First Day...

Well, due to very loud child demands, we had our first day yesterday (yes, on a "holiday"). And for the most part, it went beautifully. We started with Elf reading our September poem aloud (see sidebar), and then a First Day handout I made - favorite color, what I want to be when I grow up, etc. - so that next year we can do the same thing and compare. I did get one surprise with this exercise... since she's only seen it once and never mentioned it since, I was surprised to find out that Fairy's favorite movie is Percy Jackson & the Lightening Thief!

After that we moved on to math. Once I ran through the concept of addends, sums and so forth with Elf, he went right to work and did all 26 problems of mixed practice without a single mistake. Fairy also did well with her math, although naturally she requires more attention doing hers than Elf does at this point. I did help Elf get the hang of writing the problems out since at this level Saxon switches from a workbook format to a regular textbook format.

We moved on to reading (Fairy) and grammar a la Mad Libs for Elf. He loved Mad Libs! He did two of them and couldn't stop laughing all afternoon, which did make it a little hard for Fairy to concentrate on her reading lesson....

During our lunch break, for which I took a suggestion from someone's blog (sorry, I can't remember whose) and made them "homeschool" lunches on divided trays, they watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy episode on Static Electricity. They then spent about 10 minutes trying to build up enough static to shock each other, although I assured them we'd be doing several experiments on Tuesday. Which reminds me, I need to make up "lab sheets" for Elf.

Finally we wrapped up our first day with history. I read the first 3 chapters of The History of US to them, and am now trying (by contacting colleges, parks, etc.) to find anything like an archaeological dig for them to go see. If not, I'll show them virtual ones and set up something in the backyard, or in tubs, or something.

Oh, and Elf read the first chapter of Stuart Little, and said he likes it very much. We also listened to Beethoven, our composer of the month, while cleaning a bit, though we didn't get to the story I intended to read.

So overall, I would say our first day, although sooner than I had planned, went quite well! Today we'll cover math, reading, grammar (Elf), phonics (Fairy), another chapter or two in history, and some fun science projects with balloons, combs and paper bits.