Kindergarten Begins

We had a wonderful first day of school.  We really did.  I thought it was going to go really badly when Ada woke up coughing and sneezing.  She lay in my bed (which was already made, but I tried not to feel frustrated about her messing it up) while I dried my hair, and that is how I knew she really didn't feel well.  That girl never ever ever gets back in the bed after she wakes up until we force her to at bed time.  She hardly stops moving unless we force her to.  But when she asked so casually, "can we just skip school today?" I cheerfully gave her some tylenol and bribed her with some fruit snacks and pattern blocks, and it worked like a charm.  And just like that, kindergarten began.  (see the fruit snacks in the above photo?)

John wanted in on the action--fruit snacks and all, so I set him up with a blank sheet of paper and some crayons.  He didn't stay in the chair the whole time, but he was never too far away and was quite relieved when Ada was "freed" to go play.

We began with reading, blending a few letters, and she did great.  She read several short-a words, no problem, which was encouraging to me.  We also played a little game to review her vowels, as she still mixes up "e" and "i" quite often.  She is very excited about learning to read, and even picked up one of her new books later that afternoon, and she did a great job reading it by herself (all short "a" words, so very, very easy beginning reader).  It was slow-going, but she got through the book and didn't get frustrated, which I think means we are finally ready to do this thing.  I have learned my lesson and will not try to start John early.  I will wait until kindergarten and then we will learn to read ;)  Bless her heart, she will always be my guinea pig, and I will most likely always be overeager with her.  The price to pay when you are the first born, I suppose.  We then moved on to handwriting, which she rushed through, and did a very sloppy job, so that might be our biggest source of tension in the day.  She can write neatly, if she will slow way down.  And we finished the day with math, which included calendar time and introducing the pattern blocks.  Oh my goodness, she loves those pattern blocks.  I left the table, as all necessary work was done, and she stayed there forever playing with them.  She even knows where they are stored during the rest of the day, and she is allowed to get them to play with as long as she sits at the table (I DO NOT want them mixed in with the other toys, which could happen in an instant), and she plays with them all of the time on her own.  Who knew they would be such a hit?!

And this picture has nothing at all to do with school, but can I just say that this little guy is cracking us up lately.  He is turning out to be so much funnier than I would have expected.  Plus, he has recently realized that my name is Laura Beth, not just mom.  This afternoon he wanted to watch Dora, and he said, "fwease, Ara Bef" (please, Laura Beth, his p's and b's are coming out fw?!!), with a big grin on his face.  I think he knows that it is somehow funny that he is calling me by name rather than saying mom.  Oh, that stinker!!!

We started CC today, and I was going to add that to this blog, but I think I will make that a separate post because this is getting rather long.  But, it went really well too!!  Thank you, Lord, for an encouraging start to the school year!