Strassner Academy: week 1

Our first week of school is in the books, and it was such a success!

Our daily schedule looks like this:
8:00 - Start school
           Sing
           Bible story
           Memory verse
8:15 - Craft/activity #1
8:30 - Craft/activity #2
8:45 - ABC activity (Logan)
          Copywork/writing (Leah)
9:00 - Recess
9:15-9:45 - Math
9:45-10:15 - Phonics
10:15-10:30 - Snack
10:30-11 - Memory work and review
11:00-11:30 - Art (Tues), Science (Weds), Music (Thursday)

Logan joins us for the first hour of the day, which is when I'm focusing on "preschool" activities from this curriculum.  It works out beautifully, because it is Biblically-based and still completely relevant to Leah, she is just able to access and complete the activities at a different level than her brother.  While Logan is learning about letters, she works on writing.

After that and a quick break for recess, we jump into Leah's first grade activities.  My goal is to do a 30 minute block of math, phonics, and CC memory work.  If she gets through the lessons before the 30 minutes is up, she gets back any time before the next lesson begins.

After one week, I can already see that we're probably not going to be able to stick to this schedule quite as precisely as I'd like, but that will be something we have to adjust to as we go.  We'll see!

Some highlights from the first week:

• We went on a treasure hunt to find our school supplies, including new backpacks (Frozen and Spiderman, respectively).
• Logan learned about the letter X, and played a freeze game making Xs with his arms, legs, fingers, etc. 
• They found treasure in a sensory bin, and remembered that God's word is a treasure.
• Leah learned about Matisse, and created her own art work in his style.

• They did a science experiment looking at chemical reactions using my favorite medium: baking soda and vinegar. 

We also memorized what I'm calling our school verse for the year: Matthew 7:25

The rains came down, the streams rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house

Yet it did not fall, because it had its

foundation on the rock.

Although the meaning of this verse is probably pretty obvious, I felt that it was so relevant to what we are doing with these lessons on every level: building a firm foundation for our lives on every level by learning about the one who knows how to do it best!  

It was a great first week back, and we are excited and ready to tackle many more.