Tuesday, June 15, 2010

School Room All Done!!

It's Tuesday, and due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to blog about my school room progress yesterday. But I'm glad to report that I stuck to my schedule this weekend and finally accomplished my goal! Our school room is completely unpacked, organized and clean!!

It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate as a homeschooler! From paper clips and art supplies, to books and more books!!! I'm posting pictures of our awesome room. I really do love it and it was one of the rooms of our new house that I was excited to complete.

What you won't see in the pictures below is our huge bonus room that is attached to the school room. It is currently unfinished, but I have put our utility shelves there to hold bins of arts & craft supplies. Also not included in the picture is a closet located by my desk. I store all our craft paper, preschool bins, manipulatives, school supplies, and miscellaneous items there.

Overall, I love our school room! A big plus of our new house is that it has LOTS of living room space (3 living rooms, 1 den, and a keeping room), so I was able to dedicate one of those rooms to our daily school without giving up space for other things (if you remember, in our previous home we used our dining room as our school room).


I love the open feel of the room!


Our lawyer's bookcases still hold our curricula as well as maps, charts, and other educational materials in the bottom, pull-out drawers. These kinds of bookcases are great when you have little kids because they can't get to the books.


Opposite our bookcases is a matching curio cabinet that I used to keep in our living room at our old house to hold figurines and china. Now I use it to hold our daily supplies in pretty jars and baskets (pencils, colored pencils, etc.)


Our bulletin board holds our daily schedule (we use MOTH), calendar, counting straws, and whatever we want to display on a particular day. My rolling cart bin has been re-labeled. Each child has their own drawer to hold math, language arts, and other subjects for work completed or work to be completed. The bottom of the cabinet is used for storing binders, computer paper, and language arts manipulatives. I kept our wooden shelves (from A.C. Moore) for teacher's manuals, BFIAR books, writing paper, and homeschool resources. On top of one of the shelves I have our letter writing box (contains addresses, stamps, envelopes, and paper), our notebooking box (for the kids to use when they need to embellish their notebook pages), and our art box (contains drawing paper and supplies).


I really do prefer that my desk and computer are not technically, in the school room. It keeps me from getting distracted. Oh...please ignore the messy cords...I didn't quite get to getting those under control!!


Upon closer look, you'll see that I have another wooden shelf by our bookcase. I keep our music player on this with CD's nearby. It also holds picture and reading books. Our dry erase board hangs between the bookcases too. The maps are on a rolling, flip board. This is great because I can change them out as I need. When I use the dry erase board, I just roll the flip board out of the way. The door on the side leads to our bonus room where I keep more supplies. I hang the kids' reading progress charts on the door as well.


Most of all, I love the windows and all the wonderful light they let in!!


Hope you enjoyed the "tour"!!!

**UPDATE**
Just a quick note if you are wondering if these are the only places we put our books in. Our school room holds only the books we use for school. Luckily, each child's bedroom has built-in bookshelves that hold more books. There are also built-in bookcases in our keeping room, which we have recently been calling our reading room. The master bedroom also has large built-in bookcases where DH and I keep our own books. In the lower living room, I also put some bookshelves to hold even more books. If we kept all our books in the school area, I don't think we'd have enough wall space to hold them all!!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

I'll Be Back!

I've locked myself in and will be diligently working hard on our school room this weekend!! I have all kinds of Catholic homeschool talks on CD playing in the background, so it's my personal conference.

I'll be back in a couple of days!!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Getting Organized for Liturgical Seasons.

This time of year is all about planning and organizing! With a new house, you can bet that all my planning and organizing is ten fold! Besides trying to decide where the bookshelves should go and where the baking dishes would be better stored; there is the excitement of putting books in order, hanging our calendars, planning curricula, and organizing for the liturgical year.

I will tell you that my goal of having a finished school room is still yet not a reality. There are still books and supplies to put away and I have come to the conclusion that it will be a work in progress for the next few weeks. But I can live with that! Better to go nice and slow and get things right, than to hurry up only to want to rearrange things again.

Anyways...back to my planning and organizing. Organizing the liturgical seasons is a fun way to spend a day (well, at least in my book it is!). I recently unpacked a box and found my liturgical year file box. I've cleaned it out and have realized that I'm missing out on some great print-outs, books, and crafts. I'm planning on getting all my resources together and keeping my file box handy!

If you have never had a system for organizing our wonderful Catholic year, I suggest you read my post, "Organizing the Liturgical Year." You will find some great ideas, a list of materials needed, and step by step instructions on how to make your own file box (I have a picture too!).

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Extras

Beware of homeschool conferences and conventions!! Their book fairs are so amazingly full of wonderful materials, that you will be tempted to try everything!! This year has been no exception in me getting overwhelmed with cool, new things. Some I know I can't do, but still think are awesome (My Father's World)...others, I will be incorporating into our school year (see below).

Our schedules are already hectic enough with 5 children and 3 of them doing school. Adding more than I have to is not the best idea all the time, but sometimes you just got to give it a shot! Here are some things I couldn't pass up and how I'll be incorporating them into our homeschool year.




Mind Benders by Critical Thinking Co.

Use during quiet time and free time. A great way to get your kids ready for logic. These are fun and age appropriate.



Wordly Wise 3000

Use during language arts instruction. An updated Wordly Wise is a great way to expand your child’s vocabulary skills.



Owl Pellets

One time use. We are planning a summer unit with friends. Each child gets an owl pellet to dissect.



My Father’s World Toddler and Preschool Kit

During school time. Mostly Lauri puzzles that are great for entertaining little ones while I do school with the older kids.



History Through the Ages Timeline Book and Figures from Homeschool in the Woods

Along with history. We’ve had the timeline figures CD since last year, but never used it. This year I got the timeline book and think that it will complement our studies nicely!



So any new, fun extras you've found this year? I'd love to hear about them!!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Curricula Chosen. Angelicum Academy Wins!

I've finally committed! My research is done, my plans are set. We are enrolling with Angelicum Academy this year again!! I know you probably already knew this; however, I'm tweaking the system to make it work for us. The great thing about Angelicum is that they are flexible and I can borrow from not only different grade levels (as you'll notice I'm doing for Isabella), but also from outside sources. There really is no "one size fits all" curricula out there, which is why homeschooling is such a wonderful thing!

I'm sure if you've looked at what we've done in the past, you'll notice that we are not straying far from the path. My biggest failure this past year was spelling. Spelling Workout was a huge bust and Click n Spell was fun, but not producing results. After much research, I'm giving All About Spelling a go and I'll be combining Marco & Isabella together. I'm excited about using a multisensory approach, which is what I think will produce a better speller for me.

History was my biggest conundrum. Should I continue with History Odyssey or go with Angelicum's history cycle? After much thought, prayer, and back-and-forth emails with Angelicum...I decided to stay with what was working. History Odyssey (HO) is great to use with several kids and all the planning is done for me. My plans are to finish the level 1 cycle with HO and then switch over to Angelicum's cycle. But I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Language arts has been going well for us this past year too, so switching over just didn't make sense to me. Rod & Staff is a super solid grammar program that we enjoyed and I plan on keeping up with it. Writing With Ease has also been producing great results, but I am planning on doing Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) with Marco mid-year, perhaps sooner.

As for religion, we have the most fun with it! I believe that Faith & Life is a great program and combining them with Angelicum's recommended saint books has been a big success. This year Marco made his own saint book and I'm planning on having him continue with another one for this year as well as starting Isabella with one of her own (she is looking forward to it already!). Add some Catholic lapbooks on top of that, and we are set!!

I'm happy that I won't have to worry about making my lesson plans, keeping grades, or even grading some of the kids' writing. Interested in Angelicum? Check them out at www.angelicum.net You can also join the Angelicum Yahoo Group (the button is on the left bar).

Marco 3rd Grade

Religion

Faith & Life 3, Baltimore Catechism, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks

Math

Saxon 54

History

History Odyssey Level 1 Early Modern Times

Literature

Good Books from Angelicum

Phonics

Hooked on Phonics Master Reader

Grammar

Rod & Staff English 3

Writing

Writing With Ease 3, IEW

Spelling

All About Spelling

Handwriting

Zaner Bloser Cursive 3rd Grade

Music

Piano, Stories of the Great Composers

Art/Nature

Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study

Unit Studies

50 States Geography, Animals, anything fun!

Science

Apologia Astronomy with co-op

Cartography

Map Essentials 3


Isabella 1st Grade

Religion

Faith & Life 2, Baltimore Catechism, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks

Math

Saxon 2

History

History Odyssey Level 1 Early Modern Times

Literature

Good Books from Angelicum

Phonics

Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read 2nd Grade

Grammar

Rod & Staff English 2

Writing

Writing With Ease 2

Spelling

All About Spelling

Handwriting

Zaner Bloser 1st Grade

Music

Stories of the Great Composers

Art/Nature

Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study

Unit Studies

50 States Geography, Animals, anything fun!

Science

Apologia Astronomy with co-op

Cartography

Map Essentials 2



Anthony Kindergarten

Religion

Who Am I?, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks

Math

Saxon 1

History

Dinosaurs, History Pockets Ancient Civilizations

Literature

Good Books from Angelicum

Phonics

Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Kindergarten

Spelling

Spelling Connections K

Handwriting

Zaner Bloser Kindergarten

Art/Nature

Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study

Unit Studies

Anything fun!

Science

Dinosaur Study with co-op


Christian Nursery

Religion

Who Am I?

Math

The Shoemaker and the Elves Numbers 1-10, Number flashcards

Literature

Good Books from Angelicum

Language Arts

Alphabet Flash Cards, A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway, Snow White and Town Mouse pre-writing workbooks

Art/Nature

Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, and Pinocchio workbooks

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Get Your Little Children to Mass.


This image is from "My Jesus and I" from Our Mission House Publications.

This book has such lovely images that both my children and I love. I was reminded of this particular picture this morning as I was dressing my 2 year old and I was telling him that Mary wants us to get ready to visit with Jesus. I immediately took the book out and showed him!

Little children have such a natural love of Jesus and Mary that we have to continue to nurture and instill that love in them.


Saturday, June 5, 2010

In the Wee Hours...

Ok...so it's not the wee hours of the morning. But 10:30pm in my house seems pretty late! Just so you know that I'm working hard at getting ALL our books unpacked and our school room fully functional. Deadline? Monday. I'm tired of seeing boxes.

With Mass in the morning and other household duties taking up my Sunday morning, I'm hoping to get as much accomplished as I can by midnight tonight. When the clock strikes twelve, I turn into a pumpkin!!

In the mean time....please enjoy this picture!


Cheers to Being Back!

It's been quite some time since I updated this little part of the blogosphere.  New adventures, new trials, and new seasons in life.  I...