Home School's Official Start

Day One – August 29, 2011

It was decided over the summer that all four girls would spend the first week together with Mrs. Brewer and both moms. The thinking was that the moms could learn how to teach and read lesson plans from Mrs. Brewer before going it alone and that the girls could ease into it with their friends nearby. Truth be told, it was probably a lot of “what the hell have we done and let’s stick together for awhile to figure it out.” In any event, that’s the way it worked. Day one was spent at the Stunkels.

Ryan and Sam woke up and quickly dressed in their pre-chosen, first day of school clothes and Olivia Stunkel woke up early, proclaiming “it feels like Christmas morning!” Wende and I wished we felt the same. In fact, I had anxiety dreams the night before, the most vivid of which had Mrs. Brewer showing up in tears announcing that all the material was wrong and she was going to teach from the top of her head. I was in the hallway calling schools to see if we could get the kids enrolled. I’m happy to report that although there were no presents under the tree, it was much closer to a holiday than a disaster.

Tricky-Sticky

“This is where it’s gonna get tricky-sticky” Mrs. Brewer says, “having to teach the kindergartners while the second graders also need instruction.”

I think my jaw just dropped, oh boy, isn’t that the whole point? Haven’t we (and by we I mean you, Mrs. Brewer) been figuring out how that’s going to happen for the past 4 months? Are we really just addressing this obvious question on day one of school? Of course I’m thinking this not actually saying it and in the time it took me to think those two selfish thoughts, Mrs. Brewer got the older girls reading a book in the hallway while she started teaching Sam and Georgia about taller, shorter, above, over, below and under. Oh, and she’s doing all of this with her 4 month old baby attached to her hip and saying things like “can you capitalize that L? Please and thank you.” I’m still sitting on the couch trying to pick my jaw up off the floor.

At our first break, a whole 70 minutes into the day, Georgia looks up and says “now that was fun!” I think she maybe thought we were done for the day (or year?) as there was a certain finality to it such as you hear when exiting a roller-coaster ride. Wende caught a note being passed between Olivia and Ryan that went like this (I am not accountable for spelling):

-Want to play after school?
-Mabey.
-If your mom says okay and my dad says yes, do u want to play teins?
-Sure.

I just love that they’re passing notes in home school. Really, how cute is that? It was a ripped off corner of paper, both sides being used. Wende and I got a chuckle out of that. Sam signed her name as Samantha, Sammie, Sam and Sammy as she saw fit. Mrs. Brewer was impressed.

We started the day with a 5 minute journal exercise where the kids had to write, as best they could, ‘I want to learn about…’ and then finish the sentence. Sam wrote “I wt to lon a” and then she drew a picture of a tennis racket. It was awesome. Ryan wanted to learn about outer space and animals and people. By the time our day ended we had covered math (a timed test and some review), reading assessments for all four girls, phonics, spelling and social studies (a packet entitled “All About Me”). It was a successful day, only 205 more to go!