Back to school!

Today was our first day of school! It began, as our first days of school always do, with a first day sign to color (and a brand new box of crayons) at each girl's seat at the kitchen table.

I started printing the signs for the first day of school back when Rachael started kindergarten, and have continued to make them each year since. I just like my pictures, you know? Besides, the girls never mind coloring. I didn't realize until Sunday evening, though, that they actually look forward to their signs. Milly asked me first if they would have signs to color the next morning, and when I told her that she would, she whispered "yessssss." Rachael was excited about fresh, new crayons - like her mommy, she loves the new crayon smell. It really is the little things, isn't it?  :)

My plan was to try a new recipe for breakfast - from Pinterest, of course. However, helpful daddy unintentionally ruined that. He gets home from work around the time we roll out of bed in the mornings, and I was a little slow to make my appearance this morning. When I emerged from the bedroom, I smelled...cinnamon rolls. Which isn't a bad thing, since cinnamon rolls, cut into smaller chunks, are an ingredient in the breakfast I had planned to make. But I quickly noted that the bowl, pan, cinnamon, and vanilla were still sitting, untouched, on the kitchen counter. Gene had come home and, discovering cinnamon rolls in the refrigerator, assumed that they must be the "special breakfast" I had mentioned. He really was trying to be helpful, and I appreciate it...but I was a little disappointed. On the bright side, we'll just have two special breakfasts this week.

So the girls colored their signs (Milly finished much more quickly - not because she's careless or messy, but because Rachael decorated each letter with elaborate designs), we ate, and it was time to get started.

We always begin with a devotion. I'm using a great little-kid devotion book that we already had for Milly (God & Me), but I found great devotions for older kids on Pinterest for Rachael. The website is called Keys for Kids and, although I pinned that particular image myself, I wasn't the first to add it to Pinterest. I just couldn't resist repinning with a better picture. Today's devotion was a great reminder about forgiveness, especially given the multitude of things that we're forgiven for. Best of all - these devotions are free and delivered to my inbox every morning!

In addition to the devotion, we started using the Character Crew lessons, which I'd been meaning to do for quite some time and finally have time for. We talked about being respectful - especially as it applies to your own family - and will hang on to that trait this week before moving on to the next one. We've had a few sass issues lately that I'm hoping this little project will help rectify!

Next came science, at the girls' requests. I kept it super simple for the first day, and attempted to recreate the really neat "walking water" pin. The paper towel is supposed to conduct the water from the higher glass (with blue-tinted water) into the lower glass. Didn't work so well for us. To begin with, the water moved soooooo slowly - but it gave the girls something to keep checking on through the morning. Then, the water only made it about halfway across. It actually moved along better once we moved the top glass down to the same height as the second glass, but ALL of the water still didn't cross over. So the girls learned that experiments don't always go the way they should!

We did English/reading while we waited for the water to mosy into the second glass. We didn't quite finish Rachael's Learning Language Arts Through Literature book last year, so we'll wrap it up first. She started a unit on newspapers this morning, and was researching early newspaper writers in this picture. In her pajamas, of course, because that's how we roll around here.

Then we made a reading log to help us keep up with the books she reads this year and their genres. Her nose is constantly in a book, but I thought it would be neat for her to see a) just how many she reads and b) what kinds of books she reads. Assuming that the genre chart will be a little lopsided, I'll challenge her later on even it out a bit.

Milly really, really wants to read, and she's doing a great job. She can sound out lots of three-letter words already - but she has a tendency to guess at the word rather than paying attention to the letters. Once we get past that, she'll be reading in no time.  :)  We're using Happy Phonics, which is a play-based phonics curriculum. Afterward, she played word-building games on Starfall, which I already knew about, but people pin all the time too!

Later, she asked to trace letters, so I remembered this pin that I had just added - customizable handwriting worksheets. Typed in the alphabet, printed, and she was a happy girl. My little lefty is surprisingly meticulous about her handwriting.

Lunch time! Rachael made her own, and I could hardly argue.

After lunch, Rachael did a science lesson (reading charts, graphs, and tables) and a few math lessons (geometry) on Time4Learning, which we adore. She also took advantage of her daily reading time to hide in her room with a book for a while. She finished whatever it was that she was reading and started on Bridge to Terabithia for a second time...instead of The Westing Game, which I LOVE and checked out of the library for her to read. *sniff*

Milly napped with Daddy while Rachael and I did more math - two lessons (and tests) in the Math-U-See book that we also didn't finish last year. As much as the child hated learning to add and subtract, she's really enjoying multiplying and finding area. Needless to say, that makes math time MUCH more pleasant!

With dinner time fast approaching, it finally occurred to me that the girls should get dressed and head outside for their first day of school pictures. By the time we did them, the lighting was atrocious...so please excuse the shadows and squinty eyes. (I think they're pretty cute regardless.)

While I got ready for an evening meeting and Gene cooked dinner, Rachael read to her sister on the couch - something that I had meant to do myself, but hey, it's good for Rachael to have practice reading aloud too. Win-win-win for us three girls! (Milly made sure I got to read two books to her at bedtime to make up for it.)

I didn't get around to math with Milly today, or history with Rachael, but the first day of a new school year is always laid back. We'll get there. And we're off to a great start.  :)