2011-2012 school year under way (long and windy)Be warned!

    Well, next week we start our 6th week of school. We have done one week on and one week off since the end of July to make up time for when the baby gets here. Overall, we had a good summer but my little breaks are over. We are doing 7th, 5th, 3rd, and Kindergarten. (plus a little Preschool with Noah, which I have yet to decide whether to do everyday or every other day).

    Our school this year has a new addition since Chloe started Kindergarten . The boys and Annabelle still get up at 6:30am and Jesse gets math(Saxon 87) done while Grant and Annie do Bible with me. This year we're covering from Saul's reign thru the minor prophets with Rod and Staff's Bible reading program.(most of it is oral because we are using it mostly for our Bible)


      At about 7:30 am Annie and I do math(R & S 3rd grade math) while Grant does his Saxon 65.
During this time, Jesse works on finishing math, doing Spelling or Bible. (also Rod and Staff) and we break for breakfast. After breakfast,  everyone gets dressed, beds made, teeth brushed, etc.

      Around 9:30 Jesse practices piano. This year we are using Bastien(the older edition). He has two hymn books, the classics book, his lesson book, a technique book and his theory book. This is different from our previous years where he has focused on the Suzuki method and used the Hal Leonard books for lessons. But I'm pretty pleased with it so far, and so is he. He really likes the Bastien books. This year I've taken Annie and Grant under my wing sort of speak and I've been teaching them lessons with the Bastien books also. I can probably do this until they get to book 2 or so and then we will have to try to get them in with a teacher.

   Soon after our morning chores, I do English (R & S) with Annie, send her on her way to get it done, along with Spelling and Handwriting, and begin school with Chloe. This was the first year I have ever attended a homeschool conference, and there I decided to purchase Christian Light's new Kindergarten curriculum. We do about 3 worksheets a day that entail learning letters and their sounds, numbers, prereading skills, handwriting etc. Except on Friday, which I save for some kind of Educational game and an extra project or so. I've also started using Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 in Easy Lessons with her because she is definitely not ready for Hooked on Phonics yet. We're also going to start using Happy Phonics next week. For her other subjects, we are using Learning at Home with Ann Ward Pre./K. and this leads us to storytime. We have a great library and depending on the subject that she is learning about, I tailor her storybooks to go along with that. We check out non-fiction, fiction, craftbooks, etc around the subject she is learning about.

     We are usually done with storytime at about lunch time(12-12:30) so we take a good break. (I really need it by then) Sometimes I wonder how this all can be done, but it does. Jesse is about done with everything, except English and any checkups that I may need to get with him on.(The check ups would be our discussion time for Science or History plus checking work in those areas. We usually do those once or twice a week.) Grant is also done with his Math, Spelling, Social studies, or Science( depending on the day) and Handwriting. After lunch and our break, it is about 1:30 or 2pm. (How time flies!) I then tie things off by getting English done with the boys, and science or S.S/history with Annie.

    So after telling you all this dear blog, all I have to say is that God is very good to me to allow me to keep my head straight with a good planner that helps me hang all this information and make it work!