Our Solar System Model

So the kids science curriculum this year is based around astronomy ( although we will probably touch on a lot of topics based on our propensity to want to learn about many unrelated things!).

Anyhow, Last week we read about what astronomy is, about what the universe is, and about our solar system. We made up our own mnemonic phrase for the planets (+ dwarf planet Pluto).

The kids made up "Maybe Very Early My Jumprope Sat Upon Nanny's Poptart" ... and despite it's silliness, it really has helped the kids remember the names and order of the planets!

Today we made a model of our solar system ( not to scale of course). The kids had so much fun painting the planets, then figuring out roughly how to place them in relation to one another. It was quite the motivator for them to plow through all their other school work in record time as well, because I said we couldn't paint until we were done, in case the table got messy.

On a side note, the kids ( especially Emily) bugged me all weekend about doing school.. every time I turned around... "Are we gonna do school now?", "Can we do school today?", "Can I go to the classroom?".... So cute.. guess they like it!

Here are some pics from making the solar system today!

I feel so productive!

Even though today is only day 2 ( 2 great big whopping days!) of our "school year" I'm already amazed at how productive we feel. Granted I struggle to get up in the morning. which means we get started later than anticipated.. I'm thinking that I can actually plan to get up at a time that feels more comfortable (9 isn't bad.. for some reason 8 or 8:30 is hard for me... I know.. I'm a bum.. most of you probably get up at 5 or 6 am!)

Despite that, we have been able to (EASILY!) have breakfast, do chores, do a few hours of schoolwork, have a substantial family lunch, then do stuff in the afternoon. Today, we went to our local bike path with the kids scooters and had a "nature walk". We walked/ scooted for about 45 minutes, then the kids played at he playground and watched planes land at the airport for another 20 minutes.

Then we went to the Library where the kids each picked 3 books, two of which they will be filling out these cute book report forms on tomorrow or Thursday. I also picked up a couple of DVDs which in some way have to do with what we have been talking about during school. The first is a couple of episodes of "Reading Rainbow" that have to do with math concepts. The other is a Bill Nye the science guy video about Gravity, which fits right in with our reading today. Its actually geared towards 4th graders, but I figure when its free from the library it cant hurt and hopefully the kids will get something out of it. Any how, I think we will be going to one of the county libraries at least once a week.. some great stuff can be found there!

After that we went to the grocery store and got a few necessities plus stuff to make ice cream sundaes ( we did a critical thinking activity today where the primary subject matter was ice cream). We came home, put away groceries, made sundaes, and popped in "Reading Rainbow" ( which the kids loved!.... have to find more of those!)

Of course I am now left to do all my school work in the evenings which might explain the whole 9am thing.. but hey its only for 10 weeks!

Here are some pictures from our nature walk!

First Day Back to School!!

Well here we are! The first "official" day of First Grade.

We started the day by getting up ( around 9.. a little later than anticipated), and having a hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage, English muffins with jelly, and water melon for the kids, a grapefruit for me. Then Emily put away the clean silverware while Ian and I put away the other dishes together. Then Emily went up to make her and Ian's beds, while I taught Ian how to reload the dishwasher with dirty dishes. Then they fed and let the Dogs outside, while I got dressed and made my bed. The kids claimed they wanted to have school in their pajamas ( because they can!), except Emily changed her clothes anyways. We brushed our teeth and hair and jumped right into our "School Goals of the Day".



First we had a prayer, ( where Emily, the sweetest girl ever, said "Thank you that we can have school at home and for a sweet mommy who can teach us!") then I showed the kids the American flag and explained the pledge of allegiance to them. We decided to have a goal of saying it almost everyday (which is very school-at-home of us, but I think its a good thing to keep). We then read a Scripture and talked about it for just a second, then sang a song that they have been learning at church. Then we looked at our calendar and talked about the date today, and did our little activity on days of the week. I had them go onto the front porch so they could look at the weather, then come back in and pick off the weather board, what they thought the forecast should be for the day. (Today it was sunny and windy according to them, but they thought it might be cloudy later).

We then pulled out the folders from their cubbies and worked together on their word problem of the day. They figured out the problem and each thought up a different word sentence to go with it, which they wrote on the paper, and then colored the picture.
We then started their handwriting exercises for the day which was pretty short, but for Ian especially was plenty, since he gets tired of writing pretty quickly. I explained to them that every week we would work to be able to write a certain passage, then on Friday, they would write it all on a nice sheet that they could color and give to someone special.. they liked this idea and already have several people they want to make pages for.


We then moved out to the love seat in the living room, and cuddled up together to do a lesson from their language arts book. In this lesson they looked at a painting, and then I asked them a series of questions that got them thinking about the context of the painting. They seemed to take to this very well, and wanted to talk about it for a long time. Tomorrow will be another activity with that painting, but with a little bit different activity.

We then moved back in the classroom to work on our math curriculum. I had wanted them to stay somewhat together on a lot of the math stuff, so that we could talk about it at one time, instead of always having to work separately. However, we couldn't keep Emily from doing the first 7 lessons in the book, before school even started, so we already were a little off. So I copied some extra review pages from those first 7 lessons for her to work on, plus a little drawing lesson, while Ian and I worked on lessons 2 and 3 in his book (he had already done 1). She will probably do the same tomorrow, or maybe play with wrap-ups or logic games tomorrow and Wednesday, while we get Ian caught up to where she is, then we will all pick back up working through the lessons together. Anyways, they both did great, and just needed a little encouragement to push through some of the repetitive number writing.
Especially since Ian was a little burnt out from writing numbers, I gave him a few minutes of free time to play with his legos, while Emily and I did her phonics/ reading lesson. I asked her where she wanted to do it (the couch, the classroom, etc.) and she was cool with sitting in the classroom, but wanted to grab a blanket, and asked if she could have a snack. I offered her some fruit snacks, but she spotted the twizzlers on the counter, so with a couple twizzlers in hand, we got comfy in the classroom; Em in her chair with a blanket, me sitting on a little bean bag, and did a quick 15 minute reading lesson. She did so well, I'm really amazed at some of the words she can read with no apparent problem!
Ian on the other hand was very clear, he wanted his reading lesson on my bed, while Emily bounced a ball around the kitchen and living room. So no problem, sounded comfy to me too! He is a few lessons behind Em on this book, that we have been working through for a while, but I think its just that he can easily find things he'd rather do, than not being as good at it, because he flew through his lesson in about 10 minutes. Once he got started today, he was a reading machine!

Now I could see that all of what we had planned was turning out to be quite manageable. We moved back to the love seat and cuddled up to read our History book (while playing with silly putty, so they would feel a little less squirmy) followed by a discussion of what we had read, which, surprisingly enough, really showed that they had listened and actually absorbed a lot of the reading. We then did our reading for Science, which they found very interesting; so much so that we ended up reading today's section, as well as Tuesday's and Wednesday's.. so I'll have to see about either doing a couple of extra of the activities to go along with the reading or move our plans up, so we might actually progress faster than anticipated... I'm leaning towards more fun projects.. but that's just me.
Finally our last real planned subject of the day was our daily geography lesson. This is simple enough, but the kids actually really liked it. Today they looked at a map of a room, then we talked about what a map is, and how we look at it. They then answered the questions of the day that go with the lesson.

Viola! It was then about 1 pm, and we headed for a special lunch of Chik-fil-a ( mostly because the kids wanted cheesecake!). We brought our food back home and ate together, (and played with the pretty darn educational toys that came with lunch!).

At about 2:00 we had a rousing game of junior Monopoly on the living room floor, after about an hour and 15 minutes we put it up, because it seemed that no one was ever going to win or lose!

The kids played outside with the sprinkler, while I wrote this, and now they claim they are going to go clean their room up, while I take an hour or so to work on my courses (Yay! only 10 weeks left till I'm done with my degree!) I think a little later, we will figure out what we want to make for dinner, see if the kids will practice/ learn their dance routine for a few minutes, and maybe see if there is anything short and fun for us to watch on tv or netflix before we get ready for bed.

All in all I'd say its been a pretty darn good first day! Looking forward to many more!!

The Kids Have Voiced Their Opinon!

Well, our attempt to start school September 1, ( a week after the public schools here) the kids told me today that they want to officially start the 1st grade tomorrow. I figure I have everything ready, and am a little ahead on a lot of other stuff to do this week, so.... off we go!! Our first day of School will be August 16th. They seem to be really excited about having a little morning routine (including a few chores!), and starting school.

I will try to remember to take pictures throughout our day tomorrow, and post them here along with a synopsis of our day! Yippeeeee!!!

(Summer) 1st Grade Field Trip #1

Although the school year hasn't officially started, we can never pass up a good field trip, so our first one of the year happened a little early, but I'm saying its the first field trip of the first grade for us!

Last week we decided to go up to Delaware where last month we stumbled upon a bunch of great field trip ideas. On Thursday we visited the Hagley Museum and Gardens. Thursday was a "dollar day" meaning that we were able to spend the whole day there for only one dollar per person.


The museum part of the grounds was three levels of exhibits about the DuPont family, the development of industry, and scientific advances made by the DuPont Company. The kids thought the most interesting part of this for the kids was the third floor where there were activities that taught them about Polymers, and comparing man made versus natural materials. They also got to sit in what appeared to be the drivers seat of an actual Dupont Stock car, and an astronaut suit.

After we explored the museum for a while, we took a bus to the Hagley House, which was the first home to the DuPont family in the area, and where the first DuPont Gunpowder mills were started. We couldn't take pictures in the buildings, but got quite an extensive tour of the house and offices ( with probably a dozen tour guides along the way!). The kids especially enjoyed counting the eagles that were throughout the house, seeing the children's rooms, and old toys, and the kitchen with dumbwaiter. There were also gorgeous gardens and grounds where we stopped for a little picnic lunch.



After this we got caught in a little bit of a rainstorm, but took the bus to Workers Hill, which is a little village, where the workers from the mills would live. The kids got to go to the school house, where they got to practice writing with a quill pen, and learn about how children learned in the 1800's. We also saw a demonstration of a steam powered generator, which powered parts of the mill.
On the way out we stopped back through one part of the museum we missed before, where the kids got to play with working models of old fashioned clothes washers, and other inventions which made life easier for people.After we left, the kids decided that we need to go back soon, because they thought they missed some things to see, so we will probably go back in a few weeks, and might find other sights to see in the area as well. We also bought some feathers and ink, and made our own quill pens to practice writing with at home. So much fun!