Today was the first day of school for Natalie, so I decided it would be the first day of school for Lukas too. For those who don't know, we've been homeschooling Lukas. This year he starts Kindergarten. He will be going to a school with a preK/K class that has four other students on Tuesdays, and then Tom and I will teach him four days a week at home. It's a little unusual that his class won't start until next month (teacher vacation), but we're starting the home part of it today.We've been prepping Natalie for school for the past week, but I wasn't sure she really understood. She smiles a lot and says "yes!" when we ask her if she's excited about going back to school, but I wasn't sure she really understood until the bus pulled up in front of our house. I expected her to be very excited about getting on the bus, but she needed a little coaxing to walk to the bus, maybe because the driver is different from last year and she didn't recognize the new person.
Lukas has also been excited about school, but I know he'll be even more excited next month, when he actually goes somewhere. I'm glad I have this year in Kindergarten to become experienced with following a curriculum and scheduling the day for school, before next year in first grade, when it really counts. But I have to say that the first day went well! I'm following a Kindergarten curriculum, even though Lukas is so far ahead in many areas (he read the poems to me that I'm supposed to read for him to memorize), but I figure it's good to fill in the gaps and make sure I haven't skipped anything.
He is excited to be learning cursive writing, so that was nice. He's also enjoying listening to the songs that he'll sing in chapel. My challenge will be skipping through the curriculum, but not spending too much time in one day on a subject. I think the big area he needs work on is writing letters and numbers, so I'm glad he's excited about it.
When Natalie arrived home on the bus, she was awake and very happy. I could tell she had a good day. It's wonderful that she has the same teacher and the same two assistant teachers as last year, and several of her classmates should also be the same. Good report from her OT...still waiting to get the call from her speech therapist with "Where did Natalie go and come back speaking so much?!"
5 comments:
Wow, what a day! I would love to hear more about the curriculum you are using for Lukas. I am going to home school Bella this year as well. What curriculum are you going to use? How are you going to do "school" with Conrad being home? These are all of the things that I am trying to figure out!
I love that picture of Natalie on the bus, but then I realize that will be Alex in a year. I can't imagine.
Brandi, I used "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" before, and now I'm using the A Beka curriculum. It's the curriculum that Lukas' school recommends, so I thought I'd just go with that to get into things, and if we decide later to change curricula, at least I'll know what I'm doing.
We did school in the morning while Konrad napped and Natalie played with stickers at the table. Konrad and Natalie also nap in the afternoon, which is when I used to work on reading with Lukas, but I'm working to move it to the morning, and so far so good! Konrad is close to leaving his morning nap, so I'll have him doing fun activities while I work with Lukas. Lukas hasn't napped in two years, so if Bella is still napping, this may not work for you.
I noticed that Konrad is getting bigger than Natalie now! We're getting closer and closer to that with the boys. Andrew's head is already bigger than Austin and he's catching him quickly in show size as well!
Yes, Michelle, Konrad is getting close. Natalie is still heavier and taller, but by the time of their 4th and 2nd birthdays, I think they'll be the same size.
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