School has Started!

By Amy

Monday, July 21, school started in the Morello home! Such an odd date to start, I know, but at least it was a Monday! I decided that since Savannah and I were super excited about starting school, we'd go ahead and begin. I also really enjoy having a schedule. And, since we tend to travel quite a bit, I figured if we started school early -- in July, I wouldn't feel too bad taking off a week here or there to travel.

Getting ready for school to start was pretty time-consuming -- hence my absence from blogging for several weeks! I had tons of things to cut out, charts to make, and bullitin boards to put together, etc. But, when I finally finished, after 10pm the Sunday night before we started, I was excited!

Here's what a typical day looks like:


8-8:45 Savannah and I do math and histoy, while the boys play together or with Brad. (sometimes he works with them to learn the local language.)


8:45-9:05ish is "Morning Chores" time -- the kids get dressed, straighten, make beds, etc.


9:00-9:45 I have all three kids at the school table. This time is super fun! We check off our chores and memory verses, move the appropriate symbol to the "Today's weather is:" spot, fill in a weather graph, say today's date together and look at a calendar. We also sing a "days of the week" song and talk about what day yesterday was and what tomorrow will be. We do our 100 days of school countdown, read a Bible story, sing our worship song of the week and pray. It's gone really well, so far.


9:45-10:15 Savannah does independent work or plays in her room while I work with one of the boys. (The other one does leap pad, or plays in his room. We alternate days.) I'll use this time to help them learn letter sounds, beginning sounds, rhyming, writing letters and numbers, etc.


10:15-11:00 Savananh and I do her phonics-language arts curriculum while the boys play or color. On Tuesday and Thrusday, she has a hands-on-activity or experiment to do, so the boys are usually included in that.


11:00-11:30 Savannah reads to me. When Brad goes back to school, Savannah will read to me and the boys together. (Right now the boys are usually playing with Brad during that time.)


11:45 we eat lunch while I read aloud to the kids. They have loved our first read-a-loud, The Box Car Children.


Then, by about 12:30, all boys go down for naps (including Brad!) and Savannah heads to her room for some down time. At 2:00, we wake Alex. (Peter rarely sleeps) and head out the door for all three kids to spend 2 hours at a local "Kindergarten." It's actually more like a daycare program. It's the same school Savannah attended before the hand, foot, and mouth outbreak a few months ago. They are at school from about 2:45 to 4:45 every afternoon.


Savannah was/is really excited to be heading back to school and has really enjoyed getting to play with the kids again. Alex and Peter seem to be pretty positive towards going to school, but of course, they have each other. I'm not sure how effective this will be in helping them make friends and and practice the local language when they can talk to each other all the time. We'll see. Here are a couple of pics of the boys in their classroom.