The School Year Begins

I found these cute back-to-school printables on I Heart Naptime. 

Let the fun begin!!

Like Jackson's new glasses?

School Year Planning - [part five] The Schedule

Well, it's finally coming down to this - the schedule.

Knowing that this is only a guide that keeps me on track and not something to be a slave to helps my otherwise random self be a little more focused.

I found this particular template on Confessions of a Homeschooler. It's in .doc format to be customizable.

I'd love to hear how everyone else uses CC at home!

Here's one for 3rd Grade:

Daily Schedule for ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Jackson              3^rd Grade  2011/12

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00am	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores
8:30am	Bible/ Family Time/ Laundry / MW	CC	Bible/ Family Time / Memory Work	Bible/ Family Time / Memory Work	Bible/ Family Time/ Memory Work
10:00am	Play with Bennett & Whitaker	CC	Play with Bennett & Whitaker	Play with Bennett & Whitaker	Play with Bennett & Whitaker
10:20am	Violin	CC	Violin	Violin	Violin
10:40am	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Practice presentation	CC	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Choose presentation	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Practice presentation	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Practice presentation
11:30am	Outside/Lunch	CC	Outside/Lunch	Outside/Lunch	Outside/Lunch
12:00 noon	Read Aloud	CC	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud
12:20pm	Math/ Language Arts/ Spelling	CC	Math/ Language Arts/ Spelling	Math/ Language Arts/ Spelling	Math/ Language Arts/ Spelling
1:20pm	Quiet Time Activity	Quiet Time Activity & Build Weekly Board	Latin	Quiet Time Activity	Quiet Time Activity
2:30pm	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack
3:30pm	PM Chores	PM Chores	PM Chores	PM Chores	PM Chores

And here's one for 1st Grade:

Daily Schedule for Haviland              1st Grade  2011-12

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:00am	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores	Breakfast/ AM Chores
8:30am	Bible/ Family Time/ Laundry / MW	CC	Bible/ Family Time / Memory Work	Bible/ Family Time / Memory Work	Bible/ Family Time/ Memory Work
10:00am	Violin	CC	Violin	Violin	Violin
10:20am	Play with Bennett & Whitaker	CC	Play with Bennett & Whitaker	Play with Bennett & Whitaker	Play with Bennett & Whitaker
10:40am	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Practice presentation	CC	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Choose presentation	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Prepare presentation	Mapwork/ Copywork/ Prepare presentation
11:30am	Outside/Lunch	CC	Outside/Lunch	Outside/Lunch	Outside/Lunch
12:00 noon	Read Aloud	CC	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud
12:20pm	Math/ Language Arts	CC	Math/ Language Arts	Math/ Language Arts	Math/ Language Arts
1:30pm	Quiet Time Activity	Quiet Time Activity & Build Weekly Board	Quiet Time Activity	Quiet Time Activity	Quiet Time Activity
2:30pm	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack	Quiet Time Play/Snack
3:30pm	PM Chores	PM Chores	PM Chores	PM Chores	PM Chores

School Year Planning [part four] - The Curriculum

Okay, now we're finally getting to the nitty-gritty.

Here's what we'll be doing for our 2011/12 school year:

1. Classical Conversations - Cycle Three (American History):  

  A day at CC includes:

• our memory work (History, English Grammar, Latin, Science, Math, Geography)
• review
• fine arts project
• science experiment
• presentations

2. Math - Saxon 3 for Jackson and Saxon 1 for Haviland

3. Language Arts - Christian Light Education -  Grade 3 for Jackson and Grade 1 for Haviland

4. Spelling - Spelling Wisdom (Book 1)

In Part Five, I'll share my schedule and whew...I think that will do it!! :)

School Year Planning [part three]- The Needs

Now that I've gotten my resources sorted it's time to plan!

Here are the biggest changes (& challenges) I face this year:

• Whitaker only takes afternoon naps, not like a morning and afternoon nap like he took last year. 
• Last year Bennett was happy playing and wasn't concerned about school at all. Now at 4, he suddenly wants "in" on everything.
• Haviland will be in first grade - the official time to start reporting her. While I am very fortunate to live in a state that does not have many regulations and paper work to fill out, I do have to be more diligent with her record keeping from this point forward.
• Jackson is definitely turning a corner and since this is our second time around in Cycle 3, I can already see his wheels turning more and asking questions at a whole new level. Great for him, more work for me! :)
• And last but not least, after quite some time of the Lord's prompting, I've stepped up to the plate as Foundations Director for our new Classical Conversations community, so I'll have to be on the ball more to strike a good balance between serving my family and serving others.

Before I could put pen to paper and even think about curriculum I knew I needed to pray for and about each child and ask what they specifically need this year.

Two friends of mine shared these resources - thank you Amanda and Sharon!

They've been a great place to start! 

Purposeful Parent Praying Calendar

Super Mom vs. Abiding Mom

In Part 4, I'll address the curriculum I'll be using and the resources to help in the journey!

School Year Planning [part two] - The Books

I don't know if I'm the only one, but sometimes I think that I chose to homeschool just so I could justify buying lots of books!!

Depending on which of the six people in the household you speak to our favorites run the gamut. With an age range of 21 months - 37 years we own bath books, board books, lift-the-flap books, touch and feel books, picture books, coloring books, early reader books, chapter books, reference books, classic books...the list goes on and on.

While I have pared down much of our collection, it is hard to enjoy all of our great books if they are not somewhat organized.

This brings me to how much I enjoy that each year our curriculum focuses on a particular time period and this year being Cycle Three we will focus on American History, Modern scientists, poets, artists, composers, writers, etc. Having done this cycle once before, I was extremely giddy to unpack my resources and look over what I hadn't laid eyes on in three years. Goodness, Jackson was only 5, Haviland was 3 1/2, Bennett was 1 1/2 and Whitaker was nowhere around!

I thought for sure that I was the only one to recall much of what was in the box, but as I opened the lid, Jackson and Haviland were all hands and shouting "I remember this book!" "Look how funny I wrote my name then!" "Mom, do we get to build our body in science again?"

The moment reminded me of Christmases past when my mom would pull out all the ornaments with great anticipation to trim the tree, but we'd get easily sidetracked as we reminisced about each thing we pulled out of the box.

While I am sure they don't remember much as I think, what I was most thrilled at is that they seemed to be getting reacquainted with old friends. I love that about good books.

Okay, I went off on a rabbit trail there, but my point is that by having less books accessible to them at once makes them notice what they have and hopefully they will be able to enjoy them deeper.

So, here is a look at how we organize the children's books.

• Favorites: We keep favorites by their bedsides for them to read at any time. These are books solely of their choice- primarily favorite picture and story books and I never bother or move them except to clean up or repair torn pages.

• Library books: We try (although never completely succeed) at keeping those on the living room side tables or in the library bag. Our house and car seem to eat library books faster than I can turn around so I am fairly diligent about making sure these stay in one place for fear of ginormous fines - right Ali??? :)

• "Quiet time" books- for lack of better words, these are books that I have chosen that fit into our curriculum, but I don't assign reading from these. These books are for them to explore on their own.

For quiet time in the afternoon they have one hour to either color, draw, or read from two shelves on a bookshelf in the play room.

Books I have chosen for Haviland are on the top left, Jackson's are on the top right and books that are for either are in the top middle and on the bottom shelf. Most of the books on the bottom shelf are resource books but they love taking them out and looking at the pictures in them. I have changed these out to reflect much of what we will will be focusing on in Cycle Three.

Bennett has his own bookshelf filled with early readers -no, he isn't reading, but at 4 he enjoys these "big boy" books- Go Dog Go!, Frog and Toad, Bob Books, Dick and Jane, Mouse Soup, Tea for Francis, Berenstain Bears, etc.

He is also immensely enjoying these small resource books (about the size of my hand) and a picture dictionary (think "First Words" dictionary, but with 12,000 words.

• Read-Alouds: These are books that I choose to read aloud throughout the year. At this stage of life I read one every 6 weeks so we get about 4-5 books in a year which isn't fantastic, but as much as I'd love to read the entire "Little House" series aloud this year, I'd have to cram them in and who wants to rush that journey???  So for this year,  I think I've whittled my read-alouds down to Little House on the Prairie, The Secret Garden, various poems by Robert Frost and Robert Lewis Stevenson, Number the Stars, and if I can handle it time-wise and emotionally- Where the Red Fern Grows.

I'd love to hear where everyone else purchases their favorite books and how you organize them. Almost every single one of these has come from our library's discarded book sale, yard sales, Marshall's/Ross/TJ Maxx, or 2nd & Charles.


In Part Three I'll be focusing on the needs of each child.



And now, some great quotes to leave you with. :)

  

   "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."— Emilie Buchwald

"So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall."

— Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet."

— Lady Montagu, providing advice on raising her granddaughter, 1752

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

— Groucho Marx

Resource:  http://www.readingrockets.org/books/fun/quotable/