Our First Day 2011

Today was our first day of school!  It went better than expected, I think.  We had a bit of trouble with Brynn's Teaching Textbooks on my laptop, but my hubby picked up a piece of hardware/software (honestly, no idea) that will fix it so we will be good to go tomorrow.  The first day is always strange because it's a new routine and it feels like it doesn't flow smoothly, but this year was much better. 

 We did start our morning off with yummy cinnamon buns.  It's our traditional first day breakfast.  It's a nice treat and Parker's favorite!

Parker was so worried last night when he got his "morning to do list" that first day pictures weren't listed.  I promised him we wouldn't forget.  This morning it was a little rainy when we first woke up, so he was very nervous that we wouldn't be able to do them outside.  Luckily, it was just a drizzle by the time we were ready.

My sweet boy.  He's 7years old and going into 2nd grade this year.  He is so excited about learning new things, but is a bit nervous for some reason.  School tends to cause him a little stress.  That makes me sad.  :(

My Brynn.  She is 8 years old and going into 4th grade this year.  If she were in the school system, she would be in 3rd.  She doesn't really struggle in school at all, but thinks she hates it.  I'm guessing it's because all her friends hate school and she thinks she should too.  This doesn't make me happy.  She does at least have a good attitude right now, so hopefully the changes I have made will make it more exciting for her. 

We always start our first day by decorating our new school boxes with stickers.  While I was making breakfast, they worked on that.  It's so funny to hear them pick out their design.  Brynn, of course, needed gymnast stickers and Parker needed all the animal ones, (He is such an animal lover) but no Transformers because they looked a little creepy.  Never mind that he has watched the first movie and loved it.  Silly boy.

Then we worked on our calendar notebooks and journals.  I think that may be their favorite part.  They complain bitterly about writing papers, but will write in their journals all day.

For FIAR, we read Night of the Moonjellies.  They seemed to like the book, but we just did a little discussion on the social studies topics from the manual, so it wasn't too exciting today.  I have lots of activities planned for the rest of the week though!

For Story of the World, we read about the Mauryan Empire of India.  They really liked The Jakata Tales.  They labeled the map and colored the coloring page that went along with it.  For lunch we tried the Indian Curry rice recipe that's in the activity book.  The kids wouldn't touch it, but I tried it and it really wasn't bad at all.  It was, however, extremely spicy.  I love spicy food, but this was even a little much for me.

Let me know if you would like the recipe.  It was really quick and very filling.  Plus, the kids like making it, even if they wouldn't eat it.  :)

All in all, I think we had a great day!  I'm excited to do it again tomorrow, so that's a good sign, right?