First Day!

Yesterday, we started homeschool! LB was quite eager so we started around 8:30am. I suspect that will get pushed back closer to 9am most days but that is the great thing about homeschooling - flexibility! I gave him a tour of the school cart and he was most excited about the new slime, colored pens, and the mini whiteboard. We started with our agreements for homeschool. I try to use that word instead of rules because I think it gives him a sense of ownership. I wrote down three agreements that were important to me and asked him if he wanted to add any. In the moment he couldn't think of anything so we both signed our names to the three agreements. He insisted we sign in cursive so I obliged. I told him we can add more as we go if needed. Then I showed him our notebook where I will list the activities for the day. This is something we did in the spring so he knows the goal is that we want to be done with everything by 3pm and he can choose the order. In the spring, we usually finished the majority of the list by lunch time and he liked to save his independent reading time for the afternoon. We ended up following that exact pattern on the first day. We did the intro lesson in the Big Life Journal, started practicing our weekly spelling words, and we planned out our country project. During the shutdown, we started a 50 States Project. He used drawing pad paper and put the name of the state at the top along with the capital, he drew the shape of the state, wrote the population, drew the flag or flower, drew the state bird and usually included something about a sports team in each state. It was truly so impressive. By the end of May, he had completed all 50 States. Over the summer, we talked about exploring countries and he wanted to explore the country based on his favorite soccer players. I found a template on a homeschooling blog and showed it to him. I gave him the option of doing a similar format as the 50 States Project or using this template. He picked the template and then decided he would draw the soccer player on the back of the page. I also printed these great maps from the website, Settera. One of my goals for this project is for him to find and identify each country on the map. He picked Portugal as his first country because he loves the soccer player, Ronaldo. He already had the flag memorized. Here is the template we are using. He will finish it up tomorrow.

I also found a recommendation for this National Geographic Kids World Atlas. That is where he found a lot of the details on the template. It is very easy to use and has great visuals. I had flashbacks of my mom (a retired librarian) getting excited about looking things up, using the table of the contents, and finding the answer. I remember rolling my eyes. I walked LB through the same process today. 

I am excited that we have a plan for this project and I think once we get a few countries under our belt he will be able to complete this somewhat independently. I am not much of a cook but for some of the countries I am hoping we can explore food too. I also had him pick our country for next week so I can start planning. Next up will be Argentina - Leo Messi!

The funniest part of the first day was when I told him I wanted to use Khan Academy to do some review of 4th grade math. His 3rd grade teacher used that website so he is familiar with it. LB said, "Mom, I really don't think I need that. I am good at math." I explained that we hadn't done much formal math over the summer and that I thought it was a good idea. His response was, "You'll be hearing from my lawyer." I have no idea where he hears this stuff! Thankfully, he obliged and breezed through the two review lessons. He saved his independent reading for the afternoon and chose to read in the hallway to the dog. 

We did it! We survived the first day! It felt good to check the first day off my list. Onward!