Since our school year last year ended rather unexpectedly when we left town for 4 weeks to spend time with my dad, I really feel scattered going into this year. A few of the children have a few things to wrap up from last year before they are ready to start this year, but that is one of the blessings of homeschooling!
Once again, I have spent time organizing and reorganizing our school cupboard, chore charts, and curriculum to have a fresh start for the year. I think it makes me feel like everything will work better if we have an organized start. Not sure if it actually does or not, but I like to think it helps!
This year Yoda is able to do more activities and hopefully get in less mischief. I am always hopeful about that part! He loves to look at books and do puzzles, as well as paint, color and play dough, so he will have some planned activity times with an older sibling to help him out. Mostly his job will be to play and stay out of trouble!
Padme- Kindergarten
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons- started last year, will continue this year
Abeka Math
Abeka Social Studies
Awana
Science-Flying Creatures of the 5th Day
Leia-3rd grade
Abeka math
Abeka Language Arts
Handwriting Without Tears
Typing- Mavis Beacon
Spanish- The Learnables
Science- Flying Creatures of the 5th Day
Reading- Sonlight core 3
History- Sonlight core 4
Bible- Sonlight and Awana
Spelling- Spellingtime.com
Luke-6th Grade
Math- Saxon 7/6
Abeka Language Arts
Science- Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
Spanish- the Learnables
typing- Mavis Beacon
Spelling- Spellingtime.com
History and reading- Sonlight Core 4
Bible- Sonlight and Awana
Obi-9th Grade
Math- Teaching Textbooks Algebra II
Science- Apologia Biology
Spanish- Rosetta Stone
Awana
Modern History of the World- Homeschool class for history, literature and composition
Obi has a chain maille business that he is going to launch into an Etsy store this fall.
Han- 11th Grade
Modern History of the World- Homeschool class for history, literature and composition
Spanish- Rosetta Stone
Typing- Mavis Beacon- Han did this program earlier and is redoing for skill
College Plus- Han is starting with College Plus this fall, working on college credits while completing high school
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Monday, September 6, 2010
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
School Year 2009-2010
I wanted to post our curriculum for the year, mostly as a way of saving it for my own records. I have gotten so eclectic in our curriculum that I need a way to keep track of what we are using!
So for the year, at least at the beginning, here is our curriculum:
Padme Preschool
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Workbooks
Preschool Activities in a Bag- coming later this month
Leia 2nd Grade
Abeka Math 2
Handwriting Without Tears
Explode the Code
Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and Lap book
Sonlight Core 2 Readers
History Sonlight Core 3&4
Awana and Community Bible Study
Luke 5th Grade
Saxon Math 6/5
Draw, Write, Now for handwriting
Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and Lap book
Daily Grams/Easy Grammar
Readers and History Sonlight Core 3 & 4
Awana and Community Bible Study
Obi 8th Grade
Teaching Textbooks Algebra I
Apologia Physical Science
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Awana and Community Bible Study
History and Literature of the Reformation and Enlightenment- class he is taking for history, lit and composition (home school class)
Han 10th Grade
Apologia Chemistry
Teaching Textbooks Algebra II
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Awana and Community Bible Study for Bible
History and Literature of the Reformation and Enlightenment- class he is taking for history, lit and composition
So for the year, at least at the beginning, here is our curriculum:
Padme Preschool
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Workbooks
Preschool Activities in a Bag- coming later this month
Leia 2nd Grade
Abeka Math 2
Handwriting Without Tears
Explode the Code
Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and Lap book
Sonlight Core 2 Readers
History Sonlight Core 3&4
Awana and Community Bible Study
Luke 5th Grade
Saxon Math 6/5
Draw, Write, Now for handwriting
Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and Lap book
Daily Grams/Easy Grammar
Readers and History Sonlight Core 3 & 4
Awana and Community Bible Study
Obi 8th Grade
Teaching Textbooks Algebra I
Apologia Physical Science
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Awana and Community Bible Study
History and Literature of the Reformation and Enlightenment- class he is taking for history, lit and composition (home school class)
Han 10th Grade
Apologia Chemistry
Teaching Textbooks Algebra II
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Awana and Community Bible Study for Bible
History and Literature of the Reformation and Enlightenment- class he is taking for history, lit and composition
Friday, September 4, 2009
First Week of School Wrap Up
I don't think we have ever started school before Labor Day, until this year. I was doing a lot of planning and praying about our school year, and I just felt like we needed to start earlier this year. After I picked our start date, we found out the date for Yoda to get tubes in his ears. I was still undeterred. A late start one day: we could do it! So we forged ahead, and started school this past Monday, Aug. 31.
The first day was great. We had a new schedule, new chore charts and system, and our new curriculum. I even changed where we did school for the morning. Good that the first day went well, because it has been all downhill ever since!
On Tuesday, Yoda got his tubes in his ears. And I was so exhausted that I had to take a nap before lunch! We still got most of our school work done.
On Wednesday, Yoda spent part of the morning screaming bloody murder, and I was chanting to myself, "The baby Is the lesson, the baby Is the lesson!" Once that was over, it seemed hard to get back on schedule and get going again. But we did and again, we got most of our school work done.
Wednesday evening it rained very hard. VERY HARD. And our playroom downstairs flooded. Ugh... If you know me in real life, you know how many times we have had water trouble in the past year or so. And how sick we are of water problems!!! Anyways, my two oldest boys were up until early in the morning helping to wash towels, shop vac, and sop up water.
Thursday started our Community Bible Study, which is wonderful and we are studying the book of Revelations this year. The oldest two were so tired, and when we came home, they had a list of things to work on for the water problem, and then they took naps. So, they didn't get much school work done, other than life lessons.
Friday was a bit chaotic without the use of the playroom for the two youngest to play in during the morning book work time. But, we got all of our schoolwork done.
A few things have gone very well. I really like my new schedule, courtesy of the Maxwell's book, Managers of Their Homes. Instead of stressing me out to have such an itemized schedule, it has helped me to focus on what needs to be done at specific times and not worry about the big picture. Just little bits at a time. I have also had the younger kids paired up with an older kid for reading books. This has gone very well, and was a highlight for the younger kids. One pair has been reading a book together after school as they like their book so well.
Now I have the long weekend to tweak the schedule, finish drying out the playroom, and be ready to go again next week. Here is hoping next week goes smoother!
The first day was great. We had a new schedule, new chore charts and system, and our new curriculum. I even changed where we did school for the morning. Good that the first day went well, because it has been all downhill ever since!
On Tuesday, Yoda got his tubes in his ears. And I was so exhausted that I had to take a nap before lunch! We still got most of our school work done.
On Wednesday, Yoda spent part of the morning screaming bloody murder, and I was chanting to myself, "The baby Is the lesson, the baby Is the lesson!" Once that was over, it seemed hard to get back on schedule and get going again. But we did and again, we got most of our school work done.
Wednesday evening it rained very hard. VERY HARD. And our playroom downstairs flooded. Ugh... If you know me in real life, you know how many times we have had water trouble in the past year or so. And how sick we are of water problems!!! Anyways, my two oldest boys were up until early in the morning helping to wash towels, shop vac, and sop up water.
Thursday started our Community Bible Study, which is wonderful and we are studying the book of Revelations this year. The oldest two were so tired, and when we came home, they had a list of things to work on for the water problem, and then they took naps. So, they didn't get much school work done, other than life lessons.
Friday was a bit chaotic without the use of the playroom for the two youngest to play in during the morning book work time. But, we got all of our schoolwork done.
A few things have gone very well. I really like my new schedule, courtesy of the Maxwell's book, Managers of Their Homes. Instead of stressing me out to have such an itemized schedule, it has helped me to focus on what needs to be done at specific times and not worry about the big picture. Just little bits at a time. I have also had the younger kids paired up with an older kid for reading books. This has gone very well, and was a highlight for the younger kids. One pair has been reading a book together after school as they like their book so well.
Now I have the long weekend to tweak the schedule, finish drying out the playroom, and be ready to go again next week. Here is hoping next week goes smoother!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Memorial Stone in Words: Homeschooling
Grateful for Grace hosts a Memorial Stone in Words carnival on the 30th of each month. From her blog: "In history, the Israelites often were told to make memorial stone pillars. These were piles of rock that were to remind the people (and tell others) that God had done something big in their lives. God knew (and still does) that people benefit from visuals. These memorial stones gave the people a chance to tell the story again, either to those who were there and need to be reminded, or to those who were not and needed to know what happened. It also was an opportunity to be refreshed in their faith."
On the eve of the beginning of our 10th year homeschooling, I thought it was appropriate that My Memorial Stone in Words this month be on homeschooling and how we got started. When I first heard about homeschooling, I thought it was a very bad idea. I was going to college and coaching a girls' soccer team. On the soccer team were a pair of sisters who were homeschooled. I had never heard of it, and the two girls were on a team of the richest and meanest girls in town. So, needless to say, they didn't fit in. And I wasn't impressed with the idea.
Several years later, I was a mom of two and met a mom who was pregnant with her fourth child who homeschooled. By then I was intrigued by the idea, but I was working, hubby was going to school, and I didn't think there was any way that we would ever be able to homeschool.
When it came time for Han to start school, he went to a Christian elementary school. We were very happy with the school and his experience in kindergarten was wonderful. He loved his teacher and said she was his best friend at school. However, he was a poky learner and in speech therapy, after years of ear infections. We had him tested, at the request of his speech therapist, to see if he had some learning difficulties. The results came back basically saying that he would get behind in school and there was nothing they could do to help him until he was behind. This made no sense to us to wait to help him. We were very concerned about what to do.
A friend suggested homeschooling him, and I said that there was no way we could: I was still working, he was having trouble learning, and we needed help from professionals. The very next day a different friend suggested homeschooling and it was like a light bulb went off in my head and it made perfect sense. We would homeschool him for him to catch up, and then he could go back to school.
One of my friends used a textbook type curriculum and I looked at it and thought we could do it. Another friend used Sonlight and I looked at it and thought, "This is going to be great!" And our homeschool experience started out great. My hubby was home three days a week and did school with Han on his days home, then I was home the other two days and did school those days.
The following year, I started staying home and we continued homeschooling. In the spring I went to my first homeschool conference and I caught a vision of homeschooling as a lifestyle. And it was as if God breathed that vision on me, and we have never looked back. I do not evaluate every year to see if we will continue, and the kids never ask to go to school. Homeschooling is our way of life, and it suits us perfectly.
And Han continued to be a poky learner, especially in reading. When he was 9 years old, a light bulb went off in his head, and he became an avid reader. Today, he is a gifted reader. God used a child with a poky start to call us to homeschool and then blessed that same child. Isn't God good?
On the eve of the beginning of our 10th year homeschooling, I thought it was appropriate that My Memorial Stone in Words this month be on homeschooling and how we got started. When I first heard about homeschooling, I thought it was a very bad idea. I was going to college and coaching a girls' soccer team. On the soccer team were a pair of sisters who were homeschooled. I had never heard of it, and the two girls were on a team of the richest and meanest girls in town. So, needless to say, they didn't fit in. And I wasn't impressed with the idea.
Several years later, I was a mom of two and met a mom who was pregnant with her fourth child who homeschooled. By then I was intrigued by the idea, but I was working, hubby was going to school, and I didn't think there was any way that we would ever be able to homeschool.
When it came time for Han to start school, he went to a Christian elementary school. We were very happy with the school and his experience in kindergarten was wonderful. He loved his teacher and said she was his best friend at school. However, he was a poky learner and in speech therapy, after years of ear infections. We had him tested, at the request of his speech therapist, to see if he had some learning difficulties. The results came back basically saying that he would get behind in school and there was nothing they could do to help him until he was behind. This made no sense to us to wait to help him. We were very concerned about what to do.
A friend suggested homeschooling him, and I said that there was no way we could: I was still working, he was having trouble learning, and we needed help from professionals. The very next day a different friend suggested homeschooling and it was like a light bulb went off in my head and it made perfect sense. We would homeschool him for him to catch up, and then he could go back to school.
One of my friends used a textbook type curriculum and I looked at it and thought we could do it. Another friend used Sonlight and I looked at it and thought, "This is going to be great!" And our homeschool experience started out great. My hubby was home three days a week and did school with Han on his days home, then I was home the other two days and did school those days.
The following year, I started staying home and we continued homeschooling. In the spring I went to my first homeschool conference and I caught a vision of homeschooling as a lifestyle. And it was as if God breathed that vision on me, and we have never looked back. I do not evaluate every year to see if we will continue, and the kids never ask to go to school. Homeschooling is our way of life, and it suits us perfectly.
And Han continued to be a poky learner, especially in reading. When he was 9 years old, a light bulb went off in his head, and he became an avid reader. Today, he is a gifted reader. God used a child with a poky start to call us to homeschool and then blessed that same child. Isn't God good?
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