Lots of pics... It was a good day. I was worried that Isabel would object to the increased schoolwork load but so far she's thriving on it. I think she might have been bored before.
To start, one of my favorite things about homeschooling: No rushing around in the mornings!
Aidan came into our bed at some point last night (Nick got him so I don't actually know when) and Isabel woke up at about 6:30 and padded into our room, where she also climbed into bed and went back to sleep.
They woke at the same time and the day began! French toast for breakfast, then baths, followed by half an hour or so of play. Isabel actually asked to begin schoolwork.
We started with Math. It makes Aidan feel very important to sit next to his sister and "do school" so I give him extra worksheets to color on. Isabel's first grade math curriculum begins with reviewing the basics, so she's completing worksheets for the numbers one through twenty. She took a break from her own sheet to try to teach Aidan numbers one through five:
Aidan also decided he'd like to use the abacus. He counts as he slides the beads from one side to the other. Today, each bead was "tenty-fee."
We got through our spelling, phonics, grammar and handwriting throughout the rest of the morning and early afternoon (with lots of breaks for play) before finally moving on to the highlight of the day - starting our unit on the plant kingdom!
For the last week or so, we've been gathering recycled materials for our plants. On Sunday we went to the nursery and selected tomato and green pepper seedlings. Ultimately, we'll have a variety of indoor and outdoor plants to care for. We're trying to grow the tomatoes and green peppers in those Topsy Turvey planters that promise you can have year-round vegetables grown inside your own house. We have high hopes - we drop a bucket load of cash on tomatoes and green peppers and growing our own would be fabulous!
Before we got the plants, though, we used our recycled materials to create gardening tools. We cut take-out coffee cups and an old bread crumb tub down to size, and Isabel colored them with markers on the outside. We'll use these for the leftover green pepper seedlings (we have six plants and will only put three in the Topsy Turvey) and other plants that we'll grow from seeds.
We used an old gallon milk jug to create a storage bin for gardening supplies. Empty soda bottles were cut into shovels, and the bottoms set aside to be used as still more planters for seeds (these are neat, as you can see through them - I have to figure out a way toplant the seeds so that we can watch the root systems grow). A half-gallon orange juice jug, with the aid of a hole-puncher, became a watering can. It was a really fun project and Isabel is so proud of her gardening supplies.
Empty gardening tote:
And filled with supplies:
Shovels (these are hard to see - the bottle top is the handle):
Watering can (we later had to revise the shape and give it a more triangular opening at the top... after some trial and error, now it waters beautifully!):
Seedling pots:
I somehow managed not to get a picture of Isabel doing any planting (which is weird, because she did a lot of it!), but the three of us got the tomatoes in the Topsy Turvey planter. The green peppers will have to wait until we pick up more soil (those planters use a lot of dirt!).
Aidan brandishing a homemade shovel:
And putting soil in the planter (yes, that's dirt on his face):
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