The "Perfect" Day to Start School

When we arrived home from picking the children up from their berry picking jobs, each of them knew it was our first day back to school.  A couple of them dragged their feet and tried to do their chores with precision that only the creator God could rival.  LOL  But eventually, they made their way to the table to partake in sustenance, both of the physical kind and the spiritual kind.

We begin by having them read the Proverb of the day, which corresponds with the date.  Whichever number the date is, is the chapter that is read.  After that, the children were instructed to begin reading in Psalms chapter 1 and read as far as they can until they were done eating.  

Once the table was cleared of the dishes, cups of water and apple juice were poured to help with our learning and studying time.  Already the gorgeous summer breezes were blessing us through the dining room windows.  

A few things have changed in how we're doing things this year.  I have a few concerns about their time management, so I decided to make a "Weekly Assignment" sheet for each child.  Yes, it is a lot of work, but so very worth it, in my opinion.  This way I don't get the question, "What do I do now?" because it is already answered for them.  Everything on the sheet is "due" by Friday at 5PM.  I've made them up in a MS Excel document with 3 different worksheets (3 kids=3 worksheets).  This is especially helpful for my oldest son so he knows exactly what is expected of him.  What a blessing!

Right now as I sit here typing this entry, it is 7:04PM.  We've had dinner and I'm sitting here directing my youngest on adjectives.  My oldest has had some questions on the distributive property of addition and subtraction in his Algebra, so we've covered that.  My daughter is learning how to do the SQ3R method of studying so that she can begin implementing it in her Biology 1 course.  For those of you who do not know, it stands for:

S=Survey--This is where she looks over the chapter, reading only the subtitles and whatever pops out from the reading that she does.
Q=Question--During her survey, she may wonder, "What is anaerobic respiration," so she thinks about all of this before getting eye-brow deep in to the topic.

R=Read--This is self-explanatory.

R=Recite--Telling back important facts, in her case the "On Your Own" questions she will answer.

R=Review--A study guide for testing purposes is typed up for her to use for her benefit to cover the important topics in the Module.

She is excited.  I'm so glad, too!

So, right now all 3 kids have done Language Arts, Math, Bible Reading, Journaling, Bible Memory/Copy Work and the list continues!

It has been a wonderful first day, full of wonderful summer breezes, changes, reviewing and reminding of the goodness of God to us to be able to home school our children.

God is so good!