First Day of Kindergarten

We slept in a little. That’s okay because we didn’t have to make the bus on time, or make it through the classroom doors before the bell. We didn’t have to spend too much money on the “trendy” back to school clothes because there wasn’t a classroom full of kids to impress (we did take advantage of some Labor Day sales on clothes to replace some of the outgrown staples like shoes and pants, I must admit!)
It was our first day of Kindergarten.
I say “our” because we’re in it together.
We’re homeschooling… Well, learning from home with the basic guide provided by the Connections Academy – the best of both worlds! Connections Academy provides the state-accredited lesson plan, a real teacher assigned to each student who is only a phone call or email away, all the text books, workbooks and materials, and I get to teach it and have fun elaborating on it!

So, our first day went a little something like this:
Step 1: Make a happy, ready-to-start-the-day-with-a-smile, breakfast…

Step 2: Talked to our Connections Academy Kindergarten teacher over the phone for the first time, then I set up my tablet outside on the deck to review the first lessons I’ll be teaching my daughter, “S”.

Step 3: Teach… if you can call it that!  It was more like quality family time, masquerading as school work.

First lesson, “Make it Go”. S discovered how some things need either more wind power, or less weight to make it move.  Then, she showed me different ways to make herself “go”, like hopping, skipping, doing the robot, and then she pushed an imaginary button on the top of her head, and drove herself around like a car.

Lesson 2 was Language Arts. On this first day, there wasn’t a lesson, just to read from the provided story books. We decided to elaborate, and I had her make her own book and tell me a story.  The story she made up was about a dog eating and, on her own, she drew his esophagus, stomach (with a banana and an apple inside), his intestines, and his rectum… And then he pooped it out. Nice.

Lesson 3 was a Math exercise involving sorting tangible objects by color, then resorting them by size, then resorting by shape…. then, comparing and contrasting each group.  We got to do this outside on the deck to get some fresh air.  This wasn’t very challenging, but was one of the required lessons, so I had her go around the house and find the items for herself to hold her interest.  Then, we did a workbook exercise doing the same with pictures and answering questions involving the five W’s: Who, What, When, Where, Why…

Lesson 4 was a Social Studies lesson, learning about the American Flag and how it is our national symbol. I then elaborated on the lesson and had her draw her own American Flag from memory, and then again from looking at a picture. We didn’t have white stars, but did have 50 red and blue star stickers… She knows they’re supposed to be white

 


Lesson 5 was Music Class – we listened to some selections from the CD the Connections Academy sent to us, and danced and sang. One of the songs was “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and we hung S’s drawn flag on the wall and marched around with brother, holding and waving the flags we had from 4th of July

Can’t wait for tomorrow!