First day overview

Our School Room!

This is our school room. We were very lucky to find a tri level townhouse that gave us the extra room for a school room. Even as we walked into the house for the first time several years ago we knew this room would be perfect. If you notice we have desks. However, we usually end up on the floor for reading. I put the final touches on everything the night before. The kids love this room. It never stays this neat though. I'm hoping that will change this year! LOL.

Kiddos opening Kinder Cones

We did Kinder Cones again this year. This is a German tradition (the funny thing is I'm not German in any way! LOL). In Germany the kids get cones on the first day of school. These cones are filled with fun school supplies and other items. I raided the dollar section at Target for cute pencils, notepads, stickers and other little items. After doing them once I think these will be a mainstay in our school adventures.

We started ECC and Kindy on Monday. Both of the kids love their curriculums. I'm trying to incorporate O into ECC as much as possible. On Monday both kids filled out their "passport applications". I did purchase an extra passport and sticker book for O so he could take part in this activity.

Overall it's going well. Today was our day at the local homeschool ministry. We have classes (I say we because I teach there) from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm. Then K has one more class from 2:00-3:00. After that it's off to gymnastics with O. It will work though. While K was in her 2:00 class I got some good one on one time for kindy work with O. Then while O was flipping all over the place I got some good one on one with K.

One thing of note is that K has noticed her workload is higher for this year. She's doing almost all 3rd Grade work and it is taking more time. K has said this is OK because she likes everything she's doing. I just don't want her to burn out. I'm hoping the positive attitude remains. She is such a precious child.

Well, I'll end it here. I mostly rambled tonight. Hopefully I'll have a post with some merit by the end of the week. Haha!

On your mark! Get set........ WAIT?????

Wow! This week has flown by. My church does a consignment sale each fall and spring for kids clothes and other items. I serve on the team that heads this effort. From Wednesday to Saturday night I worked 50 hours at the church. It was too funny. I told my husband I worked a 50 hour week and we spent money for me to do it. Haha. I got a lot of good clothes for the kiddos for way less than what I'd pay at the store though. It was also amazing to witness all the volunteers working to make the sale a success. We had over 370 sellers and over 40,000 items. WOW!!

So that leads me to tomorrow morning. I so don't feel ready. The planning is done, the materials are mostly laid out and the kids are ready.

Mommy's not ready!

I can't figure out where this feeling is coming from. I love homeschooling, but that nagging fear is here again. It happens to me every year around this time. Did I pick the right curriculum? Are the kids doing the levels they need to be doing? Will they learn what they need to learn?

Sigh.

The only thing I can think to do is pray for peace. Tonight I will also pray over my school room and over each child's desk. Petitions will go up for learning to occur, for good listening ears to be had, for patience when the kids are wacky (I am so not a patient person) and for God's love to be seen by my children. I will also pray for my friends who are homeschooling; that we all may know we are not alone in this journey and it's OK to be a little afraid now and then!

I will post about our first day tomorrow.

Good night!

New School Year!!

We began our school year this week. Both kiddos began their math work. K also added in her language arts. She is enjoying herself so far. School this week has not taken more than one hour per day. Whew! We will start with the core curriculum on the 15th.

I'll run down what each kid is doing.

K: MFW ECC, Abeka Language 3rd grade, Writing Strands, Building Spelling Skills, Horizons Math 3rd grade, Song School Latin, VP Literature Guides (we got Charlotte's Web, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Little House in the Big Woods, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, and Misty of Chincoteague)

O: MFW K, Horizons Math K, Phonics Pathways

They both are doing several activities too.

K: Drama class, voice lessons, ballet, jazz, AWANAS and whatever production she's currently cast in.

O: Gymnastics, swimming, drama class and AWANAS

Both kids participate in a local homeschool ministry on Tuesdays and I teach at it.

We stay BUSY!! However, I would not have it any other way. We love our lives.

Sleepy!

No! I am not sleepy! However, K got the role of Sleepy in Snow White. This is being produced by a local theater company. It was too funny. K read for several different characters but got Sleepy. I told her it was going to be a challenge for her. She's a firecracker and so full of energy it's going to take some effort for her to act tired all the time.

K is so excited to have a lead role in this. She is the youngest dwarf I believe. I'm so proud of her. The auditions began this morning at 10. She was in the first group and got a call back letter. I had her back there at 12 for a 1.5 hour audition of singing and dancing. Nerves were never noticeable but she did tell me that "Butterflies are in my tummy". I love her!!!

O got a good day with daddy today. They went to the Firehouse Subs shop for lunch. O was in heaven with all the fire gear in there. Scott said that O even ate most of his lunch! Yay! Then my men went to the mall so O could ride the train.

Overall a good day for everyone.

School starts on Monday. I hope I'm ready. The literature studies from Veritas Press came in. I was quite pleased with how they look.

K and O are very excited about school. It's been a long time and we are looking forward to a schedule again.

I'll post some pictures of the school room later.

Questions to ponder

As we gear up for back to school time my daughter gets the "Where do you go to school?" question quite a bit. She usually tells people she's "homeschooled". Then she gets the "What grade are you in?" question. This is very confusing for her. She looks at me like she's totally befuddled. I then explain to whomever that she's second grade age but doing third grade work. At this point I usually get the "Oh! She's one of the wackos who's confused her kid by homeschooling them." looks. It's happened a lot this week. LOL.

I think the best answer my daughter ever gave to the "Where do you go to school?" questions was "I don't go to school." This answer was given to a cop in Starbucks one afternoon! Talk about wanting to melt into the floor. I politely explained we homeschool and asked if he would like to see our official DOI. Thankfully he laughed and said no.

Another question that comes up a lot is "When are you putting them into school?" Umm... Never! That's my typical answer. Then I hear all about how my kids need to go to school in middle and high school. Hmm... NOPE! This is one point in their lives I am really looking forward to teaching. I can't wait for upper level sciences.

But, it gets me thinking. I sit there and listen to them tell me that I must put my kids in the system at some point. However, I never tell them what to do with their kids. I've never felt the right to tell people what's best for their kids. Yet, since my kids are not part of the "norm" I get to be told what to do with mine. WOW!!

This week I had one of the hardest questions posed to me. "Can you tell me how to homeschool?" Took my breath away. I have never been asked. This lady was so nice and sweet. She was truly concerned for her child and the education he was getting. This question scares the bejeebers outta me. What if I tell her something that is wrong for her family? What does she need to know first? Tonight I am going to email her some points of reference that I find valuable. I can only pray that this will help her. I can only pray that I will be of true guidance and help to her and not lead her astray.

In closing I guess all of us homeschoolers are subject to questions. Lots of questions. But, it all seems to boil down to how we answer these questions, and the dignity we uphold ourselves to, when we answer even the most contrite questions. Always remember it could be your child telling the cop that she doesn't go to school!

Planning

A note about planning...... I would love to do some. Haha.

I need to being to plan but my school room is still a complete mess. It looks like a F5 swept through the thing. I don't even know what art supplies we still need, what curriculum we have and what we still need, if I have enough paper, etc. Ugh. I always think summer will bring serenity to our lives. WHATEVER! :-)

I do know we need to work something in for lit studies and creative writing for K. She is truly a creative person. Also, I would love to find some lesson plans using Legos for O. He's always building something.

K has discovered a new book series recently. She is loving The Doll People books. There's The Doll People, The Meanest Doll In The World and finally The Runaway Dolls. These books are by Ann M. Martin. I love them because while they are chapter books they also have some great illustrations. In The Runaway Dolls the pages where the dolls are gone from home there are cute background and borders to the pages.

Drama camps begin tomorrow. It'll be a long two weeks. But, K will have fun. O's looking forward to it too as I have special stuff planned for him.

Take two...or three... or four

It's too funny. I started this blog to help me keep up with schooling adventures and yet another year goes by and I fail to update it.

So I will try again.

We finished last year swimmingly. K scored off the charts on the CAT and enjoyed doing school. Well, maybe except the math.

O is finally ready for Kindy. He's so excited about doing his curriculum because there are bugs to be studied. He gets to do the butterfly garden and ant hill kits.

We have decided to go back to My Father's World curriculum for lots of reasons. I have missed using it. I don't know if it's nostalgia (it was the first curriculum we used) or just that it really worked well for us. I guess it doesn't matter as we are using it this fall.

For the summer K wanted to learn some detective science. Thanks Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman! We started today. We are using 65 One Minute Mysteries That You Can Solve With Science and Detective Science.

Today we talked about the importance of details. She studied a picture for 30 seconds then had to answer 6 questions. She got all right but one. Bright chick! Then she studied it again for 30 more seconds and has to answer another set of questions again tomorrow. It'll be interesting.

We did talk about how discrepancies occur with witness statements and how detectives have to be aware of that.

Overall today was good. We swam the morning away, ate lunch at the pool, swam some more, did summer school on the sofa, then vegged before dinner. I LOVE summer.

Ok. I'm closing now to get to bed. Hopefully I'll remember to write more tomorrow.