So, end of April, Andre just turned six, and I’m inspired to start our first year of home school. It’s actually really nice to be starting this child, I guess because I’m more experienced. We’re going through Tapestry of Grace, year one. I did this year with Skyla and Vika once already, maybe for 2nd or 3rd grade, and it was enjoyable, too. They have lots of hands-on options, reading, etc.

So we’re starting with ancient Egypt. I made the craft a group activity: make a paddle doll.  I switched it to Styrofoam, rather than corrugated cardboard. We cut and painted and put the heads on. They’re drying now and tomorrow we’ll decorate them.

I took Andre out to dinner and we did his book work. He’s flying through the first grade math so far. I like that I was able to teach him a little technique important for future handwriting. In his math pages, he was supposed to circle the correct number, but he circles in the wrong direction and starts the circle in a random place, and it’s not a great habit for handwriting later. (He’s done no writing so far.)

So I put four dots in a rectangle around the number, and showed him which dot to start on and in which direction to move around them. It was very simple and he caught on immediately. I small thing, but it showed me that I am thinking more like a teacher. I wasn’t like this when I started home school 6 years ago. 

It was a good start.

Vitaliy made a card game with the girls to help them all memorize verses. For now, they’ve reduced it to memorizing the reference and verse theme.

Cool idea 🙂