Easing into our Routine (Part 2)

Along with getting back to school, it was also time to get back to chores!  Over the summer we had pretty much slacked in making the kids do their chores.   They got used to getting up in the morning and eating breakfast while watching TV.

I had totally intended to do a Back to School Boot Camp type of thing the two weeks leading up to school starting.  With my parents still being in town, and wanting to spend time with the kids that didn't happen.  So we started it last week, this meant, no TV in the morning, eating breakfast at the table, and completing chores in the morning.

To begin with we worked on the kids staying in bed until 7:30, which by the end of the week turned into, staying in bed until mommy comes to get you!  Then after they get up, immediately they are to make their beds, get dressed, brush teeth, and do their devotions.  Ideally this should give me time to make breakfast, so far that hasn't been the case, like I said we are working on it.  We call all of  that our morning checklist.

These are permanent, not removable cards, since these are the same every day.

After breakfast, its time to start our morning chores.  Over the summer I worked hard finding a perfect chore system.  I realized that none exist!   In the end I decided to go with one that is similar to our workbox system.  So far the kids love it, it helps them know what is done and what still needs to be done.  I used the printable chore cards from Homeschool Creations, but I made my own charts.  I wanted them to be color coded using their family color.  Here is what our charts look like:

Here is our set up, this is in our kitchen right under our family dry erase calendar.

Typically I will give the kids 4 chores a day, I just threw some up to show what they look like filled.

When the chore is completed they place their cards in this magnetic box attached to our refrigerator.

If you are looking for some great chore chart ideas you can check out my Pinterest board!  I have a ton of things pinned that I scoured over for a long time trying to decide what I liked the best!

Easing into our Routine (Part 1)

With last week being our first week using My Fathers World (MFW), I feel like there is going to be a huge learning curve on my part.  The curriculum we used last year was pretty cut and dry, there were workbooks for every subject.  In my mind that made sense, you just completed the page and then moved on to the next page the next day.  This year, that's not the case, which is a good thing!

So last week, I kind of felt like I was stumbling over myself in certain areas.  I am hoping to improve on those areas as we move through the year.  One thing that I felt was hard for me to get, was the laid back approach!  I love it, don't get me wrong, but it was hard for this Type A personality to grasp at first.  All summer I was struggling with how I was going to make this work, then I finally decided that I was just going to have to dive in and go for it.

Here is what we worked on last week, remember that I am not adding all subjects at once.  Last week for Elijah he worked on Week 1 in Adventures, that included Bible, History and Science.  I also added in some light math work, just to refresh his memory a bit.

This week we will be adding in Math, Handwriting, and Typing; and then next week we will add in English, Spelling and Latin.

For Noah's Kindergarten work, we focused on the first 4 days of creation.  We would briefly go over alphabet and number activities, but I feel he has a good grasp on those concepts.  Since he is my reluctant learner, we took it really slow!  His lessons lasted about a half an hour, and then we did some reading together.

This week for Noah we will continue the days of creation, learning about days 5-7 and then more letter and number recognition.

For Tot School this week, we did a lot of one on one reading, and puzzles.  He joined in with us for a few art projects, but he is still very much a mover!  He want to be involved, kind of!  I am hoping to get some activities planned for him soon, and then start more focused learning with him some time in September.  I really wanted to get a good flow going with the other two before I added in Tot School.

Even with all of my trepidation I am so excited about what God has in store for our homeschool this year.

A Day in the Life....

I am currently homeschooling a 3rd grader (8 years old), a Kindergartener (5.5 years old), and I also have a 2 year old tag along.  So here is a little glimpse into what a day is like at my house!

I posted our schedule a few weeks ago, and in that post I mentioned how its just a basic guideline to how I would like our day to go.  So that is always my starting point, and then whenever I feel like I have gotten off track I always turn back to the schedule to see what I should be doing.  

I am recording what today was like, Monday August 26.

6:30 am- I get up to have some quiet time
7:00 am- I shower and get ready for the day
7:35 am- Time to get the kiddos up, which by the way they are ALWAYS up, never have I had to wake them up!  (We recently instated the rule that they are to stay in their beds until I come to get them, with the exception of using the bathroom!)  As soon as they get up, they make their beds and get dressed, while I work on getting the two year old dressed.
8:00 am- Breakfast, this morning it was an English muffin for Elijah, Toast with peanut butter and jelly for Noah, and pancakes from the freezer for Zach.
8:15 am- clean up breakfast and then time to begin chores, chores are finished before we begin school (I will be sharing about how our chore system works later this week!)
8:45 am- I sit down to play rice with Zach while the other two are playing quietly.  We are easing into our school schedule, so we were beginning our day with some quiet play.
9:00 am- Elijah begins school with 15 minutes of reading from his Book Basket, he chose to read Pedro's Journal, a diary about Christopher Columbus.  Noah plays with the play dough for a while and Zach soon joins him.
9:30 am- Elijah and I sit down to go over his Bible lesson, while the other two were playing quietly (ok, so maybe not really quietly, but they were playing)
9:45 am- Time for our first Math U See lesson!  It make me laugh but all three of them love watching the videos!  Maybe because the TV is on!
10:15 am- Snack and Outside time!  Today I decide that its such a beautiful morning (and its supposed to be SUPER hot this afternoon!), that we would play outside until lunch.
11:30 am- Lunch time!!  During lunch I read a bit from our History lesson for the day, we are talking about Christopher Columbus this week.  That is met with, a 2 year old being done with lunch and ready to get down, followed shortly by him peeing his pants.  After that I look at the clock and decide its close enough to nap time, so we got through our hug and kiss ritual (he thinks he can't sleep with out hugs and kisses from both boys first, its really pretty cute!).  With him down for a nap we finish the history reading.
12:10 pm- Start our calendar time, I prefer doing this in the morning but neither boy was into to it today so I put it off until later.
12:20 pm- Time for Noah to do his Kindergarten work, and Elijah begins working on his Handwriting.
12:45 pm- Finished with school for the day!

You can also check out what last year was like with a 2nd grader, Pre K'er, and infant here!

So what does your day look like??

I am linking this post up to the 5th Annual NOT Back to School Hop sponsored by the iHomeschool Network!  Be sure to hop over and check out what others are saying about their days!

Wrapping up the first week

To wrap up our first week of school, I thought I would share our week in pictures.  This is what went down in our homeschool this week!

Brushing up on some math skills, before we start our Math U See next week.

Recess!!

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Calendar Time

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Bible Time Craft- We drew with white crayon and then water colored over it.

Chore Time

More Math practice

Science Experiment:  Will it float in salt water?  Those are eggs and we put salt in one cup and no salt in the other.

How did your week go?  Have you started school yet, or are you soaking up these last few days of summer?

The First Day of School

We had our first day of school on Monday this week. We did a shortened schedule to get ourselves back into the swing of things. I think it went ok! We all survived, only one meltdown! Here are some pictures from our first day back to school, including our "school pictures".  I like to take the pictures in our living room in front of the fire place because then I can compare at the end of the year how tall my kiddos have gotten!  Last year it was an astonishing difference!

Noah age 5 Kindergarten

Elijah age 8 3rd Grade

All three of my Students

The silly first day of school picture

Brushing up on some math

RECESS!!!

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Here is a video of my boys singing Go Fish's This is My Father's World to end our first homeschool day.

I am linking this post up to the 5th Annual NOT Back to School Hop with the iHomeschool Network!  Be sure to hop on over and check out all the other great back to school photos this week!

Let the School Year Begin

Today is our first day of school!  I have gone up and down in my emotions about it.  I have gone from super excited and ready to start to oh my goodness its time to start!

This year having a third grader, a kindergartener and a two year old will be a challenge.  I am hoping that the third grader will become more of an independent learner by the end of the year.  That will be a focus for us in this first semester.

Teaching kindergarten, more specifically a child how to read, has me quite terrified!  I am resting in the fact that he will learn to read but it might not be as quickly as his brother, and thats ok.  I am also so happy that I do not have to send him away to school.  Even though he wants to go, I know that after about a week, he would be done with it.  He's not a morning person, and trying to get him to do things he doesn't want to do is not fun.

Now lets throw in a very active and crabby two year old, this should be fun!  This two year old, is very interested in what's going on and wants to do everything his brothers do.  BUT he also just wants my attention ALL. THE. TIME!

Lord I need some help!  So each morning I am committing my day to Him and letting Him lead us!  I know that I do not have the power to make it all happen.  I also know that some days will just not go as planned, and that's OK!  This is why we homeschool!

I found this really cute video on You Tube, set to the song I Will Survive.  I hope you enjoy it!

Sloppy Joe Recipe

There are few things that my whole family will eat, and sloppy joes are one of them!  They are a staple on our menu, we eat them at least twice a month, if not more.  This recipe comes from my mother, and its not overly complicated.  Now as most of you probably can relate, my mother is a not a measuring kind of cook.  So when I asked for the recipe a while back, she just said she dumps and tastes!  I however am going to try to give measurements, but actually I dump and taste as well.

So here is my families favorite sloppy joe recipe:

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
1 Cup Ketchup
1/2 cup mustard
2 Tbs. sugar

Hamburger buns

Directions:
1) Brown the ground beef (you can also use ground turkey) in a large skillet, drain the excess fat.
2) Using the same skillet, add to the cooked ground beef the ketchup, mustard and sugar.  Bring to a sizzle, and let cook for about 3-5 minutes on low.
3)  Take a taste and see if you would like to add any more of the ingredients.
4)  Serve on hamburger buns.

Super simple but so delicious!!  I hope you enjoy!  I would love to hear what you think if you make this!

My Baby Turns 2!!

Its hard for me to believe but my baby has turned 2!!  Holy Cow, where has the time gone!!  He has been such a great joy to our lives.  It amazes me to see how big he has gotten over two years.  So today I am going to share his little life in pictures!

Here are some from his second year!  He has changed so much I  can hardly believe it!

Kindergarten Curriculum

A few months ago I gave a brief overview of what our curriculum choices were for this coming school year.  Now I am sharing how I plan to use them.

For Kindergarten this year we chose to go with an all in one curriculum.  This will be my first year teaching kindergarten.  Elijah was in public school for kindergarten and first grade, so I am a little nervous to be teaching a child how to read.

Our curriculum choice for kindergarten is My Fathers World Kindergarten God's Creation from A-Z.  I am really excited about all aspects for this curriculum.  I hear its very hands on, and a very light approach.  Noah is a reluctant learner, so this year we will not be doing a lot of formal things.  I am going to focus mostly on reading and writing and then everything else will be extra for him.

If he would like he can join us for History and Science as I work with Elijah through My Fathers World Adventures in US History.

For extra handwriting practice I have chosen to use A Reason For Handwriting Book K.  I am not sure how much of that we will use, because My Fathers World has handwriting built in.  I just liked the book and thought we would give it a try.

Noah will also be going through Song School Latin Level 1.  The lesson that we have done so far he wasn't thrilled with, so I am not sure how he is going to like it.  I probably won't force him to join in.

Be sure to check out what I am doing with Zach and Elijah!

3rd Grade Curriculum

A few months ago I posted what we will be using as far as curriculum goes.  Today I am going to give a little bit more detail about how I am going to be using them.

For Elijah who will be entering the 3rd grade, we chose to use My Fathers World Adventures in US History.  In this program we will be studying about american history beginning with Vikings and moving on to learn how each state came into the union.  We will be reading lots of great books that go along with this time period.

My Fathers World has a built in reading time that they call Book Basket time, we will use this as our reading program this year.  Elijah is a very good reader and does well at comprehension, so I don't feel that a formal program is necessary for him.  Although we will be doing some reading comprehension tests through out the year, just to make sure he is still doing well.

There is also a built in Bible program, which we will be using loosely this year.  We also do the AWANA program so I don't want to bog them down with too much.

We will also be continuing on with Math U See.  Last year in January we began using this program and started in Alpha.  This year we will be working through Beta, which expands on Adding and Subtracting multiple digits.

For English we will be focusing on proper writing techniques, sentence structure, parts of speech, picture study and writing reports.  Our text will be English for the Thoughtful Child  volume One.  This is a completely different direction than what we did last year.

In handwriting we will begin to transition to cursive writing.  We are going to be using A Reason for Handwriting the Transition book.

Something new we are adding this year is a language study.  We will be studying Latin this year, using Song School Latin level 1.  We have worked partially through one lesson so far and I think Elijah enjoys it, and Noah might warm up to it eventually.

We are going to continue on using All About Spelling, that program has worked wonders for him.  We are on Level 3 this year.

Elijah is also going to begin doing some piano lessons at home this year.  We have the program Piano is Easy, which comes with a teaching DVD and CD.  He worked a little during the summer and really enjoys it, but still struggles realizing that it takes practice to learn something new.

He will be doing an online typing program, called BBC Typing.  I have tried to find a program that we can install on our computer, but finding a good one to run on a MAC is a little harder than I  had thought.  So until we can find one he will use that one.

My Fathers World has an art program but we will not be using it, instead we will be adding in Draw Write Now books 2 and 5.  They correlate really well with what we are studying this year.  It won't be a weekly thing, just whenever I find one that goes with a unit.

That about sums up our 3rd grader!

Tot School

My tot will be 2 when we start our school year in a few weeks.  I am not going to be using a formal curriculum for our little tot, but we will be doing daily learning time.

I love the idea of Tot Trays, but I just can't figure out how I will make them work.  Right now with our Expedit shelving unit, we have about six spots that are dedicated just for Zach.  I think if I just place activities into those spots and teach him that those are his activities, he will enjoy that.

My little Zach working his shape sorter.  He's actually pretty good!

I am also hoping to incorporate some Tot Books as well.  So far I have printed off a Cars and a Thomas the Train one, and he really enjoys those.  I think he is still a bit young for them but he likes them none the less.

Some of our tot toys that we will be using this year are:

Chunky Peg Puzzles: Like this one and this one
Melissa and Doug Shape Sequence Sorting
Wedgits
Melissa and Doug Stack and Sort Board
Geometric Sorting Board
Lauri Number Puzzle
Melissa and Doug Geometric Stacker
Lauri Toddler Tote
Lauri Puzzles like this one
Shape Sorter similar to this one
Wooden Building Blocks
Busy Bags- which I am always expanding on

Geometric Sorting Board

Melissa and Doug Shape Sequence Sorting

Good Old Wooden Building Blocks

Lauri Toddler Tote

Lauri Puzzles

We will also use dry erase boards and markers, chalkboards and chalk, markers, crayons, play dough, and things like that.

I am not quite sure how much I will be able to include Zach in the other boys school work, but I plan to try and include him as much as I can.

If you look at our schedule you will see that I have some time set aside twice in the morning to spend just with him.   I have it so that I can spend 15 minutes doing some learning activities with him first thing in the morning and then another 15 minutes of reading time with him before he takes his nap in the afternoon.

My inspiration for Tot School comes from 1+1+1=1 she has some great ideas on how to get started and what to do once you start.  She also has some great printable packs for the little tots, that is where I got the Tot Books from.

What do you do to keep those little tots busy while you school older children?  I would love some more tips and advice!

Cheeseburger Casserole

I have been trying to find new recipes for my family lately.  We have sort of gotten ourselves into a rut of the same old stuff.  We are not very adventurous eaters here.  So our menu usually consists of hot dogs, tacos, grilled chicken, etc.

A few weeks ago I decided I would try some of the recipes that I had pinned on Pinterest.  One that I came across was a Cheeseburger Casserole.  It looked pretty good but I was not too sure how my family would like it.  Then I thought, well if they don't like it, too bad!

Here is the original source for the recipe, found at No. 2 Pencil.  I made a few variations to the recipe, depending on what my family likes.  So here are the ingredients that I used:

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground Beef
Salt and Pepper to taste
Minced Onion to taste
1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 16oz can chicken broth
2 cups water
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tsp. of dijon mustard
1 pound rotini pasta
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese


Directions:
In a large pot, brown the ground beef and add the minced onion, salt and pepper as you are browning the meat.  Drain fat from the pot.  Use kitchen scissors to chop up the whole tomatoes while they are still in the can.  Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, water, ketchup, dijon mustard, pasta and a little bit more salt to the pot, bring the mixture to a boil.  Turn back the heat, cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the pasta is tender.  Once the pasta is cooked, remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of the shredded cheddar cheese.  Add the rest of the cheddar cheese to the top and let it melt.  Serve, eat, enjoy!

This was so delicious!!  And it makes a LOT!!  I was able to feed the family and put 2 containers in my freezer for later!  I am proud to say that this is a Pinterest success!!  

Calendar Time

In our homeschool, we try to be pretty consistent with our calendar time.  Having younger students makes it a fun add on to our day.  Even though we mostly do it for the younger ones, Elijah still loves it!  I found some awesome printables for our Calendar Notebooks that we will be using along with our calendar and weather items on the wall.  Here is our set up:

Last year I kinda threw together a calendar notebook a few months into school.  I used a little bit of 3 different peoples ideas.  It really didn't flow well!  So this year I am sticking with the one I think will fit our needs the best.  This year we are using only Confessions of a Homeschoolers calendar notebook.  She has Elementary, Kindergarten and Pre School to choose from.  The Tot Time notebook is from 1+1+1=1.

Here is what the Elementary Daily Learning notebook looks like for Elijah.  His notebook consists of the following items:

-What Day is it?

-Write the Date

-What is today's number?

-Write the number word for today's date

-Days in School- Hundreds, Tens, Ones

-The temperature/ What to wear

-What Time is it?

-How much money? (Make the date in coins) I used printable coins from Mama Jenn

             **I use a binder pouch to keep the coins right in his binder.**

-Tally Marks to count the days we do school each month

-Write Your Name

-100 Day Chart

-Monthly Calendar Pages and Weather charts

What Day is it? Write the Date.  

Calendar and Weather Chart Page

Noah's notebook is pretty similar to Elijah's but I used the Kindergarten printables from Confessions.  They are little easier for him to use.  So this is what I included in Noah's learning notebook:
-What Day is it? (each day has its own page)
-What Time is it?
-What is the temperature?

-I can write my name
-Monthly Calendars
-Monthly Weather Charts

What Day is it? 

Weather Chart

Items needed to create these Daily Learning Notebooks:

-Printable calendar pages 

-Page Protectors

-3 Hold punch

-Adhesive Reinforcement Tabs (so the pages that aren't in page protectors don't rip out)

-1/2 inch binders

-Dry Erase/Wet Erase Markers

-Pencils, Markers, Crayons, etc. (whatever they prefer to write with)

Assembly of the notebooks:

Print out the pages as directed.  I did double sided printing to save paper.  The pages that we use daily I put in page protectors, so the What day is it, what's the temperature, etc. go into page protectors.  The rest I hole punch and put reinforcement tabs on and put in the binder.  

For my Tot Notebook, I used printable pages from 1+1+1=1.  Zach's notebook consists of number and letter pages for him to dry erase on.  I will add different pages throughout the year to keep it fresh for him.  All of his pages go into page protectors, and I printed them double sided to save paper.  

Alphabet Pages

Number and Shapes pager

How we use them:

Every morning at the beginning of our school day we sit down and go through our notebooks.  We use our wall calendar and then the boys fill in their notebooks.  Some days they prefer to just do their notebooks and other days they just want to do the wall calendar, and some days we do both.  Either way is fine with me, I don't force them to do all of it.  I also will add the Days of the Week and Months of the year song.  Occasionally we will sing either our 50 States and Capitols song (via the Animaniacs!), or the Presidents song.  

Other places to find great calendar notebook ideas are:

1+1+1=1

Mama Jenn

Homeschool Creations

I would love to see your calendar time set up!!