Day 1 of School--What Does that Look Like for the Cox's?

The excitement leading up to the "first" day of school was all in the air.  SO much so, I finally agreed at 7:30 a.m. to get started!! (Unfortunately the early start will not last long--in a few days it will be, "Can we wait 10 more minutes?") Anyway, we went into the "classroom" which had been locked for a little redesigning.  If you are new to homeschooling--please don't fret reading this.  You do not need a classroom to homeschool--just a couch/chair, a corner, a bed--get the point--space does not matter!  John Gannon wanted a classroom and at 3--his brother was all too excited to move in the room with him so we could create one! So right now, it just works for us. 

This summer, we decided that when we learn we want to be able to: create, discover, investigate, laugh, celebrate, love, design, imagine, and dream.  This year, if we find ourselves engaged in something that really doesn't allow us to do those things, we are gonna assess and see why we think we need to keep doing it!  We probably do not! 

The boys went into the classroom and explored a little--just looking at the walls and asking questions about things. Here is what they saw:

Our table area--there is a magnetic calendar for Jackson to learn his days/months if he decides to this year.  The fabric on the walls is for displaying work throughout the year.  You can see we already have the cat posted--Jackson and I did some work with the -at word family this morning. And practiced reading "Pirate Pat." It is the first reader in the Usborne's Very First Reading series.  The binders/notebooks are John Gannon's: word journal, reading/activity log, business journal, bank acct math notebook, and Bible verse notebook.

The dry erase board--of course it was clean this morning--these pictures were taken after our fun this morning.  It got a new makeover with some duct tape border this year! Here are some more pictures of random areas inside our room.

As for John Gannon's weekly schedule, I posted a screenshot below.  This is always a work in progress--I am sure we will need to change some things as the days pass. Today, it worked well.  We have no time limits/constraints.  As a matter of fact, if we get really involved in something, we may not do the other things at all.  Most days, we will cover everything.  Somedays we have school all day and on into the evening/night by choice.  Other days, we are finished in a couple of hours.  Today John Gannon worked from 7:30-11:45 then we did an activity outside that was school related but had nothing do with our schedule and was not planned.  It was inspired by two of our foundation words--create and design.

Jackson's "business" is collecting aluminum cans and recycling them.  He asked if we could go look for some.  We live in a rural area and there are always cans to be collected.  Sometimes we walk. Sometimes we take the 4-wheeler. The boys decided we needed a more efficient way to pick up cans when we take the 4-wheeler. They decided we needed some "tools" to help.  Here are their designs...

John took a hiking stick and taped it to a broken shovel stick.  His hopes were that where the metal was broken and sharp (at the top) it would stab the can and pick it up.  Jackson taped a golf club to a hiking stick. His idea was that this could bring cans closer to the 4 wheeler for pick up if they were far away.  So, off we went to "test" the ideas.  The results: Jackson's worked well except it was a little unstable due to the lack of tape. So naturally, they concluded his was good-it just needed more tape for stability.  John's worked well the first time but not so well the next several trials.  He decided he needed a longer pointed end on it.  He thinks it needs a nail or a screw through the pole to puncture the can.  He is going to ask his dad to help him do that when he gets in from work.

Another gem from today...John Gannon worked on some Khan Academy math.  I added him some practice sessions using double digit addition/subtraction word problems with graphs for a little review.  He didn't want any paper to work them out and was not checking his answers (which is not unusual). Before moving to the next skill, Khan requires you to answer 5 consecutive questions correctly.  Miss one, and the 5 corrects start again (with different problems).  After having to start again several times, he began getting frustrated. "Hmmm...when things aren't working out, you really have a choice--keep doing it the same way or do something different." I said. At this point, I saw the tears start to form in his eyes. "Do you want some paper?" I asked. "No," he said flatly. "Alright--hang in there.  Let's think about this John Gannon. Let's look at the truth of this--you can add and subtract well.  You feel different right now. But, what is the truth?" I asked. "I can do it well."  "That's right, you can. You are just feeling frustrated which really makes things a little worse." At this point, I walked away and in a matter of 3-4 minutes he was cheering--he finished the task and earned a badge from Khan--the persistence badge.  I asked him what he did different and he said: 1. I changed what I was thinking 2. I doubled checked my answers in my head before I pressed enter.  I smile, give him a high five and cherish the moment in which he learned a little about perseverance and DOUBLE CHECKING his math problems instead of rushing through them!

Day 1--success. 

Live a Meaningful Life!