Today was our first day of school at home!
I do believe that homeschooling starts at birth, and to tell the truth, we've been working on school for a long time. When I told my daughter we would be starting school soon, she said "But Mommy, we already do school!" Now that is truth.
Age-wise, she's in pre-K, though she's quite ready for Kindergarten and beyond. Isabelle has been reading for a while, so we're quite past letter recognition and other pre-school skills. So today, we began our Kindergarten curriculum, which I'll tell you more about in a future post.
How Did it Go?
School was great! I love our curriculum! I've already learned some super practical things about teaching my kiddos. Isabelle (4) and Andrew (2) had a great time reading stories, making art, playing with shapes, and working on handwriting.
Like all aspects of motherhood, flexibility is the name of the game. On Saturday, my 2 1/2 year old decided he was finally interested in the potty and he's been pottying regularly ever since. So I felt like I had no choice but to start true potty training today. Potty training was the biggest challenge of the day, simply because I felt distracted and divided all morning long. Everything took longer than it should've and it was a huge challenge to be patient with both children, who always seemed to need me at the same time. I prayed frequently, often while sitting knee-to-knee with a toddler who needed to focus on pottying instead of giggling. God brought me the patience that I needed.
What did the Teacher Learn?
Mommy learned a lot about patience, grace, and how to let go of things that don't really matter. I'm sure I'll still be saying that in three years and even in thirteen years. It seems that those are some of my biggest challenges in all areas of parenting, but especially in homeschooling.
I also learned that I'll need to wake up earlier. 6:15 is not early enough when you want to go running, have time with God, squeeze in a shower, and still be mentally and emotionally prepared for potty training and homeschooling.
And I think I'm taking the night off cooking. I'm worn out!
How have your first days of school gone?
And I think I'm taking the night off cooking. I'm worn out!
How have your first days of school gone?
If you enjoyed this post, you can follow on Facebook and sign up to receive MamaGab in your inbox.
She's darling! We're starting pre-k with my 3 year old after Labor Day and she's SO excited! I think she's expecting it to be like Bible School or Sunday School. :) Looking forward to hearing about your curriculum choice!
ReplyDeleteThanks, I've posted those up now! It's so great that your daughter is excited. My kids love school at home. It gives structure to our day and at this age, it's really mostly fun and games that we learn through.
Delete