First Day of School for Mattimeo! (Kindergarten)

Today we started officially homeschooling for kindergarten! I am not going to blog about what we do everyday for school, but I thought it would be fun to record what our first day was like. Overall it went splendidly!

Robbie was home today since it was Labor Day, and that was helpful so that Link had someone to play with while I was focusing on Meo at times. Normally I will need to have activities for Link to do but I'm not too worried about that.

We are doing the Oak Meadow curriculum and the Handwriting without Tears curriculum (at least for as long as that seems to be going well). Oak Meadow is a Waldorf Based curriculum. Their summary for what the Kindergarten curriculum is all about is:

Oak Meadow’s Kindergarten curriculum reflects the openhearted and imaginative way that young children meet the world.

Oak Meadow curriculum is designed to be easy to use for the parent/teacher and the student. Assignments are clearly marked and explained in detail. A weekly planner, assignment checklist, and materials list for each lesson helps you plan your week in advance and budget your time and resources. (Families are encouraged to use our main lesson books to document their student’s work.) Comprehensive learning assessments are included at the end of each lesson to help you document your student’s progress, recognize your student’s strengths and areas where more support is needed, and track learning over time.

A rich tradition of oral language and classic stories provides the backdrop for your child’s first exploration into the world of literacy. Each week students are immersed in a language-rich environment as they listen to stories, recite poetry, and learn new songs. Familiarity with individual letters is achieved through activities that engage the student artistically, physically, and musically. Emphasis is placed on integrating the sounds and shapes of each letter in preparation for First Grade.

In Math, students are gently introduced to the world of numbers through play-based activities, crafts, and storytelling. Math skills are fostered through working with patterns, grouping and sorting, and learning to draw geometric shapes.

Science, Arts & Crafts, Music & Movement, and Health round out the Kindergarten experience. Each week students participate in nature walks, watercolor painting, puppetry, storytelling, circle songs and games, cooking, gardening, movement activities, and imitative games.

But because Meo has recently been asking me to write down words for him to copy, I decided to supplement the curriculum with Handwriting Without Tears. I chose this because I heard glowing reviews from friends whose kids used it in school, because it seems like a fun way for him to learn how to write without frustration and in only 15 minutes a day. Here's what they write about the teaching strategy:

We teach actively and explicitly in a developmental sequence. Our program uses multisensory teaching to incorporate all the senses in a fun and engaging way, ensuring that all children learn regardless of learning style or background.

Developmental Sequence

We teach the easiest skills first, then build on prior knowledge. Our teaching sequence takes advantage of child development and brain research to promote effective learning and good habits.

Stages of Learning

Developmental Order

Teaching letters in a developmental order helps children master skills and boosts confidence. We teach capitals first, and then lowercase letters. All letters are taught in small groups of similar formation. Children master the easier letter groups, and then move to the more difficult letters groups.

Multisensory Teaching

We help children develop their writing skills through explicit, multisensory, play based instruction. Children move, touch, feel, and manipulate real objects as they learn the habits and skills essential for writing. We use music to speak to children and promote movement and memory. Other multisensory lessons in the teachers’ guides use Voices, Letter Stories, Door Tracing, Air Writing, and Mystery Letter Games to teach letter formation and placement on lines.

 

Learn & Check

In all of our workbooks, we teach children to check their letter, word, and sentence skills after new lessons. Students check their letters for correct start, steps, and bumping the lines. Words are checked for correct size, placement, and closeness. Sentences are checked for correct capitalization, word spacing, and punctuation.

Review & Mastery

In our cursive program, mastery of concepts is reinforced with three levels of Review & Mastery activities throughout student workbooks. The sections follow a group of letters and focus on reinforcing the formation of all previously taught letters.

To start the day, Robbie made one of the boys' favorite breakfasts: blueberry pancakes. Then they both got dressed up in nice clothes to make the day feel more special. Meo even buttoned his own shirt!

Our first part of school was our morning circle, which we will do everyday. We have an opening and closing verse, then we sing songs, play music, and recite verses and fingerplay together. This week we sang "Mr. Rabbit" from a music together collection, sang and did the fingerplay for "little bunny foo-foo", and did two fun songs we learned in our oak meadow book (one about rabbits and one that involved body parts and motion). Then we did a closing verse and blow out the candle we light during circle time.

Next we did Meo's first lesson of the day. The night before I had read "The Tale of Peter Rabbit". This morning he had to retell it to me to the best of his ability. Meo has a knack for story telling and he did a great job of this remembering a surprising amount of detail. Then we talked about how there is and "A" sound in "gate" and used our block crayons to draw a gate with the letter A inside. I drew with him and we took our time. He filled in his hole page and was very proud of his work.

Link and Robbie had some fun with the letter A as well.

Then we did our 15 minute Handwriting without Tears lessons. The first was to sing a song about shaking hands with people which Link especially loves. Then we I did different things with their right hands...like put fragrant lotion on it, dip it in water, stamp a bunny on it, and put a dap of honey on it. Something to do with all the senses to help them remember which hand is which.

Then I introduced the wooden shapes we will later use to make letters with. They had to learn what the different pieces were called, and right away the were very excited to start making shapes and letters with them without me even suggesting it. They almost didn't want to stop for snack and play time!

Next we drove to a nearby river so they could ride their bikes on the trail and Pippin could get a run and swim in.

We also had a snack beside the river.

We wore Pippin out!

At home, Meo had a little math lesson by helping me cook and talking about the different measurements we used. We made tofu pups in a blanket. At first he didn't want to help me cook and had a big fit because he wanted to play monster trucks and didn't want Link to play with his. Our compromise (after 5 minutes of quiet time to chill out) was that he'd help me make stuff then play while it cooked and cooled off. He was fine after that.

Then we read some poems in their room, a chapter from "The Borrowers Afloat" and then the fell asleep.

When Meo woke up, right away he begged me to take his wooden letters out so he could make the Mat Man and practice making letters. So I let him do that for a bit before our afternoon lesson.

Our afternoon lesson was Science. Today we talked about the summer season and the types of things we see and do in summer that we don't in other seasons. Then we drew one of his favorite summer memories. He wanted to draw the time we caught dragonflies on the rocks in the river.

After that, it was play time again and we decided to make today extra special by going out for ice cream for their afternoon snack. Meo got blueberry, Link got pumpkin and peanut butter twist, I got Cherry blossom, and Robbie got cookies and cream.

Link ended up snatching mine and eating most of it hehe.

Finally, we ended the school day with his daily violin lesson. He was getting a little grumpy, but was able to turn his attitude around and have a practice he was happy and proud of. He's playing shirtless because he collar was bugging him.

We wound down our big first day of school with homemade calzones, a family board game, then some snuggling and book reading before sleep.

At the end of the day, I asked Meo what he thought of school so far. He said,

"I love it! It's great! It's not boring at all and we get to do fun things all day! I get to learn all kinds of cool stuff!"

I would call that a very successful first day!

First Year Home School Goals

Before we start school next week, and while I’m busily trying to nail down a schedule that will work for us, I feel like I should take the time to remind myself what my goals are for this homeschool year. That way I can keep them in mind whether things seem too hard, too easy, too frantic or dull. So that I can make adjustments in order to meet these goals. And perhaps these goals will change as well:

• To not feel overwhelmed. I want homeschooling to feel natural, relaxed and fun. Some structure and order is necessary to get anything accomplished, but this order should help the boys feel more loved and happy as I will be devoting more attention to them. If nothing else, the schedule is keep keep me focused and from spacing out all day and not getting anything done.
• To go at Meo’s own pace and not be worried that he is not doing more or less than what the kids in public school are doing.
• To at least try to work through the oak meadow curriculum. It’s stress free, simple and fun and definitely won’t be pushing Meo to do more than he can handle.
• To try to supplement oak meadow with Handwriting without Tears as well as the Ordinary Parent’s guide to teaching reading. But to make sure not to overwhelm or push him too hard. I only decided to add these materials because he’s been asking me how to write things and what words and books say. FOLLOW HIS LEAD.
• Try to do a little bit of French everyday. Either by watching Lil’ Pim when I’m making a meal, reading french books, or singing french songs during circle time or music time.
• To continue to read chapter books everynight to them.
• To incorporate yoga and/or meditation into their day as a way to focus, unwind and practice patience.
• To involve the kids in cleaning and come up with a reasonable cleaning plan that we can easily fit into our schedule.
• To try to get to the library once a week.
• They are signed up for Soccer, Storybook Theater, Martial Arts, Swimming, Earth School (Homeschool Coop) and Violin lessons. These are important ways for them to be around other kids and acquire skills that they cannot get from being home alone with me. These are substitutes for activities they would be doing in school if they were to go to a public school. But I need to also make sure they are enjoying them and not overwhelmed and that we are still able to get school work done in a relaxed manner.
• To go for a hike or nature walk at least once a week.
• To have art and play time regularly with a couple of Meo's homeschool friends.
• To get outside at least a little everyday.
• To do a little meal planning and prep work on the weekend so we are ready for the week with lots of healthy and yummy foods. And to make sure the boys can be involved in some of the cooking/baking.
• To remember to be present and enjoy this time with them. They are little boys. Play with them, really see with them and be with them. That is what is most important...everything else can be tossed aside.