As always, it has been forever since I've written anything but, alas, this time I'll try to make it stick. Blogging is really a wonderful method of record-keeping....if only I could stick to writing one!
Today was the first day of school for the kiddos. We were all home today, as it's Labor Day, so it seemed a good day for kicking it off with a bang. The kids have decided that their school is called Young Heroes Training Academy, so that's what we're going with. I like it- quirky, setting the bar high. Really speaks to their personalities a bit.
So Young Heroes Training Academy officially opened its doors this morning. For my record-keeping's sake, I'm going to break things down by school subjects, to make things easier to track. Not the most interesting read, granted, but it will be easier to interpret if the scary-school-district-people ever come a-knockin'......
Reading- Ruben read Oliver Twist (abridged version) for half an hour in the morning, Delilah read Strawberry Shortcake while she ate breakfast, and they both read various books for an hour to bed. Together, we read three books for story time.
Writing- Ruben started his journal entry of the day by writing a fictional story, then typed a blog entry (see his blog here) of what he had done today (a daily wrap-up). Delilah started writing her journal, which meant drawing some pictures and narrating the story. She also wrote "This book belongs to Delilah" inside her new math book.
Social Studies- We started reading a book together called The Discovery of the Americas. It's a picture book, moves fast, and seemed to really capture the kids' attention. We also read A Story A Story, a "spider story" of Ananse, the spider man; the story is an African folktale.
Science- We set up a Mountain Dew experiment, filling a big pickle jar with Mountain Dew, dropping ten items in, and waiting for them to disintegrate. We each gave our hypothesis (in number of days) for each item, and we're now just waiting to see...! Ruben and I also read about herbal remedies in a big DK-style book we have, and discussed it as we went.
Math- Delilah did three pages of her new math workbook, Math Ad Libs, which she adored. It involved thinking of three items, compiling a Mad-Libs entry, and doing a simple math equation at the end. Delilah had a bit of trouble with the Mad-Libs part at first, but no trouble at all with the math portion, even though the book is grades 1-3. She really is very good with math. And she loved the books, which was important. Ruben did part of a page of a mental math workbook he has (Singapore Math style), but complained (for the fifteenth time, probably) how much he dislikes that book. So I tossed it aside. As I told him, math is so much fun, it doesn't make sense to have to fight over it. We found another workbook and a text that will likely work much better, so we're happier all around.
PE- As a special kick-off meal, we took the kids to Hops 'N' Headz, which has a variety of outdoor and indoor games. We played foosball and mini golf, and had a really grand time.
