Preparation for the First Day of School

Yesterday, Monday, August 16, we had our pseudo-first day. It was mostly a preparation for the "real" first day, which was today.

We woke at 8:00, ate our breakfast, did some chores (dusted main living area, vacuumed main living area, cleaned kids' bathroom), and started our school day at 9:15. We said the Pledge of Allegiance (we have a small American flag hanging on our "schoolroom" door), we had a devotional about God's angels (and how they love praising God and doing errands for God and don't have time to watch t.v.--and how it's much more fun to look at the stars up close or watch a sunset than to watch t.v.), and we sang a song (they chose "Home on the Range"--we just returned from the dude ranch, and it was on their minds). Then we started investigating Texas weather (there is a movie about Wild Weather in Texas at the Bob Bullock History of Texas Museum where we planned to spend our "official" first day of school). We discussed the many different climates in Texas and why there are so many different climates, we talked about how the climate affects the way people live in different regions, we created a simulation of a drought and another one of a flood, we made a model of a tornado and a hurricane, watched videos of these natural disasters and completed a Venn diagram about tornadoes and hurricanes.

In the midst of all of our weather activities, our Frontier West music teacher (Dr. Carla McElhaney) came to teach piano lessons. While each kiddo had their piano lesson, the other one decorated their title page of their Writer's Notebook and wrote their first entry. . . they wrote a short story about angels doing God's work (an extension of our day's devotional).

Then we tackled a little math: time. YaYa reviewed telling time on the hour and half hour, and then we introduced 5-minute increments. She caught on really quickly (in less than 5 minutes)! Elliot also worked with time, with some problem solving using elapsed time. He, too, did well.

We ended our day around 2:00 p.m., and we headed to the gym so the kids could play and I could swim. It was a wonderful pre-first day!!!!

Elliot's thoughts: "AWESOME!"
YaYa's thoughts: "AWESOME!"