First Day of School 2012!

This is how the boys started their first day of school this year!  They were waiting on breakast and decided to cuddle up on the couch together. 

We had a special treat for breakfast this morning - cinnamon rolls! (On a school day????)

After breakfast, I read our Bible story for today on creation, and then the boys cleaned up and did their chores.  Finally, we settled in for our first stretch of work.  We practiced Isaac's poem from Primary Language Lessons and then I read to them from My America and My World.  Isaac worked on his morning folder (maps, math review, and analogies) while I taught Ethan his math lesson.  While Ethan was working in his math workbook, I went over Isaac's spelling lesson and started him on his assignment. Even though Ethan is working from a first grade math book, he had no trouble with the lesson.  After spelling, Isaac did a handwriting assignment while Ethan and I curled up on the couch for his reading lesson.  This part of the day went much faster than I anticipated, and we actually finished about 15 minutes early.  This just meant that the boys got more playtime because recess was next!

Before I let the boys run off and play, I had to take the traditional first day of school photos!

The boys had about 45 minutes of outside play time, and I joined them for a little catch after I got dinner going in the crock-pot.  By that time, they were ready to come in and cool off, so we cleaned up, got a drink, and got back to work.

This next part of our day actually took longer than I expected, so I had to do some rearranging.  Isaac did great with his math and Ethan flew through his handwriting and got to play on Starfall.  I ran into the problem that Ethan being on the computer was distracting Isaac from doing his math problems, so I need to come up with a solution for what to have E do while Isaac is working on math.  After a little while, I sent him to his room to play with his blocks and things went better after that.  Here is Isaac working in his math workbook.  You can see E's reading words on the chalkboard in the background.

Next we did Isaac's picture lesson in Primary Language Lessons.  I had to work with him a little on answering the questions in complete sentences.  We also started Grammarland.  I expected to have time for Isaac to do his reading before lunch, but it was already lunch time at this point so we took about an hour break for lunch.

After lunch, Isaac re-read (because he also read it the day we brought it home from the library) the book The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz.  He gave it a thumbs-up, especially since the main character shares his name!  I had him create a picture essay to tell the story.  He did a great job, and was able to retell the story to my mom when she stopped by to see how the day went.

Our last official subject of the day was history.  We read the introduction to Story of the World 1: Ancient Times and I asked the boys comprehension questions.  They had a tough time at first answering the questions, but when it came time to give narrations they did pretty well for the first time.  Here is Isaac's narration, which he wrote himself, along with the pocket we made that contains examples of artifacts historians might find.

Ethan gave me his narration orally and I recorded it in his notebook for him.  As his handwriting improves, he will start to write his own narrations as well.

We finished our day by practicing instruments.  Isaac plays violin and Ethan is wanting to learn piano.  Isaac practices out of I Can Read Music , his Suzuki book, A Tune a Day, and music from Star Wars that his teacher gave him.  Ethan is using Pianimals to learn piano.

So at the end of the day, when everything was said and done, Isaac decided to spend his free time drawing the Solar System on the chalkboard and then, when the mail came, opening up the book I ordered for later in our history study - Ms. Frizzle's Adventures Ancient Egypt- and reading it.

And this is....THE BEGINNING!

Beach Time!

This past week our family enjoyed a vacation at a beach house on Bolivar Peninsula along the Texas Gulf Coast.  We had a great week spending time with family and enjoying the beach.  Our beach house had an ocean view in the front and an Audobon bird sanctuary in the back.  The boys enjoyed hunting for seashells and watching the birds.  They got to see live jellyfish and we actually watched a jellyfish eating a fish!

On Thursday we went to Moody Gardens and toured the Rainforest Pyramid, the Aquarium Pyramid, and the Discovery Pyramid, which was showcasing Bodies Revealed.  Isaac said it was "gross" and "cool".  We also watched the  3-D film Wild Ocean. We enjoyed our week, but we were also glad to get home.  Now we have a week to get things done around the house before we start our new school year!

The Plan

I officially withdrew the boys from school today.  I was a little sad, as I have thoroughly enjoyed the time they have spent at our primary school, but I truly feel God has called me to make this change and I am very excited for what our future as a family holds.  I have been researching for months to find the curriculum that I want to use for next year.  If you know me well, you will know that means that I have been having a lot of FUN!!!  I am a curriculum "junkie", so to speak.  I LOVE looking at different curriculums, reading about them, and finding what works for my students.  Since this is going to be our first year, I know that there will be a learning curve for myself as well.  I am excited to try out the curriculum I've chosen, and I hope it is as much fun as I think it will be!

We will be doing a few subjects together and then I will separate the boys for other subjects, according to their ability levels.  We will start each day with a Bible reading that goes along with our History lesson for the week or a devotional from the devotional book God's Amazing Creatures and Me.
  We will then work on memory work.  Memory work will include AWANA verses for both boys, and poetry for our oldest.  We will also do our calendar time (months, days, seasons, etc.) and Social Studies.  For Social Studies, we will be using A Beka Book's My America and My World.
  After Social Studies, our oldest (2nd grade) will start working on independent work.  He will have a "morning folder" that includes mapwork, math practice, and analogies.  After that, he will work on his Spelling lesson. We are using Rod and Staff for spelling.  While he is working on his morning work, I will work with our younger son (Kindergarten) on his math.  We are using Singapore Primary Math with both boys (Standards Edition). Our oldest will be using 2A/B and our youngest will be using 1A/B.
  Our 2nd grader will then work on handwriting (Zaner-Bloser Grade 3 - Cursive) while I work with our K'er on his reading (A Beka Reading 1).  Then it will be time for a break!  On most days, this will be a time when the boys can go outside and play or play inside on rainy days.  On Tuesdays, we will have "tea" time.  Now, my boys don't drink tea, but we will have milk and a sweet snack (banana bread, muffins, etc.) while I read poetry to them.

After the break, the oldest will work on his math while the younger one works on handwriting (A Reason for Handwriting K).  Then I will work on grammar/writing with the oldest using Primary Language Lessons.  I love this book!  It is so sweet but introduces a lot of important skills.  There are dictation exercises, selections to be memorized, drawing, picture lessons, nature and observation lessons, lessons in troublesome forms, copywork, compositions, letter-writing, and grammar lessons.
  While I am working on this with the oldest, the younger will have time to do one of his favorite activities - www.starfall.com!  He loves this website, and I love that it has helped him learn to read.  Another website both of the boys enjoy is www.readingeggs.com. 

Our older son will then have his reading/literature time.  During this time, he will read aloud to me from an assigned book. I will give our younger son the choice of listening in or having quiet reading time on his own.

We will have a relaxed lunch and then move into either history or science, depending on the day.  I have an hour set aside on MWF for History and T/Th for Science.  Both of these will be based on reading good books for the topic studies and doing a lot of hands-on projects.  For History, we will be using Story of the World 1 - Ancient Times, and for Science we will be using Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding.

We will finish our day with violin/piano practice (Oldest plays violin and youngest wants to learn piano.), clean up time, and free reading time.

A Chore Thing

I have been working on getting the boys to do more around the house, and getting them up and getting things done in the morning.  I came up with this chore chart, and we started using it yesterday.  So far, it is working pretty well.  I think the boys really like moving their cards and completing their "trains".

At night I put 4 laminated cards in their clothespins.  They will always include brushing teeth and making the bed, and the other two will change daily.  As they complete each chore, they move the card from the clothespin to the velcro dots by their names. The cards on the right side are the chores that are not being used that day.  The rotating chores include watering the plants, dusting, vacuuming, helping with the dishes, picking up the toys from around the house, picking up dirty laundry, cleaning the sink in the bathroom they use, and taking the trash to the curb. 

We also finished The Magician's Nephew last night and are looking forward to beginning The Lion, the Witch,  and the Wardrobe tonight.

We recently finished reading Little Pilgrim's Progress to our boys.  It took a while for us to get all the way through it, as we just read one chapter a night and there are over 90 chapters.  The boys loved this book, and their retention of the story and the things that happened to each of the characters was very good.  They were both also able to take the lessons in the story and apply them to their lives. The story follows two separate journeys to the Celestial City, one by a boy named Christian and the other by a girl named Christiana. We used the study guide by Christian Novel Studies to go along with the book.  We didn't do many of the activities, as we read the book as a bedtime story, but the questions that went along with each chapter were a good way to review what the story was about.  They were not too difficult that the boys (7 and 5) could not answer them, but some of them did lead us into good discussion.  I highly recommend this book to parents of children 5-12 as a read-aloud.

Box Day!

Something that I haven't revealed to many people yet (who will all know now!) is that we are going to begin homeschooling our boys this year.  My passion is teaching, and for the last 11 years I have used that passion in the classroom as a public school teacher.  I love to teach school. When someone says they are going to homeschool, the first question that is asked is always "Why?". Our decision has nothing to do with the school itself.  Our boys have had incredible teachers in the years they have attended public school, and I still consider the people I have worked with, in all 5 school districts I have worked, friends.  I may not get to talk to them often, but I do think of them and pray things are going well in their lives.  Our decision stemmed from a desire deep in my heart to be home with my children.  It is something we have prayed over and sought God's Will about for years.  It just made sense in my mind to combine my passion for teaching with caring for my own children.  After a series of unfortunate events (which we now see as God preparing the way for us - funny how that works!), we have decided to make a leap of faith and follow the path God has laid on our hearts.  This is going to be a huge adjustment for us, and I ask for prayers from each of you to help us along our new journey.  The boys are excited.  They both love to learn, and have already gotten into the stash of books I was collecting for next year.  We are planning to study ancient history, and our oldest has already read about Tut's Mummy and Pompeii several times since he found the books.

So, what is a box day, and what does that have to do with homeschooling?  A box day is a day when you get a box full of new books for school in the mail.  I have been collecting books for the last month, usually buying them used to save money.  I finally ordered the rest of the math books I am going to need for the boys, along with a handwriting book for the little guy and an encyclopedia on ancient history.  Our books arrived today!  I was sad the boys weren't here to open the box with me (they are visiting grandparents), but it was so much fun to open the box and look through all the new books.  I can't wait to begin our school year next month!

"Bear" has been learning to play chess ever since he got this game for Christmas.  He loves the story format of the book, and he sits and practices his moves.  After he practiced his violin today, the chess set was the first thing he went for.  Love that smile!