Start of School!

Well, it is time to start school in the Cessna house. Summer break is over-rated. We lose so much educationally and I feel like I may just lose my mind. We take the break so we can do fun things but it is so hot and miserable outside I feel like we may as well be studying and getting a few weeks "ahead" to take extra breaks in the fall when the weather is nice (or whenever else a week off sounds nice).

This year Aiden will be "in" 1st grade, Maverick "in" Kindergarten and Griffin will be tagging along and doing some pre-school level work. I put "in" in quotation because we really do very little by the grade level. Our history book (The Complete Book of United States History) is a 3-5th grade book and we are just covering the parts that are appropriate and adding fun activities that address the time or subject we learned. We will also be covering some holidays and things like that. Both are already reading aloud and just need to work on flow and speed and comfort. They will still be doing Explode the Code to work out any kinks in our reading. Our Science curriculum (God's Design for Life by AIG) is also a multi-grade book. We are doing the "beginner" sections and will repeat the book when they get older and do the other sections. For math we are using Math U See. Aiden is partially through the Alpha level and Maverick will start the Primer this year. I don't really know how they coincide with public school math grade levels. We will also do doing copywork (for handwriting), Bible devotions and memory, be looking at and doing art, be ready poetry, and lots of read alouds. This is a huge paragragh and looks like we are way overbooked. But we won't do everything everyday and school will take about 2 hours if we don't whine and waste time. :)Here are our primary curriculum books (I only wish I had the bookends I've been looking for)

Griffin gets to do "tot trays" which can be found at www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com practicing skills like stringing beads, fill and spill (pouring), cutting, sorting, coloring, etc. They are a lot like "learning centers" in a daycare setting except he stays in one place and the learning comes to him on trays. He will also have "calendar time" each day to learn the days of the week and practice counting. He will be doing his tot trays at the table while the other boys are doing their other things and will hopefully soak a bit of what they are learning up. I will take some pictures and upload our tot trays soon. They really are pretty cool!

I also color coordinated all of their school supplies (which they will get as a back to school gift on Sunday night). Aiden is red, Maverick is blue, and Griffin is green. Their pencils, erasers, binders, scissors, etc are all "their color." They even have paper clips and highlighters in their colors. Makes everything easier to keep straight. And if I find something somewhere I know "whose" it is and who left it out and where it should be. Each child has his own drawer to keep his own supplies in.Each boy gets a binder, a notebook, and a little pencil box full of goodies in his color.

Each boy also gets a drawer with his name on it to keep his things in. And it will give me a place to put the things I find that are not in their correct place.

This is their little pencil box. It is packed full!!

Here are all their school goodies. I am obviously just showing the blue one. All of them have the same things. Pencils, scissors, heart paper clips, other clips, highlighter, pencil sharpener, soccer ball erasers, and a regular eraser.

YES! I love buying school supplies!! :D And I can't wait to get back to school!!!