Our First Week Back To School

Our first week back to a regular school routine had its ups and downs. The first day (Tuesday) went really well, as I kept it fairly light and fun. We started our day with pancakes (this has been a tradition for us for the past 3 years).

Then, I made a list on the whiteboard of the things we were going to accomplish.

1.  Introduction to our new school year (our schedule, our new curriculum, what to expect, etc.)
2.  Fill out an "About Me" page for their notebooks
3.  Handwriting
4.  Reading with Mom (this was a quick word recognition test for each of them)
5.  Get pictures ready (the kids took some pictures for a local photo contest, so we needed to get them framed and ready to take to the library.)

And, that was it. Day one down... feeling good... ready for day two!

 

Day two (Wednesday), was an entirely different story. I added some more work and a certain 5th grade boy had the attitude of:

 

1.  Why do we need to do school anyway!?

2.  This is boring!

3.  I don't like to write!

4.  This is too hard!

 

I kept my cool this year (unlike years past when I let my emotions get the better of me). However, I did end up firmly explaining to my son that it is a REQUIREMENT for him to do school. He could choose to cooperate with me and do school at home, or we could send him to the public school where things would be MUCH different and much less desirable for him. As we finished school that day, I was feeling like a failure as a mom and as a homeschooler; but, my son did eventually apologize for his behavior and agreed to do better.

 

That led us to day three (Thursday). No problems whatsoever! We finished our work with smiles and hugs. Then, took a field trip to a nearby nature center for their Homeschool Naturalist Program.

 

Today (Friday), we finished our first week by reviewing the 7 days of Creation, and eating a large sugar cookie decorated to look like the Earth. I remember doing something similar to this when we were doing the "Exploring Countries and Cultures" curriculum and learning about MAPS & GLOBES. It was fun to do it again.

 

Now, to enjoy the weekend and start fresh again on Monday morning.