Our First Day (and my first blog post :)

Thanks be to God! Our first day of homeschooling went pretty smoothly. We made it to church on time at 8 a.m., which was incredible considering the kids woke up at 7:30. We came home, had breakfast, and started our designated 1.5 hr work period at 9:40 (only 10 minutes late... which is pretty good for the first day, I think :) Matthew went straight for the practical life activities, which was nice because I wanted to show Joyce the alphabet sound cards from LSLF (made by DH last night... Thanks so much, dear!) as the "new" work. As I had expected, she knew all the names and sounds of the alphabets, some better than others, so hopefully with more practice, she will be able to move onto the next stage. Meanwhile, Matthew had mixed the little wooden beads from the dry pouring jug into the bowls for spooning... Now why didn't I see that coming? So, we spent a good 15 minutes sorting these tiny wooden beads back into the correct containers. I think he learned his lessons (on how to sort beads quickly and never to mix materials together again :).

Joyce practised writing her numbers from 1 to 29 and stopped because she said she forgot what's next. I praised her for her efforts (as opposed to the results, because there were some mistakes but I didn't correct her) and she beamed with joy. She moved onto "writing" with the movable alphabets and some farm animals. She likes to take turn with me and pick an animal with our eyes closed and then writing the name out. I love it when she writes d-o-g and always does this - "If we switch the first and last letter, we get g-o-d!" At which point she usually says "Now I want to write jesus!" followed by "juh... juh... Now I want to write joyce!" Matthew, who was in the process of building the pink tower, stopped everything in his tracks to play with the animals. I said the forbidden "no" word once but then decided that it was OK as long as he wasn't disturbing Joyce's work. Well, at least he was learning the names of the animals in English.

Time actually went by really quickly, and that was the end of our work period. Afterwards, we went to the science center for fun and came home for quiet time (Joyce) and nap (Matthew). A little art work from "A Catholic How-To-Draw" for Joyce in the afternoon - tracing the Sacred and Immaculate hearts (made by DH who scanned the pictures, put them side by side, and laminated the finished product yesterday... Thanks again, dear.) I was so proud of her because I could tell she did it with love. She requested that it be put on her wall so she won't be scared at night (that's a whole other issue and post if I get around to it.) Matthew woke up just about that time and we then got ready to go over to my mom's for dinner. I love Tuesdays... dinner at mom's is a highlight of my week. Mom, if you're reading, thanks so much. You have no idea how much it means to me to be at your place once a week. It's not the food (which help enormously and tastes great every time), it's the warm and fuzzy feeling of coming home. And DH brought a cake for dessert to celebrate this special day! Tomorrow should be fun - I look forward to reading Demi's Mother Teresa to them.

Thank you Lord for this wonderful day. Thank you for making it a smooth ride today. You know how weak I am and how I would be doubting myself very quickly if things had gone the other way. Grant me more patience and self discipline on this journey, so that together with DH, we can bring Joyce and Matthew up to be who you created them to be.