Kindergarten!

Once upon a time before we had children we swore up and down that we would never homeschool our children.  Ummm...we also swore we would never own a minivan.  So maybe we should stop saying never!:)      Lily loved school last year (and if they had a Kindergarten program we would probably stay there, but they don't).  And while Joe and I don't have anything against public school (we both went to public school), it just so happens that our school system was recently ranked the 2nd worst in the state educationally.  2nd worst.  And sadly the social climate is equally as challenging.  True we could have sent her to private school (with the hope of some significant scholarships), but we just felt like for this year that homeschooling is best for our family.  Many families on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ homeschool their children because of our crazy travel/work schedule.  And that's sort of what made the decision for us this year.  I think it's a good year for us to give it a go and see how it works for our family.  We are taking it year by year (or maybe even month by month) and making the best decisions for our family as we go.  Who knows what next year will bring, but for now we are jumping into homeschooling!  We found a couple homeschooling groups for Lily to be a part of, we picked out a curriculum that I'm really looking forward to, we've talked many hours with friends who have traveled this road ahead of us and those who are on the road with us, and we found some great extra activities for Lily to be a part of so that we can make sure she gets plenty of time with other kids her age!  And with that we jumped right in today to kindergarten!

All week I've been working to do a few little things to make Lily's first day of kindergarten special. 

Including this great, big chalkboard that I made mostly with things we already had and with a homemade chalkboard paint recipe! I also brought up the globe that my parent's gave us and recycled the garland from Eli's birthday! I I also made a Schultute for Lily. Schultute is a paper cone filled with school supplies and treats that children in Germany get on their first day of school. It was fun to incorporate a little bit of our German heritage into the day (and we were even able to find Germany on the globe). Not to be left out Eli got the cutest backpack in preparation for school next week!  

And I made this school activity chart for us. Each day it will change to reflect the order of how our homeschooling day with go (or at least how I plan it will go)! This was really helpful already today in helping to keep me organized and to give Lily a visual.  

One of the things she got in her Schultute was a new first day of school outfit...which happened to be a Hello Kitty dress (her very favorite)! Lily was very excited for her first day of kindergarten!  

And this was pretty much how Eli felt!:)  

This little girl has a whole world to learn about!  

Cutest little student ever!

  Hard at work in one of her workbooks!
I was really excited, half way through our day, to do a little art project...marble painting. I remember clearly doing marble painting at either my kindergarten orientation or my first day of kindergarten. I don't know why, but it's one of those things I have always remembered. So it felt really special to do this project on Lily's first day of kindergarten and they both loved it! Overall our first day of school was a big success! We did Bible, our Sonlight curriculum, science, math, reading, art, science, and cooking (we made banana bread muffins for our homeschool group tomorrow)and we had a lot of fun. At one point Lily very seriously told me that she wasn't so sure about homeschool before, but that she was having so much fun and she loved it! She proceeded to prance around the house declaring her love for homeschooling! I'll call that a victory for day one. Of course after homeschool things went downhill a bit as the kids fought like cats and dogs most of the afternoon, I nearly ruined our waffle iron at dinner, and then while I was doing the dishes Eli ripped off nearly all of the buttons on our tree activity chart. Thanks to the picture I took early in the day and my handy hot glue gun they are all back on! So the whole day might not have been perfect, but my girl had a great first day, one that she loved and will hopefully remember, and that makes this homeschooling mama pretty happy!