Well, vacation is over and our summer time is drawing to a close as well.  Not sure how it could be coming to an end so soon! With the end of summer comes the dawn of our very first adventure in homeschooling.  Back in May, I met with some other homeschooling moms at Panera Bread for some treats and good convo.  I got some good ideas and overall encouragement which was great.

We are planning to use a traditional style of homeschooling… primarily with the Abeka curriculum (I realize Abeka is so not the popular curriculum to use these days, but oh well).

Here’s the lowdown…

• Bible… Standard Publishing

• Math… Abeka. I hope to supplement with some word problem/thinking skills workbooks as well as flashcards and games…

• Phonics… Abeka. Even though I’m doing BJU English, I am still a big proponent of Phonics.  From what my sources tell me, 2nd grade is the grade that they truly master the phonics rules which in turn help them tremendously down the road in reading and in spelling.

• English… BJU Press.  I taught this English for fifth grade at Northside and really enjoyed the layout.  It’s schedule follows 2 weeks of grammar followed by 2 weeks of writing. 

• Handwriting… Abeka. We’ll also be journaling lots and lots in a new composition book she already picked out, though I wished I would have picked up the Primary Journal instead that has the white space at the top for illustrating…

• Reading… Abeka… I plan to supplement with some novels as well.

• History/Science/Health… Abeka... I hope to check out lots of related books at the library on the topics we’re studying for extra reading.  I also am excited to try my hand at lapbooking what we’re studying in these subjects. These subjects will done one at a time… probably twice a week.

I was very blessed to be able to get my hands on most of the materials free or second hand and am only lacking two books as of this moment.  So even if I pay retail for these last two books, my total spent will only be $195.   And… most of that is for the Bible curriculum that I wasn’t able to find used.  It was a whopping $114, but… I felt pretty strongly about getting that one.  So I thought even though it was ridiculously high… it was worth it.

One idea that I gleaned from the Panera Bread meeting was “Fun Friday.”  Fun Friday is basically time set aside each week for enrichment. The hard part of Fun Fridays is just going to be coming up with quality ideas week after week.  My hope is that it can be a day of educational but fun activities along with other things like art or library etc.  As of right now, I’m thinking I still may start the morning off with the Math lesson and Spelling Test,  and diverge from there to the more “fun” stuff, but we’ll see how it goes. Haylee is pretty stoked about getting starting especially when she learned of Fun Fridays.  :)  I really hope that her enthusiasm will last.

I was able to snag a school desk for her while we were in Florida for only $10.  It’s big enough to grow with her for a few years too which is nice.  An even bigger miracle is the fact that I managed to fit it in the back of the car with all of our other junk from the trip!  After seeing a picture of a desk painted pink, she has informed me that she wants hers pink too!  We’ll have to see about that I guess.  :)

Since the addition is not going to be done before we start, I have had to scrounge to find a home for all our homeschooling supplies.  A complication of that task is that each “home” must be easily accessible to Haylee and I, but out of the reach of the fingers of wild man Wade.

 I found a spot for her schoolbooks and supplies on the top shelf of her closet.

Here are all my teacher keys and Curriculums and manipulatives etc on a shelf in our bedroom….

  
On the right is a basket with chapter books and papers to be used day by day such as math lessons, math speed drills and tests, English tests etc.  On the left is a box with shorter books that can be read in one sitting.

  I thought a clipboard would be a good idea for Haylee so she could work in various places… Isn’t is so cute?

I tore out all the pages in her math book, but she’ll put them back one by one in here to have as a reference through the year…

I tore out her English book too and put it in a notebook for her to be able to work in easier…

 

I separated the curriculum into different notebooks for quicker use.  I even made cutesy covers for them as well as printed divider labels…  :)  

 
Another idea I’ve gleaned from a hs’ing mom is to create a box of “school toys” just for Wade to play with ONLY while Haylee and I are doing school.  I’m not entirely sure this method with work with the Wadester since he has a knack for sensing the most inconvenient of moments to want Mommy-time.   Not that I can resent his need of Mommy-time too much.  It is hard to resist his cute little “I need to hold you now, Mommy!”  Especially when I think about him growing up and not needing his mommy’s hugs and kisses any more!  :(

I know that homeschooling and teaching a classroom of students are so NOT the same thing, but I do think it will take time before I fully adjust to the biggest benefit of homeschooling… which I think is flexibility and adapting to the individuality of each child.  So in light of that fact, I have come up with our Daily Schedule which I am happy to say I was able to refrain from scheduling every.single.solitary.moment of the day.  I consider that progress.  I read online that it is more helpful to just schedule blocks of time assigned to subjects to help you avoid getting stuck glancing at the clock every five minutes trying to ensure you are “on schedule.”

It is just a starting place for us, and we’ll adjust it as needed as we go…

One other idea that sounds tantalizing to the OCD part of me is the Workbox System…  Ever heard of it?  Here’s some examples…. Snail’s Trail’s, Sweet Simplicity’s and Journey into Homeschooling’s. You can also do a google image search for workbox system and see TONS of examples.

Apparently this idea took over the homeschooling internet world Spring of ’09 and has since evolved into MANY different varieties.  From little comments I’ve read though, the author Sue Patrick is adamant that you stick to her way for some reason…

The idea is that it basically fosters independence and time management and can ensure that you are getting done all that you want to get done during the day.   One benefit I read was the fact that you ideally end up using more of your manipulatives that somehow seem to always stay on the shelf. One downside people have said is that it can end up getting overwhelming with filling the boxes, night after night after night. 

Not sure that I have room anywhere to do this currently, but maybe once Haylee has her own room…  I do have the room to do this variation though…  Hmmm…

One other hs’ing tidbit is that we are currently planning to start school Monday, August 2nd.  That is just 2 weeks from today. Ahhh!  This will give me some time to take off when the baby makes his debut in September.   :)

Only 9 weeks to go before BABY!