Wednesday, September 2, 2009

A New School Year

I started our new school year yesterday. The teachers in our school district are on strike, so our kids are having to do school while listening to their neighbor friends play outside. But, come end of the school year, our kids will be playing and their friends will still be in school, so it will all work out. The kids have done well so far. I'm way more organized this year than I have ever been. There is a lot to keep track of having three kids. I turned in my intent form for both Joseph and Spencer this year, so I've got a lot more accountability for them.

I think it will be a really fun year. We are using Magic Tree House books and their research guides for History and Geography (mostly), and have some fun story books in line for reading. We actually just finished reading "The Boxcar Children". It was a great story and we plan on reading more of their adventures. Actually, it was such a fun story that we got more involved than we normally do when reading a book. The children in the book eat blueberries and milk for dinner one night, so we went down to the fresh market and bought fresh blueberries and had blueberries and milk while we read. Then, the children made a stew, so we picked carrots from our garden and got fresh potatoes and onions from the market and made a beef and vegetable stew in the crock pot. The kids loved it and loved feeling like they could relate more closely to the characters.

Anyway, I got a tad off topic there. I found some great ideas from an LDS homeschool book. Her best advice was the way she schedules. It seems to fit my family, so that is what we will be doing. It's a very simple layout....basics like math and language arts every day and then special topics that I can adjust to make sure Connor's involved once a week...example...Monday-Science, Tuesday-Art/Music, Wednesday-Composition/Creative Writing, Thursday-History, Friday-Book of Mormon/religious studies. I work with Connor on his reading while the older boys do silent reading and he does coloring and letter practice while the older boys work on math and LA etc. It's working so far. We will do field trips whenever we feel like it.(o: Mainly, though, when Travis has the day off so he can go and enjoy the fun, plus help me with kid control.

Tuesday's we will be watching a little boy named Jake. He's just a couple of months younger than Connor, so I will be planning some things for him to do while we have school on Tuesday's.

That's about it for now. I wanted to just get this out there so if I can't remember when I started school, or lose my way, I can return to this post and get my head on again. (o: I'll leave you with some cute pictures.
Group photo. Connor is such a goof ball.
Joseph-3rd grade. Age 8. I have a couple of photo's of just Joseph's face, but he insisted I have a picture of him with Baby Doggie. He's had that dog since he was 3 months old. It's his oldest and best friend and comes to school every morning.
Spencer-2nd grade. Age 7.


Connor. Kindergarten. Age 4. I think he looks so old in this picture!
I installed these shelves in our entry way. Each boy has their own shelf with their own bin of crayons and stuff. It also holds their books that they need daily. On the right we have history books, science books, and chapter books. It's pretty organized for now. I hope they keep it this way cause it's working well for them so far.

3 comments:

Rachael said...

Conner does look super old all the sudden. I'm tellin' ya, where does the time go?!

Karen Howell said...

Spencer looks just like his uncle Nate in the group photo! Cute boys!

Jen Bailey said...

Hey Friend! Oh how I admire you. I am way too unorganized to ever consider home schooling (although the thought to keep my kids home this year did enter my mind a few times). Best of luck with your plans. You are amazing.