First Day of School

After much research, debate and prayer we decided to homeschool Miss Sophie Mae this year. Not that we had a problem with the public school preschool setting she was in last year, we just didn't feel it was right for her.

Disclaimer: I do not have anything against public schools, Ryan and I are both products of public schools and I feel we turned out just fine...although some might beg to differ :)

Now, my mom is the director of the preschool at our church. This is her 9th year! Let me just say that her first year was my first year at college...makes me feel old.

I've always wanted my children to attend preschool with Miss Beth aka Grandma, but last year it just wasn't an option for Soph.

When we started talking about homeschooling our girls, the first thing that popped into my mind was what about socialization?? Isn't that what every homeschooler is asked?

Side note: I read a great article about "socialization" and of course I can't remember where I found it, but the best part was when the author suggested that if you're worried about socialization, walk through the halls of most middle schools and high schools (and even some elementary) and ask yourself, is that the social behavior you want your child to emulate?? Stepping off soap box now.

Of course God made the answer perfectly clear, send her to preschool with Grandma! We'll homeschool in the morning, working on her specific needs and then off she goes in the afternoon, 3 days a week to be challenged and interact with other kiddos her age.

Fast forward three months to today....

our first day of both preschool and homeschool!

Here's a bit of our day

Working on puzzles

note: see those elephant rugs in the background, we used those for our "circle time" got the idea from my super mommy cousin Megan

We had a busy weekend and Sophie woke up late this morning, so yes, she is still in her jammies, but that my friends, is the beauty of homeschooling!

Ryan was home today so he checked in a few times to see how we were doing

Scored this classic shape sorter from the Salvation Army, perfect distraction for Molly while Sophie and I worked on some other projects

We're using Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week Curriculum and this week was A is for Apple

Check out my little lefty here, she's just like her Daddy

Molly joined in on some of the action too

but after a few minutes she was done and the craziness would start

note to self: find more distracting toys for Molly

sorting apples from smallest to biggest

After our homeschool morning we had lunch and got Sophie ready for preschool. On the first day the parents get to stay. Ryan took Sophie and because he is such a fantastic daddy he took the camera and got a few fun picture of Sophie's first day!

finding her name tag with Miss Heidi

placing her name on the tree with Miss Peggy

Sophie and her favorite teacher, Grandma