Week In Review: Weeks 3 and 4

Well here I am again sharing a Week In Review post, but really it's  Two Weeks In Review!  HA!  Oh well, life has been hectic lately!  I was doing so well the last few weeks of summer with getting my cleaning schedule under control, and a life schedule under control, and then BAM school started! I feel like school is taking up my whole day, having a 5th grader is really different than having a preschooler or even early elementary.

Language Arts:

What I have found out from the past few weeks is that 5th grade is going to be a tough year for us.  I have realized that we are really lacking in the English Grammar department.  For the past few years we really just focused more on literature and reading, and only a slight portion was grammar related.  He is really struggling with the added expectations I have put on him this year.  I am so happy with the curriculum I chose to use and think he will get up to where he needs to be.  As a reminder we are using Learning Language Arts though Literature the purple book and Wordly Wise 3000 grade 5 book.  I realize I said that we were lacking in grammar and then we are using a literature based program, seems contradictory in a way.  In actuality though, I think with using this program, he is reading passages from books he likes and then applying grammar rules.  I have never used this program before and I am so happy that we chose it.  It, so far, is a good fit for our needs at this time.

Bible:

We have begun our Bible curriculum, which is Apologia's Who Is God?, and I love it!  The boys are doing well, and learning to dig deeper into what they think and feel about certain topics.  We have been talking a lot about how we can know if something is true or not.  This has been wonderful for them, especially the 5th grader who is at that age where he is trying to figure some things out for himself.  I am happy that they both seem to know that the Bible is true, and what God says in the Bible is truth.

History:

These past two weeks we have also done some digging deeper into History.  We have learned about Stonehenge, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Early Egypt, the Sumerians, and the Minoans.  We had fun wrapping Noah up like a Mummy!

Read Aloud:

For our read aloud time, we just finished up reading the Christian Heroes then and Now book on Jim Elliot, and we have begun reading The Golden Goblet.  The Golden Goblet I think might be a bit over their heads, so I'm not sure we will continue with it or not, we are currently on chapter 3.  On Friday instead of reading The Golden Goblet, we read The Magic Treehouse book Mummies in the Morning.  They both really liked that one and thought it was funny that we read the whole book in one sitting.  They make me laugh, because its only like a 60 page book.  Silly kids!

Preschool:

In preschool we began our Letter of the Week curriculum and have done letters A and E.  We will be working through the vowels first and then move into the consonants.  I really am impressed with how well my little 4 year old is handling school this year.  Not to say that we don't still struggle, but for the most part he knows what is going to happen and is happy to do his "numbers" (that's what he calls his workboxes).

Field Trips:

Last Friday, we took a field trip to the local Apple Orchard, that was a great time!  We were hoping to get to pick some apples but found out that they were not open for picking until Labor Day.  We might go back after Labor Day just to pick some apples.  On the upside though the playground was open and the kids were able to play.  There is usually a cost but since it was early in the season it was free.  My kids were super excited for that part!   We also picked up some yummy apple cider doughnuts, apple cider raisin bread, apple cider, and of course a few apples!

I really do plan on taking more photos of our school days, but like I said at the beginning it's been crazy!  I really do love this homeschooling journey that we are on, and am so excited to have the opportunity to be with my children everyday and see them learn!

Cleaning House Month One {Update}

A few weeks ago I shared how we were using Cleaning House by Kay Wills Wyma to rid our family of a sense of entitlement.  This is going to be a long process and I plan on taking this one month at a time for the next twelve months.  Lets see if I can stick with it!

For the first month we have been working on simply making beds and keeping our bedrooms tidy.  When I say 'we' I am also referring to my husband and myself.  Sad to say it, but our bedroom was also a source of major clutter, it seemed that our bedroom would often become the dumping ground for anything that we just didn't have a place for.

The plan was that our kids would earn a quarter a day for the entire month for making their beds and picking up their rooms.  Each child has their own jar of 30 quarters, and each morning I would walk around and check their bedrooms.  There was no warning, except for the first day when I informed them that this check would take place about 8:15 every morning.

I am so happy to say that at the end of this month (August), there were very few quarters lost!!  Elijah our 10 year old, lost only 2 quarters for the whole month.  Noah, who is 7, also only lost 2 quarters.  Zach, who is a young 4, only lost 5 quarters.

They each got into their routine and would immediately get up, make their beds, get dressed and then make sure their rooms were picked up.  What I love about this method was that each child knew what was expected and didn't get upset about loosing quarters because they understood from the get go what was expected.  I had explained to them there would be no second chances, and no warnings given when the room checks would take place.  This went for Saturday and Sundays as well, not just the weekdays.

I am excited to see the big difference in their rooms and their attitudes towards keeping tidy rooms.  Honestly, I wasn't going to do this with my 4 year old (he just turned 4 in the middle of August), because I didn't think he could handle it.  With only about a week of training he was able to make his bed on his own.  I realize that 'making a bed' could mean different things to different people, so let me clarify what we determine is a 'made bed', for us it means pulling their covers up and straightening any stuffed animals that are on their bed.  Since the 7 and 4 year old share a room and have bunk beds, its a bit more difficult to make the beds.  They each only have a comforter on their beds, I don't have time to mess with flat sheets!  It also allows for a simplified bed making process.

Here are the before and after photos taken of their rooms.

I did not give a warning that I would be taking photos for the after picture.  Not sure you can tell from the picture or not, but Noah's bed is a bit untidy at this moment.  He will be cleaning that up soon.  I do feel a bit bad for him, he's a child that loves his things and doesn't want anyone *ahem* little brother, messing with his stuff.  So he crams all of his worldly possessions into his bed.

This month we will be tackling kitchen patrol.  Each child, not sure yet we will include Zach in this, will be responsible for planning, shopping and preparing a meal.  I'll let you know how this turns out at the end of September!

Organizing My Homeschool Year- Part 2

Last time I shared how I organized my lesson plans and our storage area.  Today I will share how I have organized my desk, my sons' desks, and my teacher manuals.

First up is my desk!  This is a big dumping ground in our school area.  It can become quite cluttered by the end of a busy school week.  So with much thought and planning I have come up with some cute and easy ways to keep it fairly organized.

These paper trays are used for my boys to hand in their work when its completed.
I then grade it and put it back into a folder with the rest of their competed work.
You will notice that one is green (Elijah's) and the other is blue (Noah).

I put my main writing utensils in canning jars to add some cuteness.  One jar holds pens
and scissors, the one next to that is sharpies, then the Flair Felt Tip pens, and finally the jar in front
holds my pencils.

Those two items right there help keep my desk pretty clear, but I also have a Thirty-One Gifts hanging file on my wall next to the desk.  That just helps with extra papers that I need to file away or that I have printed off but do not need right away.  In the other pocket I keep my Letter of the Week binder for Zach's preschool.

Next up are my desk drawers.  These have gone through multiple revisions over the years, but I think I finally have a system down for keeping them organized, especially with getting my most used writing utensils up on top of the desk.

Drawer 1:  Dry erase markers, post it notes, a pair of little scissors, push pins, brads, thumb tacks, extra staples, extra paper clips, post it sticky tabs and some white out.  I keep the push pins, brads and thumb tacks in old make up containers.  The drawer organizers are from the Container Store and they are the Medium Sliding Drawer Organizer.

Drawer 1:  In the second part of the plastic tray I have some big dry erase markers, highlighters, and some Vis-A Vis wet erase markers.

Drawer 2:  Rubberbands, batteries, sticky tack, staple remover, binder rings, binder clips, electrical tape, hole punches, circle punch, sticker maker, and measuring tape.

Drawer 3:  3 hole punch, extra pencils, tape, chalk, string, index cards, velcro dots, and blank cards.

Drawer 4:  Printer paper, sticky labels, and card stock.

Drawer 5:  Envelopes, extra mouse, computer programs, and some more note cards.

Here is an overview picture of my desk.

The desk is the Linnmon table top from Ikea and the drawers are the Alex Drawers.

Now lets look at my boys' desks.  Here is an overview picture of them first.  They also each have a Linnmon table top and the Alex drawers from Ikea.

Noah's desk.  We do not have an overhead light in this room so each
boy has a floor lamp by their desk.

Elijah's Desk,  this picture was taken before he had his desk
completely set up.  His desktop organizer sits on the far right side of his desk.

This is a small desk top organizer from The Container Store, along the side is what's in each drawer.
Under the plastic lid on top Elijah keeps his dry erase marker and eraser, drawer one is markers, drawer 2 are his pencils and erasers, drawer 3 are colored pencils and crayons.

Drawer 1 has his assignment folder and calendar notebook, drawer 2 is Bible, drawer 3 is Science,
drawer 4 is Math, and drawer 5 is Language Arts.

Noah has the same desk top organizer, under his plastic lid are scissors and erasers.  Drawer 1 is crayons, drawer 2 has markers, and drawer 3 holds his colored pencils.

On Noah's desk drawers I put picture and word labels to help him know what was in each drawer.
Drawer 1 has his calendar notebook, pencils and some more erasers, drawer 2 is Bible and Handwriting, drawer 3 is Math and Science, drawer 4 is Reading, and then in his last drawer he just has some extra notebooks and other things.

Since Zach does not have an actual desk, but instead work boxes, his area is a bit more challenging.  He is also a very opinionated little boy!  Last year he had a pencil box that we used to keep all of his supplies in, that worked well.  This year I was planning on using the same thing, but then I went to a Thirty-One Gifts party and ordered a cute froggy basket.  I thought that he would love using that to keep his supplies in, yeah not the case!  Then I was at Target and found a little caddy that I thought he would like better than the froggy basket, yeah he still wasn't going along with it.  His pencil box was not big enough to hold everything I wanted it to hold, which is why he needed something different.  He has finally given in to the small caddy, and we use that to house his crayons, markers, scissors, and pencils.  Right now he keeps his dry erase items in the froggy basket, and not sure what he is using the pencil box for, but its still out!

These are his workboxes, they are the Trofast shelves from Ikea.  I printed the dinosaur labels from
1+1+1=1.  We also keep our globe here for easy access.  His calendar notebook is also kept on top.

Now finally for my teachers manuals.  I keep those in our expedit shelf unit from Ikea.

Our homeschool binder is kept here.  In the blue bin on the left are teachers manuals for Noah and some extra books for Zach.  In the blue bin on the right are teachers manuals for Elijah and our all together subjects.  I got these bins from Lakeshore Learning and they are wonderful for holding bigger items, like my teachers manuals.  

 I love using magazine holders for keeping like items together on a book shelf.   In the ones below I have extra workbooks, lap books, and tot books.  These are the Flyt magazine files from Ikea, they are made of cardboard but have held up amazingly, and the price is unbeatable!

 I had some items in big bins that you couldn't see inside of.  I found that my boys were not getting into those bins because they didn't know what was in them.  My problem though was that I couldn't figure out a way to put a label on them.  I had these labels that were stickers, so I made some word labels and added pictures for the bins that just had one item in them.

This is the bottom of our Expedit.  These bins also came from Ikea, they are the Drona bins and are super big!  In the first bin I put our snap circuits, we have the regular one and also a snap circuits rover.  In the second bin are some busy bags.  The third one are puzzles, if you notice they are all in ziplock bags, I gave up on boxes!  In the last bin our the stacking pegs, we have alphabet ones and the just some shapes.  

  I hope you found this tour helpful, sorry it got so long!  I love to organize and find it makes our homeschool room feel so much more useful when things are organized.  How do you keep your homeschool items organized?

Organizing My Homeschool Year- Part 1

I have been thinking a lot lately about organization.  I personally love to organize and I love having everything in its proper place.  I have a label maker, and most everything in our school area is labeled.

I thought I would take today and share a little bit about how I organize our space.  We are blessed to have a home that has an extra room in our finished basement.  We use that as our school room, it also has an attached storage room that we use for extra storage for our school items.  Our room is approximately 13 x 13, and the storage room is about 13 x 8.5.

I'll first share how I organize my planner. I created my own homeschool lesson planner this year, which is free to you to download if you would like!  Just follow this link!  I printed it all off, hole punched it and placed it in a 1" three ring binder.  It is divided into four main sections.  The first section is my lesson plans.

Next is the lesson schedules I created.  I have our read aloud schedule, Letter of the Week Schedule, What's in the Bible videos and what history lesson they correspond with, etc.

In the next section is my Calendar and Attendance trackers.  I also have our Year in Review page in this section.

My last section is extra records that I am keeping this year.  I have a Book Log, Field Trip log, and a course of study for each child.

Next, I'll share how I organize the Letter of the Week curriculum that we are using for Zach.  First I created a hanging file folder for each letter of the alphabet and for each literature unit we will be using.  I then put them in my cute Thirty-One Gifts fold n file.  I just printed off the first 12 weeks of school right now.  So all of those are filed into the appropriate folder.  I also went ahead and laminated the things that I wanted laminated.

After that I printed off the lesson plans and hole punched them and put them in a 1/2" three ring binder.  I created two sections in this binder one is the lesson plans and one is extra resource pages that go along with the Letter of the Week curriculum.

Next up, is my little storage room off the school room.  This summer it went through a major overhaul.  We use this area to store our craft supplies, curriculum that we aren't currently using and our records.  This year I also moved my sons' desks into this little room.  It serves as a great barrier from our main room, while still allowing them to be close by.

Here is an overview of the shelves.

Top Left:  Craft supplies

Top Middle:  More craft supplies and paints, paint brushes, extra crayons, and pencils.
Middle Shelf:  More crafts supplies and some pocket chart
games.

Top Right:  File boxes with their completed work, wall posters are on top of that.
The wooden box is a set of fancy silverware that never gets used.
Middle Right:  All About Spelling and Reading, Math U See, MFW Kindergarten,
and some general 2nd grade materials.  I also have some rolls of paper that I got from
Ikea a few years ago!  This stuff lasts for ever and is super cheap!

Middle Middle:  Construction paper, no tip water pots, extra school supplies,
science kits.
Bottom Middle:  Scratch paper one tub of white and one of colored,
reading games, weaving loom.

Middle Left: File folders, extra colored pencils, magnifying glasses, US Bingo,
book ends, and other items not currently in use.
Bottom Left:  Extra clip boards, white boards, and chalk boards.  Along with
some left over duct tape.  

That about sums up our craft organization.  As you can see I use my label maker a lot!  I also like to use clear bins in order to see what is inside at a glance.  I started the summer with about 8 or 10 of those file boxes and I got down to 6!  **I realized that I forgot to get a picture of the bottom right side of the shelves, on that side I just have another 2 boxes of extra school supplies and items that we aren't currently using.  We also have a microscope on that shelf next to those boxes.**

In my next post I will share how my boys desks are organized and how my desk is organized.  I also plan to share how I organize my teachers manuals and things like that.  So be sure to check back in!