science, History). For Sabrina the cubbies included Coloring, Cutting, Numbers, Letters.  Here they are when I introduced them to the cubby system:
Sabrina ate a bowl of grits while doing her letter work.  She has to circle the H's on this worksheet:
I had no idea Sabrina was such a great cutter.  Her scissor skills are quite impressive.  I have her cut out various shapes every day.  She is very neat and exact:
One thing I really want to improve with Catherine is her writing skills.  So, she does a guided journal exercise every day.  This one was in the shape of an apple and her assignment was to write a story about an apple.  I thought she would write about our trips to the apple orchard.  Instead, she wrote about Snow White eating a poisoned apple and falling asleep.  You can see on their desks that they each have a caddy of supplies and a file tray for completed work.  In Catherine's completed tray is a list of questions I had written out for a book she had read.  This is my version of "AR" tests and helps to make sure she comprehends what she is reading.   

The most fun thing the girls did the first day was called "Big Project."  They each cut out a bunch of cards with letters, words and pictures for some Christmas vocabulary.  Then they glued them on to construction paper.  I had Catherine glue them in alphabetical order, to strengthen that skill.  (Can you see Sabrina's shapes on her bulletin board?)

One of the last things we did was puzzles.  The girls love doing this and have really improved over the course of the week doing a puzzle every day.  They actually go back after school time is over and do the puzzles again.

I had the tissue box on the table because Catherine was congested.  The poor thing actually threw up at least once a day and three times on one day.  We are still trying to figure out how to feed her during the day in such a way that she can keep it all down.
Day One I guess was a success.  The girls seemed to enjoy it.  Sabrina especially thinks school is "fun."  She does a little end-zone dance after she finishes a worksheet. 

Both kids love having me there.  They will give me a hug after every worksheet.  During her math worksheets, Catherine actually wanted to hug me between every problem.  At this point they do not work independently at all.  They want me to help them through everything.  I am hoping this will improve, but it may take quite some time before it improves. 

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