Our First Day of Public School and forget China

Red started public school this week.  She only had two days because our district had off two days for Ramadan, but so far she really seems to like it.  What's working for me is that she always required a lot of extra attention while Tom Thumb was down for his extended afternoon nap.  Now she's not here.  It's like a 3 hour break when I can actually do some housekeeping and stuff.  Have I done that yet?  No, but I have good intentions.

One thing that does bother me though is that she will not tell me what she did at school during the day.  It's probably a control issue on my part.  When I've asked her what she did, her response has been, "I don't know" or "I forget".  I told the Cobbler that I'm just going to start grooving next week with what I originally planned to do (i.e. our read aloud list, OPGTR, Rightstart A, a bit of Getty Dubay A) so have some idea what is actually going into her little mind.

Now as far as our studying China plan went...well, it didn't really go.  We did watch Big Bird in China, which the kids really liked.  We read a couple of books.  Then, when I took out something else to do that was Chinese the reaction was, "Another thing about China? (sigh)"  I guess I learned my lesson.  When the path of study is not child led, it can be too much especially at age 5.  Now that I'm writing this Red just walked in with a piece of paper and said, "Look Mom--- I wrote in Chinese!"  And she had!  She copied characters out of one of the library books about China.  Then she said, "What do these say?"  Of course, I have no idea and really no way to find out.  (Big sigh)  I guess something did sink in.

"Hello! I'm Stavros from Greece."

"Greece!?!?  Like grease?"
That was Red's first reaction to that sentence.  We've been reading The BFG by Roald Dahl and in it the giant mentions that the only country they don't eat humans from is Greece because they are so greasy.  I guess it's all tying together nicely.  Ha ha.

To make school a little more fun, I'm starting to formulate some ideas for geography units studies for when we officially start in September.  For now, I bought a globe, a world map, and a map of the United States at Target.  We're reading some books from the library about maps and children of other cultures.  The books we've read so far are Children Around the World by Donata Montanari (the book with Stavros in it!) and Wake Up, World!: A Day in the Life of Children Around the World by Beatrice Hollyer.  These books were both great introductions to what life is like for children in other countries.  Wake Up, World! is a photo book about a day in lives of eight children in different parts of the world so it led to Red asking a lot of questions about their dress (or lack thereof!) and their lifestyle (Cidinha gets to sleep in a hammock in her house!?!?).  We also took a moment to find each of their countries on the globe.  Children Around the World is illustrated and had more general information about what life is like for twelve children of different countries.  Great introductions!  I can't wait until we get more specific.  I'm hoping to be able to read some books, do a craft, and cook a meal from each country we investigate.  I hope to find some good age appropriate DVDs to watch too.

Tom Thumb is currently obsessed with having me point out where Niagara Falls is on the globe since we just got back.  I get to hear "Where Niagara Falls?" while he is vigorously tapping the globe over and over and over. I guess he's learning something about geography too. :-)