Back to School Back to School.....2013-2014
Yikes, wont share where *THAT* title came from.... :(
Well we are officially back to school. We start early because when we need a break-- we take one. So after hoping and knowing Weaver is a terrific curriculum I have had to put it on the shelf for now. I just cannot get it all together. I am thrilled to share what I have found that we are using so far though..... we are still doing it kind of like a unit study. Easy Peasy Homeschool!
We start our day "early" for my older 3, I am often rolling them out of bed....;) at 7am is breakfast, followed by Bible Time, which I just have to share has been SOOO sweet, minus we are missing daddy who is not home from work. :( I bought the dramatized version of the Bible on CD awhile ago and so we are listening to that on our DVD player thru our TV (it is louder) and it has been nice because it leave me with FREE hands and eyes to help train the littles to SIT and Listen (not going as well as I like right now, but me reading was not working at all). We are then doing some simple memory work using ABC Memory Book. They are able to do 1 letter a day and so we will be moving thru this fairly fast. We are also working (faster than I thought on some CATECHISM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN learning. We end our time singing 1-3 songs from Hide em' in Your Heart. And can I just share if you really want your kids to memorize scripture with VERY little effort, this CD pack has been worth 1,000 times over what I paid..... I put it in the kids room at bed time and they fall asleep listening to it. Matthew knows EVERY SINGLE SONG!! No joke and if he hears any of those scriptures during church or Bible Time--- he ALWAYS breaks out in song. So now I've moved it to the little kids room and the same thing-- they learn SOOO much SOOOO fast.
After Bible time we do Morning Chore time. Stephen right now has the least amount of chores followed by Matthew-- so I end up sitting with them RIGHT away and getting Phonics and Math done. They are alternating between Sing Spell Read and Write and Explode the Code Books, on alternating days. Just have to share -- SSRW I bought at a yardsale when Zachary was 4 years old for $10!! What a buy-- Matthew and Stephen LOVE IT!
Then we start what is supposed to be stations-- for everyone to switch around through. I acutally DID a school room this year, have never actually followed through with that, but have one set up-- so far it is okay. I do like having everyone together, but .... it is a LOT sometimes too. I have a table set up with a portable DVD player for Math U See, there is another table set up with my little laptop for whoever is doing Click n Kids, or typing, or Easy Peasy.
Entering the school room... oh yeah not supposed to do school at home--- yeah I am so not an "unschooler". :(
I brought up our too small for us kitchen table for the kids to do desk work at.
The math u see station on the far left, the printer and lockable cabinent with toddler messy toys, and the laptop on the right... with my walls to PIN stuff-- I really do LOVE to pin stuff up, in real life and on Pintrist!! :) LOL
Just a quick picture of the other side of the room. The black shelf has toys that are rotated to the living room for the littles so they don't get bored. The white cabinent has board games and arts and crafts.
As far as Easy Peasy Homeschool goes, we are only using the Science (Zoology) and History (American History) and we are doing it more like a group unit study too, not individual. I am buying the History books so we can read aloud in a comfortable environment vs. the computer. We are really enjoying it and the kids always have stories to tell dad at dinner and THAT is what I consider a GOOD HOMESCHOOL DAY-- if they have learned something and want to share it or talk more about it-- I can SEE it sinking in! They all love the dinky little games and it keeps them asking for more!! :)
I do like Easy Peasy's English and Math-- and if I were starting over I might do that- we did it for 2 days but whewwww we would also need another computer or 2 or 3.... and right now our English and Math are going very well and I don't see a need to change.
For Math all the kids are in Math U See, except Stephen (5) who is in Horizon, I did all my kids in Horizon to start, he is in K book, not sure if I will switch him over after the K book to Math U See or not. That said, my older kids are struggling a bit too much with word problems and what to do, (add, subtract, etc....) so when I can afford it I do want to start them all on a day or 2 a week of Life of Fred or maybe a week of Math U see and a week of Life of Fred, I do think it would benefit them a GREAT DEAL! I also have them do 10 minutes of math drills here as needed. Matthew does them daily and Zachary and Joshua did them daily through the summer and on breaks.
Copy work is something I haven't actually ever done too much, I did have them writing, they wrote letters and a few sentences about things, but I've never done TRUE copy work..... so this year they are starting it. The older 2 are doing 30 minutes of writing a Proverb a day. They actually have NOT baulked at it-- I'm pleased.....
Spelling we LOVE Click n Spell and Click n Read, the older 2 are doing 2 a day to finish SOON and Matthew is doing 1 a day as he is RIGHT on track.
I did buy some true English books with grammer rules and so forth that I need to add into our day-- but not yet.
The majority of their English for the older 2 comes from Pathway Readers. They do this 2 days a week with the corresponding workbook pages. The other 2 days (we have a 4 day week) they are independently reading a biogoraphy and when they are done they will write and give a report. Joshua has been assigned Mother Teresa and Zachary has been assigned David Brainerd.
The Extra's I try to add into their days after all the above are:
Zachary- 2 days of a larger farm project assigned by dad
2 days of typing (so far I am liking this FREE program) and Physical Education
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge work
Joshua- 2 Days of a larger project assigned by dad or mom
2 days of typing and Physical Education
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge Work
Matthew
4 days of Physical Therapy exercises WITH mom :)
2 days of Typing
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge Work
*** we are hoping and praying to get Matthew into some violin lessons.
Stephen
2 days Helping Zachary
2 days Physical Education
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge work
So that is our Tuesday- Friday and it takes till 3-ish sometimes 4ish....
By the end-- I'm fried.
I know my kids should work more independently but right now this is how it works best.
My goals would be this year to transition them to work more independently and also to better have the littles entertained.
Right now-- the first hour when I am working with Matthew and or Stephen on reading they are entertained by Joshua. (which sets Joshua back on his day.... but Zachary is outside finishing his animal chores) the second hour they are entertained by watching 1 or 2 Leap Frog Videos. The third hour Stephen is finished and does better than ALL of us at entertaining them. I call Stephen my "toddler whisperer"-- it is amazing how well he does with them... they love him, listen to him and LOVE to be with him, probably because he plays WITH them not AT them.
Well we are officially back to school. We start early because when we need a break-- we take one. So after hoping and knowing Weaver is a terrific curriculum I have had to put it on the shelf for now. I just cannot get it all together. I am thrilled to share what I have found that we are using so far though..... we are still doing it kind of like a unit study. Easy Peasy Homeschool!
We start our day "early" for my older 3, I am often rolling them out of bed....;) at 7am is breakfast, followed by Bible Time, which I just have to share has been SOOO sweet, minus we are missing daddy who is not home from work. :( I bought the dramatized version of the Bible on CD awhile ago and so we are listening to that on our DVD player thru our TV (it is louder) and it has been nice because it leave me with FREE hands and eyes to help train the littles to SIT and Listen (not going as well as I like right now, but me reading was not working at all). We are then doing some simple memory work using ABC Memory Book. They are able to do 1 letter a day and so we will be moving thru this fairly fast. We are also working (faster than I thought on some CATECHISM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN learning. We end our time singing 1-3 songs from Hide em' in Your Heart. And can I just share if you really want your kids to memorize scripture with VERY little effort, this CD pack has been worth 1,000 times over what I paid..... I put it in the kids room at bed time and they fall asleep listening to it. Matthew knows EVERY SINGLE SONG!! No joke and if he hears any of those scriptures during church or Bible Time--- he ALWAYS breaks out in song. So now I've moved it to the little kids room and the same thing-- they learn SOOO much SOOOO fast.
After Bible time we do Morning Chore time. Stephen right now has the least amount of chores followed by Matthew-- so I end up sitting with them RIGHT away and getting Phonics and Math done. They are alternating between Sing Spell Read and Write and Explode the Code Books, on alternating days. Just have to share -- SSRW I bought at a yardsale when Zachary was 4 years old for $10!! What a buy-- Matthew and Stephen LOVE IT!
Then we start what is supposed to be stations-- for everyone to switch around through. I acutally DID a school room this year, have never actually followed through with that, but have one set up-- so far it is okay. I do like having everyone together, but .... it is a LOT sometimes too. I have a table set up with a portable DVD player for Math U See, there is another table set up with my little laptop for whoever is doing Click n Kids, or typing, or Easy Peasy.
Entering the school room... oh yeah not supposed to do school at home--- yeah I am so not an "unschooler". :(
I brought up our too small for us kitchen table for the kids to do desk work at.
The math u see station on the far left, the printer and lockable cabinent with toddler messy toys, and the laptop on the right... with my walls to PIN stuff-- I really do LOVE to pin stuff up, in real life and on Pintrist!! :) LOL
As far as Easy Peasy Homeschool goes, we are only using the Science (Zoology) and History (American History) and we are doing it more like a group unit study too, not individual. I am buying the History books so we can read aloud in a comfortable environment vs. the computer. We are really enjoying it and the kids always have stories to tell dad at dinner and THAT is what I consider a GOOD HOMESCHOOL DAY-- if they have learned something and want to share it or talk more about it-- I can SEE it sinking in! They all love the dinky little games and it keeps them asking for more!! :)
I do like Easy Peasy's English and Math-- and if I were starting over I might do that- we did it for 2 days but whewwww we would also need another computer or 2 or 3.... and right now our English and Math are going very well and I don't see a need to change.
For Math all the kids are in Math U See, except Stephen (5) who is in Horizon, I did all my kids in Horizon to start, he is in K book, not sure if I will switch him over after the K book to Math U See or not. That said, my older kids are struggling a bit too much with word problems and what to do, (add, subtract, etc....) so when I can afford it I do want to start them all on a day or 2 a week of Life of Fred or maybe a week of Math U see and a week of Life of Fred, I do think it would benefit them a GREAT DEAL! I also have them do 10 minutes of math drills here as needed. Matthew does them daily and Zachary and Joshua did them daily through the summer and on breaks.
Copy work is something I haven't actually ever done too much, I did have them writing, they wrote letters and a few sentences about things, but I've never done TRUE copy work..... so this year they are starting it. The older 2 are doing 30 minutes of writing a Proverb a day. They actually have NOT baulked at it-- I'm pleased.....
Spelling we LOVE Click n Spell and Click n Read, the older 2 are doing 2 a day to finish SOON and Matthew is doing 1 a day as he is RIGHT on track.
I did buy some true English books with grammer rules and so forth that I need to add into our day-- but not yet.
The majority of their English for the older 2 comes from Pathway Readers. They do this 2 days a week with the corresponding workbook pages. The other 2 days (we have a 4 day week) they are independently reading a biogoraphy and when they are done they will write and give a report. Joshua has been assigned Mother Teresa and Zachary has been assigned David Brainerd.
The Extra's I try to add into their days after all the above are:
Zachary- 2 days of a larger farm project assigned by dad
2 days of typing (so far I am liking this FREE program) and Physical Education
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge work
Joshua- 2 Days of a larger project assigned by dad or mom
2 days of typing and Physical Education
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge Work
Matthew
4 days of Physical Therapy exercises WITH mom :)
2 days of Typing
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge Work
*** we are hoping and praying to get Matthew into some violin lessons.
Stephen
2 days Helping Zachary
2 days Physical Education
Friday- Contenders of the Faith Badge work
So that is our Tuesday- Friday and it takes till 3-ish sometimes 4ish....
By the end-- I'm fried.
I know my kids should work more independently but right now this is how it works best.
My goals would be this year to transition them to work more independently and also to better have the littles entertained.
Right now-- the first hour when I am working with Matthew and or Stephen on reading they are entertained by Joshua. (which sets Joshua back on his day.... but Zachary is outside finishing his animal chores) the second hour they are entertained by watching 1 or 2 Leap Frog Videos. The third hour Stephen is finished and does better than ALL of us at entertaining them. I call Stephen my "toddler whisperer"-- it is amazing how well he does with them... they love him, listen to him and LOVE to be with him, probably because he plays WITH them not AT them.
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