1st Grade is so fun to teach

So I got this amazing book from another home-school mom, called "Home Learning Year by Year" its by Rebecca Rupp. Well after reading everything about teaching Big E first grade, I got so pumped I planned as much of his first month of school as I could this past weekend. I had been scared to start planning to be quite honest. After going through Annunciation Austin last year and not really having my own system down, I feared failure. This book really broke down every subject and listed in detail what Big E needs to learn in 1st grade. So I broke down every subject with how I wanted to teach it basically making a lesson plan for each week. We hadn't bought any curriculum til last night, I was basically just collaborating a bunch of different books and print outs I had saved for him. Oh an Pinterest!!! Pinterest has been the most helpful thing so far in planning our first year home-schooling without outside help. This morning I woke up and printed out what was left to be done for class today, I was so excited to start. Big E was not in the slightest bit interested in starting today...of course. God definitely blessed us with a beautiful start to the day though.

After taking that gorgeous photo of the sunrise, I had Big E start my plans for our school day while I made breakfast. Every morning while I'm busy with breakfast, his job is to teach Mad, she is learning her ABC's, counting 0 to 20, Shapes, and Colors...Big E is an amazing teacher. After they were done its almost as if Mad respected him more than ever, and wanted to eat breakfast with him, instead of running from him...lol. Big E got to choose the order of our lessons, it seemed to work out great. He was getting excited about school with every step we took. He chose to do our art lesson first. This year we are doing a Famous Artist and Composers each week to learn about and try our hand at being inspired by their life's work. This week we are studying Picasso and Giovanni Gabrieli, we did paintings of our own to look similar to Picasso's work. Big E thought it was stupid til he saw how good he was at it...

I haven't taken a picture of his final product, the painting he was doing in the photos was just him doing his own design, but the project was to be inspired by Picasso, so he painted a second one that was very Picasso. Mad had a lot fun painting with him as you can see. After Art we proceeded with the rest of our day, doing the some how uncounted for in time, but definitely worth it "1st Day of School Book." I found this book and "My Calendar Book 2012" on http://www.ouraussiehomeschool.com/ This home-school mom/blogger has great ideas and a good amount of printables for starting school and a lot more. I can't get enough of her blog and all her wonderful tips and creative ideas for homeschooling. We also printing out a "Skip Counting" book 135pgs. I believe for free with a link she has on her blog. I like the skip counting because it also adds in learning your multiplication tables. Big E has blown me away today with how much his reading seemed to improve as if over night, he really started getting into all the things I had for him today, he was reading directions and doing a fantastic job of it. Big E did great on a reading comprehension page that I found online, he flew through it, reading and understanding what he read. I think he's finally come to a place with school where he can enjoy learning, its not as big a struggle as it was last year. I can only hope and pray things stay on that path. On top of all my other ideas, I thought of the idea of doing a chart for the week of healthy eating. If the kids eat something that's good for them they get a star. Mad even is interested in this, meaning she ate better today than she usually does. Hopefully its not just a fluke. We are also doing a spelling list every week and a test on Thursday. Big E has decided he'd like to enter in the Spelling Bee our homeschool co-op participates n, so we are going to get used to practicing our words now. All in all, we had a very successful day today...looking forward to what tomorrow has to offer.

Breaks my heart

Received the dreaded phone call about 30 minutes ago, Grampa Fisch has passed away. About 2 weeks ago he went into the hospital for numerous reasons, and went down hill from there. They had to put netting wall around him, he had Dementia and was beginning to get so disoriented he would swing at everyone. He also had to wear mitts on his hands 24/7 so he didn't pull his IV lines out. I went with Baby GAP to visit him twice in the hospital and so saddened by his state of mind. I think what hurts the most is knowing how confused he may have been and not able to communicate his frustrations with us. Tuesday night they were able to get his meds regular to calm him down enough to have him moved to hospice care facility. I took the kids and saw him yesterday, Big E was very uncomfortable with the whole thing, he and Mad blew him a kiss good-bye. I told Big E before bed that I didn't think Great Grampa would make it though the night..he didn't seem bothered by the fact. It hurt me to know that he just didn't get it, I wanted him to understand but at the age of 6 I know that a lot to expect. I think what I'm most bothered by and feeling the need to get my feelings out is the fact that my dad's family has nothing planned for a memorial or prayer service here. They are having everything up in Austin, Minnesota, I wish I could be there. I can't imagine not having any service down here in Texas when Grampa had been here most of his life, raising my dad and his brother. How do we say good-bye and have closure when we are ignoring the fact that he's passed. Grampa Fisch was my last grampa, my mom's dad passed away when I was 4, and her mom when I was 14. So Gramma Fisch is still here and the only grandparent I have left. I'm hoping to figure out a way to have an inexpensive service where friends from all over Austin can come and tell grampa good-bye, I pray that I can figure this out. My family and myself need closure.

In loving memory of Edward Fisch, we love you grampa and will miss you soooo much!