Our School Room

We are so blessed to live near my mom. She has let us use one room in her house for our school room. We are in our 3rd week and so far, loving it. I'd say the only down side is keeping my 3 year old busy while I have to work with the others.  I don't have the resources (toys) I do at home, but so far we've managed.
Here are some pics:

The first grader's space is shared with me on my desk. With the PreK boy behind me.

Shelves with my teachers books, manipulatives, and some PreK games.

PreK chalkboard desk.

5th grader's area--extra paper is stored on her shelf too.

Our calendar area. A HUGE white board we made out of shower wall stuff from Home Depot. My mom bought us this awesome rug.

 A closer view of our Calendar Board.

The whole room.

Cool Rug.

One awesome thing about this room is that we haven't had to turn the lights on yet--even on a rainy day. Those skylights provide SOOO much natural light. It's great. We are blessed to have this space.

Our First Day

We rode our bike to school on the first day.... and nearly every day since. A fun adventure for the kids. School is just 1/2 mile away.

Daughter is holding my bike up--it doesn't balance with the trailer.

ready to go...

Hard to take a picture while riding a bike.

Sweet boy in a trailer.

Nana left a note on the door "Welcome to your first day of school 2014-2015.

Emergent Readers

I found these on Pinterest

http://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-emergent-readers/

Check out all her learning ideas too in each post for the books. Wonderful!

Back To School Pics

Confession time: I got the idea for this photo shoot from Pinterest...

My Sweetie Pie!

That face--he's awesome!

Ready for 5th--I'm so not ready for her to be this grown up!

I make GORGEOUS children!

SASSY girl!

Sweet Happy Boy

I'm in love with this sweet face.

All 3--and the dog.

And it wouldn't be complete without Teacher Pics--Thanks to my awesome daughter for snapping these for me!
 

Just me

My 'teacher' face

No, she doesn't really wear glasses, just for effect.

Curriculum 2014-2015

So I will be teaching a 5th grader, 1st grader, and a 4 year old Pre-K.  I have a board for ideas, but
here's the 'list' (keep in mind this is unofficial because I haven't bought anything yet):

5th Grade
English/Grammar/Spelling: Queens Language Lessons for the Elementary Child Volume 2
All About Spelling 3 (continued from 4th grade, then onto level 4)

Math: Teaching Textbooks 5

Reading: Whatever Books we can find--maybe some literature study units from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Vocab:
Vocabulary for the Gifted Student
Word of the Week Volume 1

Writing:
Jump In

Thinking:
Unlocking Analogies
Critical and Creative Thinking


Together:

Science:
Story of the World Volume 2

History:
Christian Kids Explore Biology

Art: Teach Art to Children


1st Grade:

English/Grammar/Spelling: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind
All About Spelling 1 (starting halfway through the year when he's ready)

Reading: All About Reading 1 (continuing from Kindergarten)

Math: Math U See Alpha

Thinking: Critical and Creative Thinking

Writing: Draw the Write

Fun: Make a World

Pre-K:

ABC's: Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week
Rescue Bots Learn the Alphabet

123's:  Rescue Bots Learn Counting

Also, whatever fun activities I have pinned here

 Hopefully I get to buy and start planning soon!!!

New School Room

Well I've decided to move our school room to my mom's house this year. We are going to try it out anyway. She only lives about 1/4 mile away, so we won't have to travel too far. :) I'm looking forward to having a designated school space that isn't mixed with living room/dining room/ kitchen, like it is now. I'm keeping an open mind. We might end up loving it, but we mind end up hating it. We will see. So far I can see it will have more advantages than disadvantages. So here's my list.

Pros:
More space
A designated school space
We will 'go' to school-- so when we are there it will be school time, not get distracted by the kitchen and snacks that are 3 feet away time.
No housework distractions--when I'm there, I'm teacher only. :)


Cons:
Having to get up and get out of the house when it's -20 in the winter
Having to keep the Preschooler busy while the other two are finishing school without 'home' resources.


I will post some pictures when I get it set up. I still haven't bought my curriculum yet.... This year is getting off to an interesting start. :) (whenever it starts)

I did something today...

I did something today to get ready for the school year. I printed out worksheets. I had an idea to practice and keep multiplication facts fresh: Have one worksheet of facts a day.


Monday--0's, 1's, 2's (EASY day :)
Tuesday--5's and 10's
Wednesday--3's, 6's, 9's
Thursday--4's, 8's
Friday--7's

As we master these we will move on to committing division facts to memory. I printed them out from worksheetworks.com

I didn't publish this:

THIS IS LAST YEAR'S FIRST DAY POST. Silly Me, I forgot to publish it. I'm a dork.

Panic? I think not... Well, maybe a little....

         So here I am, in the middle of the busiest summer I've EVER had. It's almost the end of July and Guess What! I don't have any curriculum purchased for this next year. I have a few things that we are continuing from last year, but the bulk of my stuff??? Still in the store. I haven't gotten to plan or look at the lessons.... My 'I want to control everything and have a very specific plan' part of me is freaking out. The other part of me; the 'It'll come together just take one step at a time' part of me is doing ok. (That's the part where my husband's personality rubbed off on me.)

 

 

So What I Have:

All About Spelling 3 (my daughter will continue this and I will buy 4 at some point during the year)

All About Reading 1 (my son will be continuing this and I will buy 2 when he's ready)

Math U See Alpha (my son will start this when we start)

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind (My son will start this when we start)

Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week and K4  (my youngest son will do this one, he's about to turn 4)

 

What I 'need': Here's a link to my Pinterest Board. :) Too many to list.... Now, I'm not getting everything on the board, but a lot of it. Hopefully. :)

 

http://www.pinterest.com/sandi_wray/homeschool-wish-list/

 

Our school room set up will be the same as last year. I think. I've been contemplating moving our 'school room' to my mom's house. Still mulling that one over. Not sure I want to 'get out' on the mornings when it's 20 below Zero. But, then again, that doesn't happen too often. Well, that's all for now. Want to see a picture of me? I'll leave you with this:

Just having Breakfast at Tiffany's.

 

 

 

Homeschool "Room" 2013-2014

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So we don't actually have a homeschool room. We have one big room that serves as: kitchen, dining room, living room, entryway, and homeschool room. It's not the 'ideal' setup, but we make it work. Instead of schooling at the dining room table this year, my awesome husband built this school desk. Those upper shelves used to stand vertically, stacked on one another and were stained green. I painted them teal, cause it's my new favorite color; and he hung them on the wall for me.

The big tall cabinet is our homeschool supply storage. The top cabinet has stuff like markers, glue, craft supplies, and paper. The bottom cabinet is... a mess. It has extra craft supplies, unused notebooks and binders, and preschool supplies.

 The little desk is for my preschooler. The printer is on a box to the left that has some of his 'curriculum' inside. To the right of his desk is some more of his stuff. I'm planning on organizing all his stuff, at some point in the future, hopefully before he goes to college. :) Also to the right of the big cabinet, slid into the hole, is our whiteboard that we use for All About Spelling and All About Reading.

I'm only going to show you the top of the big cabinet cause it has labels and is pretty (sort-of) (Ok, it actually still needs some work and a few more labels)

And in this corner.....

 we have our 'workboxes' and a big 31 bag that holds all our library books. It just sits on the floor because I have no other place to put it.

 A big view of our room, complete with kids watching Cars. Homeschool area to the right and in the far corner. In the left back corner is where our workboxes are. To the right is the rest of the kitchen area. Also, down the hallway to the left..... is our calendar board. :)

I got stuff for this board from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Mama Jenn and We Choose Virtues. I also made a couple the date on the top and the color and shape of the days, and the daily scripture confession above the 'make the date'. So there's our 'school room'.

Curriculum 2013-2014

It is my 3rd year homeschooling and no I don't have it all figured out. So for our choices for 2013-2014 curriculum are as follows:

4TH Grade:

English: BJU Writing and Grammar
Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears; Cursive Success  and A Reason for Handwriting C
Typing: Typing Instructor for Kids
Science: Earth and Space (a book I found at the thrift store), and Magic School Bus Science Kits
History/Geography: Road Trip USA from Confessions of a Homeschooler
Math: Probably Math U See Delta, maybe Teaching Textbooks
Bible: We are just going through a devotional and memorizing verses this year
Spelling: All About Spelling 2

Kindergarten:

All About Reading 1
Math U See Primer
History and Science: listening along with big sister
Bible: same as big sis
We are also doing some of those All in 1 workbooks for Kindergarten and some K4 curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Tot School:
If all goes well, I'm going to do Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Teaching shapes, colors, and letter names is my main goal for him.

Wanna know my schedule???? It's super exciting! Ok, not really. It's something I put together to make me feel some semblance of control over my school day. HA HA HA! We'll see how it goes.

And that's what I have so far. We will probably have to do some adjustments once school starts. Here's to a good year!

Frustrations

There are one or two subjects every day that have been a source of frustration. It's wearing me out and we are only on our sixth day. There has to be a change. So, I'm going to be the change I want to see. I believe the Word and what it says. I believe I have the things that I say. My children are taught of the Lord and great is their peace. They are wise and recieve correction. I train them up in the way they should go and when they are older they will not depart from it. I'm also going to make a daily confession for them to say. Things about them being trainable and teachable and receptive of that training and teaching. My oldest is a bit of a perfectionist and very very literal. If she does't know EVERYTHING right away, she feels frustrated and stupid. I hate that learning makes her feel that way. I've tried explaining to her that correction is part of learning. It hasn't worked, so I'm turning to something that WORKS, EVERYTIME. I praise God for is Word and that he keeps his promises. I praise God that he has given me the opportunity and ability to homeschool and a husband who completely supports it and the means to do it. (It aint cheap :) What a wonderful opportunity and gift I have in teaching my kiddos.

The First Day

Okay, so the first day has come and gone and I only wanted to quit once. I only said the bad word (public school) once. In all reality I wouldn't quit homeschooling for anything. I love it. Good days and bad. We got our problem worked out and are ready for a new day tomorrow. I love being in a new routine. Hopefully we can keep it up. Here it is:

6:00 am I wake up and exercise, read my Bible, write out my goals for the day, start breakfast, and shower. My goal is to be out of the shower by 7:00 am. Didn't quite make it this morning, but I'll work on it.
7:00 kids get up and shuffle slowly into the kitchen to eat.
7:20 (ish) we start our morning routine: get dressed, brush teeth, make bed, chores.
8:00am Exercise, this time the kids join in, then Bible Time, then school starts.
10:00am snack time and more school
12noon Lunch.
1:00 School projects (all the 'extras')
After that is done: finish chores, if applicable, and FREE TIME. This is when the kids can watch an episode of TV, or play the Wii for a little bit, and just play.
Toddler takes a nap at 2 and I RELAX.
5:oo clean up time.
Then dinner, free time, showers, and bed at 8:30!
I try to be ASLEEP at 10, or at least in bed.
And now what you've all been waiting for... FIRST DAY PICTURES!