1st Day of School!

7 year old at 10:15 am

Caught! 7 year old was supposed to be outside playing after lunch, and instead I found him reading in the classroom!

Today was our lower elementary first day of school. I've got a 6 and 7 year old in the class.
The children will keep a daily journal documenting their activities throughout the day. Here's a peek into my 6 year old's activities from his journal:
8:45-9:00 am
Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance
9:00-9:15 am
Classroom Orientation
9:15-9:25 am
Calendar and talked about time
9:25-9:40 am
Worked on creating a daily time line strip
9:40-10 am
Heard Creation Story and had discussion
10:00 -10:20 am
Drew a picture of darkness and God creating light
10:20-10:35 am
observed bug with magnifying glass
10:35-11:05 am
Practiced phonics
11:05-12:00 pm
Great Adventure Kids bible time line card game
12:00-12:05
Clean up and break for lunch

My husband works from home and helped to watch our 4, 3, and 17 month old, but had to go out for work in the early afternoon. Because of this, our 1st day was done at noon. On most days, school for the lower elementary children will resume at 1:15 and continue until 3:15. For today, we watched the Padre Pio movie in Spanish with English subtitles. I reminded the children how blessed they are to be able to understand and speak both English and Spanish. Some days it is a struggle to keep the Spanish language alive with them, but we are persevering. The children were really into the movie and my 7 year old said, "It touched his heart".

Our 3 and 4 year old will be starting on September 14th. We'll be hosting a 3-6 homeschooling co-op in our garage, Monday through Friday 8:30am-noon. There will be 5 (possibly 6) children in the 3-6 class and 4 families including mine are participating. I've been really busy with that project and our goal is to start an actual Catholic Montessori school. We're very excited and will most likely be starting a blog to document our on going project. I'll let you know when we get that up and running.

Entering the State Fair

Here is my 2nd oldest little one working on his submission for the state fair. On the entry form it asked if you would like to sell your work of art, so when I asked him if he would like to...

He says, "Yes, for six dollars."
Me: "Six dollars? Your big brother wants twelve for his."
Him: "Six dollars. That's it."
Me: "Why?"
Him: "Because 5 and 1 make six Mami!"

So there you have it! Six dollars it is!

My two oldest boys wanted to submit to the State Fair coming up, so I took it as an opportunity for them to learn about the process of entering a submission. I had the oldest help read the rules of entering, and provided them with books containing a wide range of art ideas. They enjoyed flipping through them and were inspired to use various art mediums. One thing that was really cool was that my 6 year old decided to submit a picture done in wet chalk pastels and compared his "technique" and color scheme to Van Gogh! I thought it was so cute to hear him saying, "I'm using some of the colors Van Gogh used in his Cafe' painting and making texture with the wet chalk!" (Cafe Terrace at Night, also known as The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum). I really do enjoy the moments when I observe one of my children making a discovery for the first time or applying something they've learned. Those moments make me feel so privileged to be both their mami and educator. They remind me of the importance of observation and the importance of what Maria Montessori called, "the preparation of the teacher". In order to better observe your child and provide what they need, it is important that we take the time for the spiritual, physical, and mental preparation of ourselves. This way, we can be in tip top shape to create an environment that nurtures their eternal soul, growing bodies and absorbent minds.