DAY ONE is over

I could barely sleep last night. As if it was MY first day at school. And if you have read my previous blogs you'd understand why...

Today I set no objective other than just to play it by ear, learn what he likes, and start the routine. And praise God. I accomplished that much and more. Zech seemed to really like it. I had his undivided attention for a full 90 minutes. Thats great! I lost my watch and haven't installed a clock in our room yet, so I really had no clue of how much time had passed. I basically wanted to get through a few things and then let him explore.

First he was upset that he wasn't "GOING" to school. So I learned that I need to change my words... maybe DOING school is a better phrase. We went outside with our weather cards and choose the weather. Zech said it was Hot and Sunny. Lily got the warm card. Then we headed down to put it on our chart. We moved the arrow to September and started our calendar. Zech loved the "There are 7 Days" song and will learn his days soon. He repeated the date and used the pointer to show us how to read it "Today is... Tuesday, September 2, 2008!

We then practiced the Z... what words have Zs in them. And as he traced his fingers over the cardboard Z, we recited words. I said Zeeeebra, Ziiipper, ZZZZooo... He caught on quickly and said ZZZech, ZZZoom, ZZZZero! I was very impressed. So I drew a few on the board and then gave him his first worksheet.

I made this on the computer to teach him the directions to move his pencil. We had used an arrow on the board to teach the directions, then he had to get the zebra to the apple. In hopes he would get the hang of how the direction of a Z went.

He look scholarly already, doesn't he?

He is one of those kids that must stand to do their work.
The result? Check out that Z!
This is what Lily did while we had school. She sat and listened to "circle" (if you can call it that) time for all of 7 minutes!
cute though, huh?
Once he had drew a few Zs, we did some math. We sorted foam pieces (some had been chewed on... so I guess Lily did a few other things while we were learning).

This was one activity Lily really liked. She messed it up for Zech though, and he wasn't too happy!

She just couldn't figure out Zech's sorting method! Can you?

They then got to play in the "Sensory Table". Which is really just a gazillion little bags of different beans. I have a rice one at church, but learned very quickly how messy that can get. At least you can pick beans up with your hands... and believe me, I did!

Zech was given this page (below) as a guide to the "treasures" hidden inside...

He had a blast. I was so happy that he was having such a fun time.

Lily didn't care much about the list until she found something... then she was very excited.

There was a little surprise hidden inside...

Which prompted us to get back to the Letter Z...

He got some all the way up by his ear!

And that brings us to ZEE END OF ZZ (until his next class on Friday).

Don't worry, they won't all be this long, nor have so many pictures... Today was a big day for us... well for me!