Today was the first day of 1st grade!  Here is Gavin all ready to go!  I made him throw on his backpack just for pictures even though it was empty!  No shoes though...

Austin got to work on some of his school stuff today too.

Since it was the first day of school nothing super exciting happened.  Our poem of the month is "Where Go the Boats" by Robert Louis Stevenson and our Bible verse is Isaiah 43:1-5 (I took out a couple lines of it but since I didn't want Gavin to worry about saying 43:1-3, 4a and 5, I thought I'd not make him worry about it.

Isaiah 43:1-5

"But now, this is what the Lord says—

he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; 
⁴ Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
⁵ Do not be afraid, for I am with you..."

Where Go the Boats

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Dark brown is the river,
Golden is the sand
It flows along forever,
With trees on either hand.

Green leaves a-floating,
Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating
Where with all come home?

On goes the river
And out past the mill,
Away down the valley,
Away down the hill.

Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore.

In Bible we learned what honor is and Gavin wrote the definition in his Bible notebook.  Then he thought of two ways he could show honor to his family today.  He picked 'play with Adelaide' and 'share with Austin'.  We just did simple things in Language and phonics.  Gavin got all his work done in five minutes.  We read the first chapter of missionary stories about some missionaries in the Congo and we read "The Three Little Pigs" for our fairy tale.  Gavin liked it because we read the original story where the pig eats the wolf, which is a little different from the versions he's heard before.  I think he really liked the ending.

In math we are reviewing adding with carrying up to the 1000s place.  Gavin had no trouble with it today at all.  In our RightStart Math book we are going to review a little bit before moving on (we stopped about 40% though the book last year).

That made the first page of his Abeka math book look super easy.  He added by ones and then counted money.  Gavin wanted to keep going in the book but I wouldn't let him!

Austin spent some time coloring while Gavin worked on his math.

Then he went to cutting.  He really likes to use scissors right now so I have to be careful what papers I leave on the table.

After school both the boys painted with watercolors.

So Monday is our 'big' chore day, mostly because it's laundry day and Gavin has to clean his bathroom which is his biggest chore.  Gavin also sorts the laundry for me but I think Austin is about to get this chore soon.  Anyway, Gavin cleaned his bathroom without being asked then he asked for more chores to do.  So, he mopped the floor after I vacuumed (I never thought he'd actually make it through that one but he cheerfully mopped all the wood floors!) and he still wanted to do more chores so I let him wash the dishes.  Of course, Austin wanted to wash dishes too, anything involving water is lots of fun.  So, Gavin washed the dishes while Austin rinsed them and put them on the drying rack.  They did a great job!

Gavin even used the bottle brush for Adelaide's bottles.

Adelaide was very happy with the first day of school!  Here she is just being happy!