Week 5

Well, I have failed this week and took zero pictures!  So, instead of sharing pics from our week, I thought I'd share our schedule and curriculum.

We start our day between 8:45-9 in the living room with our new activity trays.  We have a daily folder that the kids count the days of school, the weather, etc.  There are also some review sheets in there but we haven't started them yet.  I then read a devotional entitled Indescribable , which is about God and science.

Next, we start history.  We are doing Year 1 of The Good & The Beautiful's history course.  It has activities for all ages and goes from creation to present day, stopping at different topics along the way.  We are currently in the Middle Ages.  Science comes next and it is also from The Good & the Beautiful.  We are doing multiple science courses because there isn't one year's course, you pick and choose.  We are finishing up Arthropods this week and will start Energy next week.  After science, the younger 2 get a quick break while the twins and I do extra work on science, if required, and Spanish.  We are using Easy Spanish but we aren't loving it.  It seems kind of random so far. 

We bring the other two kiddos back and have either art or Bible next.  We are finishing up our drawing book and our Bible study book from last year.  We also do an Artpac that has more activities, besides just drawing.  THere is also a famous painting card we look at each week.  We finish our morning with read aloud.  We are currently reading Half-Magic and it is a huge hit!!!  It's a very simple, lighthearted book and we laugh so much!  We then break so I can get ready to make lunch.

After a lunch break, which varies in time depending on when we finished up our earlier work, we start our independent and one on one work.  Lily and Hunter have assignment books where their work is listed out. 

I start school with Nathan first, most the time.  He is working on handwriting (a tough one for him), Right Start math and Barton for language arts.  He will start book 4 this week.

Samuel and I work on handwriting (he resists cursive but I have a transition book this year where we will be slowly starting work on that), CLE math (same as Hunter has used for years) and Barton for language arts.  He is on lesson 4 or 5 of Book 4.

Hunter is usually next even though it's out of age order.  He does cursive on his own--his handwriting is excellent but he struggles to read cursive.  He has math on his own and with me...we're using CLE but taking time out to focus on facts and really understand division.  He then does Barton with me.  He is in Book 5.  We also do First Language Lessons and a 6 Trait Writing workbook together, although he may start doing workbook pages on his own.

Lily has a lot of independent work.  She does her literature work, currently on Tuck Everlasting.  She has cursive, even though I gave her the option to quit because she doesn't need it.  She enjoys it, I guess.  Her math is Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, which has been going well until this last lesson!  We may need to revisit that one.  Her writing is Writing with Skill and it's mainly independent.  Grammar is half and half done by herself and with me.  We're using Grammar for the Well Trained Mind. 

I like all of the items we're using for afternoon work.  This schedule is opposite how we used to do it but I'm really liking this change.  Once Nathan finishes with me, he's done for the day so that's nice.  No electronics until 4:00 (or when Lily is done if after 4) so they have to keep busy other ways!!  :) 

Week 4

On Monday, the hottest day ever, we attended a soccer game.  We got bit up and almost died of heat but it was fun.  :)

The twins working on Spanish, using index cards.

Nathan checking his Barton rule before spelling:

Lily working in her room.  She spends most of her afternoon in here, getting all her stuff done!

The best pic of Samuel I can get during the day.  He deletes pics of himself.  I told him that he will grow up and wonder why I never took his picture!!!  

Lily's play doh version of Stonehenge.  We already began our 2nd history unit, which is on the Middle Ages.  We are all excited for this portion of history!

Science on Friday was an insect defense video I rented from Amazon.  It was recommended in our curriculum.  It talked about everything we had learned so it was a good resource!

Hunter finished his Barton book!!  Book 4 is such a tough book, lots of rules to remember!  We're so glad he made it through because I hear book 5 is a breath of fresh air.  Samuel is in Book 4 and Nathan will be starting Book 4 in the next few weeks so I'm going to really have these rules down!

Week 3

We had our homeschool assistance program's open house and the kids decorated rocks to leave out in the community.  

We did a fun activity (working with all ages means the older ones still get to do some active, crafty things) on bees this week.  The kids had an individual scent and had to find their "hive" by scent, just like bees do.  

Nathan working on addition by using the scale.

We worked on our nature journals at the walking trail nearby.

Just to prove Samuel was there.  Ha!  We spent Friday's science time working on their research projects.  Samuel had picked cockroaches but found the pictures too disgusting so he switched to mosquitos.  :)

Week 2

Learning about fireflies in science:

The cat wondering if Hunter will feed her whatever he has (but it's a glow stick):

We had an optional Egyptian craft in History but everyone wanted to do it!

Watching a video on termites in science:

The kids work on typing lessons once a week:

We are doing our schedule backwards from how we've always done it so it's taken some getting used to for me.  I remember pictures in the morning when we're all together but forget by afternoon.  Our days are longer--we usually don't finish before 3 and sometimes it's not until closer to 4.  The high school kids have extra work in science and history so their load is pretty heavy, at least compared to years past.  

Week 1 of our 2018-2019 School Year!!!

Happy new school year!  It's always exciting to have a fresh start.  

My class this year:

The early to bed, early to rise rhythm was hard for us.  We had some sleepy kids this week!

Nathan working on handwriting:

Samuel doing some review for his math:

Lily researching for science:

Hunter doing his science research at the same time:

We started our nature journals this week.  We went to a new-to-us park with my parents.

After they filled out their page, they got some play time in.

Friday was a more relaxed day with time for catching up on assignments and playing learning games.  Our 1st week was great!!