week one- planning and time management

We officially started our home school experience ~~last~~ two weeks ago, and, as I promised I will be doing weekly(ish) roundups of what we did, (and didn’t do)

Of course, this post was originally intended for LAST Friday… but as Fridays happen so does life.

And, this was our life:

I have to admit a few things right off the bat:

I am a planner.

I am a slight control freak.

Those, my friend are two things that may work against you in homeschooling. Because there are going to be times where things don’t get done. There are going to be times where things don’t go as planned.

And, I’m okay with that.

Home schooling is God’s way of getting me out of His way.

Before I began this journey, I made a list of what parts of my life were most important, important, and not important. Things that can be delegated, and things that cannot. I dissected my day, by the hour and to the minute. In doing this.. I realized a few things:

If you are disorganized, time is lost (which, is why.. I sometimes set aside an entire afternoon to keep things organized)

If you don’t plan ahead, time is lost.

If you don’t take care of yourself, (spiritually and physically) you can’t take care of anyone else.

So,there are some things that are bottom line rules of our school days. Devotion time, exercise and meal planning. If any of these three things aren’t accomplished, I am askew all day. So I am a “three thing” control freak.

First off, I wake up at least an hour and a half before my daughter wakes up.( As much as I’d love to sleep in….I don’t.) By having those early hours alone, I have my time to read my devotion,drink my tea (coffee if it’s Friday), pray over our day and finish up any computer work.

Once my daughter wakes up we have breakfast together, -usually something fast for school days; cereal, yogurt, cinnamon raisin bread toasted with cream cheese have been the latest choices.

Next is 30-45 minute bike ride/walk/exercise… together.

We talk about our day, look at nature and feed the birds and fish at our neighborhood lake.

(For rainy days, we have a few DVDs we do together, or we catch up on our library book stack.)

We get home just before the school-bell rings. (Yes, I have an alarm set on my phone, if I didn’t I would not stop whatever project/chore I may inadvertently get into during the interim.)

So far, our first week had worked out smoothly, with our schooling completing before noon. 🙂 In the afternoon we market, eat lunch, prep dinner, and enjoy our “recess”.

Now: as far as what we did last week: Here’s a visual:

Science is the hands down favorite so far, and I I am using Apologia Science Zoology 1

Another favorite: thinking putty; especially when I am reading to her Story Of The World, which is our History.

We start each day with a Daily Learning Notebook, I got it here: Daily Learning Notebook (This gives me a chance to do dishes and load the washer while she works on it)

(No we don’t start at 6:22 am, she was excited to practice one evening)

For History, week one we learned the basics:historians, archaeologists, nomads, and cave art. For hands on projects we dug a dinosaur from hardened clay with small plastic spades and brushes, and we made cave art on a crumpled up brown paper bag.

I’m also implementing Five In A Row, which is a literature based curriculum that utilizes books to teach various educational components . Many people use this as their full curriculum, however- I mainly use it for Geography, and social studies.

This week we rowed Madeline, so we focused on France.

I found a travel size Paris play set printable that fits in an old Altoid tin.

We bought French bread and Crossaints,

And, we made French food: (This is my daughter’s “French face”

On Thursday, I hosted a co-op with two friends who are rowing the same book, we read the book, the girls got an anatomy lesson (Madeline has an appendicitis in the book)

And, of course there was more French food:

Crouque Moussier sandwiches

Tarte Au Pommes

Dessert was a craft, thanks to my friend’s resourcefulness; sugar wafer Eiffel Towers.

And, my other friend supplied us with all the supplies to make Madeline lap books!

Our Art lesson for the week was and Georges Seurat, and pointillism as well as Monochromatic color schemes.

And, finally: Friday was a group field trip to a local art studio for real painting.

Last but not least, my daughter got to put her France sticker in her Passport:

Here’s a roundup of the 2015-2016 curriculum:

Fall 2015 – Summer 2016

Bible: Growing With God 3rd grade (Positive Action Bible Curriculum)

History: The Story Of The World Vol 1 By Susan Wise Bauer, and activity workbook, tests

“fun” supplement: Draw and Write Through History: Creation Through Jonah

Science: Apologia Science Zoology 1 Flying Creatures Of The Fifth Day with notebook journal

Language Arts: Language Smarts Level D (critical Thinking Company)

Handwriting: Daily Learning Notebook and A Reason For Writing Level T

Spelling: Spelling you see level C

Literature/Social Studies/ Geography: Five In A Row

Math: Teaching Textbooks grade 3 or alternate TBA (utilizing refresher workbooks now)

enrichment activity: Grocery Cart Math by Dale Simpson

ELECTIVES:

First quarter:

Art: Feed My Sheep By Barry Stebbing

Second quarter:

Health, Safety and Manners grade 3 Abeka

Third quarter:

Spanish, Rosetta Stone

Fourth Quarter:

Home economics: sewing, cooking, gardening, banking loosely basing off of Prairie Primer

Now, as I finally complete week one round up; I need to share week two, and all the things that went not as planned.

There are times when people plan and God laughs.. and… let’s just say I got some friendly reminders of that. But, despite a few deviations on our plans, it’s nice to know that the higher plans are always better that what I planned.