Curriculum Writing and Planning

So in the theme of keeping it to a shoestring budget I decided to write/plan most of the curriculum myself. Why not, I'm a writer...

Easier said then done... I'm using a lot of free downloaded pieces but realized I still have some holes... We are going to base our theme for most of the year around Biblical Creation... For Science as well as Bible and a little History. I wanted to carry the theme into Reading and Art. Art is pretty easy as I will be trying to reinforce the science and Bible through Arts and Crafts.  Reading , well I will be using the old fashion MaGuffy's readers as well as a lot of story books relating to the various stages of Creation. It is amazing to me that I can plan the majority of a school year using the 6 days of Creation. Obviously I will be supplementing for certain "holidays" and "events" that need to be taught or focused on... i/e the election, the olympics, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Easter, etc...

We will be doing lapbooks this year alot , actually our lapbook for Creation has expanded from a lapbook to a 2" notebook that will include 6 section with all the mini books and pages. I also hope to include a second notebook of the alphabet. I picked up a set of Alphabet divider tabs at Staples today, so we now have 27 dividers for the ABC book... (1 table of contents tab and 26 letters) I was happy to see that each letter had a tab.

Anyway, ramblings aside, we are planning the year with a theme and basically 1 very large Unit Study... (I was going to spend 6 weeks on each day of creation, but I think I'm going to revamp that plan...) .

Bouncing into Summer

As many of you know I love Goodwill and Freecycle...
Well, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time as a friend was preparing to take a used hand me down Bouncy House to Goodwill. He asked if I thought Mike could fix it for the boys and would he want it... Heck yah!!! so we are now the proud owners of the Bouncy Castle...

Keep it Real.. ideas

I found a wonderful blog today...  Keepin' it Real where she shares what I like to call reality checks on home and homeschool... Check it out...

Lapbook Work Day

Today we worked on our lapbooks about Cars and Route 66.

Nathan decorated his TOT Book  and Cameron worked on a couple word puzzles from his CARS activity book  that we will add to the lapbook.[gallery]

This was also our first day of school in the "Classroom". I found a couple things I need to tweak.. The biggie is a chair or something for Mommy to sit at the table with the boys.  And I still need to work on finding homes for supplies and such... But, overall I think it will work.

Train Park

The boys (all 3) went to a birthday party at the train park on Saturday while Mommy stayed home and cleaned house... Anyway, they had a lot of fun... A day out with Daddy always seems hard for Daddy until they get home and have had so much fun they don't know which story to tell first..

VBS!!!!!

If you live in the Dayton/ Amity / Hopewell areas and have kids preK - 5th grade... We are doing our Vacation Bible School, Cosmic City July 21-24 9-11:30 at Unionvale Countryside Church. drop me a note here and I will send you more information..
I am really praying for 30-40 kids this year and praying for growth in our little church. Coordinating is harder than I thought but I know the kids will be blessed for all the work we have put into it.

No Power , No Play

UGH! the power supply to my main computer died! I thought I had a spare but it didn't work out... So I'm taking the machine apart and am going to move the hard drive to my linux box so... I guess I'll be living a dual boot lifestyle... annoying as it is, I'm glad I have the other computer to work with... I can work on my laptop but it is old and slow... locks up often and is generally just for writing/ blogging... can't really do my graphics work on it... Oh well, guess I will have to start saving for a new machine (hopefully I can find something XP and less than 3 years old... for not a lot of cash...)

Homeschool Virtual Seminar

This weekend I took the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful online tool for homeschoolers.

Let's Get Organized for the New School Year
A Weekend Virtual Seminar with Cindy Rushton

If you haven't heard of Cindy Rushton you have to check out her blogs.. www.CindyRushton.com  She is an absolutely amazing woman. I learned so much and was able to leave with the confidence that I can actually do homeschool and be the Mom my boys needs.  I went ahead and bought the seminar so I have access to all the bells and whistles, but you can listen to the seminars live for free. There is another wonderful seminar scheduled for August 8 and 9.  I will post links later, but if you are a homeschooling mom you have to check her out!!

The Mom Blogs

If you're a Mom and you blog , check it out!!!

Organization and the "classroom"

As we are working out the kinks in our homeschool, I decided to move us to a new "classroom"... Since I needed the wall space for the chalk boards and the calendar and the weather station we needed a new spot... So, we are rearranging the laundry room to do double duty... Keep in mind the room was originally a kitchen when the house was first built in the late 40's so the room is good sized... We also have access to the backyard via the "mud room" so it works out great...

Here are some photos of our organization and the "classroom.

[wp_caption id="attachment_10" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Cameron can draw or write on his chalk board"][/wp_caption]

[wp_caption id="attachment_11" align="aligncenter" width="477" caption="Lapbooks and file folder games"][/wp_caption]

I will post our complete lapbook photos tomorrow... we have our Dragonfly Lapbook done and wanted to share it...  Still working on our "cars" books with both boys, hope to finish up next week.

Bouncing into Summer

As many of you know I love Goodwill and Freecycle...
Well, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time as a friend was preparing to take a used hand me down Bouncy House to Goodwill. He asked if I thought Mike could fix it for the boys and would he want it... Heck yah!!! so we are now the proud owners of the Bouncy Castle... It has a couple small leaks but Mike modified the blower so it keeps up pretty well.



The boys are having a blast... It was a blessing as I thought they were going to drive me crazy this week. (they haven't been to Grandma's house in almost 2 weeks...)
Anyway Thank you to our friends A & J for sharing...

Summer Blog Give Away

Stop by Angela's blog, she is giving away a great planner... She also has some other great ideas and a fun read.