Back to School '14-'15

My three Stout Scholars.

We started school this past Monday.  Daddy was gone most of the week.  We had eye and ear doctor appts, but we still rocked our first week of school!! Isaac has been fantastic at jumping into our routine.  Emma is becoming more and more independent.  We are loving it!

Up first is Isaac.  He's technically a "PreK-er".  He completed the first book in his preK curriculum in July and is trucking along in the next.  Our plan for his year is to work on many PreK skills and come spring start the Kinder curriculum Aidan used.  So, if all goes as planned he will start next fall as a first grader. 

He wasn't so excited for pictures, but he was a hoot when it came to the first day interview.  His love of Poptarts and hatred of chicken came as no surprise.  However, I'm not so sure about his career aspirations?!  I will admit his eyeballs are pretty great!  Those big brown eyes do a number on mommy!

  

Aidan, oh Aidan.  Technically this wasn't his first day of 1st grade.  Last fall he started as a Kindergartener.  We completed Kinder curriculum the first of November and moved directly into 1st grade.  So, I anticipate that some point late fall he will actually begin second grade material.  He's doing better at cooperating for school work.  On one of our rougher days this week he told daddy at bedtime he hoped he could always be homeschooled to spend more time with mommy. *warms my heart*  Especially on the rough days.  By reading his interview you can tell what his newest chore is, how humble he is and his love of all things school. ;)

  

This girl just wants the year to be over so she can officially be called a "middle schooler". *SIGH*.  She's moved into her 5th grade curriculum and is such a big helper to me keeping our schedule going and the boys in line- if ya know what I mean.  She still only speaks of being a teacher one day and I can totally see that happening! She's just as humble....or confident as her brother Aidan. ;)

  

We started our morning with with muffins made by sissy.  A new addition to our day is Isaac's Bible story time.  In one of my few strokes of genius I decided to have Emma teach Isaac his Bible stories and help him complete the coloring sheet to go along with it. She has made up a schedule of lesson plans for each story and determined what embellishment he will add to that day's coloring sheet. (cotton balls, glitter paint, fabric, etc)  One day they even went on a nature walk in the yard to find leaves to glue down.  She LOVES playing teacher and although I only planned to do it 2-3 times a week they did it everyday this week because he actually asks each day to do it!  Yay!  Their Bible story time gives me time to work one on one with Aidan as much of his work requires instruction from me.

  

Aidan with his number book.  The older two drawing their self portrait on their first science lesson.  Our first unit this year will be on the human body.

  

Per Emma's demand the first day of school must be "fun" and fun=art in her mind.  So, I decided to try our hand at making our own puffy paint.  1 out of 3 turned out.  Not sure what we did wrong or what we did right.  Oh well- they had fun playing with it!

  

Totally did NOT see what Isaac was doing in the photo below, right.  Silly boy!

  

Puffy paint ice cream cones complete with foam sprinkles and a cherry on top.  We used equal parts shaving cream and glue with a splash of acrylic paint for color. 

  

In keeping with tradition we had homemade pizza for supper on our first day of school- and ice cream sundaes for dessert. YUM!

One week down.  Many more to go!!  I'm very excited about our curriculum this year and some new organizing/scheduling things I've implemented and seemed to help on our first week.  I will share more on that on another post.