Ramblings...

Well we’ve been busy this holiday season! I still have our HumanLight, Christmas, and Kwanzaa plans to discuss but first I wanted to go over what I’ve been slowly working on over the past couple of months *expanding on what I already had in place*. I’ve put the finishing touches on these organizational things while on our break. I’m striving to be more organized to ensure we meet our goals. I’m still working out the lesson planning in a way that I can easily stick to it. I currently have a 3-ring binder that I use, but it’s not as affective due to having to constantly make print-outs/copies, and it’s rather bulky. I found the Teacher’s Lesson Planner and Record Book at our base book store and I’m planning to use that for our 2011-2012 school year. If it pans out I’ll order more to use every year, or go back to the drawing board and find another planning book to explore and test out.

So what are the organizational things I’m working with:



The first is our school meeting board. I got the idea from various places, one being a friend of mine who runs Wandering Quail Road, and the other sources were from the same blogs many of the printables used for the board come from: Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1. *The views and/or opinions of the blogs mentioned during this post or any post for that matter DO NOT in any way reflect the views and/or opinions of my blog, unless otherwise stated.*

The months of the year song lyrics come from THIS website, although we did end up changing it slightly *notice the blacked out portion*. The first time we went over it Child #1 started singing to a tune *and lyrics* he had picked up from one of the various videos or songs we’ve listened to over the years. Not 100% sure where we first heard the song at, I’m still in the process of tracking it down *by going through our various CDs and searching the list of Youtube videos we use*. Also on our board is our date tracker (Trend©) which I got from a school supply store in the states. There is our word of the week taken from Sacred Spiral Kids, our weekly spelling list comprised from the Saxon Phonics 1 curriculum we have, and our artist of the month *info and photo gathered from a simple search of the artist*. Lastly I also made up a simple printable with boxes for the boys and I to put what we are grateful for that morning. I think I will have us go back at the end of our school day and write what we are grateful for at the end of the day as well.




I found this clock on Amazon, it has six alarm slots…yes I am one of those homeschool moms. The alarm also allows you to personalize your alarms, so I had The Spouse do the recordings for us. That way when he is away we can still enjoy hearing his voice six times a day.

Now moving upstairs to our classroom…I found this cart at a store off base. The top shelf holds our laminator *which I LOVE!*. The second and third shelves will hold the teachers editions of any curriculum we are using.

This is the same kind of cart as above they were actually pretty affordable and fit perfectly in the room. Far better than anything I have seen on base, yeah for finding something affordable off base given the current Yen rate! This one sits between the boys' desk/chairs and holds their pencil/crayon boxes, as well as their flashcard boxes. Not sure what will go on the third shelf, I’m sure it will get plenty of use when the time comes to fill it though.

Next is the inside of one of the cabinets in our filing cabinet. The boys each have their own cabinet where I keep the work they have done. I have folders for each subject, and they are labeled with the grade level as well. I also keep extra school items in the front of the folders.

Here you have our planned out general schedule easily accessible to the children and myself. Also on this wall are file folders with the printouts/copies for that given day and subject. This allows me to file away at least a week’s worth of printouts/copies, and have them easily on hand when we need them. Plus when the boys get older I can just printout/copy what is going to be needed and they can grab and go for that day and subject. Both products come from Learning Resources.

Now this section is what has had my attention for the last month or so. First off on the wall are erasable schedules *which came from Lakeshore, but I don't see them on the site now*. I originally bought only two of these, but didn’t use them as I had intended to. Then a friend of mine gave me the two she had since she wasn’t using them either. After about a week of pondering what I might be able to do with the four weekly planners it hit me. I can place two weeks worth of plans for each of the boys on these four boards. Then they *our lesson plans* are easily accessible so I can grab out what is needed for that given week without having to flip through a bunch of pages in a book. I can also see everyday where we are suppose to be headed, and make adjustments as needed. They are hung on the wall using a bit of string and four clear Command™ hooks.


Lastly are our subject boxes. Each shelf is for a particular subject (Language Arts & Phonics, Math, Science, and History), and each box holds the items need for that days work. We alternate Math and Science so I would have that day planned out at least a day in advance. Which will make planning experiments and gathering all the needed items a lot easier to accomplish. Especially since we will be covering Physical Science next year *a mix of Chemistry and Physics*, and I’m planning to make that as hands on as possible. I got the idea for the boxes from various info I got on the Workbox System *refer back to blog disclaimer* *my system is only slightly like it...mostly because it involves boxes LOL...but I don't do 12 boxes for each of the boys. I just stick to subjects we are covering because I just don't have the space for all of that nor do I really need it. The boys have unlimited access to our school supply closet so materials are grabbed as they are wanted/needed which works just fine for now.*

Well that about sums it up. Now to just put all of these things to use! Which we will be doing starting on Monday, wish us luck! Woohoo!!

Copyright(c)2010 Rayven Holmes

Things have been quiet here on our little blog not for lack of anything to post about, just an overall lack of time. We have been very busy this holiday season! We have still been covering the winter holidays like planned though. On the 21st we covered Yule.

For our learning fun we used the Pooka Pages Yule packet, did a family ritual, and made some yummy treats (Solstice Snowballs and a Yule Log *So many things went wrong with making this, the cake didn‘t roll the way I wanted it to, the filling was far too runny, and the icing was a bit off. I‘m convinced it was me, but considering it was the first time I ever made one I think it came out ok all things considered. It was edible that is the most important part right?! One of you will have to try the recipe and tell me how it turned out for you.*).

Our Yule activities not only work into our winter holidays learning but they also help the boys fulfill one of their SpiralScouts patches. While discussing Yule *particularly during our family ritual*, I talked about the various elements in Christmas that have their roots in Yule. This of course got The Spouses attention, he always finds tidbits like this interesting.

I’m looking forward to when the boys are a bit older, so we can watch the sunrise *or the sun being born as some say* like they do in the story we read in Pooka Pages. I think that would be a great way to bring our Yule learning full circle so to speak. But that will have to wait until they are old enough to really appreciate a sunrise *without the complaints of wanting to crawl back in bed or fussing that would follow from an early morning wake-up*, for now they can sleep and dream of the sweet goodies they will receive in just a couple of days.

We have wrapped up our Hanukkah studies and are prepping for the next set of holidays. As a final Hanukkah hoorah our Co-Op enjoyed some Hanukkah themed stories today, after reading a bit of the stories I quizzed the kids on some Hanukkah facts. As I was rounding out the questioning, I asked who lead the Jewish people to victory. While the older kids were thinking about it Child #2 piped up “Judah Maccabee!”.

This was greeted with high fives and cheers of celebration. Then it hit me, they really are listening. Even when it seems like they are miles away, when the days don’t ever seem like they will end, when I‘m pulling out my hair, digging through resources, trying to figure it all out. They are listening… to every story, every explanation, every clever idea or catch phrase I create or borrow to help teach. In one really special moment Child #2 helped confirm that I can do this, WE as a family can do this for the long haul. It won’t always be easy, but they will be listening.

Now to just ensure that what they are hearing are things I always want repeated. ;)