School Days

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! The main reason (next to being completely wiped out at the end of the day and not have enough mental capabilities left to write) is that I've been getting Branna ready for preschool! As a lot of you may know, Branyon and my goal is to homeschool our children. Through a friend's suggestion, we purchased a preschool curriculum. I think this allows both Branna and me a good opportunity to get a school routine established before kindergarten. As you are probably aware, we had done some informal schooling, but I am very thankful to have an outlined structure and goals provided by Hands On Homeschooling.

Even though the creator of the curriculum lines out the lesson plans, there was still alot of work to be done on my part. Alot of my summer was spent preparing the lessons and getting our "school room" ready. I think if we weren't expecting a baby in October, it wouldn't have been necessary to make as many preparations as I did, but I wanted to get as much done before Branna's year got started.

This week the fruits of my labor came together as Branna had her first day school! She was so excited, I think partly due to all the anticipation of seeing me make things over the summer and hearing me say, "You have to wait to use/play with this... It's for school!" The night before the first day, she had a very difficult time getting to sleep. When she actually did, it wasn't very restful, seeing as she got up several times during the night to see if it was morning yet.

Our weekly curriculum consists of a Bible story, social studies, health science, physical activities, math, and reading/writing. Not all are covered in a day (except for Bible), but are at least touched on during the week.

Monday:

Of course, a good day starts with a good breakfast:

Branna seeing her "school room" for the first time:

We start our school with circle time. Each day, we start with a prayer, say the Pledge of Allegiance (US and Texas), have a few songs and a story. Branna thought our song time needed a little spunk.

Tuesday:

Today, we worked on gross motor skills where Branna improved on her hopping

Our weekly Bible story was about Annanias and Sapphira, so we made a money bag. I let Branna "sew" with some yarn.
We also had a discussion of patterns using sock colors. Branna decided using them for puppets was more fun.
Wednesday:

Today was cooking day! Our letter of the week was A, so Branna got to make applesauce. It was really good!

Thursday:

Field Trip! Not all Thursday's will be like this, but the group of moms with kids preschool age and under have put together a time to get together every other week. This last week was our first get together and we met for a low-key gathering at our church's annex. Branna had a good time playing with friends. (So did I!)

Friday:

Since we missed our school on Thursday, we tried to make up for some of it today. Usually, Friday's are for review, but this Friday, we did pattern blocks and took an pretend airplane trip to Eldorado, TX to see Grandma Honey.

Branna in the "airplane"

As I mentioned, each day we say the pledge and also have a Bible verse. In just a week's worth of time, Branna as memorized both!