First Grade - Fourth Day

Today was ok - I have some kinks to work out, but Yoav is really loving school - he begs me to "do First Grade" :)

Morning and Circle were fine and the boys continue to have fun with the games.  They both wanted me to do Pease Porridge (with clapping together - my hands together than clapping against theirs) with them exclusively, so I suggested they do it with eachother, which was so sweet, but, sadly by the time I found my camera, they had moved on to something else...

We did all the Figure 3 forms in the Ernst Schuberth "Form Drawing for Grades 1-4" book.  The first form was as below, which I presented with the image of a person standing on the earth.  The top drawing is Yoav's.  I was completely shocked to turn around from the board and see the bottom drawing on Elie's desk.  I actually asked him who drew it, thinking maybe Yoav wasn't perfectly happy with his and had done a second one.  Obviously, it was Elie who drew it.  I was particularly shocked because he's really not very into drawing yet, so I was surprised at how well it was drawn (straight lines, vertical line pretty close to perfect center, very nearly perfectly perpendicular...)  My preference is for Elie *not* to participate in Form Drawing.  I think Form Drawing is too awakening for his age.  A friend did her "school" stuff today outside and said it worked really well - for various reasons, but one of the reasons was that her younger child was busy in the sandbox.  So I think I might try the same to see how it goes.

Yoav's Form Drawing on top; Elie's on bottom - form is from Ernst Schuberth's "Form Drawing for Grades 1-4"

Yoav drew this made-up form after we did a plus form.

After the Form Drawing, Yoav wanted to do some free drawing (he seems to be itching for free drawing after Form Drawing when he has to draw "a certain thing").  In this picture, all looks well - both boys are drawing trains on train tracks.  But, moments after I took the picture, Elie put a crayon mark on Yoav's drawing and Yoav flipped out, leading to much crying and a break in the day - we eventually got back to our soaking watercolor paper a few hours later...

For some reason, Elie likes his desk to be RIGHT next to Yoav's.  Yoav does not at all like this - he wants room for his elbow and paper and probably is (rightly so), worried about Elie being so close.  I'm not really sure what to do about this.  Certainly I can leave free drawing for afternoons, but watercolor painting will also sometimes result in the same problem.  Maybe benches would be better than desks.  I could also do the Main Lesson in the living room at the big square coffee table - I tested today and Yoav can sit properly with a couch cushion plus a pillow.  Then the boys could sit on opposite sides.  I have to think more on this - would love to hear ideas on managing siblings during Main Lesson!