A day in the homeschoolers life...

It's "Day-in-the-life Week" for the hop this time. Here is a peak at our typical day of homeschooling...

7:00-8:00 AM~ This is my morning time. I get up and get ready for the day...that includes my Bible Study, a load of clothes, and breakfast prep.

8:00-8:30 AM~ This is the Wake-Up time for the boys...I try to have them up and out of bed around 8:15 AM and we always start with boy cuddles in the big recliner. I think this is my most favoritest part of the day! Especially with Baby Britches since he always brings in his special blanket.

8:30-9:00 AM~ Breakfast for us all and Chores for Little Britches

9:00-9:15 AM~ Piano Practice for Little Britches; this is also my prep time for getting out our morning supplies and writing our daily sentence for correcting on the board.

9:15-10:15 AM~ Calendar Time/Daily Math Problems/Bible/Language Arts

10:15-10:30 AM~ Read Aloud--Little Britches reads out loud two books from his book basket

10:30-10:45 AM~ Recess/Snack Time

10:45 AM-Noon~  Depending on the day this will be time for Math, Geography or Science

Noon-1 PM~ Lunchtime and recess

1:00-1:30 PM~ Quiet time...this is when I get Baby Britches down for a nap and have time to just sit and relax for a bit. Little Britches has to play with quiet toys during this time. Usually that is Legos.

1:30-2:15~ Afternoon Session---this could be Five-in-a-Row, or more science, or more Geography or more History...I save afternoons for a larger project or for whatever extra subject we need to do. I never get any complaints now that afternoon session is reserved for these subjects. He loves them all.

2:15-3:00 PM~ My time for finishing up my own chores before my piano lessons usually start. I also use this time to prepare for the next day or upcoming week's lessons.

3:00-5:00 PM~ Most days this time period is full of the piano lessons that I teach. Little Britches typically calls his grandpa and they spend the afternoon together. Sometimes Baby Britches goes with them but if not, then he and I will play together or he'll play vehicles quietly during piano lessons.

So that is the bulk of my day...the last part of the day is for dinner prep, more chores, more prep for the week and work on my projects for the magazine.

This is a typical Monday-Wednesday day...I say that because my husband is home on Thursday and Friday so that tweaks up my schedule. For right now this works for us...naturally we don't live by the stroke of the hands on the clock. If we get off track then fine. If we need to spend more time on something then we do. And some days we throw our hands in the air and call it quits! LOL!

{Not} Back to School Blog Hop--Student Photos

Here are our first day of school photos marking the start of 1st Grade and Tot School...

Little Britches--age 6 1/2 and Baby Britches--age 24 months

Our School Space~ (Not) Back to School Blog Hop 2012

I've been very blessed to have a nice school space for our work. It's not exactly what I want since we have to share the space with our office and my craft desk, but it works great for now!

 We have a great bulletin board for our daily calendar work. My husband snagged it out of a school that his work was demolishing. The calendar and days of the week came from the $1 bins at Target. I printed off the calendar numbers--have a different set for each month. I have sets for every month of the year. There is a clock for our daily time and the blue folder like thing at the bottom is one of the Dry Erase pockets I found in the $1 bin at Target the last time I went. It has any daily worksheets in it.

 This is on the back of the closet door in the room. I used an old over the door rack I wasn't using anymore. I have all our flash cards and laminated printed pages hanging from it. It so so much easier to keep track of all our flashcards since I hole punched them and put them on rings! The rings I used here were my "brilliant" idea I mentioned in this post. LOL!

 My pride and joy of the classroom is this full size white board! Yes, it IS FULL SIZED! My husband snagged this too from the school they were demolishing and was quite proud of this find! You can see it even has the World and US maps to go on it too! Talk about fantastic for world events and geography! I love that these boards are magnetic too, so I laminate and then add magnets to the back of things like posters and put them on the board.

 Our desks for the boys...another find from that school! We have a third desk out in the barn...just in case. (wink). These face the white board...the boys love their desks. Baby Britches has much better behavior since we moved in his desk.
(ETA: Now that we are heading into our first year of "official" pre-school he is eager to have "real school" at his desk!)

 Inside the closet I have a plastic drawer set with my craft supplies, and other supplies. Not necessarily neat and tidy, but hey, that's why I keep the door shut! LOL!

(ETA: Since I took this picture I HAVE rearranged some things so it's not as messy...notice I said "not AS"...LOL. I still keep the door closed!)

 My nice big cabinet. Love this thing. I keep our curriculum paperwork, art supplies, files, soooooo much in this! And then I use the side of it for sight words. I laminated 3 x 5 cards and added magnets to the back. So when we have new words we can write them and keep them in sight...then once it's been learned, wipe it off and add a new one.

 Here is our music room! LOL! We have piano lessons for Little Britches on Monday's...

And here is our other classroom...110 acres of a God created school for exploration!

At some point we are going to build onto our house and the new room will be bigger then this one and will be almost entirely used for our classroom. Sigh. I can't wait! I will actually have bookshelves in my classroom then! Now I have to keep all our reading books either in the cabinet or out in the living room on the beautiful bookshelves my husband made me.

But I'm very very grateful for the space we have now and the blessings of the school furniture we have. Having a school like setting really works for our family, but we do regularly move to the big kitchen table AND like to go outside for class too!

Feel free to check out what our 2012-2013 Curriculum will be HERE.
You can see our 2013-2014 curriculum HERE.
I will be sharing our 2014-2015 this week (Aug 18-22)!

2012-2013 Curriculum for 1st Grade and Tot School

We started our first day back to school this week. Wow. Talk about grumbling and complaining coming out of my mouth Little Briches' mouth! I think I need to make Phillipians 2:14 into a giant poster for our classroom! LOL!

"Do everything without complaining and arguing" Phillipians 2:14 (New Living Translation)

The kicker is that we haven't even started our main curriculum yet! We are just getting into the routine slowly with lots of oral review and worksheets...mixed with games and play--what IS he going to do when we start our big stuff next week? LOL!

So what IS our curriculum this year going to be?

Well after much worry and craziness and research, I prayed and let God guide us in our decision...and we decided on the following:

Little Britches (6 1/2)~ First Grade

Bible~

 * We are going to continue in our scripture memorization following our pattern of last year--however our new curriculum includes weekly verses too. So we MAY attempt more than one a week...but we will start with just one.

* We are also going to continue going through the Bible Lessons packets like we did earlier this year. Our next packet is on Noah.

  

Language Arts~

 

 *Primary core will be My Father's World-1st Grade

We used MFW Kindergarten last year and we loved it! It was a great intro into homeschooling and after talking with friends who used the 1st grade program, we decided to go with it this year. I am concerned that the increased amount of reading and writing might frustrate Little Britches at first, but I've promised myself that I will take as long as we need to finish without rushing! This is the year I really want his reading to take off! As it is right now, he doesn't have enough self-confidence to pick up a random book and start reading. Usually I get "Nah, that's okay. I don't want to read it right now." if I tell him I have a library book for his level...what he's usually saying is "Mommy, I don't want to read it, because I think I'm going to forget letter sounds and words and it will take me too long to get through it and then you'll be mad at me."

Of course I wouldn't...but I understand his fear, so this year we are going to work on conquering it!

Oral Reading~

*When we were Young/Now we are Six

*McGuffey's Primer and First Grade Reader

I am going to have him use the poetry in "When we were Young" to help him with his reading because they are short passages with simple words. I am also going to use the McGuffey readers for the same purpose. I'm hoping that if we do it every day, it's going to help build his confidence.

Math~

*The complete Book of Math Grade 1-2

Math program included with the MFW-1st grade curriculum

*Daily Math Word Problems-Grade 1 by Evan Moor

We started this and he really likes them because they are short and easy and he can figure them out pretty quickly. I slip the pages from this into my new Dry Erase portfolio pages I bought. (more on those later)

*Pattern Blocks and Puzzles

This is actually part of the MFW curriculum and I know Little Britches will enjoy these. He loved using the Cuiseniaire Rods last year.

Science~

*Usborne Books: Science with Plants; Science with Water; Things Outdoors

These are all part of the MFW curriculum so will be done weekly. I am really looking forward to having Science worked into our weekly schedule. Little Britches has an affinity for it!

*Science Kits/Chemistry

We were given these Science kits by family and friends. Pit Stop is all about cars and racing and the Music kit builds musical instruments. The Chemistry book is a very elementary (K-3rd) level book with weekly assignments and labs. These are all going to really help make Science awesome this year!

History~

*Story of the World Vol 1 w/Activity Book

We I am excited about starting this subject! It's my favorite and one that I would have taught had I completed my teaching degree. I have heard great things about this curriculum. We will also use some printables that various homeschooling moms have created in conjunction with this series.

Geography~

*Beginning Geography (Evan Moor)

I have read reviews on this and decided it would be a great starting point for us. We already have studied some geography through FIAR, but this will help reinforce what we already know and help with vocabulary. We started using it this first week and Little Britches has loved all the lessons so far.

*Maps: United States workbook

*Maps: World workbook

PE~

We live on a farm, so PE will be running, jumping, playing, biking all over the place! During the winter we will go sledding and have snowfall fights. We WILL be focusing on various skills (cartwheels, handstands, standing jump, etc) too.

Music~

*Piano Lessons

I teach piano lessons and Little Britches has already started his. We did give him a break with our crazy summer schedule, but this week he's back to the piano bench.

*Music Appreciation

I have a very nice worksheet I picked up during a homeschool blog series that starts training children to LISTEN to classical music. I am excited about this and can't wait to start it up. It will be a once a week lesson. Probably on Fridays.

And some extras as they fit in...

Five In A Row (FIAR) is a wonderful literature program and we enjoyed the books we did last year. I'm hoping to work some more in this year as they fit. Especially with our Geography studies...thanks to my wonderful friend Michelle at Delightful Learning for passing Volume 2 my direction!

FLL is an exciting book to have and I am really hoping to make it a part of our program. Even if just little bits at a time. The Scholastic book is a great thick workbook I bought at COSTCO. I used the Kindergarten one as supplemental worksheets and it's GREAT for focus review. I already have the 2nd grade and 3rd grade ones stashed!

I also have a flash drive packed full of various mini lessons for more if I would ever possibly need it...LOL! And we have some chapter books we are planning on doing this year too (Mouse and the Motorcycle series, The Borrowers, The Boxcar Children, etc)

Baby Britches (24 months)~ Tot School

I plan on using materials from 1+1+1=1, Confessions of a Homeschooler and several other blogs for my adventures teaching Baby Britches. We've already started working on sorting and colors. I have the handicap in that he doesn't talk yet, so I really have to work on the concepts to he can point, grab, sort, etc at this point. But he understands everything and after two days, I'm already seeing him pick up on things. I have wood puzzles, flashcards, touch and feel books, and all sorts of random things that we will be using.

I think it's going to be a great year! I'm hopeful to get a weekly post up now that we are back in the swing of things...we took a great pre-school field trip this past weekend I'm going to blog about too.