We never had a big First Day of School, because Poppy decided she wanted to start the day after her birthday. And we were moving, and I hadn’t planned to start until the week after her birthday. But I’m certainly not going to squelch her desire to learn, so we started first grade rather gradually. I think we’re now running at full speed. (Full speed in our house being rather slower than full speed in other houses, but we like it this way.)

Here’s what we did this week, which I’m counting in my head as our first “normal” week of school:

Social Studies

We started “Story of the World: Volume 1” last week with the introduction, and Poppy was not been all that enthusiastic about it. Most likely because we didn’t do any activities. This week we moved on to Chapter One. …

The “map skills” workbook we’re using is a quick, fun little thing. Poppy did a few worksheets from it this week, and she seems to be having fun with it so far.

Math

We haven’t done anything with “Math Mammoth” yet, because I still haven’t printed anything. “Teaching Textbooks,” however, has been phenomenal. Poppy gets to “play” on the computer, and it requires minimal input from me. That’s been so helpful as we’ve been packing/moving/unpacking. Most days she asks if and when she can do her math lesson.

Language Arts

Poppy’s work in “A Reason for Spelling” has been kind of a phonics refresher so far, and she’s been doing fine with it. The worksheets are quick and easy for her to get through, and she’s been doing them with no complaints. “First Language Lessons” has been pretty gentle and easy, too. She’s balked at doing some of the writing exercises — she does not enjoy her handwriting exercises at all — so we’ve mostly been talking out the lessons. Until she gets more comfortable with the mechanics of writing, I’m not going to push it. Unless we’re specifically working on a handwriting lesson, in which case there are no free passes.

Science

We finally started “R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Life” on Tuesday with a very brief talk on what characteristics must be present for something to be alive. The first “lab” was just an “is this alive? what about this?” discussion. Next week we’ll be doing a little outdoor exploration.

Spanish

We still haven’t started. Poppy is pretty vehemently against doing it. Maybe I need to find something other than Rosetta Stone? I don’t know.

Art

It took a good long while, but I finally ordered Artistic Pursuits last Friday. Alas and alack, it still hasn’t arrived. Hopefully I’ll have something to report on the art front next week.

So that was our week. How was yours?