First Day of School

Lahlum Family - First Day of School 2009

Today is the day! It's our first official day of school. Each child's binder is ready and all the new books are on the shelves. 

Graham - 3yrs. (above) - Pre-School

Zeke, 6yrs. (above) - 1st Grade

Angelina, 9yrs. - 4th Grade

Dash, 12 yrs. - 7th Grade

I finally got the German schultütes made last night (a couple other bloggers have made these and they really looked fun).  Last spring, I found these cute cards with the kids' names, biblical meaning of their name and a bible verse ... I taped a card to the front of each schultüte. 

This is our proposed schedule for the new year ... we'll see how it goes.  We've been working to get the kids into a routine with morning chores, but the morning prayer and inclusion of the rosary throughout the day is new. 

The Lahlum Family

School Day Schedule for 2009-2010

5:30-6:30a Parent rising time
7:00-7:45a Morning Chores
7:45-8:00a Morning Prayer: Front of Basement Fireplace
          ** Include 2 decades of the rosary and one other favorite prayer**
          Monday Prayer Leader: Dash
          Tuesday Prayer Leader: Angelina
          Wednesday Prayer Leader: Zeke
          Thursday Prayer Leader: Graham (with Mom’s help)
          Friday Prayer Leader: Mom
8:00a-12:00p Official school hours
12:00-12:30p Dinner  
          ** After dinner prayers: 2 decades of the rosary**
12:30p-1:30p Afternoon Chores
1:30p-2:30p Finish up school work
6:00-6:30p Supper
6:30-7:30p Evening Chores
7:30-8:30p Reading Time & Prayers with Dad  
          ** Include 1 decade of the rosary and other favorite prayers**
8:30p Bedtime for Kids
10:30p Parent Bedtime

How it went ...


Everyone was up and morning chores completed in time for our morning prayers. 

The prayer time was a bit dis-organized, even though I'd asked Dash to prepare early.  I'm sure we'll get the hang of it with time.  I didn't get our rosary book completed for this morning ... I actually forgot to put it on the list until last night (I'm not good at remembering to do 'things' that aren't written down)!  I have all the supplies and the prayers/format is already on my computer (I gave one as a Christmas gift years ago and always meant to make one for school and a slightly larger one for our family's prayer table).  I'll show pictures in another post; I plan to finish at least one this afternoon.  They are really neat, eye-catching, and especially help younger kids keep focus.

Even though we have a weekly syllabus I print out, the kids tend to skim the directions.  Frustrating for me, generally extra work for me and eventually for the kids.  Hopefully a few commen sense lessons were learned today with regard to reading instructions before proceeding  ... one of my kids had to completely re-do an assignment because it was wasn't written in the notebook.

The teaching DVD's for Math-U-See and Institute for Excellence in Writing (the oldest two are doing the second half of IEW's SICC-A this year) are so wonderful!  Angelina and Dash actually laugh while listening to Andrew Pudewa on the IEW DVD.

I was able to correct assignments as we went along today.  This works well because the kids can correct mistakes immediately.  Dash needed to watch a DVD for poetry, so he didn't finish with schoolwork until 3:30p, but that won't be the norm.  Everyone else was done before dinner (noon). 

I forgot our mid-day decades of the rosary, so we'll recite those before supper.  Like I said, the routine will take a few days!!

It's a cloudy, rainy day.  Dash was supposed to have his second football game this evening, but it was postponed & practice was cancelled, too.