By Rosanna Ward

Monday was the first day of our new school year. Even though I don’t believe that learning should be limited to “school” — and decidedly believe that much real learning takes place outside “school” hours — I do so love new beginnings. I love New Year’s Day, because it is like a fresh start. I also like Mondays, because it is like a new beginning. And I love the beginning of a new school year! I plan for it for months. I have fun buying books, curriculum, and supplies, and I lay awake at night planning fun ways to teach this year’s  goals.

This year, it is just my 7-year-old Joel, and he is now a reader — so I plan to have lots of fun learning with him.

Monday we started out with Bible Reading. Since we are focusing on Creation and Ancient Civilizations this year. we have started at the beginning of the Bible again for our Bible reading. Then we prayed for the day and for our new school year.

After that we moved to math: Joel did about 15 minutes of addition facts practice — he is working at getting his addition and subtraction facts memorized. After that he did a lesson from his Horizons Math 2 book. Since he finished that rather quickly, he spent some time playing a math game on the iPad.

Next we read out of our Abeka Science 2 Book. We skipped to the chapter about rocks and minerals, and we started an experiment — trying to grow salt crystals. We started school at 9am and by 10:30am, we were done with Bible, math and science.

The boys had a quick snack, then Joel sat down with his Horizons Phonics workbook and reading book.  His is reading out of the Phonics book, and the McGuffey 2nd Reader, and he did a lesson in the workbook. After this, he took a break and I made lunch.

After lunch, we started writing, spelling and vocabulary. This is new for him, and we are using Horizons 2. It was hard for him, so it took quite a while to accomplish this. When we finished, I set the boys up with painting at the table, and I read to them out of “The Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times.”

By 2pm, we were totally finished with school for the day. Joel did his chores and counted up the points he had earned for the day — 3 points. Overall, a great day and a great start to the year.

— Rosanna Ward is a devoted wife of 19 years and mother of four children, two of which are homeschool graduates. She currently homeschools her 7-year-old son Joel and her youngest son is a toddler. Rosanna is a homeschool graduate and has been homeschooling for seven years. Rosanna loves to study History and Genealogy: Her genealogy blog is called “Rosanna’s Genealogical Thoughts.” She and her family reside in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.