So Far So Good, Our Homeschooling Start

So, I missed a post in September, but that month flew by. I would like to say it was because of the old adage "Time flies when you're having fun". And Yeah, I think we had fun this month, thank the Lord for His blessing.

I did all of my prepping in late July and early August because my Hub Bub's vacation days were at the end of August and beginning of September, so I wanted to be able to jump right into school as soon as our vacation was over. We decided to go camping in upstate PA with a side trip to Penn's Cave, and it was a blast! Penn's Cave had the kiddies super excited and it is rich for giving little lessons - Bonus! We then drove to the NJ shore and finished our last couple of days on the beach and boardwalk. Ocean City is not my favorite beach at all but, they have a clean and family-friendly boardwalk, and on the last pier is Wonderland - a joyous little amusement park that has a lot of rides for the smaller babies. The kids are still talking about the rides, money well spent.

This school's year I made a full schedule, which we have loosely followed, mainly because I have us starting at 7am with stretching and exercise but have failed to get us out of bed...cause isn't one of the perks of homeschooling to wake up later than everyone else, haha.  I am keeping to mostly the same curriculum as last year's, with a few extras and a change in science, and so far I am happy with it.

Here is what I have chosen for my 1st and 6th graders:

Science: Supercharged Science; Biology and Microscopes (They Love This!)
Grammar: Growing w/ Grammar levels 1 & 6

History: Charlotte Mason; Modern Times, Epistles & Revelation

For Math, my 6th grader does Teaching Textbooks 5 (which I like very much for her and will keep her on this series), and my 1st grader is working in a little workbook called  Basic Math Level 1. Because I am still assessing her abilities I have not picked a set curriculum. I do not think she will have the learning difficulties that big sis has, but I will note she is super bull-headed, ornery, and strong-willed. She is also super intuitive and creative, and this makes for a difficult day is she doesn't "feel" like doing her work.

For Reading we have tons of books that relate to our history lessons, CM gives a list of books that are appropriate for each grade level. I also picked up a couple books from the Who Was/What Was series, a genius way to introduce historical figures and events.  My 6th grader also completes pages from a Reading Comprehension workbook that I picked up from B&Ns (I also bought a Writing workbook too) and she reads one chapter a night from any book she likes, right now she's reading Roman Myths from our Classic Starts collection.

And my 1st grader reads one book a day from her 'bins' - right now she is zipping through the Learn to Read bin. I've kept her there to reinforce her sight words from Kindergarten, I am thinking she will be in the Level 1 bin by November.

We also learn Bible, Spelling, Writing and Geography and this year I've employed the 'Lab book', a concept I just Love!  So, being that my oldest was in public school for K - 4, there is a lot of catching up to do in the sciences especially. It seems they teach next to nothing.  For instance, she does not know anything about our planetary system, so, they will make a Lab Book about our planetary system, then on to galaxies, black holes, and stars and suns. Anything really, the periodic table, what is an atom, what is DNA...they will serve as catch up for my 6th grader and an intro for my 1st grader and preschooler...Yes preschooler, why not...I'm not gonna test her, haha.  Actually, I'm not going to test any of them on their Lab Books.

Here is our first Lab Book, to start World Geography we needed to catch up (though public school actually taught this, she had forgotten) and introduce Continents and Oceans.

                                                                                                                                                               

And...

Just to touch on what I'm doing with my preschooler because it's super simple, I have her on
Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool; Getting Ready 1 - a free and awesome homeschool curriculum! And then I just print out worksheets for the letter and number we are on and for cut and paste...which we do a lot cause poor baby has the hardest time manipulating scissors. I was told by her Speech Therapist that this is common in children that have speech difficulties...honestly, I never looked into it.

So that's it...so far so good, may God continue to bless us, and sustain us when the times are not so good.