School Update: Jan. 2015

We're about halfway through what the normal school year tends to be so I thought it would be a good time for an update. Over all I say things are going pretty well. Sean and Maddy are both ahead of schedule on math and language arts. They worked faster than I had thought so I think we'll slow it down a little for the second half of the year. We're unfortunately are behind with science and history. Part of it was illnesses (like me being sick most of December). We also never got into a good routine and that was my fault. This will change starting this week. One change I'm making is only concentrating on either science or history per week instead of trying to do both each week. I think this will be the key. With only one of those subjects to concentrate on, it should help me stay more organized and make weekend lesson planning easier.

Mr Skeleton from one of our science lessons

Speaking of organization, this morning while browsing pinterest I found Amongst Lovely Things' post: How I’m Using Spiral Notebooks to Simplify Homeschooling. I thought it was a great idea and since I had some notebooks lying around, I decided to give it a try. I'm hoping it helps keep us organized and on track. Sean and Maddy both seem excited about it.

 Sean and Maddy's notebooks and the basket to hold the notebooks and the day's school books. 

Self care is referring to things like brushing teeth, brushing hair and such. the first page of their notebooks has a list of what they are to do. Sean has laundry on his list b/c today is his laundry day. Maddy's was yesterday. Our laundry schedule is another new thing I'm trying out to keep myself more on track.

 

I even have a notebook of my own. Those items under self refer to things I'd like to do for myself. Today they are all some of my new year's resolutions: 30 days of yoga, crochet a granny square a day, read more, and a reminder that I'm going to go to the gym tonight and lift weights.

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The Beginning of Our 2014-2015 School Year

Monday was the beginning of this year's school year. Even with doing a little school over the summer, the kids were excited to get back into the swing of things. I plan on getting back into the swing of blogging our schooling. However, I will not be blogging everything we do.

This year Sean and Maddy will be learning science and history together and will be doing math and language arts separately. For science, we're using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, Life level 1. For history, we're using Story of the World, Vol. 1 Ancient Times. I would have preferred to find a completely secular history curriculum but I really like everything else about SOTW. We will skip a few chapters and use other resources to expand on the other chapters. World Religions is just a resource book I wanted to get. We want the kids to be knowledgeable about all religions. The nursery rhyme cards will be used for copy work to improve handwriting. Both will be using Singapore Math this year. Sean will continue with Explode the Code and Maddy will be trying Recipe for Reading for language arts. Sean will be reading the Magic Tree House books and using the reading comprehension book: Reading With the Magic Tree House

Mondays are our light days. They work on their handwriting and do art. Tuesdays and Thursdays are science and language arts. Wednesdays and Fridays are history and math. Monday's copywork was a version of the rhyme "Rain, Rain, Go Away" They then illustrated the rhyme. Maddy says that "Hpe" spells happy. ...not bad for a kindergartener. :)

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