Not Back to School Blog Hop: A Day in the Life

This week, Heart of the Matter is hosting "A Day in the Life" as part of their Not Back to School Blog Hop series. Since this is our 1st year to homeschool, I really don't know what a day in the life of a homeschooler should look like. We are in our 3rd week of school and are still trying to work out the kinks. Below is a sample of what our day looks like right now.

7:45-8:00 - I wake up and say goodbye to my honey & check email.

8:00-9:00 - kids wake up, eat breakfast, change clothes, complete any chores.
I make breakfast, shower, and also do some housecleaning

9:00-9:20 - Snuggle on the couch and read our Bible lesson, review memory verse & pray for
the day (Today, we actually did Bible and Language outside on the trampoline)

9:20-10:00 - I have all of our subjects that we must complete for the day on a pocket chart.
Each day, I assign a child for the day and that child gets to pick what subject we
will study 1st, 2nd, 3rd.... They love having some control over how their day goes. The only
subjects that we save for after lunch are history, science, and art (b/c they take the longest)

10:00-10:20ish - snack and stretch break (I throw laundry in the dryer or clean a potty or 2)

10:20-12:00 - Finish up rest of subjects on pocket chart.
Every day, they complete the following:
Bible
Math
Phonics and Individual Reading
Language and Spelling
Handwriting
P.E.
Every other day they complete the following:
Journal writing
History
Science
Art
Music
My husband does Spanish and Logic with them on the weekends.

12:00-1:00 - Lunch and they get to watch Sid the Science Kid and (cringe) Barney on PBS

1:00-2:15ish - Work on either science or history (depending on the day) and do art or music.
We also finish up any work that wasn't completed b/4 lunch

2:15ish-3:00 - I call back each child one at a time to my room to snuggle in bed & read to me.

3:00-5:00 - They can play inside or outside while I finish up housecleaning, get lessons ready for next day, or work on a project.

5:00-6:30 - Prepare and eat dinner

6:30-7:00 - Watch Wheel of Fortune together as a family

7:00-8:00 - kids play or hang out with dad

8:00-8:30ish- Kids clean up their rooms (or where ever their toys have landed), get ready for bed,
brush teeth, and say prayers.

8:30ish - lights out

After that, I spend some time with my hubby, watch TiVo shows, work on a project, or just chill out.

We have joined a co-op that will meet the 2nd Tuesday of every month from 12:30-2:30. We are all excited about attending that. The girls just signed up for soccer last week so I don't know how often they will practice/play. Clay signed up for Boy Scouts and will attend every Tuesday night. We have church and activities on Wednesday night and Sunday. We also have field trips scheduled by our support group every month.

Well, I think that is it. I'm sure our schedule will tweaked as we go along, but right now, it works for us. Thanks for stopping by!!!

Not Back to School Blog Hop: School Room

This weeks blog hop at Heart of the Matter is focusing on school rooms. Our school room is a spare bedroom, turned playroom, turned school room. Above, you are looking at the neat side of the room. On the left is our dry erase board, US wall map, bookshelf of readers, file cabinet, TV and DVD player for our Math U See lessons, and a 3 drawer bin that contains dress up stuff.
This side of the room contains our pink cube bookshelf. Each cube houses a subject and necessary materials. Next to it is a stack of boxes filled with books and games that I have no room for or need to purchase another bookshelf for. On top of the boxes is our daily work folders and my lessons plans. We have 2 new students on the floor!! Our tall bookshelf is home to board games, art supplies, puzzles, and big binders.
This is the scary side of the room........dress up clothes and shoes (not my son!!)

Thanks for visiting!!!

New name for our homeschool

I challenged the kids today to come up with a name for our "new school". They were so excited that they immediately started coming up with ideas. Some examples of their ideas are:

Junior Academy
Junior Homeschool
Triple W Academy
Tiny Might University

When I asked my son what his idea was, he froze and then said, "I can't remember. I lost my mind.". So, the new name for our school is............I Lost My Mind Academy!!!!!

While we do have a church cover school, Hope Christian, I thought it would be fun to have our own little unique name for our family!

Welcome to "I Lost My Mind Academy".

Not Back to School Blog Hop: Curriculum Week

I am participating in Heart of the Matters "Not Back to School Blog Hop: Curriculum Week". This will be our 1st "official" year to homeschool and I chose curriculum from several different publishers. Everyone recommended that we go with a "boxed curriculum" to keep things simple but my children do not fit a box mold and neither do I. The kids will be in 1st grade and below is the curriculum I chose. It seems like a lot but since they are all in the same grade, most of it will be done together as a group.

MATH
Math U See - Alpha

PHONICS/READING
Saxon Phonics 1
Daily independent and group reading from personal library and local library

LANGUAGE
First Language Lessons
Supplemented with language games and materials from my old teaching supplies

SPELLING/VOCAB
Horizons Spelling and Vocab. grade 1

HANDWRITING
Handwriting Without Tears (finish K book and begin 1st grade)

SCIENCE
Our Fathers World
Supplemented with books from my personal library & experiments from:
Mudpies to Magnets
1-2-3 Science
Everybody Has a Body
Bubble, Rainbow, and Worms

HISTORY
Abeka - My America & My World
Wall maps
Readers and biographies from my personal library and the local library

BIBLE
Leading Little Ones to God
Bible
Bible memory and flashcards

MUSIC
Story of the Orchestra and CD
Classics for Kids website

ART
Draw, Write, Now! Series
Study one artist a month

P.E.
Girls - soccer
Clay- Boy Scouts
All- play dates with friends

ELECTIVES
Aesop's Fables
Primarily Logic
Jesus Loves Me Sign Language
Teach Them Spanish
(These will be done mostly on Fridays or at night with Daddy)

Trying to figure things out

We will officially begin our 1st year of homeschooling in September. I'm nervous, excited, scared, confused, and completely relying on God 11o%.

I have all of my curriculum picked out, so, next week, I will be working on my lesson plans. I used to be a special ed. teacher b/4 I had kids so you would think making lesson plans would come natural to me. I'm totally clueless on where to begin. I'm very good at over planning so I'm trying not to let my excitement and "teacherness" come out in me.

Tonight, I rearranged the playroom to include a "school" area. The kids are super excited. They are ready to start tomorrow. I have several time consuming events going on in August so that is why we are waiting to start until September.

It should be a fun and bumpy ride but a ride I'm ready to take. I hope to post pictures of our "classroom", curriculum, field trips, and activities.

Welcome