Our First Day of School!

Today we started our first day of school! Homeschool, that is...

Well, I guess they've always been learning at home (minus a year at a Waldorf school) so 

we just started a different rhythm to our day...and a bit of traditional work. 

Turner is doing Kindergarten work, Eli is in Tot School and Deacon is in Teeny Tiny Tot School. 

Here's my big Kindergartener! He's been needing a  challenge since the beginning of May
but I held off switching to Kinder items since we were traveling almost the entire summer.
Boy, was he happy to do something more difficult!

My big Tot Schooler! He's a quick one so I'm sure he'll keep me on my toes.
I've got TONS of Tot School stuff planned for him! 

Last, but certainly not least, my Teeny Tiny Tot Schooler!
He wasn't too excited to sit for this picture and kept trying to throw the sign behind him!
He's walking now (finally!), so this should all be interesting.

Today was very hectic because we had guests leaving early in the morning. The baby was sleeping in our room and as I was going to bed, I kicked a box, woke up Deacon and it was downhill from there. He was up all night, and I felt all disheveled from the lack of sleep and my wreck of a house. 

Since it's a holiday, John was home all day. We told the kids it was the first day of school and that we'd have some things to do today so we could kick the year off right. We had breakfast together, then the kids decided it was a great day for making a tank. So, that's what they did. 

Eli in the tank. 

Turner buckling Eli in to his seat. 

 After about a hour and a half of outside play, they came in and were ready to do the 10 minutes of work I had planned (apparently, I did a good job planning because I only had one math lesson and two tot trays on the docket for the day!). Turner really likes his new Horizons Math book. I'm thankful that the first lessons are super easy and more of a chance to feel out what he really does know about numbers. 

Squeezing glue for Eli (note to self, but new glue). 

He really enjoyed the independent work! 

This shows the kids's personalities. Turner is patient and focused, Eli is, well, three. 

Turner is very uncomfortable writing, so I gave him the choice to do a handwriting page today.
I think he's just nervous about making mistakes so he doesn't want to give himself
enough credit (he can actually write many letters but they're not "perfect" to him).

Both boys were eager to do some "work" so it made the few things I had planned easier to do. Turner did two math lessons (very, incredibly simple), 3 or 4 pages from his Go For the Code series, and some handwriting practice. Eli completed two Tot Trays (I'll be posting more about those on Tuesday) and was rarin' to go! 

The rest of the afternoon was spent outside. Hours and hours outside... the way it should be.