School is in session

Well today was the first day of school and we are ready to go! We used the workbox system in 2010-2011 school year and I absolutely love it we had it set up in the basement which we found it to be a bad thing because our basement feels like the arctic circle in the wintertime and since most of our school year occurs during the colder months it didn't really work out. Last year I was pregnant and was very unmotivated to homeschol so we really just stuck to the basics..no notebooking, or lapbooking, or shadow boxes, very little art, or music either.....I've very ashamed to admit this but yes I was always tired and NEEDED my afternoon nap which is the time we would normally do the hands on fun school stuff. I felt horrible about our school year last year but this is a new school year and I brought back the workbox system into our little...very little living room but I think it might workout nicely, and make our school year enjoyable this year!!! Which is my main goal this year I just want it to be a fun year for the kids

I would like to explore the world of notebooking this year as well, it seems like something the kids would enjoy because they love scrapbooking and drawing and I think it would help them in their writing skills as well. I like to try different school methods and pull ideas from here and there.  I would say our homeschool has a touch of Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, and even school at home. I try not to get hung up in all the details and guidelines of each style because then I loose confidence in myself and feel like a failure, so I do what I do and pray that it works :)

For our curriculium we've pretty much stuck with the same as last year with a few changes here and there.

Caila's Grade1

~Spelling program

All about spelling
~Early reader books
All about spelling readers.
~ History
Road trip USA
~Chapter books we read aloud
Sonlight read aloud chapter books
~Handwriting
I can write
~Math
Rod and Staff math grade  1 and also suplimenting with their worksheets as well sinnce she's half way through the  grade 1 workbooks
~Phonics
Explode the code books 3 and book 4
~ Writing
Writeshop  book A
~Bible
Hero Tales as well as the Tourchlighters movie set and finishing our Miller's family book sets we usually follow our reading with a reading from their bibles. (Caila's bible is here and Rick's Bible can be found here)
We also finish our bible segment with a our thankful books. This is where we think about what we are thankful for that day and either write about it and or draw a picture. I started this because a friend said a quote that has just stuck with me since...it said "What if you woke up today with the only things you thanked God for yesterday?" and that is one quality I hope to instill in my children is to be thankful.
 ~Music
penny whistle lessons
~Art
The complete Usborne Book of Art Ideas, Art treasury and Artistic pursuit

I might add typing but I'm still not sure about that

Rick's third grade

~Bible
Same as Caila's..Hero Tales as well as the Tourchlighters movie set and  we'll be finishing the Miller's family book set we usually follow our reading with a reading from their bibles. (Caila's bible is here and Rick's Bible can be found here)
along with our thankful book
~Typing
Typing Instructor for kids

~Spelling
All about spelling level 2 again we did it last year but slacked quite a bit and it showed on his year end testing so we will be focusing on spelling this year!!
~Readers
We use the Sonlight second grade readers list
~Science
We'll be finishing R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Life Science Level 1 and move on to level two...We love this wonderful program (but it is a subject I slacked on toward the end of the school year last year when my mama belly was growing and growing..lol)
 ~History
We do the Story of the world we use the audio books and the activity books to go along with it.
I also found this wonderful mama's blog that has lapbook printouts to go along with each chapter which i was going to add to our history just because we can't get enough Story of the world!!
~Chapter books read aloud
We follow an older grade 3 Sonlight read aloud book list which has a few different books...here is the current one...I just try to buy most of my school books used otherwise it would get to expensive.
~Math
We'll be starting Teaching textbooks this year I was on the fence about math this year because I fell in love with Rod and Staff so I bought their third grade curriculum as well (it's cheap enough) I figured I could supplement or switch back if we don't like T.T.
~ English
  finishing Grade 2 English "Preparing to Build" Set which is put out by Rod and Staff. I love this English it's exactly what I was looking for plus it's a bonus that a lot of it can be done independently, we just started this 3/4 of the way through last year so we're finishing this book and moving on to Grade 3 English
~Handwriting
 I CAN WRITE CURSIVE

~Music
penny whistle lessons
~Art
The complete Usborne Book of Art Ideas, Art treasury and Artistic pursuit
 It looks like a lot but keep in mind we do a few of these things only once or twice a week.

Here are a few pictures of our workbox corner just to show you that school can be tucked away easily and in small spaces...This is in the corner of our living room which is kind of tucked around a corner..

Here is my one of my book storage's (my BIG stash is in the basement)that I hind with a play silk and a little velcro...

This is Rick's workbox tower

And I also wanted to show you one of my big time savers of the year...I just bought this on clearance for $5 at the craft store to store all of our workbox tags...I used to spend a good half hour hunting for the tags I needed. so this thing rocks!! Another addition is our all about spelling tiles bag...those tiles would fall off the magnate board all the time and of course get lost so I used one of my snack bags to stare these and used Velcro  to the board!!!

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 What does your homeschool days look like?? Do you use the workbox system?? Do you have a school room or do you just use the space you have??
Thanks for visiting:)

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