Week off!

One of the blessings of homeschooling is being able to set your own schedule. We took a trip to visit family over the long Labor Day weekend and I determined that we would take the rest of the week off. With a full 5 weeks of school already done, we can afford it. :) I'll spend the rest of my week (okay, probably Sunday afternoon!) getting lesson plans ready for next week. I need to assess where we are with our history and literature (our core) to develop my plan about where to go from here.

Rolling along

We're going full-steam ahead right now. I know my little girl (almost 2) will probably only take naps for about another year so I figure I need to get as much done as possible while we have a chance! We've been reading A LOT. In the 3 1/2 weeks we've been doing school we've read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Johnny Tremain, Toliver's Secret, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, and several chapters out of The Landmark History of the American People, The Story of the U.S.A., and our A Beka history textbook. We've now started Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. It looks like we'll enjoy it just as much as the other books. We've also done some notebooking pages out of a couple of History Pockets. I've had the kids work on these while I read when they want to have their hands busy.

Of course, all this time they've been working on their regular subjects as well. We started the year with only history, science, Bible, and Times Tales for the first week. The second week we added language arts to the mix. During the third week they began doing their regular math program since it only took us two weeks to go through Times Tales.

Our curriculum for this semester

Language Arts:

5th grader:
Writeshop Apprentice (composition), Spelling Workout E, A Reason for Handwriting E, Editor in Chief A1 (grammar)

3rd/4th grader:
A Beka Language 3 (composition/grammar), Spelling Workout D, Handwriting without Tears Cursive Success

Math:
Teaching Textbooks Math 5
Math U See Beta and Gamma

Bible:
Alpha Omega Publications Lifepac 5
AOP Lifepac 3

Science:
Sonlight Science 5 (Health, Medicine, and Human Anatomy)
Sonlight Science 4 (Electricity, Magnetism, and Astronomy)

History:
Both are using Sonlight Core 3 American History to 1850 along with their advanced readers package

Nearly 3 weeks in the books!

We started at the beginning of August. I like to get going early because it gives us breathing room around the holidays and I generally lose steam around late October or November no matter when we start. I've considered loosely schooling year round, but have yet to try it. My 10yo is in 5th grade and my 9yo is in the second semester of 3rd grade. I've tried several times with him to start him in a new grade in the fall, but he is never ready for the increase in work. I think this is one case where I need to "fold him the way he is bent". This is a phrase I picked up somewhere in speaking of children. Children are like roadmaps, you have to fold them the way they were made to be folded or they'll never end up right.

This year we are starting by finishing up Core 3 from Sonlight curriculum. Sonlight is my primary curriculum provider and we just love them! We're currently studying American history to 1850. Around January we should be ready to move on to Core 4, history of the US from 1850. We're reading Johnny Tremain right now and should be finished this week. The kids have loved it and keep begging for more everyday! Our next book will be Toliver's Secret. I've heard good things about it. We're getting into the American Revolution right now, exciting times!

Our Homeschool

These are pictures of our current school room. The first four years we homeschooled, we educated at our dining room table. I was so thrilled when I finished redecorating this room during the summer of 2009. It turned out even better than I had envisioned! The kids really like having a quiet place to do schoolwork that is still close to me, even when I'm not in the room with them. I changed the posters this year to create an American history theme with lots of colonial-style pictures and a large timeline. I also added several science posters to reflect what my two oldest kids are studying. Sometime I'll have to take new pictures to post so you can see the changes.

Loveseat for read-alouds, table for seatwork

Curtains from Walmart, rug from Homemakers Furniture

Rain gutter bookshelves left, Sonlight Markable Maps right