Almost Time

It's only 3 days until we start school! Monday is the first day of school, for the first real year. Out of 16. No pressure or anything!

J is excited, though half the time she doesn't let on (she's as contrary as her mother) and B can't wait. H is, as always, a wild card, but hopefully he'll do fine.

I've been collecting milk jugs for the Week Four Hideaway, an igloo (I need 60 and have closer to 80. We'll be able to make a deluxe igloo!). Jasmine's been poring over the book (Creating Clever Castles & Cars: From Boxes And Other Stuff (Little Hands Books)) and telling me about all the fun projects we could do. I had to promise her that we'll make some of them, whether they show up as a Hideaway or not.

Preparing

We are getting ready to start first grade. J is excited, but not nearly as excited as I am.

But first, a brief introduction.

J is almost 6 and beginning first grade, using WinterPromise's "Hideaway in History" curriculum. We're using a number of other things for math, art, etc, but Hideaways is the core curriculum and should prove the most interesting to blog about!

(notice one missing? neither did I until I went back to the kitchen and found Science Fun sitting on the counter! so pretend it's there)

My hopes are to have HER write (or at least narrate) about what she's learned for the week, and then I'll post pictures I've taken of their hideaways and possibly construction pictures as well, if they prove photo-worthy.

I have two other children; B proudly announces she's in Pre-K, though in reality she'll be following along with J. She does her own reading lessons (we've finished "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and have moved on to Pathway Readers) but will probably do the rest of the stuff that her sister does.
H is 2 and will not be formally learning, but I'm sure you'll be seeing pictures of him from time to time, as he's pretty cute ;)

So to prepare, I pulled out all the books we'll start the first week. They now all have little "flag" tabs, color-coordinated for which day of the week we'll turn to that page.

I can only hope that it's organization I can keep up with as the year progresses! Between that, and the pages I created listing all the materials I need for the following week and all the songs I want to teach them that coordinate with the week's topic, I'm either way more organized than I can keep up, or it will prove to be a lifesaver. It's pretty obvious which I'm hoping for.

Countdown: 13 days until first grade starts!!