First Day Of 'School'

Well our first day went fairly well. We got up this morning, went to Mass (church), then out to breakfast. Well the breakfast part was because the store I wanted to go to wasn't open yet and I needed 10 minutes to kill, so we went to the McD right next door.

After breakfast we went to the grocery store, came home put groceries away.  Now putting groceries away at our house is a GAME!!! We shop at Aldi and I don't spend the extra money on bags (nor do I bring bags) everything has to be brought in a few items at a time by hand. The kids generally bring them in the front door, put it on the table, and then run out through the back door...the cycle goes on and on.

Here is a video I made back on April 2011.  I made the video for my sister, who is STILL in Iraq, that is why at the end of the video WP said "I love you!"  Also seeing the video was for Auntie they hammed it up bit for the camera.

After the grocery game the kids asked if they could go outside for a bit and play blind tiger. I agreed and off they went. Blind tiger is a game they play on the yard trampoline. I'm not sure of all the rules, because I think it was a game they made up, but one person is blind tiger (pulls their hat over their eyes so they can't see) and the others try to stay away from the blind tiger. The blind tiger CRAWLS while the others are free to walk, hop, crawl around. I think they play this on the trampoline, because it keeps the area the blind tiger has to hunt in "small". Especially seeing we have an 1/2 acre yard.

When that was done they came in and did the 3 subjects I had plan today. Math, World History, and Science. Would you believe it if I told you all of this took place BEFORE noon! Mass this morning was at 8 am, the store didn't open up till 9 am. It was 10:30 by the time we got home this morning and I think quarter to 11 when they decided to go out and play blind tiger. I'm not sure but I think they were back in the house by 11 to do the school work. So it took just about an hour to do those 3 subjects.  Yes a light day, but we are just starting out this year. It will get longer and 'harder' as the year moves on.

2010-2011 School Year Curriculum

We have already done 3 weeks of school. Tomorrow the 27th, will be the start of our 4th week. Then for the week of Oct 4th-8th we will have NO SCHOOL. I've decided to school for about 200 days over 40 weeks. I've also decided that it will be more of an ALL year schooling. Because of this I can almost every 4-5 weeks take a WHOLE week off!  Our off weeks will give me time to grade papers, tweak our plans, and see how things are going.

Language Arts:

• Journaling
• Treasure Spelling Books (Free downloads from Mchschool.com)
• Total Reader
• Phonics Games

Math:

• Web-princess is using MCP Mathematics Level C
• Superstar is using MCP Mathematics Level D

History:

• Library Books
• America the Story of Us DVD
• American Heritage
• Heifer International Lesson Plans (which I got for FREE a while back)
• Drive Thru History America (we got that for FREE when we joined HSLDA 3 years ago)

Science:

• Behold and See 3
• Library Books
• NASA Journey To The Stars (I'm STILL waiting for that one to come)

Fine Arts

• Arts & Crafts
• Music: Recorders
• Various Library Resources

PE/Health

• Various fitness DVD
• Library Resources

Foreign Language:

• Rosetta Stone French

Miscellaneous Enrichment:

• Pizza Hut's Book-It program (Must read 20 books per month to earn pizza)
• BookAdventure.Com
• Head Of The Class
• Classes @ our Homeschool Co-Op I-HOPE

Catholicism:

• Mass on Sundays and Wednesdays
• Find God Faith Formation

About 1/2 Done!

I've before have listed what we are using for the 2009-2010 school year. I can't believe that we are just about 1/2 done with our books. Wow 1/2 the school year is almost done!

With 1/2 the school year almost done, I've realized that I haven't really been posting lesson plans like I wanted too. Honestly I haven't been making lesson plans like I wanted too. I just the night before look at our books and decided what to do next. Some of it also is just routine. I tell the kids to do math and they will automatically do 4 pages. I tell the kids to do grammar and they will automatically do the 1 page. There really isn't much planning to be done. We just are working through the books. From the beginning to the end! LOL

Althoug I want to be better planned out and have more of a schedule or weekly planner for them, so they know this is what needs to be done this week. With perhaps the goal of them being able to plan out their days accordingly or their week accordingly. That if they have to do 4 page of grammar all week, that it's okay if they do it all on Day 1 or they can not do it one day and do 2 the next, etc. That it really wouldn't matter as long as at the end of the week the work was done.

Anyway we are about 1/2 way done and it's AWESOME!! It took us 5 months to get here and that was with a month of no schooling do to flu and surgery. So I imagine that it will take us another 5 months to finish. That means we should be done some time in May. Which is cool seeing the public schools here go to school until Mid June! LOL

School Again!

Well back in June/July I announced we started school, then I said we were taking a week off because it got terribly hot! Well that week turned out to be the rest (or most of) the summer!

Which is totally okay! However, tomorrow we are going to hit the books again! Honestly, I'm looking forward to it and I believe the kids are too. Our homeschool group is also meeting up again soon...within the next week or 2...so it's beginning to feel a little more like "school time" :)

Not sure what there is going to be yet for co-op classes. I should be getting that info sometime this week. Our co-op offers a variety of classes. The schedule generally works like this: 2 classes, then lunch, and a class after lunch.

What classes are available is totally depended on the parents that choose to teach a class. We can be there for all the classes or just for what we want. Like the last semester of last school year the kids just went to play practice and that was it. We do try hard to have at least one class per age level, per class time, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

Anyway that's what's going on here. I'm going to be working on my lesson plans today and hope to have them posted soon on my lesson plan page. I wonder if there is away for me to post a doc of some sort so I don't have to retype everything.... hmm... something to consider especially if I'm going to be "sharing". :)

Perhaps some of my readers know of some FREE programs that would allow me to share docs or make pdf? That would also allow me to share them but edit them any time if needed. Not only that but the editing wouldn't effect what was shared. As a matter of fact it would auto edit what I shared. Does that make sense to anyone? Any ideas?