Our first “back to school” day. It had an odd feel to it, since I was trying to find a rhythm for both the kids and myself. Here’s how we started..
I set my alarm for 6:00 but didn’t actually get up until 7, because I didn’t go to sleep until 2. The snooze button was hit several times (my husband hates when I do this). Once I was up, I woke the kids, and we spent the first few minutes of the morning doing chores. A quick breakfast followed. I used our breakfast time to cover Bible studies: Veritas Press timeline cards, copywork and memory work of Books of the Bible and Psalms recitation, and listening to Westminster catechisms. One of my goals for this school year is to begin our day with focusing on Biblical teaching through various forms. After breakfast was cleared, and the kids had recited the Pledge of Allegiance, we began our study of math. I spent most of the morning going between various children working with them on their individual lessons: numbers, place value, decimals, divisibility rules, factors, multiples, number bonds, skip counting, long division, etc. I worked with each child one-on-one for their lesson, and when they weren’t with me, I’d give them other things to do such as independent reading or additional math problems. Sometimes, they just had free time until it was their turn with me. We paused for lunch, and the other core subjects followed: spelling, composition, reading as well as art history and computer lessons. We were interrupted for the afternoon because of outside activities. I finished up the evening working with my first and second grader on reading and penmanship until they complained that they were too tired to keep going.
All in all I think I’m comfortable with how the day flowed. I know I need to be better prepared for what each child should be working on independently when they are not one-on-one with me. Today gave me a rough idea of where each child is and where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Now, it’s just a matter of tweaking things to address those areas.
I really hope I’m doing an okay job of this. You experience a lot of doubt of yourself and your abilities on this road, but I’m still pressing forward and believing..