The big one for me is that the first day of school is just for us. We don't plan on meeting up with friends at the park or attending any kind of group activities. Don't get me wrong...I sooooo do not have the "stay at home, don't socialize" kind of Crazy Kids! We have a very vibrant social life, with many different activities and friends to share them with. But on the first day, I want to let the Crazy Kids ease into school, not dart through lessons and then yell, "Hey, come on, it's time to go play with friends!", or, "It's such and such a day, time to go to (fill in the blank...it could be anything from the Y to a playdate to a co-op class!)." Nope, slow and steady on the first day! It helps us enjoy the day and each other, and always reminds me how lucky I am to be with my kids all day and able to homeschool them.
So like everyone else we know, we take our first day of school pictures and gather our materials. But before we start, we always ring the bell. My grandmother's apple bell. I love this bell...it's so pretty! And the crazy kids especially love to ring it rigorously and joyfully! First day of school!
 |
| Ring the bell for the first day of school! |
We may forget to ring it every day as the school year goes on and we get more and more wrapped up with our work. But you can bet on that first day, that apple bell's a-ringing!
Once the bell has rung, we can't forget to put our first jelly bean into our jelly bean containers. I have to admit, I always do forget, but as I said in a previous post, the two Crazy Kids love this countdown to the Hundredth day of school and never miss a day!
 |
| Jelly bean #1!!! |
Then we ease into our planned activities and school work. Sometimes this involves learning new procedures or schedules for the year. I try to start with anything that's going to be with us all year as soon as possible. This year, I'm hoping CLB will learn to ask for help with his writing when he needs it instead of simply waiting for me to step in and give suggestions. So right away, we went over the new schedule for writing, and I'll keep it up on the white board until he's comfortable with it or until I need to make changes to it to help support him more.
 |
| If this doesn't work, and CLB doesn't ask for help, then I'll make sure to change it up! |
Once all the paper and pencil (and markers, paint, shaving cream, etc.) work is completed, we have a little fun! We always go out to eat for lunch, and I usually let the Crazy Kids pick where they want to go. This year, I didn't even bother asking where they wanted to eat, because every time I do ask, it's always "MCDONALD'S!!!". We try not to go too often, so going on the first day of school was a special treat! While we were there, we also worked on a scavenger hunt for CLG. She was supposed to look around to find circles while we were out and about and find circles she did!
 |
| My chocolate milk cap, Mooom! |
While we eat, I always check in with the Crazy Kids and see how the first day went. There have been times when CLB has felt completely overwhelmed on the first day and others where he is left wondering if that was all we'd be doing for the day, because it surely didn't feel like much! I'm happy to report that it seems as if we reached a happy medium this year. Over lunch, we also talk about our first service project for the year and how we can accomplish it. This year, we had already decided to do Operation Christmas Child and thought it would be a great idea to head over to the local Target to pick up items for our shoe box with the money the Crazy Kids have been saving. I like starting the year speaking to the Crazy Kids about how they can help other people in our community and across the world. I feel it's important for them to realize that not everything revolves around their little Crazy selves and although they might be little, a little bit of something can make a big difference and is definitely better than nothing!!
 |
| Some of our donation picks for Operation Christmas Child. Yup, more pictures for the circle scavenger hunt! |
 |
| You can fit a lot in a shoebox! And lookie there, I was able to buy some school supplies this year. Ahhh, my zen moment! |
This really was a big day for the Crazy Kids, and they enjoyed themselves and I enjoyed them! But before we finished up for the day, we all thought there was one more thing we should do to celebrate a successful first day of school:
 |
| ICE CREAM!! |
I think this is going to be a new treat we add to our list of things to do on the first day of school. Oh, and look at that:
 |
| Nom! |
No comments:
Post a Comment