The happenings of Wednesday August 28, 2024 in Prague, Czechia
Our first day of school started off great! Kind of like every other first day of school we’ve ever experienced. Overall, the boys were excited for a clear routine and eager to begin learning. However, Amichai was also bit depressed that he was missing out on the first day of middle school with his friends.
Our day began with an 8:00AM wakeup call and breakfast at 8:30AM. The boys all had a job to do. Eitan was table setter and announcer, Matanel table clearer, Amichai dish washer, and Shai time-keeper. Typical of first day enthusiasm, everyone did their job with alacrity and minimal complaining. Matanel and Shai “brought” their backpacks to school, which meant walking with them from their bedroom across the living room to me. They decided to call me Morah Mommy (Teacher Mommy), a common title for teachers in Jewish day schools. It was becoming increasingly clear that they needed a ritual to mark their transition from “home” to “school” time. I welcomed them to school with a big hug and then they unpacked their bags in our “locker” space like they would have at their old school. Amichai and Eitan had no need for such a ritual so I just smiled at them and welcomed them to school.
At 9:20 we began our announcements with Eitan reading the announcements of the day. This included reciting the date in English and Hebrew, reviewing the schedule of the day, and basic rules for earning thirty minutes of screentime for the day. A carrot that would become the ultimate motivator for the twins. At 9:25 we were ready to roll into our first activity. Davening/prayers for Matanel and Shai and Math for Eitan and Amichai. Just like any other first day of school, we ran into technical difficulties right off the bat. Luckily, we found some work arounds and continued on with our day. All of the boys signed up for Khan Academy’s math courses. The day before I had created weekly self-paced lesson plans for the older boys to help them have a sense of what they needed to accomplish over the course of a week. I knew it would take a little bit of trial and error to find the right pace, but we needed to start somewhere.
Although we couldn’t do everything we had planned to do, due to technical difficulties, the boys said they all appreciated having a clear schedule. In particular, Amichai really enjoyed sitting down to learn math. Before this moment, he had begun worrying about whether he was going to have enough time to learn everything he needs to learn to make it to 7th grade next fall. His desire to remain with his friends is his motivator so getting him to “do” school is not hard.
Uncertain about how much time each of the boys could focus on math, I had only scheduled 30 minutes for it in the beginning. Amichai and Eitan easily spent an hour on it, blowing through multiple lessons in one sitting. Shai lasted close to thirty and Matanel was so disappointed that his Dreambox wasn’t working that he fell apart at the beginning of the session. I couldn’t help thinking how remarkably similar it felt to being in a classroom again. Between my four children, every student seemed to be represented at some point during the day. Homeschooling allows for a level of flexibility. I was able to adjust the timing of the entire day to meet the different needs of each boy while getting to all of the activities. We had snack, Curiosity Corner – where they have 15-20 minutes to research something of interest to them, journaling – during which they complete their weather and mood pages along with two additional pages in their Europe section, creative writing, and reading. Then we had a homemade lunch.
The weather outside was still sweltering and the apartment was getting toasty fast. Recess and PE were in the afternoon at Petynka Swimming Pool where we spent hours enjoying swimming, going down a giant waterslide where the lifeguards pay absolutely no attention to who is going down when or to how many people go down at the same time, jumping off the starter blocks (for lack of a real diving board), and playing on the playground. Petynka Swimming Pool is one of the best community pools I have seen by far. The campus is massive with ample green space to play or lie down, numerous cafes, and plenty of features outside the water for everyone to find something they love to do.
We returned home close to 7:00PM having had a wonderful first day of school. If only the boys were able to go to sleep before 10:00PM!
