Back to School

We are off to a pretty good start this year. We always begin here at home after Labor Day, although the outside classes start a week or two earlier.

To celebrate our first day and the fact that, as homeschoolers, we can start whenever and however we want, we bought Krispy Kreme doughnuts and drinks from Starbucks and headed to the park.

We got there right before it got crowded and hot. Once it did, we left. At home, I went over our new materials with the kids and we discussed our schedule. For now, it looks like our main at-home school days will be Monday-Wednesday. Brenna, Aiden and Zane have classes at Options on Thursdays and Chase has classes at FACE on Fridays.

I'm going to do Five in a Row again with Zane and Declan, with Aiden joining in when he wants to. Aiden is doing Saxon Math, A Reason for Spelling, Daily Grams and Writing Strands at home while at Options he is taking a Young Entrepreneurs and Pioneer Crafts class for social studies, Mountain Lab and Mythbusters classes for science, P.E. and Art. He is also a Cub Scouts Webelo and attending AWANA.

Brenna is taking History, a Composition class, and Guitar at Options. She is also continuing her art classes through here -- this year the advanced class is 2 hours instead of 1, which I think is great for her. She needs the challenge; her drawing is amazing and I definitely can't help her in this area. At home, she's doing Saxon Math, Total Health, and Grammar. I haven't found a good science curriculum for her yet this year -- she may end up helping me teach the littles in this area.

Chase decided to attend FACE instead of Options this year. He wants to take advantage of their culinary arts program through Warren Tech. in his junior year, so we switched him there now in preparation. He is taking Algebra, American Government and a cooking class. At home, he is doing his writing, Total Health, Grammar and we're working on custom-building a science class around his interest in molecular gastronomy.

As always, we will tweak this as we go.

New school year

Last week was our first full week of school. The week before we had a slow, rolling start -- it was busy with Labor Day, my birthday, Scott's birthday and the start of Options. So we mainly worked on getting everyone back on a good wake-up schedule and I introduced the new curriculum and morning board. I had seen the idea on several blogs, and loved the idea for my preschool boys. I will try to post a pic of ours later.

I have decided to use Five in a Row for Zane and Declan and I'm also adding in some of the lessons from a site called ABCJesuslovesme. This week the book we "rowed" was The Story About Ping. The idea is to read the same story for five days in a row and take elements out of the story that are related to history, geography, math, science, art, music, etc. and teach them to your child.

We put up a big world map and marked China, where Ping lives. We talked about buoyancy and put various items into the filled bathtub to see which would float and which would sink. We counted all of Ping's many family members, and then we wrapped up the week by feeding ducks at a park.

Liam enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine.

Zane is doing a lot of work on his letters and numbers and is moving right along. He loves learning and is always asking me what's next or reminding me if I forget a step in our daily routine. :) He just started AWANA this year and is enjoying being a Cubbie.

Declan loves to listen to the books, but I usually lose him after that. :) He prefers being active to sitting and drawing or coloring. So I'm just meeting him where's he at right now, knowing he will learn more when he's ready. He also goes to a music class once a week with Zane.

Aiden is taking several classes at Options -- P.E, Hands-on History, Math Games, Art, cCreative Drama and Kitchen Classroom. He also does karate and a boys club one day a week at another homeschool program. So at home, we are expanding on the math and history from Options and doing lots of reading and writing. He does science and geography along with the younger boys.

For extracurricular activites, he is in Cub Scouts and AWANA and will be taking swim lessons again next month.

Brenna is in 7th grade this year. At Options, she is taking P.E., advanced art, drama, nutrition, international towne(world geography) and a mountain lab science class. She is doing mostly fun, creative classes there, but also science and geography. So at home, we are focusing on math, writing and literature. She just got a babysitting job for a homeschool co-op at a nearby church, so she does that once a week. It's really good for her, since she loves babies and she is able to earn her own spending money. She also attends our church's jr. high youth group once a week and loves it.

Chase is beginning high school this year. At Options, he has Biology, P.E., Advanced Art, Spanish, and another art class. He has one off period where he's a teacher's aide. At home, he is doing math, American Government, writing and a literature study. He goes to our church's high school youth group and also does archery every other week.

Conner is in his final year of high school. Just typing that makes me proud, sad, excited and anxious all at once. He is still taking a heavy load at Options -- 2 periods of physics, 2 periods of pre-calculus and a literature class. He is working, still doing competitive bowling and is a leader for the jr. high youth group at church, so he is pretty busy this year. At least he can drive himself to things now!

That's how the year looks so far. Subject to change at any time. :)