First Official Day of (Home) School

Today was Aidyn's first official day of first grade, at home, with all the freedom to do as we please, learn as we please, and wriggle and talk as much as we please.

We started a tradition this year to bribe the heck out of start the new year off with some Christmas-type levels of excitement. Thus, David and I spent the weekend finding cool and insanely cheap edu-toys for Aidyn to open up on first-day-of-school morning.

The stash included a croquet set, a Mind over Matter science box, a ruler, a compass, gigantic watercolor paper, Silly Sentences boards, a cool medieval chess set, a box of rainbow Nerds, a parachute, Magic Message markers, a calculator, and a Rubik's Cube.

After the gift-opening extravaganza, breakfast, and a change of clothes, we played with his parachute, billowing it up and scurrying under it. Then we went on a long morning walk, which he felt fit to record on our camera. (I will spare you the viewing of the 30+ minute video of grainy, shaky video. You are welcome.)

Once we got back in and hydrated, we started our row of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.  Today was Language Arts day, so after we read the story, we hunted down the rhymes and created our own:

"'M is looped,
N is stooped,
O is twisted alley-oop,'
what else rhymes with 'oop?'"

Aidyn: "Hmm, poop?"

Yes. Classy education.

After we got the laughs out of us, Aidyn painted a real palm tree.

Get it? Okay, maybe the laughs weren't completely out.

For snack, we munched on these beauties:

To make your own limp-as-a-wet-noodle palm trees, all you need is a pudding cup, some crushed graham crackers for sand, a rolled Pirouette wafer, and Fruit by the Foot or Fruit Leather.

Then we got rolling.

We worked on two pages of math, a page of language exercises, and two pages of phonics.

During "break time," Aidyn unpacked his science box and tested out both centrifugal force and gravity, even though neither were on the agenda today.

Here's Aidyn presenting the awesome power of gravity to hold up his dad's heavy belt. We also transferred a yellow ball to a blue cup WITHOUT TOUCHING IT and only using a green cup. There might be a show later.

For lunch, we chomped on

a graham cracker-cashew butter trunk and Granny Smith leaves.

We also started Story of The World and a gentle introduction to history. We cuddled on the couch and perused his own history via his baby book. Our science unit wove in nicely when we read about the human body and how it changes as we grow. We looked at pictures of Aidyn as a little squirt and now as a string bean. It's hard to deny how much he's grown when comparing the two.

How much do we love homeschool?

Dis much.