Jonas's First Day of Homeschool

Jonas's first day of school was great! :)  He didn't really want to get out of bed, but once he got moving, we got a lot accomplished before little brother got out of bed.

This is Jonas on his way up stairs this morning for school.  

He was so excited, this was his idea of a school pose! :)

 Putting Dot magnets on the A page and apple tree...we ended up moving this to a metal cookie sheet so he could sit down.  The magnets weren't really strong enough for the fabric covered board.

 Working hard to cover all the dots! (Printable from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com)

 Number sponge game I made up using a chart from Dollar Tree (it also came with an ABC chart, 2 for a $1!).  I wrote with sharpie on the sponges (also from Dollar Tree, $1 for a 10 pack), and he had to match the numerals with the chart.

 A better photo of the built-in-bookcases my talented husband built!  Craft supplies are on the left, homeschool stuff is on the right!

 Close up of my "Letter of the Week" Curriculum binders (full of printables from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com and other places too) and manipulatives bin.  So far all it has are bingo markers (they make dots when you press them on paper), pom poms with magnets, and clothespins.  There are other manipulatives on the shelves as well!

 This is all the paperwork Jonas did today!  We still have a long way to go in the handwriting department, but not bad for day one!  There is also an app on the iPad we played today that I think will help in this department, it is called ABC's of God.  Check it out!  Really cool, and worth $2!  The top row of pages are from a book from Sam's...preschool comprehensive curriculum.  Bottom color sheet from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com (many of her printables are free!).  The bottom right paper is just a piece of a note pad from Carson Dellosa.  I gave him apple stickers for cooperating and doing papers.  You can't tell, but he actually stacked a lot of his stickers instead of spreading them out.

 Pretty proud of all his papers. :)  He made sure daddy came upstairs to check it all out. :)

 Left:  Close up of manipulatives (need to fix the labels... :( )  Right: A view of the "classroom"

 Left: The palm tree I made to go with "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom", he adds a letter to the tree as he masters it.  Right: "New" Pottery Barn table from Yard Sale! : ) And some apple decor for the week of "A".

 This is how I clean up each night: During class, I move is stuff around so his desk faces the wall and the easel is out of the way...but it fits nicely to tuck it away like that so we don't trip all over it walking through.  The "classroom" has to triple as an office and guest room, so there is alot up there!

While you can see the main classroom wall, I will explain what we did first.  We went over the date, he added the "4" card for September 4th.  We went over how to say the date (Month, day, year) and then he repeated the days of the week.  I started teaching him the days of the week song.  We discussed yesterday, today, tomorrow, and added a card based on what he thought the weather was like... he chose sunny, which was right! :)  We then talked about his name, address and phone number.  Then we worked on his new bible verse.  They go along with the letter of the week.  He already learned Romans 3:23, so this week we just started Proverbs 15:1 since it went with A too.  And we need to work on it... ;)  We said phrases back and forth while throwing a beanie baby back and forth.  He was distracted by that so he didn't realize how many times we did it.  Without doing the beanie baby toss game he would have quit cooperating really quickly I think.  Then we went over A says "ah", the phrase and the song.  *I think that's all we did for group time today*

 Close up of the number chart and sponge game I made up...Jonas is really good at it!

 I had one set of apple cards (with numbers) in this pocket chart stand, and one extra set.  Jonas took the second set and matched it with the first (he put the apples behind the one in the chart).

 Concentrating! :)

 Working on his magnet sheet (www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com)

 Shape matching game (printable at www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com).  He could pretty much do this alone.  I just reinforced by asking him the names, then calling out a shape and having him point to it...

 Ant number matchup from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com (printable) - he had to match the number with the number of dots on the ant's body.  He needed lots of help with this.

 He did this sponge game over and over... :)

 Coloring his RED page... he insisted on markers. ;)

 Lacing card from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com.  I had him line up blocks on top of the shape instead of lacing it.  Eventually we will make patterns instead of just a random row of blocks, but it is the first day.

 I put random letters on our magnet board and had him search for the "A's" He did great.

 After he found the A's, I had him look for any other red magnets.  Again, success! :)

 Proud of his papers! :)

 Mommy made a mess... No really, I dumped out his square block manipulatives (they are foam, from Dollar Tree, this is two sets, so 100 pieces).  I had him search for the red (he has trouble with colors).  He did great....

His breakfast that he ate for snack (not much of a breakfast kid...)...Alphabits cereal to go along with our "Letter of the Week" Curriculum from (C)www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com  After snack, he watched a Bible DVD... :)

After lunch, he played some iPad games, ABC's of God, Tozzle, and Shape Builders.  All three are great!  Then he and I did an apple craft (he had to cut squares/shapes out of red strips and practice cutting), and then we did some apple print painting.  More pictures to come, but those were just some highlights of our day! :) Anyone care?