A New Homeschool Year- The Plan

Well, we are almost to the beginning of the school year again and unlike in years past I am not really prepared.  I was a teacher for 12 years and I spent most of my time preparing for the school year the last week before it started and with homeschool it seems like I was always planning.  But our life took a turn this year and we actually had a very tough year from October 2017 to the present.  Many different things affected our family including death of 2 loved ones, a fire and a possible big change.  These kids have been resilient, but I feel like we fell off the wagon so many times and I never really got back up.  Needless to say, we just abruptly ended the school year and I took a lot of time off this summer working on projects around the house and praying!

I really did love Heart of Dakota which is what we used last year.  But it seemed like too much for my kids.  I thought when I initially started homeschooling I planned everything out from K-12.  Well, almost.  But each year it has been different and I don't know why.  This year is even more different.  We thought we might try a different school route with the kids, but it didn't happen right at the time we thought.  I ended up not even really thinking of what I wanted to use for homeschool.  But we didn't finish some things like math and there were many things I wanted to do, but never got around to them.

So this year it will be very simple.

Here is The Plan:

My son is 9-
*Language Arts 3 from Easy Peasy (free)
*Reading- I will choose 4-5 chapter books for reading and discussion.  See Read Aloud Revival PDF.  We will also be doing vocabulary with these books.
*Math- Finish Math Mammoth 3, Xtra Math (free) (Drill) and Math Playground (free) (play games a few times a week for 30 min)
*Introduction to the Bible from Heart of Dakota- under self study
*Read through John
*Cursive- finish our book from Intoxicated on Life
*Science- Thunderbolt Kids (free)
*History- Portraits of Integrity from Character Concepts
*Typing- Dance Mat Typing (free)
*Keys for Kids- daily devotion as a family
*Memorizing- I chose a few things for him to memorize this year: the Preamble to the Constitution, States and Capitals, Prepositions and the Gettysburg Address.



My daughter is 7:
*Reading/Language Arts-  I just discovered Reading Eggs works really well for her and it includes spelling, vocabulary and comprehension.  It's a subscription service, but you can have a free 4 week trial (they do not collect your credit card unless you order).
*Writing-  We are finishing a handwriting book and will work on handwriting by writing spelling words or copying sentences.  We will use Activity Mom's Drawing Through the Alphabet (free) to create a picture and write about it. 
*Math- Finish Math Mammoth Grade 1, Xtra Math, and Math Playground (so many fun game possibilities).
*Science- books at library, Netflix videos
*History- Portraits of Integrity from Character Concepts
*Keys for Kids- daily family devotional (free)
*Piano- Pianimals (I bought this set awhile back but she really wants to learn so we are going to try to make it work this year.)
*Typing- Dance Mat Typing (free)  She tried it this summer and did really well and it will help with Reading Eggs as she needs to type a lot.


We will be doing a variety of these everyday.  We also have Awana on Tuesday nights, library days, biking, park days (meeting up with other homeschoolers) and cooking. We will also have daily chores and other skills that include getting a basic routine. 

I will be writing out their assignments in a notebook inspired by Sarah at Read Aloud Revival.   I have actually been using this method, but I also used another book as well.  We'll just keep it simple with this and see how it works.  I also have a binder for each child for things I've copied off that they need. 

I will also be reading through the Christian Heroes series from YWAM  (I have about 40 of them) during lunch time and various other books that strike my fancy. 

Here's to a new school year and whatever may come!!  

Lesson Planning! (another video!)

Hi Friends, I had some questions about how I do lesson planning.  I hope this short video will show you how quick and easy it is and how I can make weekly notes to remember everything that happens or what needs to be done.

Lesson Planning for Homeschool

Student Planner that I use from Queen Homeschool.  

*Affiliate links*

Which Way USA from Highlights +FREE guidebooks and maps!

We have been having so much fun this year using Which Way USA from Highlights magazine.  It is like a fun tour of each state.  If you have ever seen any Highlight puzzle books, you will see that this is similar, but each puzzle visits a different part of the state and there is a contest going on between these 2 kids and several other team opponents.  The puzzles are fun, sometimes challenging, informative and something that my son and I look forward to doing.  Sometimes we work together and sometimes he does it alone. 

Some of the puzzles need you to consult the state map.  So usually when we start the book I read through all the information on the map while he flips through the book and FREE guidebook that I get in the mail (see at the bottom of this blog post).  It's a lot of information, but in the book we need to use the map again and I teach him how to search for information.  Sometimes I have a real map and we find the places that are mentioned by using the grid on the map.  We also utilize Google and look up images of cities, landmarks, and other interesting facts.  It's SO much fun!

And we are also learning the state capitals.  I bet you can tell I enjoy this as much as my son.

 

Every month we get about 4 books, but we usually only get through 1 or 2 a month.

What comes with this resource?

*Large United States Map (we laminated and put on the wall)

*Which Way USA book that you record information for each state you "visit"

*A key chain with a license plate from each state (you can use the code to access online games, but we don't really use that)

*A book for each state

*A large map of each state

*And lots of knowledge!

 

My 7 year old son says he loves to learn about each new state.  It makes him excited to go and visit them some day.

He's holding the key chain, but you can't see the license plate tags on it.

 

We practice our map skills with real maps that we get FREE (see below).

 

I can't tell you how much my son looks forward to our Which Way USA times.  We do the puzzle book about twice a week.  He has a lot of interest in travel and I do hope we can visit some of these places someday. 

 

Have you used this resource?

What do you think?

 

Here is a link to get a bunch of guide books and maps for FREE:
http://www.heyitsfree.net/free-state-maps/

 

Morning Time

 

 

I started something new this year called Morning Time.

It may not be new to some of you and actually it's something that I used to do when I taught Kindergarten, but I called it Circle Time.

 

However, I think Morning Time in homeschool has much more to it.

 

I probably started off doing too much so we are doing much less now, but basically we learn Bible verses, poems, and our character value (Character Concepts).

 

 

 

I also read a devotion, a Bible story or our science book (Come and See).

 

We light a candle, sing (and dance), pray and try to cultivate what Pam Barnhill has modeled in her podcast and ebook- Truth, Goodness and Beauty.

 

I first heard about Morning Time from Sarah at Read Aloud Revival.

Pam Barnhill from Ed Snapshots has expounded on this idea with an ebook with a short video course on how to set up a notebook and also an excellent podcast with inspirational guests and free printables.

 

Here are a few videos of the poems my kids memorized this year:

 

My 7 year old son learned My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

My 4 year old learned Abraham Lincoln (Traditional)

So, we are enjoying adding this as part of our day. 
I will add things each year and I look forward to continuing on with our Morning Time.

There are so many ideas that I have gleaned to how I want to craft our Morning Time, but I'm taking it slowly.

Do you do Morning Time?
Tell me about it!

 

Morning Chore Accountability Idea- Made Simple

 

 

 

Mornings with my kids used to be so stressful and unproductive.  I couldn't get them to do the SAME things as I verbally told them.  My son wouldn't get dressed and my daughter was always running around not sure what to do even though I kept telling her.  So, I needed to come up with a system where I was not the one to tell them what to do. 

 

I have tried many chore systems to help my kids in the morning before breakfast: stickers, magnets, charts, etc.  Nothing has worked!  I needed something that would help them to be independent, accountable and that was something they could do themselves.  I didn't want to have to keep up with it.

 

So, I came up with this stick and ball idea. 

 

Here's how it works:

*Each child has a 2 jars (small and large), sticks with chores on them and a bunch of puff balls (I count them to make sure there are a sufficient amount).

*On the sticks I write chores that need to be done BEFORE breakfast.  Most are quick and easy, but some take a few minutes longer.

*Each night or in the morning before they get up I put out their sticks.

*When they get up, they do everything on their sticks.  When they get a stick job done, they put it in the little jar. 

*At breakfast, they count up the sticks and put that many balls in the big jar.  I also keep the extra balls in a baggie in the same big jar.

*When the jar is filled and baggie is empty they get a reward- dollar store purchase, candy, any special prize I think of.

*It takes them about 2-3 weeks to fill the jar.

*Then we put all the sticks back in the big jar and put the little jar on top.  ALL DONE!  I only have to put out the sticks and the kids take care of the rest!  Simple, easy and the jobs get done.

 

So, what are the job?

*Get dressed

*Breakfast (set it out)

*Fill water bottles

*Feed and water cat

*Laundry (bring it down)

*Dishwasher (unload)

*Bed sheets (take them off and bring down)

*Check in with mom

 

They do not do all these every day, but I have them do about 4-6.

 

This has made our mornings (mostly) smooth, the kids are working and being responsible for their own jobs.  It's amazing!  I've been doing this for about a month and it works so well. 

 

And my kids, well, they like it and they are very proud of themselves and so am I.

 

Happy kids!


I do have a different system for other household chores that we do after breakfast which is even more simple, but I'll share that in another post.

 



 

 

First Grade Daily Learning Notebook

 

First Grade Daily Learning Notebook

click HERE if you are reading this by email for the video

 

 

Here is what I include in the first grade daily learning notebook with links:

*Confessions of a Homeschooler - Elementary Daily Learning Notebook (pdf)

*Assignment sheet- Multitaskin Mom

*I Can Teach My Child- Goal Setting

*Character Traits actually from The Measured Mom, but I can't find the link (must have been a freebie)

*Math Activities from 3 Dinosaurs

*Fall Reading from 3 Dinosaurs

*Pizza Hut Book-It Challenge

*Life Skills Checklist from Thriving Family (pdf)

*Age Appropriate Chore Chart from Happy Housewife

*Manners from Thirty Handmade Days

*Guidelines for Practical Life Skills for kids- Thirty Handmade Days

*This Reading Mama- Strategies for Reading Longer Words

*Read, Build, Write mats from Homeschool Creations

*Mailbox Club lessons- FREE

*Gospel in the Bible- When You Rise

*Maps- Enchanted Learning

 

So, I put all of the daily papers on a clipboard and I utilize the sheet protectors for papers we do daily that change like the date page that comes in the daily learning notebook set from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I also add in printable worksheets with dot to dot, soduku, word search, mazes and other ideas from http://www.printactivities.com/.

These have been a great way to start our school day and help to set up some good skill work.  I also have him copy the Bible verse for the week and a few other things like writing our address and phone number.  I really like the clipboard which keeps everything organized.  I just put all the papers in there so they are ready to go for the next day.

 

 

 

 



PreK Daily Learning Notebook

 

PreK Daily Learning Notebook

click HERE for video if you received this through email

 

 

Here is a list with links to what is in my PreK Daily Learning Notebook.  

 

*Confessions of a Homeschooler- PreK Daily Learning Notebook (FREE!)

*Handwriting Worksheets- Make your own for tracing name

*The Measured Mom- Letter of the Week Book List

*This Reading Mama- Letter Tracing (part of the subscriber freebie page)

*Little Learning Lovies- Letter Hunt (Probably a free download somewhere)

*I Can Teach My Child- Goal Setting

*Character Traits from The Measured Mom (can't find link)

*Life Skills from Thriving Family.com (pdf link)

*Manners from Thirty Handmade Days (lots of other great printables on this site)
*Guidelines for Practical Life Skills for kids- Thirty Handmade Days

*Raising Rock Star Preschool Verses (pdf)

*Mailbox Club Lessons

 

Every morning we start with Morning Time and then we go to the table and go through our Daily Learning Notebook clipboard.  I use sheet protectors and dry erase markers for some of the papers.  This is a great way to start the school work time and skills are learned.   I have seen real success and good development toward independent learning using these notebooks/clipboards. 

 

Hope you can get started with Daily Learning Notebooks for your children.  Have a great day learning!  Blessings, Shonda

 

 

First Day of School 2015

The night before our first day of school we do Back to School Banana Split Night!

 

 

 

The next day we dress up and take our first day pictures.

My daughter is PreK and my son is 1st grade.

I'm pretty excited to do a new grade that I have never taught before.

 I bought all of my supplies at Walmart and I bought quality products, I think.  I made a big schoolbox for each of my kids and one for myself so we will have plenty of supplies which I constantly ran out of last year. 

 

This is what our school room looks like.  Yes, it's the dining room.  I put the whiteboard in the middle to separate and it works great.  It has cut down on distraction immensely and I can bounce back and forth between the two.  I tried a more relaxed approach on the couch, but it did not work AT ALL!

 And after our school morning we went out for our First Day Donuts.  That's our tradition and the kids love it!

I found that writing out a routine/schedule for the day along with what chores are expected has really helped especially with my son.  I don't include times exactly, but I try to start school between 9-10.  We do about an hour of chores (good exercise too!).  That way I can relax during the homeschool time and not think about all the stuff that I need to do.  We have been in school for 6 days and I can tell a BIG difference between this year and last year.  Both kids can work at the table and it much less chaotic than last year when my little girl wanted my attention while I worked with my son.  I just couldn't get it to work out well.  But this year looks promising.

 

I have a few more things to share this month:

*Our daily routine

*Daily Learning Notebook videos

*Homeschool organization in a small space

 

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the new school year whether you homeschool or send them off!

Blessings, Shonda

PreK Curriculum Choices

This year I am moving on to PreK with my daughter.  I cannot believe how much she has learned last year.  She knows almost all of her letters and sounds.  She can color and count.  She loves books and can retell stories.  And she can memorize well.  We will be off to a great start in the fall.  We will be concentrating on her fine motor skills like cutting, writing and coloring.  She just loves school time.

Daily Learning Notebook for PreK- FREE from Confessions of a Homeschooler


Rod and Staff Books A-F


Language Lessons for Little Ones Volume 1 from Queen Homeschool

Come and See Science from Queen Homeschool (with brother)

Bible Coloring Book from Rod and Staff with brother

Character Concepts Review

Raising Rock Stars Preschool Bible Verses

Other activities:
*Awana
*Homeschool Co-op

For Pre-reading this semester we will be using All About Reading Pre-Reading Course.

Starting in January we will start Reading the Alphabet. 


Listen to her retell Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems!  She's got it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnpMezujWv8

First Grade Curriculum Choices

I can't believe we are heading into First Grade next year!  It seemed like it took forever to get to Kindergarten (remember I taught K for 12 years before I had kids) and so this is NEW territory for me.  I thought and researched a lot and found what I think will work best for this coming year.  We are using the next volume in a few areas and trying a few new books.  I'm very excited.  I got my new planner and I'm starting to fill it out with important dates. 


I will be sharing two curriculum posts- one for my son and one for my daughter.  So be looking out for my PreK choices coming up soon.


Daily Learning Notebook- FREE from Confessions of a Homeschooler
I usually add things like word search, some math printables and writing

Reading-  We had to change our reading curriculum because what were using was not working well enough for my son to grasp some key reading foundation skills.  So we switched to All About Reading starting in Level 1. 



We will also keep working in The Reading Lesson. 

 We are no longer using Learning Language Arts Through Literature.

Language-
*Language Lessons for Little Ones Volume 3 from Queen Homeschool
*Printing with Pictures Book C and D from Queen Homeschool
*Lessons in Manners for Copywork from Queen Homeschool

Spelling- All About Spelling (see my blog post here!)

Creative Writing- Write Shop Primary Book A (we love this program!)

Math-
*We will use Math Lessons for a Living Education Volume 2 from JellyBean Jar Publications

History-
We are using A Living History of our World Part 1 by Jelly Bean Jar Publications

 

Bible-
*Rod and Staff Bible Pictures to Color (with sister)
*God is.... A to Z (copywork verses) (no longer available)
*Review Character Concepts from last year


Science-
 * Come and See from Queen Homeschool (with sister)


Music
*Hoffman Academy piano lessons online (FREE!)



Other-
*Typing Club
*Uncle Rick Audio Book Club
*Which Way USA from Highlight Magazine
*The Talk from Intoxicated on Life
*Mailbox Club
*LOTS of read alouds (see Read Aloud Revival)

Activities-
*Awana
*Volunteer at the Food Bank
*Homeschool Co-op

For PE we will try to go outside and do some running, play at parks, climbing, jumping, games with balls, riding bike and anything active.  We also do exercises in the house, run the stairs and some fun kids yoga videos. 

We also will be writing in our journals several times a week using ideas from This Reading Mama and The Measured Mom. 

This year I'm going to try a block schedule.  So basically I'm going to do split the year into 6 terms.  During each term I will do Language Arts, Math, Morning Time and 2 extra subjects.  If I don't get the extra subjects done, that's OK. 

So for my son the first term we will do Language Arts (Language Lessons, Handwriting, Reading), Math, Morning Time, Science and Music. 

I was trying to come up with something simple so I can fit the many things in, but not all at the same time.  I watched this webinar by Pam Barnhill and Sarah Mackenzie that inspired me greatly. 

I do a lot of learning things at meals like verbal math, Bible stories, read-alouds, questions and answers, memorizing.  I also do some of these things during Morning Time. 

First grade- here we come!!

Homeschool Update- End of the Year!

Hi Friends-  It's been awhile!  Homeschooling definitely has taken more time and energy than I thought.  Being a homemaker, keeping up with exercise, nutrition, cleaning, cooking, marriage, parenting, homeschooling and many other pursuits has me stretched in so many directions.  I'm really trying to apply the principle of Less vs. More.  I have a long way to go, but I'm trying to do less on the computer so that is one reason I don't update my blog so much.  I wish I could share more, but follow me on Facebook and you can see more of what we do.  I only am able to blog a little bit.


So, we finally ended our homeschool year officially!  I have learned SO much as homeschool mom vs. being a classroom teacher.  Did I tell you I taught 12 years of Kindergarten and this first year as homeschool Kindergarten teacher was nothing like how I taught?  I should have figured it wouldn't be the same. 

Here are some pictures of the last few months of school:

Typing Club online

Roller Skating with co-op the first time ever!

Playing our favorite game- Candyland

Making crafts on the back porch- child led

My son got golf clubs- ready for golf camp this summer

My poor daughter got a bad ear infection

Last day of homeschool co-op

Being silly with my babes

My son entered a creation in the showcase at co-op

My daughter turned 4 in May

Grand Prix with Awana

Last day of school!  Kindergarten done!

My daughter asked Jesus into her heart at Awana.

Tea party for a co-op friend

The fort in our living room- AKA cabbage box

I don't know if you are like me, but I am a perfectionist, but it seems like nowhere in my world can I get to that level.  I want to do everything WELL.  But what happens is I do everything mediocre and that just doesn't sit well with me.  I read a lot of homeschool blogs and I wonder why I can't get it together with my two kids.  But I'm learning that we are all different and what works for one family does not work for another.  I have tried schedules and non-schedules and I still am learning what works for me and my kids.  I have a plan for the summer which I will share soon that I hope to keep as a school schedule in the fall.

Here are some things I learned my first year homeschooling:

1. Being a teacher in a classroom has been a disadvantage to being a homeschool mom.  Why do I say that?  Well, I found teaching one child is a lot different than a classroom full of kids.  In a classroom, the key to having a smooth day was a good set of transition routines.  At home, the key to teaching is having a good relationship with my child which I'm learning very slowly.

2. Having a rigid time schedule is really stressful.  When I taught at school we did everything by the clock.  School always began at 8:30, Recess was always at 10:30, Lunch was at 12:00.  I tried that at home.  It did not work!!  What I opted for was a loose routine.  We did things in order, but not necessarily in a rigid time frame.  I aimed to have breakfast, school, snacks and quiet time at relatively the same time every day, but if we were early or late, that didn't matter.  If I stressed about time, then that made the day miserable.

3.  Having fun is the key to success.  Everyday my kids asked if we were going to do something fun that day.  Well, I thought learning was fun, but they wanted adventure.  Every day was not an adventure, but I did add a lot of elements like going out to parks, the library and other fun places during school hours.  If I added these in, then they could look forward to them when our school work was finished.  I learned to relax and sometimes let the day flow.

4. Loving my children and giving them the best of me is the best lesson I can give.  This was tough for me, not that I didn't love my children, but that I really wanted to get things accomplished.  But I did not want them to think my stuff was more important than them.  My kids are very hands on and both require a lot of quality time.  I feel like I can't ever give them enough.  I am a quiet and calm person, but I have learned that tickles and snuggles and lots of jumping, dancing and playing are what my kids desire most.  I plan to do as much of this as possible for as long as I have them with me.

OK, so my first year of homeschooling taught me more about myself than I ever wanted to know, but as I go through each year I think I will get to know my kids and myself better.  I am very excited for next year as we do 1st grade and PreK.  I have all the curriculum, but most of all I just want them to know about Jesus. So even if we don't cover everything I want them to know how much I love them and how much Jesus loves them.

Stay tuned for my yearly curriculum reveal post coming up sometime this summer.
Also, I will be sharing my Report Card and School Memories notebook by video soon too.

Blessings, Shonda