Our First Day of School

When I was a little girl, I loved playing school. I had a little chalkboard that I kept behind my bedroom door, and I would use it to teach my little classroom of stuffed animals. I knew when I was little that I wanted to be a teacher. A really awesome teacher that made a difference in kids' lives. A teacher like the ones that were so wonderful to me growing up.

Now, I am a big girl. And I can do a bit more than just "play" school. I can open my own school. This is my first year as the principal of the very exclusive Wilson Christian Academy, my very own private school, officially registered with our beautiful state. Today, was the opening day of classes at our little school, and it was a day that buzzed with excitement. The pencils were sharpened, the posters were hung, copies made, and the lesson plans reviewed. Everything was ready and in it's place.Our little school is located in the hallway by our front door. Not as perfect as having a whole room devoted to just homeschool stuff, but this suits our little family's needs wonderfully. I can still keep an eye on the baby as she trashes the whole house with out school out in the open like this. I had found these great kid desks in the garbage earlier this summer outside the Catholic School in town. I made off with about 12 of those desks in the back of my van, and they got distributed to some other homeschool buddies. The carpet remnant is a product of our water issue in the baby room a couple of weeks ago. The easel and stools are from IKEA, and the kids love them. I still need to cover one of them, but am waiting on The Middle Apple to chose her fabric. Of course, The Big Apple chose purple leopard print. I mean, what else is there to cover a chair with if you are 7?

I was greeted at my bedside this morning at 6:30 by 2 eager little girls that were begging to get started with their schoolwork. (Note to self: pull out some lessons for telling time and put them in the extra credit folder) They buzzed through their breakfast and threw on some clothes. I commented that some days we were just going to have to have pajama school, and the Big Apple was thrilled that she wasn't going to be wearing a uniform this year.

We worked our butts off for the next hour or so...mostly because The Little Apple decided that today would be a great day to sleep in until 9:30. This worked very well for all of us, and we got alot done. We did spelling, phonics, reading, handwriting, and Bible and History. The Big Apple is starting Adventures in My Father's World for 2nd grade, and The Middle Apple will be working on MFW for 1st grade this year. We had to leave our math lesson until the baby went down for a nap because math class requires many small manipulatives.
I would like to point out the cute little buckets hanging on the wall here. This was an idea that my friend Stephenie had (THANK YOU!!!!). This works so well. We didn't have one spilled pencil box or misplaced scissors at all today.

Once we had tackled the big subject and done a few other impromptu lessons, we took a break to eat some leftover brownies (Thanks Granny!) and do an art project. I threw out the art lesson for today, which was basically drawing straight lines, and had much much more fun with this. Especially when you add glitter.
Since the girls worked so hard today, and I barely had to look at them with so much as a raised eyebrow, I treated them to an afternoon out at the Spray Park, Library, and Snowball stand.
The Big Apple commented to me as we were driving home that "This is the best day of my life!" as she was slurping a snowball and reading a book about Vikings that the library had put on hold for her.

Hehe...I don't know about the best day, but it certainly was a great start to our new school year.