Ramblings...

Well it’s a New Year! So of course my first post is about our 2012-2013 plans. I just love planning! I can’t help it; I’m always thinking, planning, and plotting.

Here is a rough draft of our 2012-2013 Plans:

General Disarray:
Language Arts- Harcourt Language Grade 3
Math- Saxon Math 4
Science- Science Fusion Grade 3 (have you all heard about this science curriculum for homeschoolers! I can’t wait to try it out! Finally, a secular science homeschool curriculum I can be excited about!)
History- Early Modern Times (a collection of supplies that have yet to be determined)

Professor Chaos:
Language Arts- Hooked on Phonics (starting with grade K and then moving on from there all the way up to grade 3, General Disarray got through within a year but I’m not going to make the assumption that Professor Chaos will. We will move at his pace to ensure acquisition of his reading skills).
Math- Saxon Math 1
Science- Science Fusion Grade K
History- Early Modern Times (he will be working with his brother, since we follow the classical method for history so when we get back to ancients for General Disarray it would coincide with when Professor would be starting Ancients. Allowing for one subject that flows between T.B.M., decreasing the amount of history planning I have to do, only planning for one time period at a time makes my life so much easier).

This year also marks our last full year in Japan so we are going to make the most of with plenty of field trips and festivals in the works to help round out our school year.
There will also be a continuing of things currently in the works, like our Monday activities, and possibly an increase of a few other activities.

Time4Learning Supplement or Core Curriculum? I’m currently debating this. We use Time4Learning as a supplement right now, but T.B.M. enjoy it greatly. In fact it’s one of their favorite resources out of everything we use. The Spouse doesn’t think that there is enough in the program to make it our core; I can see where he is coming from. I think it has potential though, with good supplements it could probably be our core curriculum. For any of you parents who use Time4Learning do you use it as a core or a supplement?

Also grab your yarmulkes!



I’m so looking forward to our annual feast!

Latkes, Sufganiya, and Challah OH MY!!

According to our schedule we are in the fourth week of our second quarter, I divide the year up into four quarters schooling year round with short breaks throughout the year. Ideally, I would evaluate after each quarter, but I couldn’t with all of our traveling. Now, though, is the perfect time for a reevaluation and revamp!

So far our Math and Language Arts lessons are moving along fairly well, General Disarray usually sits down to do those subjects on his own and we go over anything that may be new or cause him problems. Generally, though, he can read and learn on his own. Professor Chaos has done pretty well with his Teach A Child To Read lessons, though they are very repetitive to the point that they bore him, so we have changed up the lessons to fit our needs.

While Math and Language Arts are doing well, we still have History and Science to contend with, and that is where a lot of the revamping is taking place. We are lacking a level of structure in History and Science, we do a lot of reading, but I want to bring all of that full circle with other activities to ensure the knowledge is retained. To help with this I’m utilizing Lesson Pathways, Spectrum Science workbooks that I found while stateside, a larger reading list, and Story of the World on audio disc. I, personally, had no desire to purchase the Story of the World books, but I found the audio for book two at our library and the kids really enjoy it. It will play during our hands on activities, after I’ve given directions, to help reiterate what we have been doing.

These few add-ons should help make the learning experience more enjoyable. I want to lean heavily on hands-on activities while T.B.M. are young, since that will not only allow for them to learn the material, but to have tons of fun while doing it. I have also changed our schedule so Science lessons on Thursdays are strictly for experiments. Instead of moving on to another lesson, we will focus on experiments and activities that further support the lesson(s) learned on Tuesday.

Other than that change, our schedule will stay the same. We are easing back into our routine and should be back to “normal” by mid-November. We will only be taking the weekend of Thanksgiving off, November 24th-27th, and then working until the week before Christmas.

Oh my goodness, it’s almost Christmas time already! I swear the older these kids get the faster the year seems to go.

With the end of the year quickly approaching, what changes, if any, have you made to your homeschooling curriculum/schedule?

I seem to always have something in the works. From our school planning to family vacations there is always a plan being hatched. The current plan I’m mulling over in my mind is our garden. This is the space we have for it:

I know…that’s a lot of space *somewhere around 1300sqft*. Since its grass-less I’ll be relying heavily on container gardening, as well as decorative plants in the flowerbeds on the first floor of our property. While these pre-existing beds *which I will showcase later* would be great places for herbs; the previous owners had a dog which defecated in most of these flowerbeds *eww...doesn’t begin to describe it*. I refuse to plant anything that we would use for food in an area where someone’s animal eliminated. Once I have tackled the fecal issue in these beds *through layered burying of the substance in question using mulch and dirt*, I’ll tackle the issue of planting while keeping The Spouse’s bee allergy in mind.

To help with the planning of the actual garden I’m using Mother Earth News’ Garden Planner. It’s free for the first 30 days and then after that it’s 25$ a year *not a bad deal if you manage to produce most, if not, all the fruits and vegetables your family needs in one year!*. It appears fairly easy to use; I’m just getting started so as I move through the planning/planting process I will share more on it.

It gives you the option to set frost dates for your region *not an issue where we currently live*, and then you plug in the measurements for you planting area, at which point it produces a space for you to work with. From there you add in the various shapes of the beds/plots/containers you plan to use, as well as walkways, fountains/ponds (using their drawing/shape features), and just about anything else you could think of needing in your garden. After you have all that squared away you add in what you plan to plant. It gives you the option of crop rotating and planning ahead for the following year. You can also receive emails about frost dates and planting days.

This planner pretty much makes planting a breeze for a busy family like ours. I just plug in and go. If only it did all the planting and maintaining for me!

How is your garden planning going?

Copyright(c)2011 Rayven Holmes

Oh history. It can be a thrilling subject; I’ve spent hours engulfed in the History Channel. I adore that channel, it happens to be one of the few reasons I would ever consider getting cable or satellite again. While watching the History Channel is great, teaching history, on the other hand, can turn an interesting subject into a total nightmare. When you take away the trained narrator with his/her amazing voice inflection, leave the re-enactments on the cutting room floor, turn off the well-rehearsed musical piece, you are left with just the bare bone facts. And facts…well they can be rather boring, especially to children.

Now in an ideal world I would be able to turn on the History Channel, or acquire one of their many DVDs, and just allow TBM to sit and soak up all the history knowledge they could ever possibly need. We don’t live in an ideal world though…we live in reality, and in reality TBM find the History Channel to be just as dull and boring as ever history class I was ever forced to sit through. Those were actually genuinely boring, a lot of note taking, monotone documentaries, and tons of dates to remember. Did I learn anything in those classes, no not really, I spent my time lost in daydreams or reading the stuff I wanted to learn about. I didn’t appreciate history until I became a regular History Channel watcher, years of knowledge missed because of the way the subject was presented in school. I don’t want TBM to miss out on the experience that is historical learning, because I failed to present it in an enjoyable way.

So I’ve mulled over various ways to go about it without feeling like I’m sacrificing certain ideals we hold dear*i.e. purchasing curriculum materials that go against the core values in our home*. After a good six months of book buying, internet searching, review reading, and scheduling I think I have found what will work for us.

Truth Quest History! ...JUST KIDDING!! I promise that was a joke! Ok so what I have I really found? Well, a combination of various materials with lots of hands on stuff thrown in, hopefully this will produce enough information for a solid foundation on this year’s history topic while allowing things to be fun as well.

This upcoming school year we are tackling the Middle Ages! If only we lived near a Medieval Times! There is a lot that can be learnt during this time period, but I honestly don’t see the point in cramming a bunch of facts into small children’s heads. They need to experience the material first, so when the time comes to learn the facts and figures they are actually eager to do it. That’s the way I see it anyways.

Using History Odyssey as my guide I went through and plucked the items I felt would produce a well-rounded understanding of the Middle Ages for elementary level students. Considering how we will be revisiting this time period again due to us using the Classical approach in relation to history, I see no need to sweat the small stuff right now. I did make one major tweak to our studies; I will be weaving the study of various religions in with history this year unlike last year.

Christianity and Islam both play major roles in the shaping of our world during the Middle Ages, I feel I would be doing a disservice to TBM’s education if I continue to ignore the religious element of human history. I of course planned to hit it head on later down the line, but I’m starting to see that the present is as good a time as any to start the enormous task. I’ll break down what I intend to cover and then touch on how I’m planning to work in the religious element.

For the 2011-2012 School Year we will be covering:

The Roman Empire

“The Dark Ages”

England & France

Knights

The Crusades

The Black Death

Queen Elizabeth

William Shakespeare *we will be reading some of his various works for our language arts studies*

China & Japan

Samurais

The Middle East

The Americas

These will be broken down over the course of our year *we school year round with our year broken down into seasonal quarters (summer, fall, winter, and spring…we start our school year during the summer)*. We will still do our hands on “day in the life” geared learning this year, with us having actual outfits (that I intend to sew before the 4th of July) to go along with our learning. Being the Middle Ages there are tons of fun things to do from castle building to epic swordfight battles. The possibilities are endless and I’m really looking forward to our hands on work this upcoming school year.

Now comes the “fun” part, bringing in the religious study. It won’t be too in-depth, more of a taste of what people believe and a building of the groundwork that will help them understand the impact these beliefs had on the world.

I’m going to start first with a study of Judaism, followed by Christianity, then Islam, and lastly a brief overview of the religious beliefs of various American civilizations (Mayan, Inca, Native Americans, etc.), Buddhism, and Shinto. These studies will correspond with the main history topics being taught. I’ve figured out which religions to teach and when to teach them, the materials for teaching though still elude me.

As much as it pains me to do it I think I may purchase children’s study books for the major monotheistic religions, this will give me something to use as a core spine for those three. I will just have to deal with the issue of each painting itself in a picture perfect light as we make our way through the books. The others though I will have to do some digging *and a few library visits* to find what I’ll use as my guide. I think as long as TBM walk away from their studies with a basic understand of these religions I’ll be happy. I still plan to go more in depth with the big three at least, so just like with our core history studies I won’t be sweating the small stuff when it comes to the religious studies this upcoming school year.

That pretty much sums up our history for this upcoming school year. Wow that turned into an extremely long post! Now to finish sorting the supplies and hunting for fabric for our period themed garments!

Prince may party like it’s 1999 but we are knee deep in planning like it’s our 2011-2012 school year! I’m very excited for this upcoming school year. We are really starting to find our homeschooling groove and what works for us as a family, and as individuals. My biggest hurdle this year, and the previous year as well, was finding a simple way to plan out our year. I’ve tried online planning methods before through Homeschool Tracker Basic. While it works for many out there it just didn’t do it for me. While I’m all for techy stuff and online goodness, it became too much of a hassle to go in and update. As well as plugging in all of our curriculum materials and our goals.


I then tried making my own lesson plan book using Donna Young printable planning pages, but the binder turned into a headache when I needed to take it with me on the go, plus having to frequently print off pages made it seem like a total waste, and just unpractical for a family with limited space, which is something we have to deal with.


Then I thought about the agenda books we had when I was in middle school. These were geared more for documenting homework assignments and paperwork that needed to be signed off, but I really liked the idea of each child having their own individual planner. So I spent a good month hunting around the net for something that would meet this need. First I tired going through sites that actually sale agenda books for schools. Sites with books I liked all had minimum purchase requirements, so as a homeschooler with only two students instead of a class of 45 I couldn’t purchase the books. Unless, I wanted to blow an obscene amount of money on something I may not even like at the end of the school year.


After knocking those off my list I hit amazon in search of agenda books/student planners that would allow for smaller purchases. I found a few but, most where religious themed with bible verses on either every page or in every daily block, way too much for our secular family. I could see ignoring a few verses every now and then, but this was overkill. The secular ones I found didn’t fit our schooling schedule since we homeschool year round (July-June), and they were geared towards the traditional schooling schedule.


I finally decided to search for a homeschool student planner just to see what it would bring up, and low and behold there is a student planner for homeschoolers called The Homeschool Student Planner. I wasn’t all gung-ho about getting it at first. I’m big on seeing what I’m going to buy, there are actually items I won’t purchase because, the website doesn’t have enough detail for my taste. So I did some searching for reviews on the product and while none actually showed off any pictures I decided to take a leap based on what I had been able to find. Factor in the money back guarantee and I felt confident in making the purchase.


I bought two planners so each child can have one, which came to $40, but considering the cost of printer ink and paper I think I’m coming out ahead compared to our previous method. I’m not having the boys fill these out themselves yet, I’m not sure when *or if* I will turn over the planning to them altogether. For now though I’m using it to plan out our school year, so we have what they each are doing in a place they can both easily access. It also helps keep both their work separate so I can be in the zone planning and working through the work for one child, then close up and move on to the next child.


The planners easily fit into T.B.M.’s book bags as well, allowing for us to school on the go, which will be very handy when we head to the states for a nearly two month visit in a couple of years. Allowing them both to do their work while we are either in a plane or a car, ensuring we meet our schooling goals while getting in plenty of time with family and friends, while limiting the amount of stuff we have to lug around the planet.


The planner breaks the year down by quarters which I really like since I set our goals by quarters (seasons), so this flows right into what we are already doing. I can also write in the dates, and while I did that this year I don’t foresee me doing it next year. I realized after filling in the dates and nearly the first quarter lessons when it hit me that I have to work in the breaks as well. So for this year I’m going to finish out the planning, and then when we take our breaks I’ll push back the work for that time period and pick it up when we resume.


Next year though I’m going to fill in the day of school on the left hand margin (first, second….etc. day of school) and then fill in the week of school when we get to it along the top. This will allow us to take our breaks as needed and then pick back up without any erasing in the planner on my end. :) The only negative with the planner so far is that the quarters are a typical nine weeks long, and our quarters are 13 weeks, but each planner comes with extra pages that I can make copies of to use so I can print out enough to cover the whole school year. I’ll just staple them together and paperclip the bundle to the quarter they belong with. This will still allow me to have all the items right there at hand, instead of pulling planning papers out of every nook and cranny in our home.


Each quarter also has an envelope to store paperwork, I’m not sure if we will use this feature this school year, but I can see using it when we have to do some carschooling, because it will allow everything to stay safely put away. I’m hoping this planning method pans out better than the previous ones; I have a good feeling about it since I don’t dread doing the planning, unlike when I was planning before. Here’s hoping!


So what are you using for your planning purposes?

Well our family vacation is over and we are slowly getting back into the swing of things. This always seems to be the hardest part, readjusting to schooling when we’ve had so much time off to relax. I blame myself for this, because the boys are eager to learn and I find I’m handing them workbooks, instead of having detailed lesson plans to work with. I would prefer to have detailed plans so I know we are getting things done instead of just doing “busy work”.

My goal for the 2011-2012 school year is to work on the level of detail I put into plans. Instead of just saying I’ll cover two math lessons on a given day, I will actually put down what I aim to do that day, items to teach, worksheets, and other activities I want to use/do. I also plan to sit down and write out a detailed plan for the whole school year. Up until now I have just wrote down blocks of time, for instance in March I would write Lessons 90-100 in Math, Ancient Rome in History, and so forth for each subject.

Which sounded great on paper but when actually put into effect it causes more work and headaches then I personally need, because I then I have to sit down before the 1st of each month and write out my plan and what I’ll be using. I don’t always have time at the end of each month to do this, and we aren’t always right where my original block put us. By having detailed plans before our new school year even starts I’m hoping to achieve a smoother school year, by getting rid of a lot of work before the year even starts. Then we can just move through our plans knocking off assignments as we get to them. I’ll still break our year down in months to see what we will be covering month to month, I’m just adding in week to week, and day to day ahead of when I usually do them to allow me to get a better handle on what we are learning.

So when we encounter our next break we will be able to pick right up where we left off, without me having to go “Now what am I going to teach?”

I’ve talked before that we do Spiral Scouts as an alternative to Boys Scouts since we don’t agree with their policies, but we see value in scouting. This school year I wanted to establish some sort of plan of action when it comes to our Spiral Scouts activities. So I’ve decided to focus on not just certain badges/patches/awards, but an overall theme for each school year. We would then work on the badges/patches/awards that would qualify under that theme.

For this year our theme is camping and hiking *since I figure they both go hand in hand*. We will start with learning about compasses, the parts of them, how they work, when they may not work, and other things that will meet the badge requirements. After that we will learn how to make various knots, what their uses are for, and when they would use certain knots while outdoors. From there we will tackle hiking safety and what one needs to take with them on a hike. Finally we will spend time learning about the ins and outs of camping, camping safety, and then we will put all of our knowledge to use.

We school year round with us acknowledging a new year in July, so I’m planning to tackle each piece over the course of a school quarter.

July-September: Compass Knowledge

October-December: Knot Knowledge

January-March: Hiking Knowledge

April-June: Camping Knowledge and Camping Trip

This should allow us to spend plenty of time working on each piece of the puzzle, that way when we embark on our camping trip we will be fully prepared. I’m aiming for our camping trip to be in early May to beat out a lot of the heat that we encounter here and hopefully not get hit by a lot of rain either.

I’m still in the resource gathering stage but so far I have found the following:

Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids' Guide

Let’s Go Hiking

If you have resources to share that would help us with our theme please share.

“The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.”~ Fred Astaire

In our home manners are very important. Do we always have the best manners? No, of course not we aren’t prefect. Dinner time at our home is a cross between gross-out hour at a back alley comedy club, and a meal with Ms. Manners. I would prefer to knock down some of the back alley talk and increase the influence of Ms. Manners. Of course increasing Ms. Manners influence means not only showing but teaching manners. Now I want T.B.M. to learn more than the general stuff we have already taught them *please, thank you, excuse me, etc.*, but also things that may seem outdated *place setting, thank you notes, table manners, etc.*. Overall, etiquette or “the rules of acceptable behavior”.

Once I established that etiquette was something I wanted to work into our curriculum beginning with this upcoming 2011-2012 school year I had to figure out a plan of action. Aside from the general stuff we have already taught the boys The Spouse and I are noobs to the etiquette game. So I went in search of a program to help teach not only the boys but myself at the same time. So far I have narrowed my choices down to The Etiquette Factory and Homemade Manners.

I’m leaning heavily towards The Etiquette Factory since they give a more detailed description of each program along with pictures. I also find the price reasonable considering all that comes in the program. The only problem, like with anything we order, is getting it here. That dreaded APO label always creates some hoops that need to be jumped through.

Despite that I think The Etiquette Factory is the way we are going to go. I’m sure it will be an interesting experience when we start implementing it into our schedule.


So much to plan! I’m really looking forward to our 2011-2012 school year. Tons of learning and fun in store.

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is coming up so I’ve put together a mini lesson for us. We won’t just be focusing on MLK Jr., but on equality as a whole. On our learning board we have the word equality for our weekly vocabulary word, that will extend into next week as well. We also have a picture of MLK Jr. next to our vocabulary word, and the dates of his birth and death.

I found a printable activity book on Enchanted Learning that General Disarray will use, as well as some coloring sheets from various websites that both of TBM will use. For an art activity we will cut into my insanely large stack of magazines and create “Unity Collages”. I'll post pictures of them when we finish them.

Our reading books will encompass the bulk of our learning, since I’m looking to these as a way of prompting discussions and maybe a few journal entries.

Our book list is as follows *we own all of these, but you may be able to locate them at your local library, and if they don’t have them you can always request them*:

My First Biography: Martin Luther King, Jr. by Marion Dane Bauer

Our People by Angela Shelf Medearis

Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry With a Beat (includes audio CD) edited by Nikki Giovanni

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters by Barack Obama

In My Heart by Molly Bang

America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle by David A. Adler

Free To Be You and Me (includes audio CD) by Marlo Thomas and Friends

At My House What Makes A Family Is Love by Dee Dee Walter-Goodspeed

Is There Really A Human Race by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell

I found the Hip Hop Speaks book a while back and even though I’m personally not a huge fan of hip hop it seemed intriguing so I scooped it up. I’m really glad I did because it will fit in perfectly with our equality lesson. I won’t be using the whole book now, although when we study poetry I will come back to it. For now I’ll be using the following pieces *with accompanying audio tracks* from the book:

from Ladies First by Queen Latifah
People Equal by James Berry
from Umi Says by Mos Def
Dream Variations by Langston Hughes
Me by Elizabeth Swados
Love Poem For My People by Pedro Pietri
From Love Is by Common
The Rosa Parks by Nikki Giovanni
We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar
The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes
If We Forget by Ja Jahannes
and lastly but surely not least from I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King Jr.

I think I’ll track down some other poems, and possibly some video clips as well, we will just see how the rest of this week as well as next week plays out.

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscious stupidity.”~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Well it’s that time of year, the lights are hung and the tree is up *all earlier than we usually do these things since I wanted to take advantage of a Shutterfly sale*. The kids are getting anxious, and I’m ready for our winter break that starts in about two weeks.

Even though we will be on break, we will still be getting plenty of use out of our Knowledge Books, and I will be knee deep in 2011-2012 school year prep. I’ve also been putting some finishing touches on the classroom, organizational wise which I will share more of once I have it all completed.

Slowly, but surely we are getting a grasp on homeschooling in terms of our family and what works best *not too bad for only our second official year of homeschooling as far as I‘m concerned*. It is very much a lifestyle, even the holidays can’t escape it’s educational opportunity reach.

But it fits us so well and I can’t picture having it any other way.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of good food and fabulous family and friends. We had wonderful friends over *and thought often of our family and friends back home*, because yes homeschoolers do socialize with people. *Gasp*!

I’ve mentioned before about my issues with so called “neutral” homeschooling science materials. While I was configuring the changes for our science learning I really tried to tell myself that I could handle the term “neutral” when it comes to Physical Science, Chemistry, and Physics. But I can’t. So what am I going to do? Well let me backtrack a bit about my plans and then I’ll tell you my solutions.

We currently do a Space/Earth/Biology combo when it comes to science. I’ve decided starting next year we will add in Chemistry and Physics/Physical Science. I also want to add in more structure *for myself as far as planning* to ensure that they get some core information. I really wanted something to use as a guide to ensure I hit important topics, and to also use as a fall back when I just can’t come up with some sort of activity for the topic at hand.

At first I considered using Real Science 4 Kids *Chemistry and Physics*, but the more I learned about the author the more disinterested in the product I became. So then I found myself in a tough situation, where would I turn to solve this problem in front of me? I decided to look at public school textbook sellers again, even though I wasn’t happy with the bundle I purchased at the start of the year, I figured looking again wouldn’t hurt.

So I searched around and came across THIS. It is Prentice Hall Science Explorer, one of the top middle school science programs in America. Yes I said middle school. I searched through the elementary programs and found them mediocre at best. I guess for students who have never been exposed to very much in the way of science the elementary programs are great, but in our home they would serve as mere paperweights.

So I will be using middle school textbooks as our guide in science. I personally feel we dumb down scientific education in America to start with, and we underestimate the abilities of children. Just take a look at the table of contents for the Prentice Hall Science Explorer books, a lot of it is very simple basic stuff. Especially, since we will be using it as a guide and adding in reading books to further teach the topics *so we can go in depth as needed for their level of maturity and attention span*.

I’ll be purchasing the Physical Science one to meet our Physics/Chemistry learning for next school year. I’m going to alternate years, starting next year will be the Physics/Chemistry year, then after that will be our Space/Earth/Life combo. Once we end our Elementary years I’ll purchase some high school level science books and we will spend a year on each topic *Space/Earth, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics*, from there they will be entering their high school years and should be ready for intro college level science.

Am I crazy for tackling our science this way? Possibly. But then again I’m probably crazy for home educating so this really isn’t a big departure from my overall craziness. I also have flipped through enough textbooks in my day to know that what a middle school science book has to offer is something an elementary student with time, support, and a library card can figure out and actually understand. Which I’m sure says something about the current state of Science in America.

But I’m sure I don’t really need to spell that something out for anyone reading here.

Well Child #2 isn’t much a tot anymore, he is a preschooler and this preschool status has had me mulling over for a while the best way to tackle his education. What shall I do with this bouncing sponge that is my child. He already knows some of the basics *colors, body parts, how to say the alphabet, and count to about 12 without mistakes*. We are currently working our way through letter and number recognition.

Number recognition is proving challenging not because he doesn’t get it, but because he insist on saying everything is the number of his age. Even if he knows it isn’t, and you can ask him to count the objects and he will count them and give you the correct answer. He just prefers everything to be the same number he is…which is actually kind of cute, but still slightly frustrating because I want to know that he really knows this.

I’ve tossed around for the last few months the idea of getting a box curriculum *nothing expensive* just something to get our feet wet on the kindergarten end with Child #2, since he is ready in some respects, but not ready in others. That way when the 2012-2013 school year rolls around we could either start formal kindergarten or our K/1st combo, since we’ve never really had solid grade levels it’s always just a combo of things.

For instance Child #1 is on a 1st/2nd combo *1st in Language Arts and History, 2nd in Reading and Math (their science topics are beyond what is usually taught in 1st/2nd grade so I don’t count it)*. It works and ensures each need is being meet, and while I’m finally at a point where I feel I have a good grasp on Child #1’s plans I am just now looking at the full picture with Child #2.

Should I go box to expose him to formal lessons since he is so vastly different from Child #1 or should I piece together something from what we already have and see how that pans out? I was so close to going box, just to help me figure out what exactly I should do with him. But then I realized I already know this child. When I really sat down and thought about it, I already know exactly how he learns.

He is a mover, a shaker, and a creator. He is a lover of bodily functions and knows how songs in their honor either freaks grown-ups out or sends them into hysterics. He is our little entertainer and constant source of laughter and frustration. He is definitely not a child meant to fit into any sort of box, and for to even consider it seems blasphemous to the very essences of who he is.

So now what? I realized getting a box was out of the question even though there was one I really wanted to try *mostly just because I wanted to try it…I’m an educational material junkie…don’t ever leave me alone at a homeschool convention please!* So what am I going to do with him for the 2011-2012 school year…well a lot of what we do now, with a little more emphasis put on it.

I currently have the PreK Learn To Read program through HOP, and we have used that a little. My current plan is to increase our usage of it throughout the rest of this school year, since it is fairly easy and can be completed before the end of our school year. After that we will move to the Kindergarten program that HOP has which we already own. I’ve started using it a bit just to see how Child #2 would react to it, and he enjoyed it. We just spent a few minutes playing the audio disk and flipping through the alphabet cards, but it appealed to him.

I know whatever I use with him, it will have to allow him to do something on his own *like flipping the cards*, as well as not confine him to a single area *an audio disk means he can move about the living room going through the cards while listening…which makes him very happy and even more eager to do a quick lesson*.

While I have phonics down, I still have to tackle the issue of math. It is such an easy subject for Child #1 and a lot of what he knows he taught himself . I have yet to actually teach him a math lesson this year, I just handed him the Saxon Math 2 workbook 1 and he has been going through it, reading the questions, asking for help when needed, and getting the work done.

He even takes it upon himself to write the days of the week on our class board so he doesn’t have to ask me to spell them when prompted to give a day of the week in a math problem. He has always been like this…Child #2 on the other hand is his polar opposite. And has to be taught accordingly, this I know.

Which means I have to be creative, yet still tackle my own personal feelings of guilt about potentially leaving something out in his education. I’m not 100% sure of how I will handle this in the higher grades, but for his PreK/K work I’m leaning towards various workbooks and hands on activities.

I can get workbooks from the base bookstore for very little money and we own a box full of math manipulatives, which will at least give us a base to spring from. Hopefully, it sparks his interest and then I can see about working in Saxon Math sometime during the 2012-2013 school year. And then just go from there.

As far as his science and history go, well I’m finding that just letting him be present has proven good enough. He enjoys doing our hands on stuff with us, and he is actually absorbing what he hears, even if it seems like he could care less. He just chooses to blurt out random facts *like that we live in the milky way* while holding a glass of milk at dinnertime.

Of course this earns mommy another point as The Spouse looks on in shock that his preschooler knows our galaxy, but it also helps ease my fears a bit. Maybe, just maybe if I’m consistent enough he will absorb it all and there is truly nothing to fear. Not like there isn’t any pressure not to screw him up or anything….

I’m always on the look out for something I can use in our schooling or to organize our day/lives. The other day while getting my holiday shopping done I peeked over at the discounted/clearance section in our base exchange. I found this for 2$!:




It features magnets on the back…




And yes it does actually stay stuck to the fridge…




I bought two, since each packet features 52 pages I now have two years worth for only 4$. I’ve been mulling over the best way to use it. I’m thinking since each day features five blocks I’ll use the 1st, 3rd, and 5th blocks for menu planning. This way while I’m getting out plates, cups, and utensils out I can glance right over and see what I had planned to make for that day. The 2nd and 4th blocks will be used for me to see what hands on items I had planned. For instance on the day we make our volcano I’ll have that in the 4th block since it will take place after lunch.

On Mondays since that is the day we do our homeschool co-op stuff I’ll write down some things I need to do before we go out the door in the 2nd block. That way I have what I need when we leave out the door after breakfast.

I’ll probably head back to the exchange this weekend to see if they have anymore left. These seem like they will prove to be very useful to us. Especially, next year since our science stuff will involve tons of experiments, but I’ll have more on that later.

Well we are in our second day of our week long break. I figured after 51 days of schooling it was time for some down time. We had originally planned for a much longer break to coincide with a family vacation, but due to some work stuff on The Spouse’s end we had to toss our plans in the trash. Such is life…or at least that is what I plan to tell myself. So instead of the pre-planned three week break that was suppose to run for most of October, we are just taking off this last week of September and starting October bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

I’m going to use this time to make some final changes to our schedule and the way we do things. We are committed to year round schooling *it makes the most sense to us and gives us the most flexibility*, so now I have to figure out exactly how breaks will work. I think I have a good idea down, and I’ll have more on it once I‘ve put on the final touches. I’ve also been looking at how we do science, and have come up with a plan that I think will serve us well in that area as well. Now it is just a matter of putting all the various elements I have been tweaking together to make one solid customized homeschool plan for our family.

With that, planning each year after this one should flow rather easily, since I will know what subjects we are covering and what materials I need to gather. We’ll have an idea as to when we need to plan family vacations, *at least on our end…plans are always subjective to change*. This is where our flexibility will come in, I can plan for x-amount of days in a certain month, but if things change then we will just pick up our lesson plans and keep going until we can take our extended break for family vacation.

I’ll have much more on our lesson/schedule plans/changes/tweaks later on in the week…or possibly weekend.

So according to our place value chart we are currently on day 32 of our current school year. We only put a straw in it on the days we actually do school *granted we are learning everyday, there is a difference on school days*.

How has it been going? Fairly well I would say, have I been keeping track of the lesson plans I made though…no. In fact *grabs lesson planning notebook* THIS is the first time since about the end of our first week that I have actually looked at this. I know, For Shame!, but I just haven’t got into the habit of checking plans.

We are still fairly new at this formal school thing. We started this school year *only our second year!* in July, but I had made my lesson plans to start in September, so things are slightly off, but I think we are doing pretty well. Obviously we aren’t behind my original plans, which is always nice. Considering when we started we do need to pick up the slack on some of the things we have been falling behind on.

I had also originally planned about a three week break at about our 20th day mark, but that was due to a family vacation we were trying to plan, which was part of the reason I went ahead and started us back in July. Along with having the materials, it being too hot to do much else, and I really just wanted to get it all underway. Anyways, things have changed so I don’t know when we will be taking our break, but suffice it to say by the time we do get to our three week break things will be going very well *I hope*.

So here is where we *should* stand: At our 30 day mark according to my lesson plans we should be on spelling list number six, week six in our daily handwriting lessons, chapter six in language arts, history studies should be on Ancient Egypt, lesson #24 in math, and for our science studies we should be learning about Earth’s atmosphere.

Here is where we *actually* stand:

We are on Spelling List #3 because when I gave Child#1 the other two test he flew through them so I decided to devote that time to allowing him to just play, and I would quiz him randomly on words from the word lists I have created until after the holiday season when the words on the lists start to get more difficult.

Daily Handwriting has been sporadic, I found a handwriting workbook at the bookstore on base and thought that would be better for now. It is something Child#1 can do independently which gives me time to work with Child#2. Once Child #1 goes through that workbook then we will start back up with the handwriting lessons from Writing With Ease.

We are only on Chapter #3 in our Language Arts curriculum, since when I came across the HOP deal I decided to incorporate that into our schooling. So the goal has been one week HOP, one week Language Arts. It doesn’t always work that way since we should be on Chapter #4 if we really did stick to the switching, but if Child #1 is really getting into the HOP lessons I’ll let him keep going for another week. His reading has gotten even better so it’s worth being off on our Language Arts work.

As for History we are tackling Ancient Egypt so we are pretty much on point for that, and we have lots planned for this subject, so it may push us a little behind. As far as I‘m concerned though the fun we will have will be worth it.

With Math we are on about lesson #20, so we are a few lessons off, but we haven’t been doing math lessons on the days when we originally planned. Mostly because we have been slacking, still moving from summer mode to full on school mode, still getting our homeschooling bearings *which is another reason why I wanted to start early*.

Lastly Science, we are still on the solar system, but will be moving to Earth studies very soon. So not really off too much on that one. Especially since Child #1 *and even Child #2* knows the solar system very well, I think it’s worth the extra time we’ve taken.

*I didn’t mention Social Studies because I have thrown our formal text on that out the window for now, I will wait another year or so on that one, and focus more on life lessons, current events, and tying into historical time periods for now*.

Other things that have found themselves temporarily thrown out *aside from the Social Studies text*:

Our art curriculum has found itself neglected since it wasn’t jiving with us. It is a great curriculum and I look forward to using it, but right now the boys aren’t ready for it. It is far more enjoyable to allow them to do the art that falls inline with our History work, instead of doing formal art lessons. So right now art is just fun coloring, History linked, and random crafts. Maybe next year *or possibly the year after that* we will pull out the art curriculum and use it full-time.

Our Japanese cultural learning is coming along great, especially with the addition of a new weekly activity, that should really help immerse us even more. The language learning needs more work, but we have some plans being laid to make fluency happen *and I can‘t wait until we are fluent in the language trust me!*.

I also came across an item online that will help keep us on track, but I’ll share more on it when it arrives.

Well I think that is about it! Our first 32 days haven’t been easy, but they haven’t been too difficult. Homeschooling is definitely a process, it will take some time to learn our rhythm.

I’ve also made a change as far as how often we will do school, instead of following a traditional calendar like I had originally planned we will do year round schooling. It just seems to make more sense to us, and works with our hectic lifestyle. I still haven’t figured out how we will do breaks, how often, that sort of thing. But I’ll share more on where I’m going with it later *when I actually figure it out*.