School of Smooches 2014

 

First day of school for the School of Smooches 2014!! Stephen very wisely advised me not to start school until today and I’m so thankful that I followed his advise…..it gave me an extra week to get the house settled from the move last week and extra time to prep for school, both highly necessary for a successful first day and year of school!!

 

Jeremiah — first day of 3rd grade

I am really looking forward to our school year! We are studying early American history which is my favorite after Ancient history. Jeremiah and Natalie are both in third grade this year (with Natalie taking a modified reading class since she’s not quite as a proficient reader has Jeremiah), Ben is in first grade and Jadyn is in “stay out of trouble/preschool”. We are really going to focus this year on English, spelling and writing…..none of which are my favorite to teach, but sometimes we have to do things that are not our favorite.

 

 

Natalie — First day of school 3rd grade

Our first day went fairly well, albeit a little chaotic! I am very excited about using First Language Lessons for our English this year and we are using SonLight for history and reading books, All About Reading and All About Spelling and Math-U-See. I just love Math-U-See! Ok, honestly I just love curriculum that is simple, builds on the previous lesson and can be completed in 10-15 minutes a day!! No, I don’t mean our entire school day is 10-15 minutes, but each subject lesson 🙂 Which is why First Language Lessons is such a good fit for us this year. Since we are focusing on Language Arts this year, I decided to skip a formal science program, and I’m ok with that!! We usually only do science every other year anyway and adding extra subjects just increases my stress to “get it all done”…..simple is better! Especially when you are mommy, teacher, house cleaner, chef and driver!

Ben — first day of 1st grade

Back to our first day! The kids were all excited to color their “year” poster, especially since we have new markers!! New markers are always a treat!! The only tears we had today were surprisingly from Ben during reading class. He was sure that he could NOT read “these hard words”, but after a little practice he started remembering and all was fine. I think it really helped doing the summer reading program at the library this summer because my already reading kids (Jeremiah and Natalie) just started right in without hesitation. My mom also came today (she decided to come on Mondays and help with school, which is a HUGE blessing) and that was wonderful!! It made the day much smoother because I could send a kid or two with her for their class while I worked with the remaining kid or two 🙂

Jadyn — first day of pre-school

Very thankful for a good first day of school!!  And may this year be full of learning and discovery!

The first day of school for my big boys was several weeks ago, but I’m pleased to say that they are both doing very well. More on that later!