My Teacher Binder

My organization is generally one of the key determining factors in whether we have a fantastic week (where the work gets done and the kids still have fun) or a horrible one (when I question my ability to remain sane). If I've planned it out ahead of time, it generally gets done. If I have a general idea but try to wing it, it almost always falls by the wayside. To keep myself on track, I created a binder for myself last year and have been slowly adjusting it to meet my needs. Most of the pages are either printed directly from or based on planning pages from donnayoung.org. Here's a look at my current set up...

Section 1:

1. Our MOTH schedule - until I get it memorized it has to be easy to find
2. A one page one year calendar - I mark the days we school here
3. A set of monthly calendars from August 2009-July 2010 - for appointments, field trips, reminders, etc.

Tab 1: Jessie's checksheets

1. 4 pages for tracking Jessie's grades for the year on white paper
2. Semester schedules for math, spelling, grammar, and reading on purple paper
   

Tab 2: Jessie's CW lesson plans on purple paper
Tab 3: Jessie's Latin for Children B Plans on purple paper
Tab 4: Notes for Jessie (includes printed goals on purple paper and blank lined paper for any notes or reminders I need)
Tab 5: Violet's checksheets (semester schedules on pink paper)
Tab 6: Violet's CW lesson plans on pink paper
Tab 7: Notes for Violet (same as Tab 4 with pink paper for goals)
Tab 8: Benny's checksheets (semester schedules on blue paper)
Tab 9: Notes for Benny (goals on blue paper and blank lined paper) - For Benny, I actually write down what we do each day in this section since he doesn't have a checksheet of his own this year.
Tab 10: History plans on yellow (Bible history) and orange paper (ancient history)
Tab 11: Science plans - currently empty because I'm only planning one week at a time

The front inside binder pocket is where I store science booklets and lab speculation sheets for the current week. The back inside binder pocket is for maps, timeline figures, or other history or geography related papers for the current week.

Week 3: Starting to gain traction...

It's been a good week here. My Mom was visiting for the first half of the week, so she was able to keep an eye on Henry for us during school leaving me free to work on getting the girls back on track. Most days we finished either on time or even early, so the adjustments seem to be working well. I need to add a little more structure for Benny in the second half of the morning, and maybe a little more structure for Henry although I haven't decided how yet. Here's a look at our week.

MATH

Jessie has finished the first unit in the textbook and workbook working several multi step word problems and began the corresponding section in the Intensive Practice. She has done very well this week. The only thing that threw her was a portion of Friday's assignment. They set up 3 tables. The first column had a number. The second column ask what was the smallest number that would round to make the number in the first column if you were rounding by tens or hundreds or thousands (depending on which table she was on). The third column asked for the largest possible number. I gave her an example, and she completed about half on her own. Then we worked through the others together.

Violet is continuing to plug along in the second unit of Singapore 3A reviewing addition and subtracting. I honestly can't fault her understanding of the concepts, but we spent a lot of time in this and other subjects talking about working diligently and carefully. We did continue with the Miquon Yellow book this week without any major difficulties. It appears that we simply started at a particularly difficult place. Now I just have to mark that in my notes so I change that for Benny in a couple of years.

Benny would still prefer 10:00 to be read aloud time instead of math and critical thinking time, but he's doing very well. In the Miquon Orange book, he's still in the first section on counting. In Singapore 1A, we finished up the first unit in the Intensive Practice book and began working on number bonds today. Rather than relying just on the pictures in the book as I have done in the past, we used the cuisenaire rods to build a wall showing all the ways to make six. Then he could refer back to the wall for the workbook page where he had to identify whether a pair of numbers would make six. A couple of them that he was unsure about we tried adding to the wall only to find them too long or too short.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Jessie completed the first unit in R&S 5 this week and scored very well on her test. The second unit began with a review discussion about paragraphs. She was quite frustrated on Friday when she missed three words on her spelling test. I wasn't surprised, however, because there were a lot more mistakes in the workbook exercises themselves this week. It served as a good reminder that the work needed to be done carefully as well as quickly. For CW Homer, we analyzed the fable, Belling the Cat. I decided to stick with the diagramming format from R&S grammar rather than follow the suggested changes in the book to maintain consistency, but we still covered the same information. In The Age of the Fable, she learned about the Roman gods, the myth of creation, and Pandora. She got a little carried away with her reading in Tuck Everlasting and is finishing it today instead of next week. That gives us some time to do some literary analysis next week during our normal narration time, and her time to write a book report during her normal reading time.

In grammar, Violet has been reviewing the 4 types of sentences and learning how to diagram them. Her spelling went very well. For CW Aesop, we analyzed the fable The Fox and the Grapes completing more alphabetizing for day 2, identifying sentence types for day 3, and dictating the moral for day 4. She is continuing to enjoy Understood Betsy and The Complete Peterkin Papers. Her fairy tale this week was "The Princess Mayblossom". Her copywork for the week has been verses from "All Things Bright and Beautiful."

Benny and I finally reached the end of the three letter word section in the Pyramid book and have moved on to 4 letter words with double consonant endings in Phonics Pathways. It's been a little slower going, but he's doing very well. In handwriting, we covered the letters G, g, H, and h this week along with the numbers 6 and 7 and spent more time reviewing. Reading aloud, we've been averaging about 3 Aesop fables a day. We completed reading My Father's Dragon and are 4 chapters into the sequel Elmer and the Dragon. We also read about Pooh going to visit Rabbit and Squirrel Nutkin.

HISTORY / ART

For Old Testament history this week, the kids have read about Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the beginning of the story of Abraham up to the point where he and Lot separate. For ancient history we were studying about Creation vs. Evolution. Looking at my notes, I just realized we're a week behind in the latter schedule. Apparently, I messed up my numbering and was supposed to start ancient history a week earlier. (Grr.) Anyway, Violet and Benny both read A is for Adam by Ham and Yellow and Pink by Steig while Jessie was reading The Amazing Story of Creation by Gish. Violet, Benny, and I discussed what is basically the watchmaker argument for creation after reading the book by Steig. For Jessie, I had made a list of questions ahead of time by chapter because I knew her book would be challenging. There were a few portions that I had to explain, but for the most part she understood the general idea of the book. The girls created notebooking pages for Adam and Noah; mapped the Tigris River, Euphrates River, Mt. Ararat, and Babel; drew a picture for Noah using the Draw and Write book; and completed a written narration for the tower of Babel. Jessie and I worked together to create the bar graph of the lineage from Adam to Noah. It was interesting to see the amount of overlap in the generations. She also completed a map showing the dispersion of mankind after Babel, which I'll have a picture of once the girls have drawn the tower and put their notebooking pages together. Benny made a rainbow with glue, a paper plate, and bunched up squares of tissue paper.

GEOGRAPHY

While I get the rest of the geography program pulled together for the year, the girls started some general mapping for the Middle East. Violet labeled the main bodies of water, while Jessie also labeled rivers, mountains, and deserts. Last week, we did a review of continents and oceans. I also had Jessie do major river, mountains, and deserts. Next week I'm planning to have them fill in the country names. Hopefully by the following week, I'll have everything ready to focus on one country at a time.

SCIENCE

We complete lesson 1 on Tuesday learning about the different categories of plants. We haven't gone on a nature walk to find them outside yet just because it has been so hot, but I'm hoping to go this afternoon if it doesn't rain. For Benny's benefit, we also modeled the difference between vascular and non vascular plants. I made two spills of water. The kids used straws to clean up one and we set the edge of a paper towel in the other. On Thursday, we began chapter 2 and started learning about seeds. Benny and I read From Seed to Plant by Gibbons (which was made far more entertaining by the fact that Henry climbed on the bed with us and we kept rolling back and forth every page or two to keep him off the book). Then we did the bean seed dissection, and the girls drew and labeled diagrams in their booklets. Our planting from last week is going well. Everything has spouted in the girls triads, and Benny's jars have several carrot sprouts as well.

ART / MUSIC

I know most of the art is up under history, but I couldn't resist putting up Benny's picture of Pooh and a honey pot as well. Music, I hope, will start up next week.

LATIN / LOGIC / and everything else

Jessie also completed lesson LfC B and her logic assignments. In Memory work, she's learning 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and a poem entitle Thy Word. Violet is memorizing John 4:24 and "All Things Bright and Beautiful". Benny is learning Genesis 1:1. We'll see how long I can keep up with separate memory verses from 3 different Sunday school classes.

Baby Henry spent the first half of the week playing with Nana, and the second half of the week looking for unattended pencils, markers, and crayons with which to make his art work. He succeeded in getting one page of Violet's copywork, a page of my binder, a page from Jessie's grammar notebook, my plastic tablecloth, and a small section of my kitchen floor. Needless to saying, keeping all art and school supplies put in their proper places is currently a priority for training.

A Four Year Geography Plan

While we have always done lots of mapwork in conjunction with history, I wanted to create a more consistent system of covering current geography with the kids. After kicking around the idea in the back of my mind for a couple of months, I believe I have the beginnings of a plan. The idea is to create a four year cycle of geography that roughly coincides with our history studies while distributing the workload as evenly as possible. Here's our 4 year breakdown:

Year 1: Middle East and Africa
Year 2: Europe and the remainder of Asia
Year 3: North America, South America, and Australia
Year 4: US States

My plan for now is to keep it fact focused (similar to the US lapbooks that we created). While I think the girls would be interested in learning about other cultures, I think we have enough on our plate now without adding a culture study. I'll post more details as I pull everything together, hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

WW: Poor pup

You know you're having a bad day when even the baby is too busy looking at books to play fetch with you.

Week 2: Adding on...

This week in addition to the core skill subjects, we have added history, science, literature, Latin, and art (which is correlated to history). We've had several longer than normal days trying to fit in all the subjects so far. The kids haven't complained yet because they're still having fun, but I know we need to make some more adjustments.

MATH

Jessie is still working in unit one of the Singapore 5A book. The beginning of the week was spent on mental math and estimation. Basically, instead of multiplying or dividing by 80, multiply (or divide) by 10 first and then 8. Estimating is not Jessie's favorite math topic although she did very well. (She'd rather just figure out the actual answer). The only brand new concept that she encountered this week was order of operations. Her work was excellent, but it's going to take some effort (or at least harder problems) to convince her to show her work instead of calculating everything mentally.

Violet finished up the first unit of 3A this week and has completed the corresponding section in the Intensive Practice. Friday morning she began the second unit in the book which is basically a review of addition and subtraction. She continues to struggle with the Miquon yellow book. I think I'll look over it this weekend to see if we need to take a break from it for awhile.

Benny, of course, continues to breeze happily through his math lessons. He has finished the first section in the textbook and workbook and started the corresponding section in the Intensive Practice book. His Miquon is very easy at this point. This morning he found it a bit boring to count and write numbers or take a number and color in the right amount. There were several that were completely blank where he could choose his own number and color in the corresponding amount. He chose the number zero several times.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Jessie has quickly settled back into her language arts material. Spelling is going well (another 95% on her test). Grammar has included some diagramming review. I was surprised at how well she did on the challenge ones which reviewed everything from last year instead of just the basic skeleton that we covered in the lesson. For CW this week, she wrote and revised Hercules and the Waggoneer. Rather than start the new Homer routine, I chose to keep the editing for this first one identical to what we ended with last year in Aesop. The new Homer routine required some analysis that won't be introduced until the next model. For literature, Jessie is starting off the year reading Tuck Everlasting (not a hit so far) and Bulfinch's The Age of the Fable. The latter is a huge hit. Tuesday, I had her draw a picture of how the early Greeks viewed the world. Thursday, she drew a family tree for the Greek gods. She was very excited about both of them.

Violet has settled quickly back into spelling. We're still struggling with the first unit in R&S 3. It's not that the material is hard, but the explanations are much less clear than the ones in the grade 4 book. I'm beginning to wonder if that is why Jessie had such a hard time with grammar in 3rd grade. For literature this year, Violet is reading Understood Betsy 3 days a week. One Tuesday, she reads a fairy tale from The Red Fairy Book. On Thursday, I have her reading The Complete Peterkins Papers mainly just because I needed something for Thursday and knew she would appreciate the humor in it. We were supposed to start back to copywork this week, but that got dropped due to lack of time.

Benny's phonics and handwriting have been up and down this week. He hates making mistakes and would much rather do nothing than be incorrect. We made it through the material and will continue emphasizing the importance of effort over outcome. For literature, Benny was thrilled on the return of read aloud time with Mom (although he's been trying to convince me all week it should come earlier than right before lunch in our schedule). We actually have several different books going at once this year. Four days a week we are reading from Winter's Aesop's Fables. On the fifth day, we're reading a story from The Treasury of Little Golden Books. We're reading from a collection of Pooh stories by Milne on Tuesday and a collection of Beatrix Potter on Thursday. That leaves us three days a week to read a chapter book. Our first one this year is Three Tales of My Father's Dragon. There is one advantage to reading right before lunch. When he asks for one more chapter, I can remind him that he is hungry (which may be the only acceptable reason for stopping a perfectly interesting story).

HISTORY / ART

History seemed a bit disjointed this week partially because the girls are reading their own books and partially because I've got it spread out over the schedule instead of being together in one block. For Bible history, the girls have both been reading the introductory parts to What the Bible Is All About for Young Explorers by Graham. They listed the different sections of each testament on our scroll booklets. On the inside of the booklets is a sentence or two explaining what that section covers and then a list of the books found in that section. We also covered creation and the fall this week. Jessie is reading from the NIV and discussing the question in The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament with me. Violet is reading Egermeier's Bible Storybook independently, while Benny and I read it together. For ancient history, we've focused on archaeology this week. Jessie read Digging the Past by Purell, while the other two read The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells: A Book About Archaeology. For hands on activities, the girls used the scroll books to make notebooking pages of the Bible. They completed the picture of creation from the Drawing Through History book and added it to a new notebooking page on creation. Benny and I made gingerbread Adam and Eve cookies. Altogether, we still need to read about Shabbat from Walk with Y'shua Through the Jewish Year and make challah. I'm hoping to do this over the weekend while my Mom's here to help. The girls also wrote narrations about Adam and Eve which we'll add to our notebooks next week and added timeline figures for creation and Adam & Eve to their timelines from last year.

SCIENCE

The first two days of Exploring Creation with Botany has gone very well. The girls completed their booklets with minimal help from me. All the kids had a great time on Tuesday planting some seeds. (See the post from that day for more details and pictures.) I had an activity for Thursday which we didn't get to. Maybe next Tuesday.

LATIN / LOGIC

Jessie is off to a good start in LfC B this year. The grammar for the week is all review, so the only new material was a few new vocabulary words. The new revised DVD is excellent. The teacher led the chant for the first lesson with two students rather than having a student lead. The chants are more clear and easier to follow. I had to help her with one of her Mind Benders this week, but she figured out all of the Think-a-Grams on her own.

Violet has started Prima Latina which she says that she loves. We're currently doing one page per day so the lessons take less than 10 minutes to complete.

MUSIC

OK technically the older kids didn't start music this week, but I couldn't resist adding a picture of Henry walking around with Violet's recorder. He actually plays different notes as well based on where he happens to be holding it.

WW: Henry Leads the Way

The joys of dragging big brother along...

Starting Botany

I'm hoping the expression "the third times the charm" will hold true for our study of botany this fall. This will be the 3rd time that I've begun the Exploring Creation with Botany book with the girls. Our two main problems were comprehension and lack of hands on activities. The first two tries I would read the section to the girls and then ask them a question only to be met by blank stares. Honestly, I couldn't blame them. Angiosperms and Coniferaphyta aren't exactly part of my every day vocabulary either. This time I'm having the girls read the section by themselves and complete a booklet with either questions or a space to summarize what they have learned. I'm hoping that will give me a better idea of how much they are understanding so that I can better help them through the material. For Benny, I'm trying to find one book a week on his level that relates to what the girls are studying so he'll feel included. As far as hands on, my goal is to do one hands on type project a week. Some weeks that will be a lab from the book. Other weeks were just going to be planting something. (Just don't ask me where we'll keep it all. I haven't thought that far ahead.) A few weeks we might just fill in with some type of craft to keep my house from overflowing with plants.

This week to kick off our study on botany, I had the girls open and plant their fairy triads from Rainbow Resource that have been sitting in boxes in their room since Christmas. For Benny, we're trying a homemade version of those kits that allow you to see the roots of plants. Basically, we filled to 2 quart size jars with potting soil and planted carrot seeds around the outside edge. I hoping that once they sprout and start growing we'll be able to see the carrot growing down into the dirt. The hardest part will likely be keeping Henry out of the dirt. Here are a few pictures of the kids putting together their first project.

Week 1: Starting out a NEW Year!!! ;)

After a long summer break, we're finally starting back to school and trying to get back into a routine. I'm sure it will take us several weeks to settle back into a rhythm, but it feels great to be taking off. Although I would have preferred to just jump right back in and get going on everything, I have learned enough in the last 5 years of homeschooling to know that my kids will do better if they start off slowly. Subjects started this week include language arts, math, and logic/critical thinking. Here's a look at what we accomplished.

MATH

Jessie's had an easy take off in Singapore 5A this week. She had a quick refresher in place value and learned the places for millions and ten millions. Exercises included taking a number and writing it in words and vice versa, comparing numbers, and some estimating. She did great! Now if I can just convince her to use commas so that it's easier for me to check...

Violet has done well with Singapore 3A. The work is basically the same as Jessie's, but with numbers only up to 10,000. Starting back into the Miquon Yellow book has been quite another story. We jumped back into the middle where we left off last year, and she's been working on division. The problems are along the lines of 84/6 = 60/6 + 24/6 = 14 and 96/4 = 80/4 + 16/4 = 24. On Monday when she could solve the problems using the rods it took a long time but she did very well. Yesterday and today, however, were definitely a struggle. After telling me numerous times that the problems were just too hard even after I coached her through a couple, she finally completed the work correctly on her own. Note to self: Never start the year in that part of the Miquon book again.

Benny has really loved starting Kindergarten this year. He's very excited about having his own box of books and so far is eager to go every time we start a lesson. For math this year, he is alternating between a day of Singapore 1A and a day of Miquon Orange. My plan is to take it slow and build up his confidence while our main emphasis for the year will be phonics and handwriting. In Singapore, he's been counting up to 10 and comparing sets of objects to determine which is more or less. Since he can't read yet, we're doing the Singapore together. Monday I helped him with the number words. Wednesday, I wrote a few numbers for him to copy after he counted the sets so that he wouldn't write them backwards. Friday, he was able to do the comparing sets all on his own (although he still chose to sit on my lap for the work.) In Miquon, the focus was getting familiar with the different rods. Both days, he counted the number in the set and placed the corresponding rod on top.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Jessie began R&S 5 and CW Homer this week and picked up in the middle of SWO G. We'll start assigned reading next week with history since I tried to match up a few of the selections with our history studies. She received a 95 on her first spelling test. Grammar has all been review so far: complete sentences, dividing sentences into subjects and predicates, and identifying simple subjects and predicates. CW Homer has gone extremely well this week despite the fact that I tried to cram the reading of the skill we were covering each day into the 5 minutes just before I was supposed to be working with Jessie. Still we managed to discuss the model (Hercules and the Waggoner), write it from dictation, and discuss the difference between phrases and clauses (though I'm not sure how much she understood). Day 4 was supposed to be copying from the model, but since we did the entire model on Tuesday, I just had her copy one of the examples from the core book instead.

Violet started off very well in SWO E and spelled all of the words correctly in lesson 1. She had a harder time with grammar. Alphabetizing went well but slowly as did using the dictionary. The concepts of complete sentences and subjects and predicates confused her at first, but I think she's starting to understand. With CW Aesop, we're starting off with The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing as our model. After reading and discussing on day 1, I picked some words for her to alphabetize on day 2 (in red). Day 3 she drew a line between sentences, counted the number of sentences in the model, underlined the capital letters beginning each sentences, and circle the end punctuation. We didn't get to dictation on day 4, but overall it all went very well.

For phonics, we're working through the Pyramid book (I think it's called Reading Pathways now) that goes along with Phonics Pathways for further CVC word review. Benny was most excited about handwriting. This week we cover A, a, B, b, C, c, and 1, 2, 3. First he traced over what I wrote in highlighter. Then I gave him a few starting dots to try on his own. On the right is his work from Friday.

LOGIC

For Logic this year, Jessie is finishing the second half of Building Thinking Skills 2. She also started Mind Benders B1 and Think-a-Grams A1 this week. On Tuesday, I helped her with the first puzzle by showing her how to match up two of the clues to mark off another box so she could finish the puzzle. Thursday, she was very proud to figure out how to match two of the clues up on her own. The Think-a-Grams are a little hard because she hasn't always heard the expression, but I think she'll catch on over the next few weeks.

Violet and Benny also have critical thinking books this year. Violet is completing Building Thinking Skill 1 and Visual Perceptual Skills 2 from last year in addition to a Mind Benders and DooRiddles book. Benny loves his critical thinking books as well. In Building Thinking Skills Primary, he matched pattern blocks and attribute blocks to the pictures on the page. In Visual Perceptual Skills 1, he's starting with mazes. (He actually insisted on doing extra pages because he was having so much fun.) He also doing the first DooRiddles book just for fun.

Baby Henry... well he's trying to be just like the big kids. When the girls leave their chairs, he climbs up and gets to work. Wednesday, he decided to help Jessie with her grammar worksheet while she was doing something in the kitchen. Violet, Benny, and I sat and giggled to each other while he made several light scribble marks with the pencil before she came back. He would look at the page, nod his head, and make a few marks. Then shake his head and make a few more marks. It's a shame Benny was on my lap doing his handwriting, and I couldn't get to the camera.

WW: Baby Henry and Jack

Our first day of school...

The girls were both excited to start back to school this morning. Violet was ready for breakfast by 7:00 and asking what she needed to do first by 7:35. Jessie told me she had laid out her clothes up in her bed last night so she could get ready more quickly. Both were excited to see their new boxes with all of their books.

Benny loved his first day of Kindergarten. We did phonics and handwriting first and later did math and critical thinking. About 45 minutes later he wandered back into the kitchen and announced that he was ready to do more school. He would gladly have done some more handwriting with me, but I had garden tomatoes to get peeled and chopped.

Our schedule is off to a rough start. Part of the problem was that Henry was simply grumpy this morning (which is actually quite unusual for him). I think Benny was expecting to spend time with his sisters right after his first time with me like last year. He did quite a bit of wandering in and out this morning. The girls took way longer than I had scheduled for all of their subjects, mainly due to a lack of focus. (As part of their lack of focus, however, they did a great job encouraging Benny while he was working at the table with me and were just as curious as he was to see what was in his box.)

In any event, everything on the check sheets is done, and the kids enjoyed their first day at school. The rest will come with time.

Poems for 2009-2010

I finally took some time this afternoon to finish selecting poems for the girls to memorize this year and to print them on index cards for their memory boxes. All the poems this year either came from the Rod & Staff 5 English book of Favorite Poems Old and New by Ferris.

Thy Word by Edwin Hodder (Jessie only)
All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Alexander (Violet only)
One Gentle Word by Anonymous
Night by William Blake
Four Leaf Clover by Ella Higginson
Long, Long, Ago by Anonymous
Three Gates by Anonymous
Roads Go Ever On and On by J. R. R. Tolkein
What Robin Told by George Cooper
The Sun's Travels by Robert Louis Stevenson

On our optional extras list if we need more poems...

America by Samuel Francis Smith
We Thank Thee by Anonymous
Little Things by Julia A. F. Carney

Our School Schedule for the Year...

After a few days of rearranging and rethinking, I think I've come up with a workable schedule for the year that includes everything I want to cover. The only subjects that aren't specifically listed are art which can be done during afternoon quiet time and music which can be done during lunch. Whether or not the schedule works or ends up being revised will ultimately depend on Henry. Hopefully there's enough variety, supervision, and padding in the amount of time scheduled there to keep him out of trouble.

Narrow Gate Academy 2009-2010

Here's our official final list of school plans for the new year...

Jessie's 5th Grade

MATH: Singapore Primary 5A & 5B with IP and CWP supplements
SPELLING: Spelling Workout G (finish) and H (start)
GRAMMAR: Rod and Staff 5 English
WRITING: Classical Writing Homer A and Poetry for Beginners A
READING: Daily assigned reading for literature
LOGIC: Building Thinking Skills 2 (finish), Mind Benders B series, and Think-a-Grams A series
LATIN: Latin for Children B
HISTORY: Ancient history using The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, The Story of the Greeks, The Story of the Romans , and The Usborne IL Encyclopedia of the Ancient World as spines. Supplementing with TruthQuest and lots of library books.
SCIENCE: Apologia Botany (fall) & Apologia Human Body (Jan.)
ART: History related using Draw and Write Through History, 1-2-3 Draw Mythical Creature, and books on ancient art by Glubok
MUSIC: piano lessons and orchestra study

Violet's 3rd Grade

MATH: Singapore Primary 3A & 3B with IP and CWP supplements + Miquon Yellow and Purple
SPELLING: Spelling Workout E and F (start)
GRAMMAR: Rod and Staff 3 English
WRITING: Classical Writing Aesop A
READING: Daily assigned reading for literature
LATIN: Prima Latina
HISTORY: Ancient history using The Gift of the Nile, Famous Men of Greece, Famous Men of Rome, and select books from The Peoples of the Ancient World series as spines. Supplementing with TruthQuest and lots of library books.
SCIENCE: Apologia Botany (fall) & Apologia Human Body (Jan.)
ART: History related using Draw and Write Through History, 1-2-3 Draw Mythical Creature, and books on ancient art by Glubok
MUSIC: piano lessons and orchestra study

Benny's Kindergarten

PHONICS: Phonics Pathways with appropriate library resources
HANDWRITING: Copywork
MATH: Singapore 1A and Miquon Orange
LITERATURE: Read aloud time with Mom
HISTORY: Ancient history using a variety of resources.
SCIENCE: Books and activities related to botany and the human body as available
ART: Lots of crafts and fun
MUSIC: listening in with sisters

My Little Toddler

It's been about a month since Henry started experimenting with walking. Of course, I couldn't take any pictures at the time because he would sit down the moment he caught anyone watching him. Finally, after a month of practicing on and off, he's finally ready to show off his new skills.

No school yet...

So my plan all summer has been to start school the first Monday in August. Well, I missed my first deadline.

I have come a long way in getting my planning done for the year, but I'm not quite finished. I was so busy working on planning last week that I completely forgot to put library books on hold for reading and history.

The school cabinet...well it's still a mess. The books are down in the basement neatly sorted into their respective boxes, but the cabinet is in need of serious help. It sort of became a catch all for whatever was left on the kitchen floor this summer (mostly by Henry).

Then there's the garden. I spent the entire morning picking, sorting, washing, canning.... It's starting to wind down for the summer so hopefully by next week we'll be down to where we can just eat what we pick with no additional work required.

So the plan is to finish up the last details, make a workable schedule, and get started on this coming Monday. I am so ready to get back into a routine....