Our Upcoming School Year 2012 Edition Part 2

The goal for this school year, once again is to help X7 (soon to be X8!) to master the skill of reading.  He is so close, he is starting to get frustrated with not being able to read certain things, which just might be the push he needs to finally make it happen!

We are going to use the first 45 minutes of each day, while his sister is doing her independent reading time, to focus on phonics, spelling and read aloud time.  He will be doing independent reading as well, he has readers that he enjoys reading! He won't be doing 45 or even 30 minutes, but maybe 10-15 minutes a day.

All is well when it comes to math and writing.  He loves doing copywork and he enjoys math. This year we are doing Math U See Gamma, which is multiplication!

Here is what I have planned for X8 for the upcoming school year.

Five in a Row: One book a week.  Instead of a lapbook, this year we are doing simple literary responses to each book. Name of the book, favorite part of the story, main character of the story, story setting and if he liked the story or not. He gets to check either a smiley face or a frowny face for that one! He can also draw his responses.

Madeline in London
Down,Down the Mountain
The Hickory Chair
Another Celebrated Dancing Bear
The Pumpkin Runner
Angelo
The Raft
Albert
The Finest Horse in Town
Babar, To Duet or Not To Duet
Snowflake Bently
Cowboy Charlie
When I Was Young in the Mountain
Who Owns the Son
The Gullywasher
Mrs. Katz and Tush
Grass Sandals
Roxaboxen
Arabella
They Were Strong and Good
Higgins Bend Song and Dance
How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA  
The Hatmaker's Sign: A Story by Benjamin Franklin
One Morning in Maine
The Patchwork Quilt
The Duchess Bakes a Cake
Mailing May
The Little House
Hanna's Cold Winter
The Bravest of Us All
The Real Thief (early chpt book)
A Grain of Rice (early chpt book)
26 Fairmount Ave (early chpt book)
The World of Narnia Collection
Modern Curriculum Press Phonics Practice Readers

Lamppost Co op Reading List: One book a Month
The Cat on the Mat is Flat
Sneakers by the Sea
House for Hermit Crab
My Apron Book
Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears
Sarah Plain and Tall
A Taxi Dog Christmas
The World According to Humphrey
Westward to Home

Math
Math U See Gamma

Writing
Handwriting Without Tears: Cursive
Writing with Ease 1

Spelling 
Learning to Spell Through Copywork Book A

Phonics
Explode the Code 3

History
The Mystery of History Vol 1

Science
Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Nature Study

Our Upcoming School Year 2012 Edition Part 1

We are back from our annual Roxbury holiday!  School is right around the corner.  For the next two weeks we'll be going to doctor appointments for both the kids and myself, getting any last minute shopping done for school supplies and getting everything ready for our co op.

Technically we start school next week on the 20th, but all I'm requiring next week is reading time and math review. The reading part is for my son's benefit and the math part is for my daughters benefit!

A10 has been doing plenty of reading this summer, thanks to her Kindle she has read almost all of the Warriors book series... that's a lot of books!  I'm so happy she finally learned to appreciate reading on her Kindle!! Ironically, her Kindle broke while we were at Roxbury. She had Grampa's old 2nd generation Kindle, for some reason the digital ink just froze on the screen and then the screen went fuzzy.
When we got back home Dh searched online to see if this had happened to others, and it had.  He tried everything but nothing worked.  So, we made a decision.  I told Dh how important it is for her to have a Kindle for school.  A lot of the books she is reading for me this year were on her Kindle.  So we decided to buy her a new one.  Thank goodness Amazon now has a $79 Kindle that is perfect for her.  Yes, I gave up my allowance $ and Dh gave up half of his and we had the $ to get it for her.  She had been saving some $ as well and she happily gave it up towards her new Kindle!!

This Kindle is smaller and lighter than the one she had, so we bought her a silicon cover in case she drops it, which I have to say almost never happened with her previous one. She has always been very careful with it. I was able to download all her books on the new Kindle and now she is ready to go!

Here is the plan for A10's 5th grade year!

American History: I am going to give the Dear America books another try this year.  Last year they were a bit much for her and myself, so we switched to the My America books that we hadn't read the year before. It turned out to be a great decision. I have a feeling she will have no problems with these books this year.  She  will be doing half of the reading this time around, we'll alternate days. There is a notebooking journal that I created to go along with all the books.

Turn of the Century(1900-1920)
When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, 1917
A Time for Courage: The Suffrage Diary of Kathleen Bowen, 1917

The Great Depression(1930-1939)
Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, 1932
One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, 1938

World War II (1939-1945)
Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, 1941
My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, 1941

Biographies- These books will go along with the Dear America books.
Who Was Amelia Earhart?
Who Was Franklin Roosevelt?
The Story of Ann Frank

These Dear America books will probably take us two thirds of the year to read, which is fine.

Civics
Smart About the Presidents (go along with the 2012 elections)

Geography
Speedy Geography by homeschool bits

Science
Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Nature Study

Math
Math U See Epsilon (Fractions)
Life of Fred Fractions

Language Arts
Intermediate Language Lessons Part 1
Writing with Ease 3
Learning to Spell Through Copywork Book B
Vocabulary from Classical Roots
Editor in Chief A1
Handwriting practice both cursive and print

5th gr Reading List (independent reading time)
Strawberry Girl
Mr. Popper's Penguins
The Twenty One Balloons
The Story of Dr. Doolittle
Call It Courage
Plain Girl
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Door in the Wall
The Family From One End Street
Breaking Staling's Nose
Listening for Lions 
Ginger Pye
Little House books
Roald Dahl books
We will also be doing artists studies, Tchaikovsky and Van Gogh.

Lamppost Co op Reading List
Igrane the Brave
Surviving the Applewhites
Meet the Austins
The Shakespeare Stealer
Gypsy Rizka
The Saturdays
Dealing With Dragons
The Mysterious Benedict Society
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ Chronicles of Narnia


History
The Mystery of History Vol 1

Ancient History related read a loud & independent readers;
Discovers and Explores text and journal
The Five Chinese Brothers
Book of Greek Myths
Cleopatra
Detectives in Togas
Pompeii...Buried Alive!
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Aesop's Fables
The Book of Virtues

  

Before/ After

Before

After

Organizing Post

For the last couple of months I've been taking a break from homeschool planning and instead spent some time organizing my home and my schedule.
I found various organizing blogs that helped me create a planner that suited all of my needs so I don't keep forgetting the things that need to be done and also how to get rid of clutter and hot spots all over my home so that I don't need to spend too much time looking for the things that I need.

My first find was of course Pinterest. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can "pin" pics of the things that you love. I started by looking at homeschool rooms and from there I kept finding pics of family command centers. That's when my journey into organizing really took off.

Here is a pic of my new family command center. The purpose of the command center is to have a place upstairs where I can keep track of mail, appointments and things. My real command center of course is my desk downstairs, but I found that I needed something upstairs as well.

This is what it looks like now... everything I need upstairs is in here!

Next I found Organized Home.com, where I was able to create my own household notebook planner, blogs like Simple Organized Living and Organizing Your Way also allowed me to make a plan as to how I wanted to organize my home.

I did a lot of purging in the last few weeks, I tackled the basement first, my home office and the kid's desk areas. Here is a look.
Here is DH's side, I was able to give him the smaller desk and we added a shelf above it.
I added a new filing cabinet, a couple of baskets, the phone sits here as well. This is also where I keep my household notebook. I updated my filing system as well...

Here is the pic that inspired my new filing system!(I found it at Pinterest!) Mine is not color coded but it looks pretty similar, I needed two filing cabinets instead of just one.

Next we organized the entry way, we needed more wall hooks so my Dh made me a brand new one using hooks we already had! It is semi homemade! This is the one by the front door.This is another one Dh made me by the back door!My room! I added hooks to hang my bags instead of having them all over the floor.
There is a hook in Dh's side of the room as well for his Club bag to hang nice and neat!
I also decided to organize the bathroom closet. Yes, those are Flylady cleaning equipment right in there!

The room closets were organized as well, all closets throughout the house! I'm sad to say this is the end of the organizing projects for now, school is starting next week and Clubs is starting in two weeks and so is co-op. I need to focus on those things now. I do have one last project, my bedroom night lamps.
I will be going to Ikea (YYYYYYAAAAAAYYYYYY) in the next couple of weeks to buy them.... Hopefully all these changes will make this coming year a lot easier to manage, that is after all the point of organizing!

Our Upcoming School Year 2011 Edition Part 2

For this coming school year the focus will once again be on teaching X7 how to read. He has been doing very well with the phonic readers we started using at the end of last year, so we are just going to build on from there.

Also, I'm going to be separating them during school... she is becoming a bit more independent and he still needs me there all the time.
I got the downstairs ready for her and I will be working with him more upstairs. She gets too distracted sitting by the doors in the dinning room and he gets too distracted downstairs.

Here is what I have planned for X7 for the upcoming school year.

Five in a Row: One book a week, he will be doing a lapbook which will include geography, copywork and art from ea book.
Henry the Explorer
Madeline's Rescue
Andy and the Lion
Amber on the Mountain
Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair
Climbing Kansas Mountains
Christopher Columbus
The Red Little Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge
The Wild Horses of Sweetbrier
How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World
Cranberry Thanksgiving
Gramma's Walk
The Clown of God
A Farmer Boy Birthday
Warm as Wool
Very Last First Time
Daniel's Duck
A Pair of Red Clogs
The Glorious Flight
The Rag Coat
Three Names
Bearymored
Mirette on the High wire
Chicken Sunday
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
Zarafa: The Giraffe Who Walked to the King
Miss Rumphius
Dory Story
Down, Down the Mountain
Isla

Math
Math U See Beta

Writing
Handwriting without Tears: Printing Power
Writing with Ease 1

Phonics
Explode the Code

Co op
Reading List(3)
Flat Stanley

Geography- Around the World in 180 Days
Health- Abeka
Science- experiments from Zoology 3

History- The Mystery of History Vol 1

Music- Tin whistle

Art

I can't believe I got this post done! I will try and post about our new setup downstairs and all the organizing I've been doing!

Our Upcoming School Year 2011 Edition Part 1

Here we are again about to start our fifth year of homeschooling! This has been a very interesting summer, usually I take the summer months to plan for the upcoming school year. This summer however was very different. I took time off from homeschool planning and spent more time organizing my home and my life for that matter... Now I not only have a homeschool planner but a life planner as well! believe me that was a good thing. I'm hoping to find some time to blog about that, but for now let's stick with school.

Our school year is 36 weeks, in the past I've been able to schedule one book a week and go from there.... this year is not that easy, at least not for A9.

We are done with Five in a Row. We are now entering chapter books land and is not as easy to schedule.

1st Semester
American History: We are going to continue to do American history using the Dear America books just like last year. These books will be read a loud by me. There is a notebooking journal that I created to go along with all the books.

Turn of the Century(1900-1920)
Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, 1912
When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, 1917
A Time for Courage: The Suffrage Diary of Kathleen Bowen, 1917

The Great Depression(1930-1939)
Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, 1932
One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, 1938

World War II (1939-1945)
Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, 1941
My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, 1941

These Dear America books are double the size of the My America books from last year, so instead of reading them in one week it will probably take us two to two and a half weeks each.

Biographies- These books will go along with the Dear America books.
Who Was Amelia Earhart?
Who Was Franklin Roosevelt?
Susan B Anthony: Fighter for Women's Rights
The Story of Ann Frank

Science
Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day & Notebooking Journal

Math
Math U See Gamma (lessons 21-30)
Math U See Delta (lessons 1-21)

Language Arts
Primary Language Lessons
Writing with Ease
Learning to Spell Through Copywork Book B
Handwriting practice both cursive and print
Little House books for independent reading
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Farmer Boy

Co op (28 weeks)
Geography: Around the World in 180 Days
Health: Abeka
Editor in Chief Beginnings
Reading List (3)
The Littles
Music: Tin whistle
Art

Languages
Spanish
Prima Latina

2nd Semester

History
The Mystery of History Vol 1
History related read a loud & independent readers;
Trojan Horse
Book of Greek Myths
Adam and His Kin
Tales from the Odyssey
The Five Chinese Brothers

Science
Nature Studies

Language Arts
Beyond Five in a Row Reading List- Read a loud books.
Fiction
The Cricket in Times Square
Homer Price

Biographies
Betsy Ross
Heller Keller

Sonlight Reading List for 4th graders- independent reading time
The Hundred Dresses
Strawberry Girl
Mr. Popper's Penguins
My Father's Dragon
Ginger Pye
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Charlotte's Web
The Twenty One Balloons
The Story of Dr. Doolittle

Vocabulary
Vocabulary from Classical Roots

The reading lists are not set in stone, it all depends on how fast she can read all of these books. We may end up reading more or less, there is a lot of flexibility in this area. She will be doing oral narrations for some of the books and written narrations for others.
The Latin curriculum is another thing not set in stone. If it works out great, if it doesn't we stop doing it.

We will also be doing artists studies, probably Mozart and Da Vinci and she will be doing a typing program this year as well.

Planning for 2011-2012 Part 1

I know it's a little early for this post but in the last couple of weeks I've had some time to think about where we've been and where we are going as far as school choices and I've made some decision that I want to record here as part of my brainstorming.

When we first started homeschooling A9 was still in Preschool, in fact she had two weeks of preschool left when we started.
Back then I made a four year plan. I planned for K, and 1st through 3rd grade. Now that A9 has finished 3rd grade it is time to evaluate where we are at and what direction we want to take for the next four years 4th to 8th grade.

Five in a Row was a Godsend back when we first started homeschooling. Four volumes with book lists and lessons for each of the books. All I needed to supplement it was math and phonics... later I added spelling and language lessons and this year we started vocabulary.

Now that I'm looking ahead I realize that I no longer need the Five in a Row approach. A9 is past picture books, don't get me wrong, she still enjoys them but she is very happy with chapter books than you very much!
We don't need to do Beyond Five in a Row since I no longer need to follow an unit study approach to our school. Beyond uses chapter books but it is more intensive, were you are taking four to six weeks going through one book.

Also, I have been branching out from the unit study philosophy. I have embraced a more Charlotte Mason/Classical approach to school lately. It seems to be the right fit for A9 and I at this moment in our school journey. This Charlotte Mason/Classical philosophy is of course books, books and more books... read good living books for EVERYTHING. It is also more history centered than literature centered.. although in most cases it uses literature for history as well.

Both philosophies are very similar except when it comes to language lessons. Were Charlotte Mason likes a more gentle approach to grammar and a later start (around 10 or 4th, 5th grade), Classical likes to start grammar nice and early (around 6 or 1st grade).

Charlotte Mason also likes to do lots of nature studies and arts at an early age, were Classical likes to pay more attention to grammar early on. We have done nature studies from the very beginning in our school and we have had a more gentle, later approach to grammar as well.

Classical likes to start history early on as well... they like to cover history in four year cycles starting in 1st grade.
1st, 5th, 9th -Ancients, BC 5000-400 AD
2nd, 6th, 10th - Medieval/Early Renaissance, 400-1600
3rd, 7th, 11th- Late Renaissance/Early Modern, 1600-1850
4th, 8th, 12th - Modern Times, 1850-Present

Charlotte Mason takes a gentler approach as well, btw don't confuse the term gentler with doing less, it is not like that at all. Instead of doing history in four year cycles you have the choice of doing it in 5 or 6 year cycles and instead of doing it three times in 12 grades you only do it twice, giving the earlier grades time to do nature studies and more creative stuff.

I like this approach as well.. I don't see the point of reading about ancient history to a 1st grader...

Taking all of the above into consideration, I have started to map out how the next four years are going to look. I have all the curriculum for the next four years beleive it or not :) history,science, math, language lessons, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and we are starting Latin as well as continuing with spanish.

My one concern was literature, how am I going to do literature now that I will no longer be using FIAR? Well, after reading about Susan Wise Bauer author of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. I have downloaded her audio lectures from Peace Hill Press, specifically What is Literary Analysis? When, Why, and How Should I Teach IT? and Great Books: History as Literature, I know this is the way I want to teach literature.

Stay tuned during the next few weeks as I start to plan our own Dampf Homeschool book list for the next 4 years of A9's schooling. This will be fun!

BTW X6's schooling will remain the same, we will still use FIAR but I am giving Reading made easy a long break and sticking with the code books and of course math! We need to get this child to start reading!!

Busy Week

We are still here! We have had a busy week so far, between meetings, piano, play dates... you name it. Coop is starting this Friday so I have been trying to get ready for that. That's what happens when you leave things for the last minute.

We are also working on revamping our future coop, it will be completely new, we may even have to write our own curriculum... how cool is that!!

I went to a classical conversations meeting with other Moms from our coop and we were all inspired by what we saw and heard! It will be a lot of work in the beginning, but once everything is set up, it should run a lot smoother. I want to be a part of the planning since I feel very strongly about the curriculum I use with my kids and don' really want to switch to something inferior.

Every Mom realizes that it will take a lot of effort from everybody involved to make this a success!

I will post our plans for this week soon.

Our Upcoming School Year 2010 Edition Part 2

Last year was really the first year I had to homeschool both my kids. It took a while to find our rhythm, I made some changes and then ended up going back to my original plan. This coming year I feel a bit more relax.

For X5 this year is all about learning to read. When I started homeschooling with A8 she had all of my attention, this is not the case with X5. He has to share me with his sister. I am going to try to give the kids different table times. A8 is at a point where she can do her table time activities with little help from me. Which frees me up to work with X5 on reading and phonics.... we will see how this plays out....

Here's the planned lineup for our upcoming year(X5):

Five in a Row
Story time will be first on the list with X5. Only FIAR books will have lapbooks, for the other books we will have coloring pages, crafts and the like. FIAR books all include lessons in Social studies, language arts, science and art.

• Fireflies (Reading Rainbow book)
• Storm in the Night
• Harold and the Purple Crayon
• A Little Prairie House (not a FIAR book)
• Dandelion (not a FIAR book)
• Lentil
• Henry the Castaway
• Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
• The Ugly Duckling (not a FIAR book)
• Truman's Aunt Farm
• County Fair (not a FIAR book)
• Columbus Day (Unit Study)
  
• The Feast (not a FIAR book)
• The Three Questions (not a FIAR book)
• The Library Lion (not a FIAR book)
• X-mas Books
• Madeline
• Winter on the Farm (not a FIAR book)
• Katy and the Big Snow
• A new Coat for Anna
• The Greatest Treasure (not a FIAR book)
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car
• Papa Piccolo
• Grandfather's Journey
• The Story of Ferdinand
• The Caboose that Got Loose (not a FIAR book)
• Abuela (not a FIAR book)
• If Jesus Came to my House
• The Three Trees (not a FIAR book)
• Easter books
• The Runaway Bunny
• I am an Artist
• The Bee Tree

Math

• Math U See Alpha

Language Arts

• Explode the Code 1 & 1 1/2 - 2 & 2 1/2 (3/week)
  
• Language Lessons for Little Ones 2
• Handwriting Without Tears: My Printing Book (2/week)
  
• Reading Made Easy (1/week)

Science

• Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day(2/week)
• Junior Notebook Journal for Zoology 1 (I made a junior copy for him with mostly coloring pages and simple mini books.)
  

Art

• Art with a Purpose 1 & 2

Lapbooks from 1+1+1=1

• Pond Life (Ugly Duckling)
• Farm (Winter on the Farm)
• Tarzan II (just for fun)
• Christmas
  
• Easter

I have a variety of games and activities that we'll be doing throughout the year.

• painting
• puzzles
• pentominos
• geoboards

Our Upcoming School Year 2010 Edition Part 1

Now that I'm done with all the planning, gathering and printing... I can go ahead and post what our school year is going to look like come Fall.

I have 36 weeks of school scheduled, that is 180 days. I always start the school year at Roxbury Holiness Camp. We spend 10 days there(1st week of August) but I only count Monday through Friday, 5 days.

The kids are on a schedule at Roxbury, breakfast, lunch and dinner are always at the same time everyday(when the kids hear the bell, they know exactly what to do). They have Sunbeam(K through 6th) in the mornings and afternoons, two sessions everyday. They get to hear Bible stories, do activities, crafts, songs and memorize scripture. Not to mention nature study and lots of playing time with friends.

A8 is going on a field trip to the Bronx Zoo, that is day 6! That leaves 174 days of school.

Normal school will start the 3rd week of August and end the 3rd week of May. God willing of course!!

Here's the planned lineup for our upcoming year(A8):

Five in a Row
We are doing Vol 4 this year, FIAR includes Reading, Social Studies, Language Arts, Science & Art. We are going to focus more on the Social studies part of it this year, geography, culture etc.

Here is our FIAR book list for this coming year:

• Roxaboxen
• Albert
• The Raft
• Angelo
• The Pumpkin Runner
• Arabella
• Grass Sandals
• Mailing May
• Snowflake Bentley
• Higgins Bend Song & Dance
• Hanna's Cold Winter
• The Gullywasher
• The Bravest of Us All
• Cowboy Charlie: The Story of Charles M Russell
  
• The Hickory Chair
• The Hatmaker's Sign

American History
My America Books
Colonial Period 1600s

• Our Strange New Land, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book 1
• The Starving Time, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book 2
• Season of Promise, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book 3

American Revolution 1770s

• Five Smooth Stones, Hope's Revolutionary War Diary, Book 1
• We Are Patriots, Hope's Revolutionary War Diary, Book 2
• When Freedom Comes, Hope's Revolutionary War Diary, Book 3

Underground Railroad 1850s-1860s

• Freedom's Wings, Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 1
• Flying Free, Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 2
• Message in the Sky, Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 3

Civil War/Slavery 1850s-1870s

• My Brother's Keeper, Virginia's Civil War Diary, Book 1
• After the Rain, Virginia's Civil War Diary, Book 2
• A Time to Dance, Virginia's Civil War Diary, Book 3

20th Century Immigration 1900s

• Hope in My Heart, Sofia's Immigrant Diary, Book 1
• Home at Last, Sofia's Immigrant Diary, Book 2
• An American Spring, Sofia's Immigrant Diary, Book 3

Additional Books

• Paul Revere's Ride
• Pocahontas
• Benjamin Franklin

Math

• Math U See Beta & Gamma

Language Arts

• Language Lessons for the Very Young Vol 2(Grammar)
  
• Wordly Wise 3000 Book 3 (Vocabulary)
• Learning to Spell through Copywork Book A & B(Spelling)
• Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Handwriting

Science(2/week)

• Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
• Notebook Journal for Exploring Creation with Zoology 1
  

Art (1/week)

• How to Teach Art to Children, Grades 1-6
• Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters
• Art with a Purpose, Artpac 3
• Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Michelangelo

Music

• Suzuki Piano Book 1
  
• Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers: Ludwig Van Beethoven
• Book & CD: Beethoven Lives Upstairs

We are also doing Home Economics for Home Schoolers 1, and Perplexors: Basic for Logic!

Next post, X5's upcoming school year!

Journal Update

The notebooking journal for My America books is done! I created 114 pages for 15 books. I will be taking it to Staples to get it spiral bound!

Yes, this is the cover of the journal! I was able to make it into a pdf file for when I need to use it with X5.

It was a lot of work, I spent 3 to 4 hours a day just working on it. I was obsessed! I now need a nice long brake from my computer...

By the way, we are all set to go for next year! I went to our local school district office and brought all the paper work needed to homeschool A8 next Fall since she is now going into the 3rd grade.

They were very helpful and pretty much told me how easy they make it for homeschoolers in this area. They don't require too much of us which is great. Even better news, I can administer the end of year test myself, no need to go some place else for it!

Oops..Update

I haven't blogged for a while so here is an update on what we've been up to in the last couple of weeks. The kids are enjoying their summer now that the neighbor kids are done with school as well. The pool is open but it's been raining, hopefully today we can go since tomorrow it's supposed to rain again.

I have all of A8's lapbooks done! Like I said before, she has 16 FIAR Vol 4 books to do lapbooks for and they are all done!

X5 has 34 books, however I am not doing a lapbook for every book. Some books will have coloring pages, others will have games, art projects and for a couple of books we are just going to read and enjoy, no activities. I'm 3/4 of the way done with X5"s lapbooks.... a few more to do and I'll be done!

I've come up with great ideas for American history using My America books. I'm going to do a journal style notebook, just like the ones from Apologia elementary science. There will be questions about the books, she will get to draw in some pages and I will have a few lapbook type mini books. I will also have pages with historical names.. for example in the Jamestown books Pocahontas and John Smith are mentioned. I can have a page where she gets to write a few sentences about who these people were.

This journal is going to be a sweet challenge for me! I haven't decided whether to do it in a three hole binder or to have the whole thing spiral bound. We shall wait and see how this thing ends up looking like!

For X5 I'm going to be working on how to make Reading Made Easy a fit for him. This coming school year is going to be all about getting him to start reading!

Summer Planning Part I

Our first week of summer vacation! I'm doing a lot of brain storming for the upcoming school year.
I know what it is that we are doing, I just want to do some things a little different.

For A8 the 3rd grade is really a transition year. She will leave behind the things she's been doing for the first three years of school and move into things she is going to start doing in the last three years of elementary school.

For the first 3 years the focus was on learning to read, learning to write and of course math.
In third grade we will start to go in another direction. Now that she can read and write, she will use those things to broaden her learning horizons so to speak. She will be learning how to assimilate information, more specifically, information she gets from reading a book herself.

We are still going to do FIAR and lapbooks, but we'll be adding chapter books as well.

The chapter books she will be reading are part of our American history course. I don't want to do lapbooks for these books, I want something different. I'm looking into this resource book: Better Than Book Reports: More Than 40 Creative Responses to Literature. Hopefully this book will help us find different ways to present the information she will be learning from the My America books.

Like I said, it's going to be a transition year for her. As for X5, things are not going to change too much for him. We'll be doing math, phonics and lots of reading a loud with FIAR. The lapbooks will look different than hers just because he can't read or write yet. I need to come up with simpler things than she had for his lapbooks. A lot of the lessons will be oral, just like I did with her during her K year.

I've been told many times by homeschoolers with boys that they are usually behind girls when it comes to reading, but will catch up by 4th or 5th grade. I will trust the wisdom of these mothers and not panic... yet! ha ha!!