Back to school!

Kate and I have worked a little on her social studies in the past two weeks. I found that our book has more chapters than our school year has weeks, so it made sense to get a little ahead--we had worked some last spring, but still hadn't gotten to where I hoped to be to start our year. Plus mummifying a chicken takes some time! Welcome to a hands on teaching of ancient Egypt, ala The Story of the World. I also have been going over habitats with her, mostly in a preview of the animals we're going to be studying this year in biology.

But, yesterday was our first full day of classes. We will likely just do a few days this week and next, but start more in to full weeks after that! I'm looking forward to seeing how our new curriculum goes this year.

We also have plans to join a co-op, attend classes at the art museum again, and add in classes at the zoo and dance or gymnastics. I should keep pretty busy with the running! I love all the oppurtunities being closer to town affords us. While our nearby library (literally we could walk there, if it weren't 100 degrees and there were sidewalks the whole way) doesn't offer a lot of the books I'm interested in, but there are a number of other libraries in the area that will send the books I request there for me to pick up. I don't even have to go hunt for them--they put all of my books together for me to pick up. Awesome!

It was a laid back day. The first lessons in math and spelling, some extra reading about cat mummies, and we studied mountain habitats. We read a Middle Eastern tale of Cinderella and some other books too.

I have plans of a weekly schedule, though we'll see how that goes once our weeks start taking shape...I know that days and weeks can take on a life of their own, so I'm not sure if we will actually follow this plan or opt for something totally different!

Here's the idea, for now:

Daily:
Bible verse memory
English: Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar
Math

Bi-Weekly:
Biology
Ancient History

Weekly:
Music
Art (in addition to that incorporated with other lessons)
Co-op
Library
Logic
Etiquette
Dance or Gymnastics class

I'm opting to do science and social studies bi-weekly, so we can get more immersed in what we're working on and not switch gears so often. We will have one day a week (likely Friday) to catch up on anything in those lessons that we haven't finished for the week.

We're much more focused this year in first grade than all the different skill sets we were working on last year with workbooks for cutting, and dot to dot, and adding, and letters, in addition to this that and the other thing in unit studies. I think she learned a lot, but I'm hoping this will be a better use of time (mine in gathering materials and hers in less repetition where it isn't needed, since I was pulling from several different kindergarten and 1st grade workbooks that had a lot of overlap). I'm also hoping that she will find it fun and interesting! The mummy made an impression for sure. I'm grateful to have such a bright pupil to work with too.