We're Back and It's Box Day! (Sort of)

Hey there!  Thank you for taking a few minutes to read my nonsense. Well, not nonsense...perhaps musings on homeschooling or the ramblings of a mom who's had a long week and needs an outlet other than exercise to release said ramblings.  Regardless, I'm going to try to get back to writing weekly.  Over the years I haven't been able to keep up with it because our school days started to fill with more than I could handle and I had to choose between keeping this updated or honestly, losing my Bible study time.  And I know there's no way I could homeschool without spending quality time with the Father.  So, there you have it.

Now, in this current season things have slowed a bit.  Plus there's a couple of other reasons.  One, my Little Toughie is starting what would be considered middle school and I would like to get back on track with documenting what we're doing.  The tracking will also help us plan out her high school years 😬.  Plus, for A380, this is a transition year where I get to focus more on the skills necessary for his success and I'll get to document that.  The second part, and only some of my immediate family know this, is that I'm writing a book.  I already have the ending of it outlined and partially written, but to hone my writing skills I have to write!

Moving along...It took some time for us to plan what middle school would look like for our tween.  We had completed all four history cycles (and then some) as per The Well Trained Mind and I knew come high school our focus would move to studying current ideologies/events or 20th Century History or Church History or perhaps the History of Science but I didn't know how to fill the gap until then.  Thankfully, we decided to go back to Sonlight, which is what I used my first year homeschooling Little Toughie in Kindergarten.  Basically, we'll be doing all four cycles again but condensed into two years and it's heavily literature based.  As a bibliophile I love that there's a lot of reading.  But then again, there's A LOT of reading.  See:

For Box Day I'd typically lay out EVERYTHING and take a picture of it like in this post, but with The Principal working from home and the dog zooming around, it just wasn't feasible.  These are just some of the books. 😲  These are the ones I was able to get through and add as resources to my digital planner so that I could set up their schedule, mostly the history books.  We still have our Bible study books, additional science materials and various other books for spelling, writing and vocabulary.  I'm running out of shelves y'all.  I think we need to build an additional room!

We start on Monday, August 10 and I hope to post every Friday (or Saturday).  We'll see how it goes.

Ch-ch-changes! Year 4, coming soon.

     This is usually the time of the year that one big box is delivered to our home and the kids get to preview what we'll be studying for the year, much like last year.  Not so this year.  We bought some things from our local homeschool convention, bringing it home with us.  Some of our curriculum was digital, downloaded onto the computer which I'm currently sitting at.  Others came in at different times because one was delivered to the wrong house while the other was apparently damaged and never made it off the truck.

     Thus, I have no lovely pictures to show you.  I can, however, tell you what we're using and the changes we're making to our school year.

     The biggest change is using Mystery Of History instead of My Father's World.  We loved MFW.  I can't give anything but a positive thumbs up for that curriculum.  The deciding factor for us switching to MOH this year is because I officially have a HIGH SCHOOLER *gasp*.  I needed something that I could teach both kids at their respective levels and while MFW's Creation to Greeks goes up to 8th grade (and my son would probably find it challenging even at that level) I figured this would be a good time to give Mystery of History a try.  My daughter is still young enough that I can switch plus MOH gives me options at both the middle school and high school level; giving me the opportunity to gauge how much work my son can handle and what kind of work he'll produce.

     The other changes we're making is adding an official Language Arts program (English Lessons Through Literature).  We had used Level 2 a couple of years ago, taking a break from it last year.  We're also using Writing Rhetoric for our writing program.  Basically, last year the kids had so much copywork that I knew we didn't need an official program to cover grammar and punctuation.  We were using IEW's Bible Heroes, which my daughter loved but my son struggled just a bit with it toward the end.  Hence, the change in our writing choice.

     Also, since Mystery of History obviously does not include Science I let my kids pick from Apologia's science books at the convention.  I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.  I've heard great things about Apologia, but looking at the books at the convention didn't quite convince me.  Still, it's well-known amongst homeschoolers and gets rave reviews.  My kids will let me know whether or not they enjoy it.

     As for organization, I still have everything in their lovely pink folders labeled by the week.  I will not be putting their history work into sheet protectors in order to create their spiral bound books at the end of the year.  I will simply file their completed work in order in the correct folder and pull everything out once our school year concludes.

     We're also trying our hand at homeschooling year round.  I had discussed this with the kids last September and they were fine with it.  We break for a week roughly every 6 weeks, our way of honoring the Sabbath; taking a longer break during the holidays (a month!) and still taking a good chunk of the summer off, though not 3 months.  I think it turns out to be 6 weeks off in the summer, which gives me just enough time to put the previous school work and books away and prepare the new stuff.  This will still allow them to participate in a few summer activities as well.

     One of the great things about homeschooling is that I can change what we use and how we use it, anytime.  That doesn't mean that the second my child says they don't like something or if they struggle with it that I'll immediately find something else.  That's not how I roll.  I will teach them to persevere, to try a different way to find the solution/solve the problem/complete the task.  Whenever my kids say, "I can't" I tell them, "There is no 'I can't' but there is 'How can I do this differently?'".  They may sigh, but they continue on and as I observe them, I'll see their faces light up after a few minutes when the answer comes to them.

     We're just a few days away.  I'm almost ready.  Almost.

It's Box Day!

   

     What is Box Day, you ask?  Well, in the homeschool-sphere, it's the arrival of curriculum, supplements and all sorts of homeschooling goodies for the brand new school year.

     As listed in Our 2015-2016 Curriculum we're using My Father's World as our main curriculum.  Above is a picture of all the great books included in the set.  I chose My Father's World because it is God-centered, has a great collection of books/materials, I can teach both kids using it and I get to select my own Language Arts program, without having to stick to one we don't like.  Plus, there's a lot of different activities that will keep them engaged.  I can't wait.  My favorite part is the YWAM books at the very bottom of the picture.  I'm eager to read those aloud to my kids.

     We'll also be using All About Spelling.  Little Toughie will be using Level 1 because she's never had a formal spelling program, even though she's completed several Explode the Code books.  She'll get through this quickly, so we may end up getting Level 2 mid-year.  My son will be using WorldBuild, but that hasn't arrived just yet (because I haven't ordered it yet!)

     Did you know you can ask for a picture to be drawn on the box that your All About Learning Press supplies comes in?  I requested Alice In Wonderland for my daughter and this is what showed up:

She was so surprised!

     For Math we're using Singapore Math (my daughter has been using it) and Teaching Textbooks (my son got to try it out at a homeschool convention and loved it).  For Latin, we're using Prima Latina, which also teaches English and Latin grammar concepts.

     I've organized all the MFW (My Father's World) student sheets, copywork and any other items they'll be using (aside from Math, Spelling and Latin) in a hanging file folder system, pictured below.  It's what I did when the kids were doing Classical Conversations, Foundations.  I figured I can use the same system for MFW once I saw how each week went.  Each week is numbered and there are also Monday-Friday folders so that the kids and I know what sheets are used on what day.  Also, there are two removable Post-It Tabs with their names so that they know which sheets belong to whom.  I'll move those, along with the daily folders, to the next week when the current week is finished.  This is especially helpful for The Principal who, on occasion, has to be The Substitute. 

     Each child has two binders, one prepared as directed by the MFW Teacher's Manual and the other for Bible, Spelling, Math and English.  The binders will hold their completed work.  A fellow homeschooling mom shared her idea of keeping the completed work in sheet protectors so that at the end of the year she can have them spiral bound, creating a keepsake (and record) of the year's hard work.  I think I'll do that at the end of our school year which means I'll be putting everything in sheet protectors (Costco to the rescue!)  This may also help the kids keep their work neat; knowing it will eventually be a book they can keep and share with others.

     While we use the library A LOT, I had the opportunity to host a Facebook Usborne Book Party with Brandy of Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood.  She did such a wonderful job and I was blessed to have met her and her family, and to have her as my party consultant.  From the book party, I was able to get several Usborne books from my wishlist.  Many of them we will use during this new school year.  We are stoked!  After I took this picture the kids grabbed a couple of books and settled in.

     Last, but not least, what good are all those books, files and sheets if we have nothing to write or color with?  I cleaned up my old Pampered Chef Turn-about (I had let my son use it, but he colored all over it) and gathered everything I think we may need.  It's a shame they no longer make it in white.  I'd like another one.  By the way, Goo Gone is what removed all the pen and marker scribbles that were all over this caddy.  I had used several different cleaners, but they only faded them a little.  Goo Gone removed every bit of it, no scrubbing needed!  (No, I'm not getting paid to say that.)

     Our first day of school is just a little over a week away.  I can't wait to start and share our explorations with you!