Day One

Today is the first day of school for public school kids. In my head I have been thinking that this is our first day of school, too. The reality is, however, that nothing has really changed. We are continuing the way we have been for weeks, and really, we never stopped "school." So the difference is really only in my head.

We did, however, have a good "first day of school." Kiddo, the five-year-old, and Kutey, the 2-and-a-half-year-old, did quite a bit of experimenting with different weights and "parachutes" over the edge of our railing, shaping them differently, attaching differeing numbers of clothespins, and realizing that the more clothespins you put onto a paper napkin parachute, the faster it will fall.

We also went for a walk around the triangle of streets near our house, looking for other triangles as we walked. We found many in the roof-lines of the various houses in the neighborhood. We also found semi-circles, a newer concept.

The one thing that changed today was that we started learning to read in earnest. Kiddo can read a few words and has known all his letters and their sounds for quite some time. He likes to listen to stories, but in spite of my efforts has had little interest in learning to read. That changed today, however, when we started working through the lessons in this book. He was so successful with the first lesson he wanted more. Now I know, I should stick to one lesson a day, but really, it was all review for him. And he was loving it. So we kept going. 5 lessons done today. We won't be able to keep that pace, but it was great for the first day!

Now, let's just hope we can keep our momentum up for the rest of the week!