First day of a new school year

Today we had our first day of the "new school year". We sort of go year-round, but we take off about a month for summer. We start school early so that we can take off time throughout the year without feeling bad about it! I generally can go about four or five weeks before I have to declare a Week Off, just to get caught up on the de-cluttering, house cleaning and other non-school related tasks. Besides, we really needed to start getting back into some form of routine. A month off has been enough time for us all to feel ready for some structure to our days again. So today started Ethan's Kindergarten year, and Natalie's Grade 2 year (although we all know that as homeschoolers, assigning a grade level is really quite random and not particularly useful other than for helping non-homeschoolers understand how old our kids are!)

We haven't started into our actual curriculum for the new year yet, though. The next few weeks are sort of Warm Up weeks. Today we did a BAM Bible study*, read chapter 1 from The Light at Tern Rock, the first lesson in Character Building for Families, handwriting, and a bit of Math review. This year, being Ethan's first official K year (he did some K stuff last year, but just every so often..nothing structured), he went through all the lessons along with Natalie and I. The biggest thing (academically, that is) that I'm setting as a goal for Ethan this year is to work on his fine motor skills. He's already reading at about a first or second grade level (depending on his interest in the book - haha) but he's pretty much still age-appropriate for his writing. Meaning, he still likes to scribble and is not quite ready for formal handwriting. So today I had him trace some straight lines, then I had him cut along those same lines. Natalie is doing some review on her manuscript handwriting, and preparing for cursive, which we'll be starting in a few weeks.

It was good to get back to a bit of routine this morning -- mostly meaning, back to my "house rule" of no TV during School Hours, which for our house is from the time we start, until 4:30 pm. During those times, even though we don't have school for nearly that long, the kids have to find something active to do with their bodies or brains!

*BAM Bible study is something I picked up from a speaker at this year's CHEO convention -- You ask the kid to tell you "beginning, middle, or end", and then turn to that section of the Bible. Then you say "tell me when to stop", and when they say STOP you stop on that page. Then you ask them to tell you "top, middle, or bottom". Then from the section of that page that they choose, you make about a two inch space with your thumb and first finger, and without looking -"BAM!" - you plunk that space down on the page and read whatever is there. Then you ask WHO is this about, WHAT is it about, WHY, etc etc. Voila - instant family devotional time, with no prep work and no curriculum to buy. (We DO have a Bible curriculum for this year, as part of My Father's World, but since we're not starting that for a few more weeks, I'm just going to use this idea. Last year, whenever I finished a Bible study, I'd flounder around for a few days trying to figure out what to do next. This was so easy- and the kids got a big kick out of being the ones to decide what we would study, too!)