Our Very First Day Of Homeschool!
Today is an exciting day! After anticipating homeschool for so long and hoping that it would be possible for it to be real one day.. that day has arrived! Our first day of homeschooling preschool.
Homeschool has been a long dream of mine. There came a lot of excitement but fear, anxiety, and uncertainty with my journey of trying to figure out if it could actually be done. I've known for a long time that this is the best choice for my family in terms of educating our children. Although this is only preschool not kindergarten or first grade, but just the fact that I've reached the point where we can do something more official is a great accomplishment. We've always done life learning this is just a bit more organized. Today was our first day and there were already so many ups and downs. I don't know how this journey will turn out, but I'm the type of person where unless I change my perspective, I will keep doing whatever feels right to me no matter how hard. Simply because I could not be happy doing it any other way. Especially if it goes against the morals and values of my family.
So now I want to jump into details of how our first day went. I want to do this to help me log in our school memories, but also because I know how much this can help or inspire others. I've been on the other side (and still am) as far as researching and learning how to better teach my kids.
The curriculum we purchased is called A Year Of Playing Skillfully. I immediately was attracted to this curriculum because I believe in learning through play at this delicate age opposed to desk work. I can work on a future post to go deeper into this curriculum and what else I liked about it.
The Good
The first thing we did was a hot air balloon ride to kick off the year! Daddy went to the nearby flower shop and got us 8 colorful balloons this morning which we then tied to our laundry basket. The girls then got in (mostly Jane because Juliet stepped away to use the potty and hang out with grandma for a while) and we pretended to fly above our home and imagine what it would look like from up above. We had the help of google earth as suggested in our lesson. So we used that to figure out where we were going. We then "flew" over neighborhoods, markets, parks, and somehow ended up over Disneyland. We could "see" the princess castle and the carousel. Jane asked me questions about whether or not the castle was a real princess castle. We haven't been to Disneyland since she was about 2, so she doesn't remember much. I then asked her what else she wanted to see and she said the mountains. So we flew over the mountains and she mentioned something about going down to hunt for a bear (her Dad is a hunter), so she pressed the magic button to lower us but then we decided it wasn't the best idea and she quickly pressed the button to launch us back up. She then decided she wanted to be done with the ride.
We then moved on to reading the book we had for this lesson called "Hot Air". Juliet joined us again. We really enjoyed the book that tells "the mostly true story of the first ever hot air balloon ride". She was interested in Queen Marie Antoinette who was there to witness the first balloon ride ever. Jane said she wants to visit the place where she died, which is I guess the same as saying the place that she lived, France. We also decide we would have a future lesson about real kings, queens, and princess's. Since the Disney movies don't cut it for me, and her because she wants to know about the ones that are real! Juliet was only interested in the farm animals that experienced the first actual hot air balloon ride.
We then had our "hot air balloon snack" which included chopped strawberries, celery sticks, crackers, and popcorn. During that time I had an idea that maybe we could create our own hot air balloon, except without the heat. So I grabbed a small plastic cup that we had from a pile stored away in our cabinets, I hole punched a hole on each side and slipped the balloon strings through each one and made sure the balloons were centered to keep the cup balanced. We then grabbed a small toy in this case a small "My Little Pony" toy. taped him in and we also added a note saying "Hey! We are Jane (4) and Juliet (almost 2), and we made this homemade hot air balloon. We sent our little pony for a ride and we hope you can take care of him. Enjoy". Then we stood in the middle of the street and Jane let it go. It was a beautiful moment for me to see that it actually worked and went far away and we watched till it no longer could be seen. We went inside for lunch time after this.
While I put Juliet down for her nap I had Jane begin painting Popsicle sticks a certain amount for each color of paint so that we could do our shapes activity. Since they had to be completely dry first we didn't end up having enough time to finish that activity because Juliet woke up from her nap. By that time I knew we were running out of time, and had to get other things done, but knew we could pick up where we left off the next time.
Jane overall loved her first day. She loves activities that I'm a part of, so it seems that homeschool is a good choice for her (although I think every child loves or would love doing activities with their momma).
The Bad
Nothing is perfect. Or everything is perfectly imperfect, I'm still trying to figure out which way I want to express how life is to my kids. And there were fall outs we had today. Like when Jane first hopped onto our laundry basket for her hot air balloon ride she became frustrated and upset because the lightweight laundry basked wouldn't hold up. She said she was to tall for it, the balloons were too low, she couldn't sit comfortably in it etc. She was beginning a tantrum two minutes into our very first activity. Jane pushed the basket over and began walking away. I jokingly said to my mother in law who was present for the beginning was "it's our first day, and we already have a dropout". After talking to her for a couple minutes she calmed down and we went on. I think she was also a little anxious about our first official homeschool day and expected everything to be perfect.
Another thing that didn't go so well was her reaction after letting go of our homemade hot air balloon. She began to cry in the middle of our neighborhood because she didn't want her pony to go away. I don't think she really realized what was going to happen.
Oh yeah and Juliet had an accident in her pants, I accidentally cut my finger with the scissors when trying to make the hot air balloon, which still really hurts so I cant really type with that finger. Phew!
The Ugly
Well I don't know if there was anything ugly, unless we count the incident in the front yard. When I was walking around the girls and while trying to take pictures of them in the laundry basket and I slipped on a toy and fell hard on my bottom right on the concrete! I could only hope nobody saw.
Overall it was great. Now after a long busy day of wife duties, mom duties, household duties, I can end this and head over to take a nice shower and run right to bed before Juliet wakes up for her first night feeding. Oh but not before I quickly throw the laundry in the dryer that has bee sitting all day. Goodnight!
I would love to read your comments or questions down below. Thanks for reading.
Melissa
