First Day of School 2013: An Absurdly Detailed Account

It’s done!  Our first day of homeschool is in the books!  I have to admit, I’ve been uber-excited this year and even quite nervous about starting school.  I think I was nervous because this year, my kids were not enthusiastic at all about ending summer.  Whereas last year, Luke was begging to start school, this year, I’ve been met with nothing but complaints when I mention it.  I am usually good about not taking it personally because 1) I realize that it’s not their job to be enthusiastic about school—it’s my job, and 2) I know that we really did have a good school year last year, and they enjoyed most of it.  Compared to summer, though, it doesn’t stand a chance.  And now that they know what homeschool is (unlike last year, when it was shrouded in mystery), they don’t beg to start.

At the same time, I do want them to enjoy school, and so I was nervous that despite all my preparations, the day would still be full of pouting and complaining.  I did talk to them last night and tell them that while they didn’t have to be enthusiastic, it was disrespectful to complain, and I made it clear that I did not want any pouting this morning.  And thankfully, although they were 0% excited about school, they didn’t complain this morning. Luke, especially, was great about controlling his attitude. 

I made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, which Luke has been asking for, and which he happily deemed to be, “spectacular.”  Right after breakfast, the kids had to get totally ready and clean their rooms, something we did every day last year, but did not do in the summer.  Surprisingly, that idea met with little resistance, and they even had a few minutes afterward for video games before school started.  While they played, I got things set up.

I fixed the dining room table as a geography center, and I got out the binders I had made for them while they were in Macon earlier this summer.  They had no idea about these binders.

Unfortunately, there are no Harry Potter supplies to be found in stores, so I had to make Luke’s binder using Internet images.  I went with the Hogwarts crest because, of course, that is Harry’s school, and I was hoping to have him connect with the fact that during most of the books, Harry is at school.  Just like us:). 

Just to be completely over the top, I included a letter from Professor MacGonagall:

Yeah…I may or may not have found and downloaded a Hogwarts font and a Gryffindor crest for the occasion.  I kind of have a penchant for over-the-top cheesiness.  As I told my friend, Courtney, “Homeschool doesn’t make my kids weird; I make my kids weird!”

That said, Luke looooved his binder:

He totally got a kick out of the letter from Professor MacGonagall referred to it several times throughout the day.

As for Anna, I had originally bought a Hello Kitty binder for her (like last year’s binder, only a different picture), but quickly realized as I was putting it together that it was junk.  They clasps didn’t meet quite right, which reminded me why we ended up ditching binders altogether last year.  I really want to use them for a few subjects this year, so I went back and bought her a nicer one.  I filled it with Hello Kitty stuff, though, and Luke’s with Star Wars Angry Bird supplies.  They also each got a new water bottle.

By far, Anna’s favorite part of hers was the little calculator that came with her stationery set.

After I introduced them to the school year and gave a quick run-down of the day, Greg prayed for God to bless us this year.  Then, we started with Bible memory time.  These first couple of weeks, we will be reviewing the books of the Bible  I made them each a set of flash cards, and hid the first eight around the family room.  They kids were super excited to start the day off with a hunt, and they decided to work together instead of race.

After they found them (we never did find one of Luke’s—oops!), they put them in order and then we practiced saying as many as we could.  It went well.

Next, we read History.  This week, we are just looking over the pages we read last year and seeing what we remembered.  They remembered more than I thought, although it was definitely good to refresh our memory on concepts like the timeline, and BC/AD. 

Next, we read the introduction to Window on the World, and then listened to a track on our geography songs CD.  This week, we are listening to the track that sings about the continents and oceans.  While we listened, we tried to point out on the map what was being sung:

Afterwards, the kids worked on the cover to a little geography booklet I found on Pinterest.  The plan was to do the cover and first page, but they worked so hard and long on the cover that I put off the first page until tomorrow.

Added bonus:  we listened to the geography song on repeat the whole time.  Thankfully, the kids both liked it (especially Anna), so I’m hoping it will help us learn all our continents and oceans this week! 

Next was Language Arts.  We started with spelling:

Anna is doing the Sonlight spelling words.  This week was compound words, which she matched together and then copied.  Luke is doing Abeka’s spelling program.  After spelling, one of them read to me while the other worked on grammar or phonics.  Luke wasn’t overly enthusiastic about getting back to workbooks, but once he started, he was fine.  He really does like workbooks, even though he would never admit it.  And Anna’s Explode the Code was perfect for her.  Anna also read especially well.  Luke, I think, is more of a speed reader in his head and doesn’t look at the words so carefully.  That makes reading aloud more tedious for him, and he reads kind of sloppily.  On the other hand, Anna kind of blew me away today with how well she read her Rainbow Fairy book.  (I let her pick out her first reader, so maybe that helped.)

After LA, we took a break and then did math.  Unlike last year, Anna was NOT enthusiastic about math.  That made it all the more funny when one of her workbook pages ended with this code:

Luke and I thought this was hilarious, given Anna’s behavior (no “complaining,” just a constant pouty face while working).  Anna, on the other hand, wasn’t amused at all—which amused us all the more:).

Thankfully for Anna, after math we had lunch, followed by quiet time.  I eased up in the latter half of quiet time and let the kids play together in their rooms.  By the time we moved on to handwriting, everyone was ready to focus again:

In the above right picture, Anna is showing off one of her letters.  After handwriting, we did Bible.  We read about how much God loves us, as illustrated in the parable of the lost coin.  After reading and discussing that, we did an activity where the kids “dug” (brushed) for lost coins in cornmeal.  On each of the ten coins was a number and a letter, and they used those to figure out a code on a worksheet. 

It’s funny—the kids actually have already done the first few lessons of the Bible curriculum last year in Sunday school.  I thought they would complain, but from all appearances, they don’t remember having done them at all!  I got lucky on that one:).

We finished up with a little copywork and our read-alouds.  Anna’s copywork was comically disastrous.  The letters were neat, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it!  By that time, though, it was time to move on.  I will have to reexamine the copywork conundrum tomorrow.  For our read-alouds we read “The Wolf and the Kid” from Aesop and the first chapter of Red Sails to Capri.  The kids did a pretty good job of listening, and then our school day was officially over!

But the day was far from done.  Like last year, I wanted to do something fun after our first day of school.  This time, I went and picked up my friend, Viviana, and her kids, and we headed to a splash pad to play:

The water was apparently freezing, but the kids warmed up to it.  Their favorite area was the bucket dumping area.  They loved waiting in eager anticipation to get soaked:

By the time they all got their fill of the splash pad, it was pretty late in the day, so Viv and the kids ended up just coming over for dinner (much to Luke and Anna’s utter delight).  Once at home, Luke quickly converted Hadessa to Harry Potter, and, turns out, she makes a great Hermione:

The younger two had fun playing with our Bible game:

And Anna floated around playing with whomever:

While they waited for burgers and hot dogs to grill, the kids had so much fun running around and playing with the stomp rocket and parachute men, among other things.  The stomp rocket, especially was a hit, and they took turns trying to catch the falling rocket in a butterfly net.

Finally, it was time for dinner, and after dinner, it was s’more-roastin’ time!

Anna was very particular about her marshmallow this evening and slow-roasted it for a crazy-long time before putting together “the best s’more ever”:

 

Ha—she looks exhausted in this picture.  I’m sure she is; we all are.  It has been one packed, but very fun day.  And even without the afternoon adventures, school itself was a resounding success.  Viv can testify that on the way to the splash pad, Luke declared our first day of school to be “the best day ever!”  I kind of agree:).

2013-2014 Homeschool Curriculum

A lot of homeschool blogs I read post their curriculum choices each year, which at first struck me as kind of odd.  I mean, Who cares, you know?  We don’t need to know every detail of a person’s curriculum for every year.

Now, however, I realize that “Who cares?” is totally the point.  See, no one cares about your curriculum choices.  No one.  I now fully understand that, even with my own curriculum choices.  The state of Tennessee certainly doesn’t care.  All I have to report to them is the subjects I’m teaching and the kids’ attendance.  Greg doesn’t care; he trusts me completely, and knows that I will completely obsess and overthink until I have found the best for our kids.  My mom doesn’t care, as long as Luke and Anna do plenty of writing.  And if the government, my husband, and my mom don’t care, then what are the odds anyone else does?

Exactly.

I’m not complaining—really!  I totally get it.  Curriculum choices are simply not that riveting of a topic.  However, when you are the homeschooler, when your choices from year to year constitute practically the entirety of your children’s education…you care.  You research and compare.  You read books on educational philosophy and pore over online reviews of different curricula.  You attend homeschool conventions and chat with other homeschool moms.  And, if you’re me, you obsess and overthink until you find what you decide is the best for your kids.

I mean, it’s really important, you know?  It’s like this totally critical thing that nobody cares about.  And also?  There’s no record of your choices from year to year—unless you choose to make one.

This blog post is my record for this year.  This is the curriculum that we are starting out with.  I feel like I have gobs and gobs of curriculum this year, and I’m not sure if we will stick with every single thing, or if, like last year, we will have to make some swaps throughout the year.  But after spending hours and hours of research and prayer, here is what I have come up with:

Like last year, we are using Sonlight for History, Geography, and our read-alouds.  This year, we are doing Core C, which covers World History from the fall of Rome to the present (which is kind of a lot, when you think about it).  I’m also using their Language Arts writing sheets for both Luke and Anna.  I will assign the kids different independent readers, however, since the books Sonlight provides don’t fit their needs.

Sonlight is pretty heavy on geography this year, which I love, but they don’t provide much written reinforcement.  To supplement that weakness, I found this workbook of map skills at our local parent-teacher store.  It actually looks pretty fun, and it’s light enough not to overburden them, even as it teaches them crucial skills they don’t have yet.  I’ve already torn out and copied all the pages, and put them in the geography portions of the kids’ binders.  Their Language Arts pages are in another section.

Sonlight’s Language Arts pages basically consist of weekly spelling words and light writing assignments.  As such, they recommend (and have scheduled) Explode the Code books 4-6 as a supplement.  ETC is a phonics/language program, and I will be following Sonlight’s suggested schedule for Anna.

The also recommend a weekly assignment from Wordly Wise A, which Anna will also do.

In the meantime, Luke will supplement the Sonlight writing assignments with these Language Arts books from Abeka.  I have obsessed over grammar curriculum and have decided that Abeka is the best choice for us right now.  Time will tell if that is the right decision…

I thought and thought about ditching Handwriting Without Tears this year, but decided to stick with it, for consistency’s sake.  Most handwriting programs start teaching cursive in 2nd grade, and I think Luke still needs some work with print.  He will be completing the above workbook during the first half of the year, and Anna will be completing the first grade version.  My plan for the second half of the year is for Anna to complete the above book, also, while Luke does other handwriting assignments.  Then, next year, I will start them both on cursive.

We are also continuing Singapore math from last year.  We have really loved this program.  Each year comes with an A textbook and workbook, and a B textbook and workbook, to be completed sequentially.  My only complaint is that there is not enough reinforcement practice, so I also bought “Intensive Practice” workbooks for both of their A and B’s.

For Science, I am switching from Sonlight to R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey.  From my research a (and from seeing the actual product), I have found that Odyssey gives a very systematic approach to science.  It starts with the basic question of, “What is life?”  It discusses the characteristics of life, cells as the building blocks of life, and so forth, before moving on to animals, plants, and people.  Within these latter groups, it again builds on the student’s understanding very systematically.  Even though the lessons are short and easy to understand, they use correct terminology, explain classifications, and are filled with simple, relevant experiments that reinforce the lesson.  They also each  have a notebook page for each lesson, as well as experiment pages to fill out with the results of all of our experiments.  These, also, are waiting for them in their binders.  Even though we will only be doing science two to three times a week with this curriculum, I really think they are going to learn a lot more than last year.

Every morning, we will start with some form of Bible memory practice, but some days each week, we will work through this hands-on curriculum about Jesus’ life and teachings.  Each week, we learn a different lesson about Jesus, to be reinforced with fun activities, games, recipes, historically accurate coloring pages, and even science experiments!

Every Friday, we will be doing art.  Luke and Anna will also do art in their weekly tutorial, but to be honest, I was unimpressed by their art class last year.  I’m still totally committed to tutorial, and think it is really good for them for lots of reasons…but one of those reasons is not the actual quality of the lessons they learn.  Thus, I decided to add in a weekly art lesson of my own, and after lots of research (are you sensing a theme here?), I settled on Artistic Pursuits.  Each lesson talks about a different aspect of art, walks you through a discussion of a specific, historic painting that illustrates that aspect, and then gives a simple assignment.  Through this program, the kids are going to get to use all sorts of mediums, from oil pastels to watercolor crayons to clay to simple, black pencil sketches.  I’m hopeful that they will enjoy it and learn a lot.

At this point, I honestly don’t know when or how we will be able to work in this great curriculum we used last year, which integrates classic children’s books into a variety of different disciplines.  I definitely know that we won’t do it every week.  However, there are some books in the curriculum that I do want to make time for this year.  Many of them will coincide beautifully with our history studies, and some are wonderful seasonal books.  It will be a few weeks before I even think of adding it in, though.

Like I said, it seems like a whole lot of curriculum, and I guess it is.  I have already sketched out schedules of the first two weeks, though, including an absurdly detailed schedule of the first day, and I am hopeful that the workload will be reasonable.  It will definitely be more work than last year, but I think that’s how it’s supposed to work anyway, right?  Each year gets harder?  So hopefully, this year’s curriculum will challenge and stimulate my kids without overburdening them or burning them out.  If the latter happens, I will try to be quick to make the necessary changes!

The Last of Our Summer Travels

We were blessed to spend much of this summer with family and friends.  Most of all, we spent loads of time in Macon with my parents:  we were there right after school ended, we came back for Camp Canaan, the kids stayed a few days there while Greg and I took our 10th anniversary trip, we came back for the 4th, the kids stayed a few extra days, and then we were there for mom’s birthday.  Also this summer, we spent a night in Louisville with my family, and several days in Indianapolis with Greg’s.  And lastly, in between Macon visits, we all went to Summerville, both for Greg to preach a wedding and to spend some much-needed time with our former neighbors and good friends, the Griggs.  I don’t know who was more excited about the visit to the Griggs, me or Anna.  I couldn’t wait to see Molly, but Anna was ecstatic about the chance to spend time with her “very best friend,” Charlotte.  And we were all pumped to go to the beach.   

Anna is the family note-writer, and on the way to Summerville, she composed a little greeting note to Charlotte:

Once there, Luke launched his campaign to convert the girls to the imaginative world of Harry Potter.  It worked for a little while:

However, before too long, girliness took over the house, and Charlotte, Anna, and Katie spent their time between impromptu dance performances on the living room table…

…and spending every spare minute planning for a big party and show that became increasingly more elaborate as the week went on:

One of the many decorations for the show.  Also, the photo above was one of the few printable photos of the girls performances, as Anna’s costumes were usually quite scandalous.  What did Molly call her look?  A fairy Tarzan??  That was probably accurate.

Other than playing at the house, our main plans (as approved by the kids) included swimming in the neighborhood pool and going to the beach.  We had suggested to them beforehand that we could see some of the Charleston sights, but they were resolute that if it did not involve water, they were uninterested in leaving the house.  Unfortunately, as we drove to Summerville on Friday, the weather predicted thunderstorms every day of our visit!  As it turned out, though, we ended up going swimming everyday instead—albeit sometimes in the rain:).

Saturday was the day of the wedding, but beforehand, we all ventured out to the pool in one of the gaps between rainstorms.

I love the picture of Luke helping Charlotte with her bathing suit, as well as one of the few shots where I managed to get in the whole five-kid crew.

Anna spent much of her time perfecting her snorkel technique.  It involves making lots of labored breathing noises and humming sounds through the snorkel.

The kids were so excited to stop swimming and get ready for a wedding.  Opposite day!  However, they survived the ordeal, and I enjoyed seeing my husband perform a great ceremony for two of his old youth-groupers.  It was also nice to see so many old friends. 

Afterward, we headed home for more chill time:

Greg flew out early the next morning because he had to be back for Y.E.S. camp.  The rest of us were supposed to go out with Molly’s parents to their beach house.  Unfortunately, it was supposed to rain all day, so we had to cancel.  At one moment in the late morning, it actually got sunny, so I hurriedly got the older four kids ready and headed to the neighborhood pool, while Molly waited for John to finish up his nap at home.  Just as we got there, it started pouring rain.  There was no thunder or lightning, though, so I let the kids swim while I watched from under the eaves.

Crazily enough, eventually the rain let up, and the rest of the afternoon was blazingly sunny.  The kids ended up swimming for three hours before heading home!

On Monday, we went out to Folly Beach to meet up with our friends, the Salleys.

“Hi-ho!  Hi-ho!  It’s to the beach we go!”  Taking five young ones to a beach that’s a 45-minute drive away is no easy task, but it was worth it.  The water was rough, so the kids didn’t get too deep.  They liked it, though, and especially had fun playing in the sand.

We enjoyed hanging out with the Salleys.  A few hours later, when they had to leave, we went with them to have lunch at Jack’s Cosmic Dogs, a really fun hot dog place:

On the way home, we stopped by a playground, at the kids’ request:

I have to show this random picture of this one kid at the playground.  I had “mom’ed” him about a couple of things, so when he told me to watch as he did a backflip, I obliged.  I totally thought he was lying about the backflip, though.

Nope!  He stuck the landing and everything.  I was amazed.

Finally, it was time to pack up our beach bums and head home.

We spent the afternoon as we had the days before.  At various points, both Luke and Katie would get left out of Anna and Charlotte’s “best-friend-ness.”  As the week went on, all the kids found their groove and got along better and better (not that they were bad to start with).  Part of finding their groove was for Luke and Katie to hang out some on their own. 

The next day, we headed back to the beach, except for this time, we went to Molly’s parents’ beach house on Isle of Palms. 

The water was a lot calmer there, and it wasn’t as crowded.  The kids had a blast boogie-boarding, and Molly and I weren’t as freaked out by undercurrents (though we did still keep very close to the kids in the water).

I love this shot of John muggin’ for the camera:).

After a few hours of beach play, we headed back to the beach house to order pizza for lunch and to have some rest time.  Anna, especially, totally zoned as they all watched videos, waiting for the pizza to be delivered.

After lunch, Molly stayed at the beach house so that the younger ones could take a nap (ha!), while I took the three older ones back to the beach for a little more fun.  We had a blast playing one last time in the ocean and making our last sand castles before heading home.

We were supposed to leave on Wednesday morning, but the kids were getting along so well that Molly talked us into staying an extra day.  All the kids wanted to do was hang around the house, so we happily obliged.  We did get to have the “big show/party” that day.

Charlotte is whispering to Anna that its time to start the show.

We got to watch several different dances and hear some lovely reading selections.  Both Luke and Katie received goodie bags from their sisters, and afterward, the kids had a tea party.

On Thursday morning, almost a week after we arrived, we headed back to Macon to be there for my mom’s birthday on Friday (which I was sure was on Thursday—oops!).  After celebrating with her on Friday morning, we hit the road.  It was July 19, and my kids had not been home since July 3.  Crazy!  It was definitely the longest they had ever been away.

On the way home, though, we stopped in Tullahoma to see our friends, the Bills, who had recently moved there from Nashville.  The kids had fun getting to hang out—and swim!—with their friends again:

After a fun time with them, and after meeting Greg in Murfreesboro to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant, we finally made it home. 

It’s funny—even after all that time away, Anna didn’t want to leave the Griggs, and Luke didn’t want to leave Gaga’s house.  However, they were THRILLED to get home, and we have had an amazing week, attitude-wise.  In theory, we were supposed to turn around this week and join Greg on a mission trip to Atlanta.  However, I had already decided that our traveling days were done for the summer.  Good thing, too, because they were done whether we liked it or not:  Greg brought home a lovely stomach bug from Y.E.S. camp, which I caught on Sunday night and Luke caught on Monday morning (his was very brief and mild).  It was a serious bummer, because our friends, the Steeds, were supposed to come over and spend a couple of days.  Luke and the boys, especially, were super-excited, and had already made tons of plans via Face Time on the iPhone.  Because everyone seemed better by Monday at noon, Courtney and I made tentative plans for the boys to come over from Thursday to Saturday.  I spent Wednesday frantically cleaning and disinfecting the house, and the boys came Thursday morning.  They spent an amazing day, full of fun and Harry Potter adventures.  It was so cool to see all four of them playing so well, and with so much imagination, from morning to night.  I put them to bed “early,” at 9:00 pm, and listened to the boys giggling in Luke’s room for a long time.  Anna slept with me.

Unfortunately, that night, she woke up with a horrible version of the stomach bug, which scrapped all of our Friday plans.  My poor friends had to drive back an hour to pick up their boys, the boys were all disappointed to get their plans cut short, and Anna was broken-hearted that she couldn’t play with them that morning while we waited for their parents.  However, when all was said and done, their attitudes were actually pretty great, and we spent a quiet day at home recovering (and praying that the Steeds don’t get it!).

It says something about the busyness of our summer that even though this week was marked by way too much sickness, I think we all still consider it a pretty great week.  It’s just soooo good to be home, with no plans to pack up again and travel.

After all, school starts on Monday!