School Days

At the beginning of September we started adding a little bit of structured learning to our mornings at home. Things are still very relaxed around here, but now I have more of a plan in mind, and I usually do some short lessons and reading with Millie and Silas during and just after breakfast.

I took pictures of the kids on our first "official" day of school, but all they would do was hold up their new pencils.

New pencils are cool.

Millie is enrolled in a couple of classes through our homeschool co-op. Here she is ready for the first day.

And here are the kids' school notebooks:

My sister made notebooks for Millie and Silas last year, and they were so useful that I made new ones for the new year. Right now pretty much everything goes into these notebooks - coloring pages, random drawings, artwork from church, co-op handouts, and whatnot. It's one easy way to tame the paper monster.

So far, a few of our favorite homeschool resources have been:

First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise - this book provides very simple lessons for teaching the rules of written and spoken English. The lessons are very short and pleasant, and so far the kids have learned to recite a poem and the definition of noun.

Leading Little Ones to God by Marian M. Schoolland - we are using this for Bible study, and I've been pleased with how each short reading makes issues that can seem big and complicated accessible to little minds.

We are studying Chinese a bit, and Millie has really enjoyed working on these Chinese character worksheets.

We're off to a good start!