Labor Day Fun- Days 6 &7 (Vol 1, Unit 1, Chapter 1 Weaver)

Labor Day weekend was a time for catch up and review, but (hopefully) disguised as play. I've been describing myself as a brand new mother with this homeschooling gig. I want to do everything right- as in "don't let the baby fall asleep anywhere but the crib" kind of thing. In homeschooling, I'm still obsessing over the crib so to speak. I don't want any chance of getting behind; cutting out activities sounds, well, like neglecting my newborn baby. Logically I know that I'll eventually work through this thinking, but it'll take some time and experience.

We spent Saturday at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. We started in the geology section.

The kids had one worksheet to complete inside the museum. They were to find a rock, draw it, and use a list of descriptive words to write about their findings. 

We then walked through the dinosaur exhibit. I had given each child a clipboard with paper in case they wanted to draw anything interesting or write down any questions to look up later. Brooke chose to draw this little cutie.

Lydia recording her findings.

She wanted to climb the wall and touch that dinosaur.

This week's material acquaints the child to their own city. We spent last week learning about ancient Mesopotamia, and this week they will learn that their city has its own past. On Monday, we walked along Main Street of our small town and looked at the original buildings from our city's earliest beginnings. Last month I bought a book with historic photos and facts. Here we stood in front of the city's bank built in 1909. The original photos pictured dirt roads and horses.

Standing in front of what was once the high school, built in 1909.

We're also learning about electricity this week, so after reading Where Does Electricity Come From? by Susan Mayes, we drove to the gates of our local power plant to see how coal keeps our lights on. 

That's a lot of coal!

We've been covering map skills since day one of last week. I wish I'd taken of picture of Bill teaching more map skills last night. He used a road map to show where distant relatives live, and had the kids show him a driving route, and determine the distance from our house to theirs. 

This morning we were back to a regular schedule, combining days 6 and 7 of Weaver's Chapter 1 Day by Day plan. Our Bible story covered Noah's Flood. We then switched topics and discussed electricity in more detail. Tomorrow we'll make a homemade circuit, and read biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. The girls have been writing daily in their creative writing journals- they are such good story tellers. Math is going well- I absolutely love our Singapore Math curriculum. Madeline is speeding through her workbook, and will already be moving on to the next book next week. I'm guessing she'll slow down as it gets progressively harder. Brooke is moving along at a more steady pace- math isn't her favorite, but she's learning without frustration. Isaac is moving along in his math workbook and activity book as well. He's gaining confidence in his reading lessons. We used this method to teach Brooke and Madeline and had great success. It's helping Isaac with his speech as well. He hasn't qualified for speech therapy in over a year, but still struggles with several sounds. I love that Weaver also incorporates speech therapy with Kindergarten Wisdom Words. 

Brooke started flute lessons last week and is loving it already. Isaac is still active in karate, and earned his first new belt a couple weeks ago. Ballet starts up next week for Brooke and Madeline. I'd like to find an art class soon for all four of them. Slow and steady has been my motto the past couple days. It's not been free of occasional frustration and stress, but really- what in life is? So thankful we are doing this!

Introduction to Our School Room and First Day!

It's finally here! After a full year of planning, researching curriculum, picking out items for the school room, and lots and lots of prayer, today is our official first day. No more talking about it, we are finally doing it! One of the best parts is having our very own one-room school house. 

I wanted the school room to not only be functional, but also to make me smile when I walked by. It's visible from pretty much every corner of the first floor, and I tried to have it blend in style with the rest of the house. We just finished planning and decorating last week, and I love it! I don't have confidence in my decorating skills, so I'm uber excited with the results- I'm in love with this room!

I love our light from Ballard Designs. The room was too dark before, and so we needed to replace the old one. Might as well make sure it's pretty! The vintage-inspired banner was a free download from the Handmade Home blog. It's one of my favorites in the room. What other alphabet banner has high heels for letter H? I strung twine across the wall and attached each letter with a small clothes pin. The rug is from Home Goods. The teacher desk was handed down to us years ago after we were first married- it's solid wood and gorgeous. The vintage desks were from a local private school. They are just too perfect!

We wanted a Bible verse theme for our school. I thought this proverb was perfect. The sign came from Sawdust City LLC. I was able to customize the color of the sign and lettering.

I wanted to be able to change out the theme with each unit. The bulletin strips will let me do that pretty easily.

Bookshelf and storage wall. We are going to outgrow this bookshelf by Christmas. Considering I'm out of wall space in here, I don't know exactly how we'll handle that.

The chalkboard was made out of a mirror frame. We have a dresser from Bill's grandmother, and the mirror used to be attached to it. We removed the mirror from the frame, had a piece of particle board cut to fit from Home Depot, and painted it with magnet primer and chalkboard paint. 

I chose Weaver curriculum from Alpha Omega Publications. It's a unit based curriculum that uses a daily Bible theme as a foundation for each day's studies. The family learns the same basic concepts, with individual assignments and activities geared toward each grade level. It seems to fit our family with the multiple ages and attention spans. The nice thing about the curriculum is that it was relatively inexpensive, and if it doesn't work out after all, we can switch without throwing a lot of money away. There aren't any textbooks, and I have to do a lot of lesson planning, including searching out books to borrow or buy for each unit. The good thing is that I love both learning and teaching, so this shouldn't be too big of a problem. At times I do wonder if I should have just bought boxed curriculum because it seems a lot easier, but overall I think I picked a good fit for us. Time will tell!

 A school bus from Home Goods. I just thought it was cute.

I had to prime the chalkboard. It was so perfect and jet black, it was painful to mess it up!

Our first day! They were super duper excited, and couldn't wait to start.

She was so happy! She sat here for about two minutes, then she was done. Off to play in the next room. She's three.

My second grader! 

My tall third grader! 

First day of kindergarten! Too cool to smile.

Lydia ran up to be included. She loves her big sister.

Cheese for PreK 3!

 She loves school. She reads literally nonstop. Makes me so happy.

Oh- wait- is that a smile?

My kids' teacher!

Picture with mommy.

 The first day's lesson was based on Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel. We covered the Bible story, early Sumerian culture, ziggurats, and map skills. Isaac was interested for the first 15 minutes, then quietly did math worksheets while I finished teaching the girls. We then broke off for their activities. Brooke and Madeline went outside to draw maps of our block, and Isaac drew a map of his bedroom.

I heart ABCMouse.com. Worth every penny so far.

Some of our lesson notes. They also had Wisdom Words (creative writing for Brooke and Madeline, and speech practice for Isaac) penmanship (writing practice using that week's Bible verse), and spelling. They start Switched On Schoolhouse Spanish curriculum next week. Math (we chose Singapore Math curriculum) will fit into this afternoon sometime- eventually when I know how much math to expect from them each day, it will be incorporated into regular school time. For now I've set it up more like traditional homework. I'm not rushing into a set schedule just yet.

 It was a great first day! We packed a ton of learning into a few short hours. I know it will be a lot of work, and not every day will go so smoothly, but I am looking forward to a great year!