New Curriculum Shopping

In the past year we have used Oak Meadow for the kids homeschool curriculum. It worked on many levels and on some levels it did not. I found the First Grade level completely bored Tae. Morgan liked the 6th grade math but that was about it. I don't think it challenged either one of them.

So this year, we bit the bullet and ordered a very expensive curriculum. I know, expensive doesn't always mean better but they have a refund policy if we don't like it. But I want the kids to be challenged. Tae is already half way through his second grade year and Morgan needs much more help with her writing. She has such difficulty organizing thoughts and writing them down.

Patrick did very well with Oak Meadow 9th grade. Except the Math-we found Saxon Math just awful so for him this year we are switching to Teaching Textbooks Geometry.

Morgan and Tae will try Calvert. The way I look at it is this: we spend money on groceries, vacation, electronics so why not our kids education? We'll see how it goes. I have to admit that I had a bit of chest pain when I ordered.

Stay tuned for a review when the box comes in.

Purging and Building

We finished up our homeschool year today. I thought we were a bit behind but after looking through the kids new curriculum books for next year I decided to rethink the situation. The beginning of the books for next year are the same material in the last chapters of their books for this year. So, for me, it's not worth repeating the material. The kids have really worked hard all year and I'm so proud of all they have accomplished.

This flag hangs in our homeschool space.

It's a contstant reminder to us that our children belong at home.

It is a spiritual calling I think.

When we finished homeschooling today, I packed away all the old curriculum, purged papers, saved a few things in case the Superintendent want's to review our work (this doesn't happen but it's always a fear of mine) and cleaned and scrubbed the shelves.

When the old stuff was moved, it made me very happy

to put new curriculum on the shelves.

Giddy in fact.

But I was exhausted and needed a nap.

I moved filing cabinet into the corner (doesn't every homeschooler need more filing space?) and put this paper holder on top. It was really for my scrapbooking stuff but was shoved in the back of the closet and hasn't seen the light of day in about 3 years. Now we have scrap paper and colored paper at our fingertips for all those artsy projects.

Dixie the Desk cat likes to lay across the kids books when they are trying to work.
Actually, she was quite happy today when the desk was finally clean and she could lay down again in her favorite spot.....and shed.

Even my bookshelf was cleaned.

The wall that we used for all the kids artwork and posters and other school work

was cleaned off. It was so weird to see the wall again.

By the end of summer it will be filled again, with sand paintings, and seashell

necklaces and photos of sea creatures and flowers and all kinds of things.

This was the best $3.00 I ever spent.

It's a carryall for cleaning supplies but it stays on our work table so the kids have easy access to pencils, pens, scissors, tape (we never have enough tape-I am taking donations), rulers, calculators, glue and markers.

I used to use this blue vinyl thingy for Tae's word wall words but he decided the calendar would be better suited to this space. He did a great job figuring out where all the numbers went. Once he realized that there were 7 days in a week,

not 8, things went along much more smoothly.

I use these Magazine file things for stuff I need to keep handy by my desk.

We are switching to Oak Meadow next year for all three of the kids.

Planning time was taking way to long with our busy schedules and I really wanted something a bit more gentle for the kids.

I love how the stories integrate through all of the learning.

We call this closet "the coffin". It's about 4 feet deep and you can't get to anything in the back. I hate this closet but I didn't have a choice to clean it today. When you open the door and stuff falls on your head-well it's just time.

I'm using these two art buckets for the kids art supplies for next year.

Oak Meadow is very heavy on the art work-I love that.

I'm supposed to learn the Recorder with Tae but am completely lost in the first grade manual.

In all honesty, I hate the Recorder.

It makes the dogs howl.

It makes my eardrums bleed.

Oh, the torture!

Patrick has a great selection of books next year.

He'll be studying Latin and doing a photography elective.

We switched out American History for World History for his ninth grade studies.

What changes are you making for the coming year?

The Letter Nn

This week we covered the letter Nn.

Tae wanted me to take a picture of this.

He wrote the word new and drew a picture of a new carrot. Okay then.

We read No Jumping on the Bed, N.O. Spells No!, The Noisy Book and My New Boy.

Tae worked on his letter Nn templates.

Nn is for Noodles.

First he started to make patterns with the noodles but it was taking too long.

Then he just kind of squished the noodles together.

But Silly me, I used the curly elbow noodles so they didn't lay flat on the paper.

So we had to add LOTS of glue to make them stick.

Tae loved that.

He was able to read most of his word wall words this week.

And he colored this very cute Nest and hatching eggs.

And he did some worksheets and read some books with Nn words in them.
He is doing so well-I'm so proud of him.

The two older kids don't want to be photographed these days.

Patrick is coming along nicely so far with his math this year.

It's always been a struggle for him but I'm so pleased with his effort.

Wow! Four weeks of school are done already!

They year is flying by.

Next week the letter Pp.

See you then.

More Curriculum Preparation

I have to admit that I'm feeling better about teaching my youngest for Kindergarten. The past couple of days I've been feverishly trying to get everything ready for the start of homeschool next week. Teaching three kids at three different grade levels is certainly daunting but the older two are very independent and I think I've worked out a good schedule to give everyone the time that they need.

Let me tell you about my new addiction. It's file folders. I found this awesome site called http://www.filefolderfun.com/ that lets you print out everything you need to create awesome file folder learning tools. I joined the site last week but they are taking a very long time in approving my membership and I'm a tad bit annoyed. I want to get moving! I have a Kindergardener to teach!

This is Cupcake Count. I bought a huge box of 50 file folders (cheap) to create these.

Tae is able to count the cherries on the cupcakes.

Then match them the numbers up with the cherry count. Tae knows how to do most of this but I wanted something fun for him to get used to these. Our first letter of the week is Cc, so the cupcakes go right along with the letter lesson also.

This is the file folder for hot and cold.

It has two pockets and Tae can sort them into the correct category. The word cold goes along with our first letter Cc also.

I also picked up two math books for him. He really loves workbooks and I've been eyeing the Kumon approach for a few weeks now. We have a Kumon instructor at our church and he gave me a few brochures to look through. I really like their approach but this is the first time I've used it so we shall see how it goes.

I took a trip to Lakeshore Learning again today. Gosh, I could spend hours in that store. They had some great sales with 20% off and with my teacher's discount I got another 15% off non-sale items. I wanted to buy some lined cards for Tae's word wall. I bought some of those as well as some colored lined word wall cards, a journal type book for him that we will place each letter of the alphabet in, some smaller accent cards that we will write numbers on and post on the wall and I got another plan book (as a freebie) that I will either keep for next year or donate.

I have been wanting to make something with pockets to keep his wall words in but this beauty was marked down to $11.00 from $16.00. I don't think I could have made it cheaper so I went ahead and bought it.

I added a Title board and then used the lined cards for his words of the week. The words are from the stories we are reading for the first week as well as beginning with the letter Cc. I don't expect him to know how to spell each of these words but with repetition he will come to recognize many of these. I also left a spot at the end of each word for him to write the word too. Mostly, he'll get the beginning sounds and will recognize a few of the words. He was thrilled to death with this and can't wait to start.

I think Tae is all set to begin his first year. Now to just get going on the fifth and eighth grader before next week. Sigh.

Kindergarten Curriculum

I'm not sure where the summer went but our school year is right around the corner. My youngest starts homeschool Kindergarten this year and I have to say I'm having pangs of not feeling confident at times. My two oldest kids both attended public school in their younger years and learned to read while there.

Tae has never been to public school so his learning to read is all on me.

Like everything else I've ever attempted, I'm sure it will be just fine but I do want to have a good plan of attack. This is the child that doesn't like to sit at a desk but loves workbooks and loves stories. When he is not sure of something he completely shuts down and I think he's not listening, but in a few days time he comes back and seems to have grasped the concept. Sometimes you can just see the hamster wheel spinning at full throttle with this kid. So my game plan this year is, well, to have a game plan.
It's always good to have a plan.

Tae got his folders ready for school. Yes, I know it's upside down. So what. He did it himself.

Dixie the ninja kitty watched the keyboard while I sorted through books.

The two books we are using are Sadlier Phonics and Zaner Bloser Activity Phonics. Morgan used both of these books while she was in Kindergarten and First Grade and we loved both of them. I have to say that these are beautiful books. Colorful and interactive. Just right for five year old.

The Activity phonics has a letter of the week for eight weeks then a cumulative review of the letters. At the end of the chapter there is a cut out book that the child should be able to read. We will also be using http://www.starfall.com/ , an online learn to read program that Tae just loves.

The other night I sat for about four hours and went through our very extensive library, finding books that correspond with Tae's letter/sound of the week. Week one, the letter is Cc, so we are reading The Cat in the Hat and several others. The Cat in the Hat makes another appearance when we do the short a sound. Tae loves to be read to, so my plan is to immerse him in reading books this year. Some we will read and some he has words that he recognizes and will soon be reading by himself.

I took a few breaks to breeze through the Lakeshore Learning Catalogs that came in the mail. I still need storage containers for all of our homeschool stuff and honestly I drool over their stuff. It's not in the budget this year to buy all that I want so for now cheap containers will have to do.

Back to the books. I actually was able to plan out the first 12 weeks of school for Tae. I used post it notes to label the books. Each post-it is labeled with the letter of the week and the corresponding week number. Week 2/letter Cc etc.

I selected anywhere between 5 and 10 books for the week for him.
Everything is neatly lined up and I can find each book according to the lesson plan.

This year we will also be learning about numbers by doing the morning Calendar with the weather forcast, I have tons of math manipulatives for him, I have created a letter of the week cork board for him to use, I bought some letter tiles for word creation and we are starting to put together our word wall-all words that Tae knows how to spell and recognize by sight. We also need to work on our days of the week and months of the year.

I am going to use the free plan book that I received from Lakeshore Learning. Homeschooling three kids is confusing enough and I need to know what I covered in each of their subjects. For my own sanity, I need to have everything in one place. My Grandma used to say, "Can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. " How do Grandma's get so wise?

This plan book is large enough for all three kids for each week. Patrick and Morgan only do one subject a day so they are able to spend much more time and depth on each subject. Sometimes the subjects overlap but mostly it's one subject a day for ease.

I like the plan book because it has both monthly and weekly breakdown on the calendar.

My other investment this week was a label maker. I really needed this not only for my pantry but for all the crates, containers, bags and receptacles of homeschoool manipulatives. Some of our containers are solid colors (in the futures I will only buy clear containers so we can see in them) and I needed the label maker to identify what was inside.

Here are the results of many hours of work. Two neatly stacked, labeled and very cool looking baskets ready to start our school year. Two more kids to plan for and oh, I have to buy some new baskets for my linen closet. Guess where these very lovely baskets came from?

My First Bloggy Award and Household Management Book

A big shout out to Kate in NJ from http://www.growinginthegardenstate.blogspot.com/

who gave me the triple bloggy award. I am honored and grateful to be so recognized. I'm strapped for time today so will post my 10 choices over the weekend.

It's my first night back to work tonight and I'm so not looking forward to going. I've been off 9 weeks and while I've recovering I have to say I really did enjoy not having to work and doing all the things I enjoy. I also started some freelance writing work so if you need me to be a guest contributor to your blog, website, company....well I ain't to proud to beg and have reasonable fees.

Honestly, this week, we didn't get much bookwork done. Patrick was sick at the beginning of the week, Morgan was vomitting after him and last night Tae woke up at three a.m. looking like the exorcist had made several visits. Yeah-I'm a nurse and I don't do vomit well. A big "I Love You-Honey" to my husband who changed sheets in the middle of the night. I comforted my son...after he changed his barfed on shirt. Everyone slept late today in our efforts to get healthy. If they were in public school they would be out sick anyway so no losses I guess.

I have a stinkin' cold so have been loading up on Vitamin C and Echinacea. I'm hoping the whole barfing thing stays away from me.

This was my breakfast this morning. A delicious, juicy pink grapefruit. Think Vitamin C.

I ran to the Back to Basics Store last night before my meeting at church. I picked up some Lavender castile soap (fair trade of course), some Lavender oil and Tea tree oil. Hopefully, I can get busy on making my dishsoap and homemade dryer sheets this weekend.

Tae drew some pictures this morning for his "school folder". Yes, I know he put it in

upside down.

My evil cat Dixie guarding my keyboard. Type too fast and she'll take a swipe at you.

I started putting together my household management book. I have tried using one of these before but abandoned it because I don't think I was organized enough. I'm off to a good start. I've made a list of what I want to include in it and I found some great printouts on:

http://www.organizedhome.com/

I love this site and they have templates for every kind of organizing you can think of. Plus I love the section where people send in photos and descriptions of their household notebook. Lots of scrapbookers out there who have made some phenomenal books. I'm not to the point where I can personalize mine yet but I'm pretty sure my Cricut cutter will come in handy here.

Some of the things I'm going to include are our:

-my favorite gardening quote by Thomas Jefferson.

-homeschool schedule, curriculum listings (so I can find them easily)

-Cleaning schedule

-Menus for the week and month

-Shopping lists/coupons

-pantry inventory

-A master list (birthdays, anniversary etc)

-favorite, frequently used recipes (like my bread and bagels)

-Kids chore list

-Personal listings (clothing, shoe sizes for all family members)

-Emergency info etc

-I've also placed some pockets in here for library cards, address labels, stamps, dry erase pens and pens and pencils.

-I'm using page protectors for everything. This way I can use the dry erase marker on top and not have to print off ridiculous amounts of paper each week. Erase and reuse.

I love organized home and their templates. Here is the pantry list.

And the weekly Menu planner (which I used to do but for some reason have left). I'll start doing that again this week. With our evenings and days so full it really is a help so that I'm not scrambing for something to cook at the last minute. Plus it helps with money saving and pantry inventory to know what you are using.

The emergency contact form just in case I ever save enough money that my husband and I would actually be able to hire a babysitter and afford a night out sans children. Dinner in a restaurant...what's that? I'm also open to restaurant gift card donations.

I finally ordered all of the kids curriculum at a HUGE savings from Amazon. The money I saved will still be spent on homeschooling but for field trips, outside classes, etc. I'll post all of the curriculum over the weekend. Some of their books have already started to come in for next year and while it is early in the year, it will give me a chance to go thru and see what we like and what needs to be returned.