Yesterday was our official first day of school. I had plans! They looked like this:
*Play Doh mat where we roll the dough out and shape it into the letter G, and then create leaves for a giraffe to eat. This went really well except for the part where he tossed the play doh mat aside and decided to just make a giraffe ball full of buttons and googly eyes that rolled around getting leaves stuck on its butt. I actually loved this; he's a very creative and imaginative little boy. But, I wanted to limit our school day to about an hour so I rushed him out of it. This was probably mistake #1.
*Then, mistake #2. I asked him to trace his first name 6 times (we made it approximately 2 letters before I was getting impatient and irritated due willfully going against the directions I was giving for correct letter formation and letter-tracing game-playing. "It's wobbling! Look, I gave it hair! Is that funny?" and...yes. Yes it was funny, when I wasn't trying to keep to a schedule. Yesterday it just upset me. So 13 minutes in...frustration and upset).
*Trace name of the month we're in, find the day and trace the number. That went...okay-ish. Okay, no it didn't. But not as bad as the next thing, which was...
*Trace name of day, color in circle with number of day, write number. Now. My homeschool room is somewhat makeshift. We have an ottoman-type thing for a chair and our table is on stilts in order to elevate it to proper writing height (important to me because of fine motor skills). Pickle was getting frustrated, didn't want to do it anymore, knew I was getting frustrated, couldn't sit still, and he knocked the chair off its legs and rolled his seat backward. I'm not proud of myself but I sent him to sit in a corner.
Let me repeat that--I am not proud of myself. That incident wrecked my entire day and turned me into Bad Mommy (and Depressed Mommy...I actually called our local public school to ask whether he'd gotten into the pre-k program--honestly I didn't want him in, wasn't really confident he would be because our public school system is Title I and pre-k is only open to people who have needs on a priority tier, which we don't fall on). But no, I found out, he wasn't eligible for pre-k. There were only 4 people on the waitlist so it's possible within the next month that will change, but honestly, I don't want him in. That's why I'm homeschooling in the first place (part of the reason). I didn't want him sitting in a classroom for 3 hours doing worksheets and learning things he already knew, with only 20 minutes of recess, and...
Wait a minute. Hold the phone.
I didn't want him sitting in a classroom doing worksheets.
But what had I tried to do with our morning?
The rest of my day cycled between depression and despair. What was I going to do? Could I sell all my materials? Even our Five in a Row book didn't go well because by that time we both wanted to be away from each other.
What was I going to do?
I vented to a friend. I angrily made a routines and chores chart (we actually need this badly and I don't regret making it but I do regret the mindset in which I did it) and I came this close to ditching everything to buy a play-based curriculum we can't afford. I stayed up way too late staring at all the homeschool sites until I finally went to bed with a headache that still hung around this morning.
And then I woke up, and started (with no small amount of bitterness, I admit it) with our new morning routine. It's not a hard one--bathroom, breakfast AT THE TABLE (no computer or game or tv) (we read a bit of a kid's cook book and that went well so I'm going to incorporate breakfast reading over coffee), I asked him to play with toys while I did about 45 minutes of computer work--and that's where something changed.
He walked into the room and asked, "Was yesterday Monday August first?"
And, I just...I had hope again.
So we brushed our teeth (new morning thing), fed our dog, went upstairs to dress, make the bed, feed the fish, and then we headed into our school room.
I pointed out the month, day and date on our wall calendar VERBALLY, and then I pulled out a laminated set of A-Z exercise cards. We took turns pulling cards, saying the letter and letter sound (who knew he actually knows most of the sounds?! apparently play is how to get him to cooperate) and doing silly exercises. It took us about 30 mins to get through the alphabet and that was FINE. We could both use 30 mins of silly energy burning.
After our A-Z's, I gave him the option of "doing math" on his bed or at the school room table. He chose his bed so we headed in with our Mathematical Reasonings Beginning 2 book and he happily worked through 6 pages, including 2 pages of tracing numbers 1-6.
After a long, late night of work, DH got out of bed and I turned Pickle loose to go play with daddy.
And it was good. It was GOOD. Later this afternoon when the heat sets in and we wind down for our usual mid-day TV binge (ugh) I'll pull out our Five in a Row book and we'll read together, talk about it, and settle in for a nice dinner, playtime and our new evening routine. I wish I'd had time for a craft but I didn't prepare anything in advance. I'll be ready tomorrow. I think a craft or art mid-afternoon might be better anyway so it doesn't distract from math and phonics, which are the big things I want to make happen during "school time". Five in a Row reading, talking, more relaxed things that don't have to be on a daily basis for consistency--those can just be worked in when they're worked in.
So that was day 2, which was just--so much better and more like I'd envisioned, more like the pre-k I wanted him to have (vs public pre-k).
And now I look forward to doing it again tomorrow.
