Lessons Learned From Our First Day of Homeschooling

We did it!  We made it through the first day of homeschool!

Yep.  We're still smiling!  Maybe a little tired, but smiling.  

I'm a planner.  I always have been since I was little.  I would even write lists about what lists I need to make.  So, it was only natural that I've been planning so much for this first day.  

Did things go according to plan?  

NO!  

Is that a bad thing?  

No, again.  

Here's a run down of what I learned about my first day homeschooling.

#1)  Workboxes work!  Just make sure you know how to work them.

I started the year using workboxes.  They're great!  My kids really liked seeing how much longer until they were finished.  But what didn't work is when they both needed my attention at the same time.  Then 15 minutes later, they were both taking a break or doing something independently.  

Yeah, gotta fix that.  

I really need to work on understanding what they'll need my assistance on and having my other child doing something I know should be independent.  

Let's see if that changes tomorrow.  

#2) Be flexible and think outside the box.

Given the fact that Munchkin has never been in school up to this point, I was really unsure as to what she really knew and what I thought she knew.  I started having her match lowercase letters with their upper case partner.  I thought she could totally do this on her own.  

Think again!  

She had a fourth of them matched and then started guessing.  Thankfully I remembered the alphabet posted on the wall.  Once she figured out how to match the wall letters with her magnet, then match the partners on her paper with the group she found on the wall, we were in business.  This taught me that you can't plan for everything.  Be on your toes!

#3)  Be ready to say Oops!  

We started Monkey's first spelling lesson with a story then a pre-test.  As we were finishing up with the challenge words, I look at the side of my teacher page.  

Lesson 9 Day 1.  

Oh boy.  

There's a reason I put a bookmark earlier in the book!  

I apologized to Monkey, erased his paper and we started again.  I'm thankful for kids who are flexible too, and don't hold too much against you.  

His response to me: "That's okay, Momma.  We all make mistakes!"  

Yep, I know bubba.  Now let's take a spelling test all over again.  

Was he upset?  

Surprisingly no.  

What did it teach me?  

It's okay to mess up.  They don't care! 

I'm excited to see how this year goes.  It's a definite change from what I'm used to, but I'm ready for the challenge!

Working on Scheduling

Finally wrapping up on long term planning for our first year of home school!  

I spent three hours last night cutting and laminating and cutting some more.  Let me tell you, Munchkin has a lot of little letters and numbers that have been laminated and put on little rings for her convenience. 
   

I bought Munchkin's K4 curriculum from Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  She's got some awesome products up and I'm so looking forward to using them this year!

Along with all this planning, I've been working on implementing the workbox system.  I've read some blogs on it and did some Pinterest research on it.  I know it's going to work well for Monkey.  You can read more about it here. 

But as I started planning things out, I realized there was something missing for me.  When I taught in the classroom, I've always outlined what we were doing that day on the board.  I just knew I needed to do something like that here.  

Tada!  

I printed it out on cardstock and used my handy-dandy laminator to make it reusable.  I'm super excited!  Like to have your own copy?  You can download it here.  

I can't wait for Monday!  

I know they say not to have too many high expectations the first year.  Don't want to set yourself up for failure and all.  But how could I not?  I get to be with my kids and do something I love with them.  Wouldn't you be excited too?  

Summer Coming to a Close

This year has been a little different for me.  Normally, my summer ends slowly.  By that I mean that once August hits, I'm sitting in my classroom, decorating, creating activities, and trying to think of the best ways to help my 140+ students to have the best year they can.  I would go up to the school maybe a week or two before we had to actually report back to ease my way back into routine.  

Ignore my messy desk!!  ;)

Fast-forward to this summer.  Since I'm staying home with my kids now and we're homeschooling, I haven't felt that end to my summer yet.  I have my kids with me 24/7 so there's no time to walk away and plan.  They are constantly there!  (Not that I'm complaining - I promise you!)  It's hard to have that transition like I've had in the past.

So the answer to my dilemma?  Well, go decorate a classroom!  Silly, I know.  But it worked!  We changed one of our kids bedrooms into a playroom/classroom at the beginning of the summer as a suggestion from a friend.  

Our oldest is twice-gifted.  He was diagnosed at 3.5 years as mild/moderate autistic and had a list long of other diagnoses to go with it.  He has attended a wonderful daycare/preschool for the past 3 years that has helped him along in his journey to where he is today.  His developmental pediatrician even said at one time he didn't show the typical autistic tendencies anymore and she would even go out on a limb and say he probably wouldn't receive a diagnosis of autistic if he were to be evaluated again.  (Praise God!)  But a problem we have is routine.  When we first started talking to Monkey about the idea of homeschooling, he said he had to go to school - we couldn't do it at home - because school is a different place than home.  I could see his point, given his past three years of going to a school.  So our wonderful friend suggested making a spot for school.  A place in our home that was dedicated to only school, and could look like school.  A place where we could walk in for school during the day, and shut the door to school when we were done.  So, we made a bedroom into the school room.  

And that suggestion was also the answer to my problem.  I've spent the last week decorating our new classroom, just as I would be doing if I were still teaching at the middle school.  The great thing was I could use most of the things that I used in my old classroom to help decorate the new one!  But now, instead of having equations, angles, and slope on my walls - it's replaced with numbers, colors, and ABCs.  

Let the school year begin!  

Mom, this post is for you.

My mom tells me I should start a blog.  You're crazy I say.  Now look at me. Always trust mom. Bottom line.  I hope to be able to share things in my life. Maybe help someone else - who knows! Amongst my life of former middle school math teacher turned homeschooling mom with a side of graphic design and tremendous love for my little family, surely there's someone out there who can benefit from my ramblings.

For instance, make sure you read the fine print on what you buy on ebay.  I am a beginning homeschooling mom. One would think with my education background, I've got this in the bag.  Think again, folks.  Bought what I thought was a complete curriculum for my 7 year old only to find out he's missing his math text and workbooks, the reading texts, but we have an over abundance of music theory.  Now, with us starting in 3 days, I'm scrambling to piece together a curriculum that fits for him.  I've found some free stuff that looks promising, but I find myself still looking at books, placement tests, and the like.  Don't you think with a minimum of education background I could throw something together?  Yep, I thought so too.  Now I'm not so sure!