First day of school!

Monday was Rhonda's first day of school! I couldn't tell you who was more excited, me or Rhonda.

We did have a little snafu first thing in the morning, though. Apparently, when I told Rhonda that today would be her first day of school, I didn't communicate clearly enough that it would be school at home. 

I guess I thought, since we have been "doing school" for a little while now, she would automatically think that it would be more of the same. But she doesn't live under a rock. She knows about actual, real schools. (We have one literally one street down from us.)

So, she was pretty disappointed that she wasn't getting to GO to school. But she recovered from the disappointment quickly and then enjoyed our day together.

I asked her the night before what she wanted for breakfast for her first day of school. I told her she could pick, since it was a special day. She picked M&Ms. After some discussion, we agreed on pancakes with M&Ms on top. She loved her special breakfast so much that I got a genuine smile for a picture! (Pretty rare for a 4-year-old.)

Before we started schoolwork, I couldn't resist taking a traditional first-day-of-school picture in front of our front door (sans backpack and cutesy sign saying what grade she's in, because I'm not a fun Pinterest-y mom). Of course, we couldn't exclude Sierra.

We started with many of our regular morning time things: song, prayer, Book of Mormon story, and a new Spanish word ("la escuela," of course!). Then we got to get out our fun new school stuff!

We read Me on the Map and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, then looked at the animal atlas and talked about the animals we saw. Then we read some additional books about the world I picked up from the library:
Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella
Whoever You Are
Can You Say Peace? 

Then Rhonda drew a map of her room. I really underestimated how much she would enjoy this activity. (She's sort of hot and cold on drawing and coloring.) She needed some help thinking of what things to include on her map, but once she got going, she was all over it. When she was done, she wanted to draw a map of our town! I didn't even suggest this--she got the idea from the book.

The big rectangle with stuff in it is her doll suitcase, which she is very into lately, so it took up a lot of space on the map. In very artistic fashion, Rhonda made the most important things the biggest. 

After drawing, we had a reading lesson and some Reading Time. ("Reading Time" has come to mean a time when the kids get to pick the books.) We read Magic Tree House, Frog and Toad All Year, and a couple of board books that Sierra picked out.

Later we went for a walk, which I will not do again this entire month because it was absolutely boiling outside (and it was only 11 am), and we picked up some trash around the neighborhood. (Another activity that I really underestimated. These kids love to pick up trash! Or at least they enjoyed it this one time.)

Our school day was low-key, but definitely fun. My favorite thing about it was that Rhonda and I (and Sierra--she was actually pretty involved today) got to spend some time together doing things we both genuinely enjoyed. In twenty years, she probably won't remember the things she learned or the books we read this year, but I know she'll remember that quality time.