First Official Week

We are off and running here! I’ve been anxiously waiting for school to start, and it is finally here. My daughter was confused up until the first day. She thought she was going back to preschool. By the beginning of the first day, she was in the groove. My baby is such a good student. She did so well sitting and listening attentively. I definitely enjoy the Saxon math. There is a good variety of activities involved with each lesson. I opted out of getting the meeting book. It’s really not necessary, so I do not recommend buying it.
As we progressed, I found that adjustments needed to be made. The phonics book I picked up, for instance, was meant for a classroom full of students. I made a quick decision to use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons which my Aunt had given me. It is a little basic, but I added it into my schedule. We did the first 3 lessons out of the book today. It was supposed to take 15 minutes per lesson, but we breezed through it.
I also made adjustment to our schedule because Saturday was kids’ fishing day at the local trout hatchery. I simply HAD to include a unit on fish! I went online and found some basic information on life cycles and fish anatomy. I know it sounds advanced, but you can adjust anything down for kindergarten!
Some of the things I’ve discovered so far:

It’s cool that we can have recess in the pool.
I get to enjoy the nice weather instead of being cooped up in an office all day.
My daughter is awesome.
I seemed to have forgotten some basics of child development. Young children are concrete thinkers. I have to keep it simple, so she can focus. I suggest using a ruler to cover up questions on worksheets. I want to see if this will help her focus on the current worksheet problem instead of looking all over the page.
I have time now to potty train! Yes I am homeschooling and potty training folks. I can multitask.
Homeschooling with a toddler is not as hard as I thought it would be.

Well, our caterpillars came in the mail today, so I’m heading off to teach Hannah about the life cycle of a butterfly! Bye!

The Room

I wanted to get a before and after shot of the room, but my mother thought it would be easy to rip the wallpaper off.

As you can see, only the top layer came off. There was another layer of paper underneath which was original. It took me a good 2 weeks to get all of the paper off the wall. My poor elbows were sore for a week, but the result was great. Thanks to my husband for painting and to a friend for giving me great wall posters!


I made a little area for my 2 year old. I have some ideas on how to keep him busy!


After decorating, I finished up a little project on Hannah's old dresser. I wanted the top drawers for storage of things that 2 year olds do not need to get into. The bottom four drawers were pulled out. I removed the nails to the front of two of the drawers and put them back into place.

If you look closely, I added the exacto knife and fabric glue into the picture. So my supplies are:


4 pieces of foam
2 yards of fabric
fabric glue
an exacto knife
scissors
a staple gun


I first added some foam to the sides of the drawers to measure and cut them to fit.

I then removed the foam and glued my fabric on and let it dry. It is a sturdy glue by the way, but will leave stains on fabric. I then put the foam into position and stapled where needed and added fabric to the floor of the drawer as well. I ended up with 2 shelves. I am pretty please with it.


I did not get enough foam, so I have to make a trip back to Hobby Lobby. Dang.


Isn't it pretty? Noah likes the balls. The lady at the fabric counter said that a teacher told her she is using the same fabric for a time out spot, so that kids can count the spots while in time out. I thought that was a great idea! I'm so ready for school to start!! I think Hannah is now getting excited after seeing her school room.