First day of school

So this week began our first week of home school. It turned out to be far more exciting than I had planned. Monday evening I left the house to go run an errand and as I walked out my front door I saw my whole street enveloped in smoke and ash with soot falling from the sky. Neighbors came and told us that there was a neighborhood evacuation and we all had to get out. I turned back around to gather my family. My husband and I packed up the kids and the dogs and a few possessions and drove to my mothers house. From the look of the smoke and ash, I assumed the fire was right on top of us, but as it turned out the fire was about a mile away. Our house was fine and we came back home the next day. Not every one was that lucky.

This is not the way I would like to have started the first day of school, but I was just thankful we had a home to come back to. So far, over 800 homes have been lost in the central Texas fires. Almost every one knows someone who has lost every thing.

Any way, about our first day of school. Ava's friend was dropped off with us in the morning and we began our day with a short circle time and morning prayer. I love the idea of a Waldorf inspired morning prayer because it sets the tone for the day. Asking the Lord to bless what your teaching, to bless their learning and to bless the day you have together allows you to transition from what could just be a normal play date in to something more. Our morning verse goes like this;

For this new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends.

For every thing Thy goodness sends,

We thank Thee, dearest Lord.

Amen.

We also sang a song which we shall sing each morning to start the day. It goes like this;

Good morning to God,

This is Your day. 

I am your child,

Show me Your way

 We read Wemberly Worried in story time. It is an adorable book about a poor little mouse named Wemberly who worries and frets about her first day of school. We talked about things that we may be worried about in regards to school. Birdy was worried that home school won't be as much fun as her other school was. Hopefully I can put an end to that worry pretty quick.

In art we made these little face flippers. One side showed a sad face and one side showed a happy face. We used these later (after they dried) in a discussion about things that made us happy and sad. I asked them questions like, "How do you feel when some one takes a toy you are playing with?" and they would show me using their face flippers.

This conversation was to prepare them for a very important first day activity, making their own class rules. I love the idea of having them come up with their own rules based on their own experience of right and wrong. I think that the rule list they ended with is very well thought out. I'm not sure there would be any thing I could add if I were writing the rules my self. Birdy wanted to add, "We should not climb over the fence" to our list of rules, but I told her that would probably fall under, "be safe."

The week's events have given everyone a lot to worry about. The central Texas fires are still not contained and every one I talk to seems to get the same sick feeling in their guts every time a siren goes off. Many neighbors and friends have lost every thing they owned. If you would like to help there are several opportunities available. If you live in Austin, here is a list of ways you can help in the area. If you do not live in Austin you can always make a donation to the Red Cross of Central Texas. Thank you, as always for stopping by.