Almost Everything I Need to Know I Learned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Monday was our first day of kindergarten with the virtual school. Although we haven't received our materials yet, we were able to do some preliminary stuff and a few lessons.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that it may not be as difficult as I had thought -- at least initially. To begin with, Rugrat was excited to get started. And at times when I had to look over Learning Coach stuff before going on, she would tell me again and again to come to the table so she could do her work.

She's also excited about all the organization we've got going on. I've got a small bookcase set up with her school stuff (or room for it when it gets here in a day or two). I also picked up an alphabet banner on clearance the week after school started which we hung on the wall nearby. We have used this already before even hanging it up so I'm thinking it may have been a well spent fifty cents.

Up to this point, anytime Rugrat has colored anything, it has been just scribbles. Today I saw her actually put effort into the pages she worked on and, while it wasn't great artwork or even all in the lines, it looked very much like that of her peers.

Much of the math that she had to go over dealt with shapes. She knows all her 2-D shapes and many of the 3-D ones as well. Looking at much of the kindergarten curriculum, I'm thinking that Mickey Mouse may have prepared her well for the majority of it. Math will probably be our easiest subject. It was certainly the one she seemed to enjoy most today. Me too. :)

We went through some Phonics and Language lessons as well. The Language was a breeze. That will also possibly be something we are able move through quickly. The way the whole curriculum is set up, you can move through (even finish early) those subjects that you master fast. It is one reason why this program is so great.

For those subjects that require more time to master, you can spend extra time. For us, that will likely be Phonics. But even that, I was pleasantly surprised on. She was able to catch on to beginning and ending sounds for a couple of letters and seemed to really get it. That is a huge difference from what we have seen even a few weeks ago.

I plan to include a Bible lesson every morning to begin our day but I'm not really sure what to do. Today, I just started working with her to learn the books of the Bible in order. I still have to research some to find a lesson plan that I like for that subject.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with how our first day went. I am not quite looking forward with the dread I thought I would feel. And I think it will only get better once we get our materials in.