The 2016-2017 Academic Year officially commenced on July 1st, 2016. I am now the proud (and terrified!) mother teacher of a 5th grader, kindergartner, and pre-k-er.
We planned to start school on Monday July 11th, but an unexpected tour around Lancaster county turned out to be very educational, so we counted it as a field trip and Monday became day 2 of our school year. We are now in our second week of our summer term, and things are going swimmingly.
We are keeping a light, flexible schedule, leaving plenty of time for impromptu play dates and lots of time outside. We start with "Morning" time, which usually takes place after lunch when it's too hot to be outside. We read aloud (we finished Roverandom,and a really bad adaptation of Peter Pan, and we are currently working through Cricket in Times Square) and color for about 10-15 minutes. Then Brooklyn works on her math while Grayson and I do Calendar time. Madi sort of flits around, half participating, half doing her own thing. Grayson and I chart the weather, look at the date, practice writing and showing numbers, and work with patterns, days of the week, months, and seasons. Then we move on to phonics, spending between 5 and 10 minutes learning the sounds letters make. Grayson and Madi then go to their rooms for what used to be nap time. They now spend an hour or so playing quietly in their rooms and "reading". Grayson is loving the Where's Waldo books! While they are occupied, Brooklyn and I work on language arts or history and then finish school time with reading. The whole thing takes us, maybe, 2 hours.
It's simple, but I think it's setting the tone for a relaxed, productive school year.
We planned to start school on Monday July 11th, but an unexpected tour around Lancaster county turned out to be very educational, so we counted it as a field trip and Monday became day 2 of our school year. We are now in our second week of our summer term, and things are going swimmingly.
We are keeping a light, flexible schedule, leaving plenty of time for impromptu play dates and lots of time outside. We start with "Morning" time, which usually takes place after lunch when it's too hot to be outside. We read aloud (we finished Roverandom,and a really bad adaptation of Peter Pan, and we are currently working through Cricket in Times Square) and color for about 10-15 minutes. Then Brooklyn works on her math while Grayson and I do Calendar time. Madi sort of flits around, half participating, half doing her own thing. Grayson and I chart the weather, look at the date, practice writing and showing numbers, and work with patterns, days of the week, months, and seasons. Then we move on to phonics, spending between 5 and 10 minutes learning the sounds letters make. Grayson and Madi then go to their rooms for what used to be nap time. They now spend an hour or so playing quietly in their rooms and "reading". Grayson is loving the Where's Waldo books! While they are occupied, Brooklyn and I work on language arts or history and then finish school time with reading. The whole thing takes us, maybe, 2 hours.
It's simple, but I think it's setting the tone for a relaxed, productive school year.
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