First Day

I know I said I'd start with an introduction post, but I am so completely drained and not in the mood. Instead, here is our first day of school, in pictures.

We started our day at 8:30, with a little help from Starbucks for Mom, and breakfast for the kids. We listened to some tunes while we ate, said the pledge, and then dug right in.

Before reading The Story About Ping, I asked Jonah to tell me some facts he already knows about ducks. He thought of some good ones.

After the story, we talked about the moral behind it, and we talked about how big the Yangtze river is, and what it must be like to live in China, and on a boat. 

Then he colored a duck. He's getting really good at holding crayons the right way.

I kept Elias busy for a few minutes, playing "toss foam cubes into the basket".

Then the cat bit his elbow and he was no longer in the mood for games.

Probably his best coloring job to date. A well-deserved sticker.

The boys took a bath and had a snack, to refocus and refuel.

: )

Elias was cracking himself up while he munched his grapes.

After we got home from speech therapy, Elias took a nap, so Jonah and I had fun experimenting with different ways to move the balloons in the water with a straw. He could've kept doing this all day.

Then Jonah got in some phonics and reading practice with Starfall.com. He was so persistent when it came to sounding out words today, which is not at all like him, so I was very surprised and impressed. 

After that, Elias was still napping, so Jonah and I made a cardboard top. : )

He helped clean up our mess. His eyelashes are not fair.

While we waited for our top to dry, I had him waddle like a duck. A silent duck, who doesn't wake his brother.

Thirsty duck!

After Dad was done with work, the top was dry. I cut a slit in the center and poked a crayon through. It spins pretty well!

Elias got it to spin a few times, too.

Dad is silly.

I think the top came out super cute. It was Jonah's idea to use watercolor instead of crayons, and it was also his idea to decorate it with glitter. : )

For our first day, I think we did great. It was somewhat unconventional and not very structured, but that's kind of how we operate as a family anyhow. : )  

I do wish we'd gotten them dressed up to take handsome "first day" pictures, but maybe we'll do that tomorrow. Who cares that it won't technically be the first day? 

I also wish we'd gotten some pictures of me reading our story, but since that's the basis of our daily curriculum, I think we'll have plenty of pictures of that in the months to come. 

My final regret for the day is that we didn't do a devotion or Bible study, which is something I want to be part of each day; something I want us to do without exception. I'm going to read Jonah the story of  Jonah sometime this week, because of the comparative moral to Ping, and we'll start including Bible time daily then.

Time to set up to do it all again tomorrow.