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Wrapping Up the First Week of School

It feels good to be wrapping up the first week of the school year! We sort of eased back into it, not doing our total full schedule yet. Although it seemed pretty full to me...whew! If this week is any indication, we are going to have one busy year. And that's a good thing!

We kicked off on Tuesday, in our day-after-Labor Day tradition. It was a day full of both great and rough moments. Kind of acclimating back to the school schedule, I guess. I was glad Vince was working at home that day!

We had a few new first-day-of-school traditions this year. We started the day with Bull's Eyes, the kids drew self-portraits and we made cupcakes. Lots of fun!

We start each day with our Bible study. We are using Character Sketches I as a basis for our monthly character study. This month we are studying *loyalty*. I have been so pleased with how the kids have retained our Bible study this week. After Bible we head to the *morning board*, which has been a huge hit! They can't wait to update all their charts each day.

Our new math curriculum is a hit so far. Each day leaves them begging to do more~LOVE that!! We are progressing along nicely with our language arts. This week has mostly been review of grammar basics, plus reading and handwriting. So far Mr. B's favorite subject is handwriting~I love the Getty-Dubay Italics program!

We are really loving Apologia's Discovering Creation with Astronomy! We're currently in the process of making a model of our solar system~so much fun!! Really, I love that kind of stuff!! Thankfully my husband does, too!

my grandparents memories books

We are all really enjoying the Story of the World Volume I, too. That has them begging for more also! The Princess has been having fun this week becoming an amateur historian and interviewing her family members for a family tree project. She was so excited when I pulled out the grandparent memory books that I have from three of my grandparents (in their own handwriting and everything!). I'm so glad she loves to hear about her ancestors and listen to family stories.
The Starry Night by Mr. B

I introduced Bach and Van Gogh to the kids this week for our monthly composer and artist study. They have really enjoyed listening to Bach all week long. We play his music in the background while we do school and they have loved it, so much that they are even requesting him for their bedtime music. They also had fun coloring The Starry Night by Van Gogh while I read to them about him.

The Starry Night by The Princess

Today we ended our school week with our homeschool group's co-op classes. They kicked off today and my kiddos were SO excited! They love our co-op~and I must say, it's pretty great! The Princess is taking an Early Elementary Music class, Early Spanish class and *Blood & Guts*. Mr. B is taking *Colors*, Early Spanish and Preschool/K5 Music as well. I am assisting in the Early Elem. Music and in Blood & Guts. I'm wondering about how my sanity is going to hold up through the music class. Did I mention that they're learning the recorder? Yep...it's one squeaky class:) Although by the time Fridays roll around I'll probably be deaf from hearing The Princess practice throughout the week...heehee

All-in-all it was a good week. I felt like each day just got better than the last. I was pretty worn out by today though. Vince was so sweet and surprised me by having my sister come over to watch the kiddos and took me out for dinner. It was very relaxing~just what I needed, too!

And that's our first week of school!

This post is linked to The Weekly Wrap-up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
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