First Week of School!!

It has begun!  I was really ready to just jump in and start this school year but the kids weren't overly anxious to get back to it.  It was a good, long week.  I don't know about the kids but I was exhausted!!  It wasn't a perfect week--I need to tweak some things and rearrange some schedules but it was a good start.

We cheated and did 1st day of school pictures the night before so that Brian could help me.  They turned out great!

I had surprises for them on the 1st day (of course!).  I actually decided it would work best, storage-wise, if the kids kept their supplies and books in a backpack.  We hadn't bought new backpacks in a couple years so I decided to get new ones and surprise them.  I stocked them with the supplies they picked out, a new water bottle, new pajamas and a lunchbox (because it was free with the backpack!) to use for whatever they want.

I had to take a picture of Lily in her "Homeschool Girls Rock" t-shirt.  Perfect 1st day choice!

Nathan was all about school.  He just loved it to death.  His backpack did not come off--it was still on when he crashed on the couch that afternoon.  He was a joy this week--the curriculum is so wonderful for his age--easy and fun!! 

 *Making binoculars for the treasure hunt.*

 Found the package!  It was the Bible we'll be using for his stories this year.

 *Uncle Steve helped out and loaned us some great pirate gear for our pirate box.  X marks the spot was our theme.  All the kids loved this stuff--not sure where it all ended up, actually. *

Nathan still wants more work--he often joined Samuel or the twins at the table and joined in with their work.  Here he is working so hard on cutting.  Such concentration!

Samuel plainly told my parents that he "hated" school.  It's actually not going that bad.  He struggles with writing and it's a lot of writing review right now.  I cut down on the writing he has to do just because it is so much for him.  We are also doing a phonics review, which he does really well with but if he misses just one, his whole world caves in.  So, I've been trying to find ways to make it fun.  For example, he forgot which letter said the f sound so I told him it was "F for fart". Words I never thought would come from my mouth but that's his love language!!  So, he remembers that and told Brian all about it when he got home.  

 Playing with pattern blocks--a gentle start to Math.  I love My Father's World curriculum so far!!

 That painful handwriting!!  :)

For science, we made our ant farm.  We usually are fighting ants in our home but, of course, this day we struggled to find ants for our farm.  :)  He enjoyed this, though.

MFW Creation to Greeks is next!  We got our timeline up in the hall way:

We had a couple art lessons this week.  This lesson was on frustration.  We read about Joni Erickson Tada and how she is paralyzed so she creates art using her mouth.  The assignment was to draw a butterfly using only your mouth.

We learned about and then celebrated our 1st Biblical feast this year, which was the Sabbath.  It was a really interesting, fun experience.  Here they are decorating the spice box:

Rolling dough for the challah (Sabbath bread):

Brian blessing each child.  

Washing hands:

Passing the spices:

It did feel like quite a bit of work but everyone really enjoyed the different parts of it.  Looking forward to our next feast!

Finally, showing off new pajamas.  We were actually quite disciplined this week with getting dressed for school...we'll see how long it lasts!