Kitchen Table Classroom: 1st Ed.

Yesterday was the first day of school for most area schools in our neck of the woods. Travis headed back bright and early to start marching practice. In some ways regarding our adoption journey, this summer felt like an eternity, but in other ways it seemed to fly by. I’ve been stock-piling ideas to try out with Buggy this fall for the past month or so. I wanted to start the week off on the right foot.

Of course, nothing goes off without a hitch. For one thing, I seemed to have misplaced his journal that I created, so we didn’t get to start the morning off with journaling. That was a bummer. I could have been better organized with posters and activities, but I figure that will come with practice. He had to sit for about five minutes in a “practice of patience” {that’s what we’ll call it} while I cut out the days of the week card for us to hang up each morning. But hey, at the end of it all, he was able to say that it was Monday! So that’s a win.

Another win: He’s watched very little TV in the past two days. This is a huge pet peeve of mine that I needed to work on. I have him watch TV when I don’t plan something, and then I feel guilty for the rest of the day about the amount of TV he’s watched. Thankfully though I’ve planned out the next month absolutely FULL of activities, so hopefully there won’t be a lot of TV time at our house. That’s the idea anyway.

We started yesterday and today off talking about our Bible lesson for the week, which is the creation story. We discussed how God created the heavens and the earth and then we talked about everything that’s part of the earth: rocks, trees, dirt, etc.

Then we did some worksheets from the Alpha Omega Preschool curriculum book. I’m not super fond of worksheets, but at the end of it, he was talking about how “Armadillo starts with A!” So I guess he grasped the concept by doing the worksheet. I’m anti worksheets that are just busy work, but if they lead to learning, I’m all for it.

I also printed a worksheet I found on Pinterest that teaches scissor practice. He’s a little young for scissor work, but I figured I could give him the chance to start working those little hand muscles. Here’s the link to the worksheets if anyone wants them:  KidsLearningStation.com

He was so proud of himself cutting and using scissors!

After scissor practice this morning we went outside to paint. I took the idea from a pinner on Pinterest to paint using spray bottles, but he got tired of that pretty fast. He asked for paintbrushes, {“A lot a lot of brushes, momma”} and paint, so I brought those outside. He ended up going back to the spray bottle and using both to make a collage!

Mondays are library days, so we went to the library for me to check out books related to the things we’re doing this week. Yesterday afternoon after his nap, we read a book about caterpillars and made a caterpillar out of egg cartons. Super simple craft that requires very few supplies, but he loved it!

Today we’ll make butterflies after his nap. He’s been talking about it all day. The caterpillar has to make his transition! I’ll share pictures of that tomorrow. So far, so good! Things are going great and I am so excited when he catches onto something. I love seeing him excited and I LOVE feeling on top of my schedule.

Here’s what is on our bookshelf this week:

Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries

Creepy Crawly Caterpillar by Kara May

Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin, Jr.

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly by Bobbie Kalman

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I hope everyone else is enjoying their week! Thanks for stopping by to spend some time in our homeschool classroom.

God bless,

Kat