Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop: Curriculum Week

Sigh... I love curriculum. Researching it, purchasing it, planning for it, talking about it, blogging about it. Uh, yeah, this isn't my first blog post about curriculum this year. Or the third. =o)

I have decided that, for the purposes of this particular blog hop, it would be easier to write a new post that incorporates the whole sha-bang into one post. It has nothing to do with being obsessed with curriculum. It's a convenience to my readers so they can read about everything in one place. I'm being nice. Not obsessed. Honestly!

Mackenzie,  Sixth (sniff) Grade

My Mackenzie has a bit of a math phobia. Typical I know, but she's really, really good at it when she doesn't psych herself out. We're talking perfect math scores on her standardized tests for the most part. So this year I'm going to trying to break through this math wall she's built by adding in some living math type options. Fingers crossed! I can't take the crying anymore. Gah!!!

Bible

** What We Believe series - Apologia
** God's Great Covenant, New Testament - Classical Academic Press

Language Arts

** Growing With Grammar 6
** Institute for Excellence in Writing level B
** Word Roots levels A1 and A2
** Sonight Readers and Read Alouds from Core F, Eastern Hemisphere
** Vocabulary/Spelling City - for spelling as needed and select vocabulary from readings

Math

** Math-U-See Zeta
** Life of Fred Decimals (supplement)
** Family Math : The Middle School Years (supplement)

Social Studies

** Sonlight's Core F, Eastern Hemisphere - Finish second half
** Sonlight's Core G, World History part 1 - if we finish Core F early

Science

** Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day - Apologia

Other Stuff

** A Young Scholar's Guide to Composors
** Classical Kids cds
** The World's Greatest Artists
** Visual Latin
** Artistic Pursuits
** Private Piano lessons through Young Musicians of VA
** soccer, basket ball and cheerleading through Beach Junior Athletics

Kayleigh, Preschool 

With Kayleigh, it's all about options. I never know what she's going to be willing to do so I'm ready with a lot of choices this year. It may or may not work for me. lol To quote Mr. Forrest Gump, Kayleigh is "like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get."

She's also really close to a break through with her reading. She knows all of her letters and sounds, has started a nice foundation of sight words, and she's just on the cusp of figuring out blending. It's an exciting time for her. And for me. Mackenzie taught herself to read at a very young age so I didn't get to teach her to read. I'm excited to finally be able to claim that I taught my own child to read instead of having taught everyone elses. lol

Bible

** Raising Rock Stars Preschool Memory Verses
** Sonlight p 4/5 Bible along with Right Choices

Language and Reading

** Language Lessons for Little Ones
** All About Reading pre-1 - finish second half
** Get Ready for the Code series
** You Can Read sight word program

Literature

** Sonlight p 4/5 Exploring God's World
** Before Five in a Row - when we feel like something different

Math

** Math for Young Children
** Mathematical Reasoning
** Math-U-See Primer - first 10 or so lessons only, if we happen to feel like it

Other Stuff

** Maestro Classics/ Classical Kids cds
** World's Greatest Artists - Sit in with Mackenzie for at least the art projects
** Artistic Pursuits - The Way They See It
** Get Set for School - Handwriting Without Tears
** Preschool Music Lessons at Young Musicians of VA
** Dance lessons - Danceland 2, we hope
** Soccer Tots and Basketball Buddies through Beach Junior Athletics - Please note she usually refused to participate. Except for the snack. She always jumps in when it's time for the snack.


So there you have our plan for the 2012-2013 school year. Of course, as we all know, the best of plans change so we'll see how well this one worked out a year from now.

Click the blog hop button at the top of the page to see what other homeschools are using this year. And pop by next week to get a peek into my school room.

The Story of a School Room ~ Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

Next up on the blog hop is another favorite topic for homeschoolers, the classroom space. I love taking a peek at what other people have got going on in their school rooms.

Our school room has gone through some major overhauls over the last few years. The first being one of epic proportions. I've written about it before so I'm going to give you a full recap because it's so amazingly awesome. 

The Story of our School Room

There once was a school room that was...okay.

There was some furniture that was too big for the room and it's purpose. Not nearly enough storage or shelving. We are Sonlighters, after all.

Not to mention the the Wee Babe (yes Kayleigh was a babe when I first wrote this) hated it!!! She'd enter the room and start tearing stuff apart. At one point we moved a book shelf from our living room into it around Christmas (to make room for the tree).  And left it there. Then, we ordered next years curriculum in January and had no place to store it. So it wound up in the middle of the room that the babe had trashed.

The result is in the lower right hand corner... Beware it isn't pretty. Not for the faint of heart. But I like to keep it real. And it was real ugly.

While looking at the pit, my hubby and I made a tough decision to postpone a much anticipated trip to NYC this summer. This has been something we promised our eldest on her 7th birthday. She's 9 now. We decided it wasn't the best use of our $$$ when there were things around the house that wanted to improve. So we broke the news.

We eased the tears with a trip to Build-A-Bear, and signed her up for the drama and church camp she's been wanting to go to. Oh and a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge. Bribery at it's finest.

We replaced the trip to NYC with a trip to IKEA. Oooh, it's not down the road, so we emptied out the van and buckled in. And being the mean parents that we are, we brought some school along with us. Yes, that's right, we canceled her trip and made her do school on the way to a boring store. =o)

We wandered around IKEA with our map and our pencils and furiously scribbled down everything that we we planning on getting. And a few things that called out to us while there. Whoaaa! Look at that cart? Maybe we weren't so wise with the $$$? Of course we were, it's IKEA. Cheap, cheap,cheap. We actualy came out $200 under our limit. Yay wallet!!!

Then we spent about 3 hours total assembling 11 pieces of furniture. Easiest assembly of our lives. IKEA is our new favorite place. Those shelves from Target or Walmart take about 30 minutes a piece. And that's for a small, 3-shelf, bookcase. We built a 6 shelf bookcase from IKEA in 10 minutes.

Then came the sorting, purging, and organizing. Ack!!! Long, not fun work. But we called the "Big Guns" to help with the purging.

Yes, it would have been cheaper to rent a truck or dumpster and haul it out ourselves but we decided our sanity was more important. (I'm a tad on the weakling side. LOL) Plus, we removed a bunch of shrubs that we hated and cleared out the garage while they were at it. They took it all. And they recycle and donate everything that they can. Which saved us several trips to several different places. Worth every penny. If you have it.

And the moment you've all been waiting for... The after shots. Not bad, right? I wasn't really thrilled with the red walls that now clashed with the green and blue bins, but one step at a time.

Today, about two years later, it still looks pretty much the same. Including the red walls. LOL We've added a couple of more pieces, like piano keyboard for our little prodigy and a table for the tot, but for the most part it's the same. And as wonderful as it is, we still do school all over the house and the yard. Well not the yard this year because we'd melt. But when it's not 300 degrees out, we love to school outside. 

If you'd like a closer look, and you happen to be a subscriber to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, you can open your May 2012 issue and get a virtual tour of our classroom. And find out just how fast that I talk in real life. Good luck with that. lol

But don't get yourself too attached to this room. Because guess what? We're going to give it one more major over haul come October. We're moving it one city over into our new house. We're just waiting on completion. But here's a sneak peak at the future home of the Sonlight Academy for Girls...

I can't wait! It's going to be bigger, brighter, and not red. =o) I'm thinking a very pale blue....

Well now that I've shared so it's your turn. What's going on in your schoolroom?

Curriculum Planning, My Style ~ Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

So you know the method behind our homeschool and our curriculum of choice. Next up... what do I do with it all of this stuff? With school just around the corner, it's curriculum planning time. And guess what? I'm totally finished with my planning for the 2012-2013. All of it. For the entire school year. Every last assignment. For both of my children. Seriously... For realz... I'm really on the up and up. Done. And it didn't take as much time as you might think.


Do you want to know my secret to curriculum planning?

Stefanie's Curriculum Planning Secret

It's simple really... it's called Homeschool Tracker. Yep, that's the big secret. I've been using it for about 6 years. It's revolutionized my curriculum planning.  What's so great about it, you ask? Everything.  It tracks attendance, hours, books I own, assignments, grades (weighted or not), transcripts, scope and sequence, chores, field trips, appointments, and a thousand other things that I cannot recall.

There's a Homeschool Tracker Basic (free), Homeschool Tracker Plus ($49 plus free updates forever), and now they offer an online version. I have used Plus pretty much from the get go because it offers more features, including my beloved Lesson Plan feature.

However last year, we ditched all PCs and switched to Macs. A great move for us (and everyone in my NSOHO lol) but HST is only a Windows (boo) based program. Sniff, sniff. Mac users can still use the program but it involves partitioning your hard drive to create a Windows side. Which mean you run Windows on it. Which does two things 1) It makes that your Mac susceptible to viruses via the Windows side. Don't go on the internet on the Windows side. 2) You now have Windows on your Mac which bogs your system down as only Windows can do.

But I loved HST so much that this is what we did. Until they released the Online Version.  I've been Windows free for a month now. Now that Windows has been booted off, I'm back to warp speed baby!!! Woo-hoo!!!!! It's a bit different than the HST+ that I'm used to, but it does everything I need. They even moved ALL OF MY DATA from HST+ to the new program. All of my hard work from the last few years are locked and loaded in the cyber world.

Okay, enough gushing, on to how I do the actual planning.

Step 1

Pray. Got to give it to God first. He's ultimately in control.

Step 2 Create a New School Year

Creating Terms

I choose the start and end dates, number of required days, number of terms, add in known vacation days. Homeschool Tracker tells me how many days I have available. I usually schedule each year for more than 180 because we like to take days off when we like to take days off. It's how we roll. Flexibility is one of the many blessings of homeschooling.

Step 3 Resources

Resources, nice & neat

Next I add the resources that I plan on using for the year. This used to take me forever to type in. Then I noticed the little blue ISBN hyperlink. Type in the ISBN number and it will enter all the information about the resource: title, author, publisher, type of resource. Fabulous! Even better, go to Amazon and just copy the ISBN numbers from the site and just past them in. Saves a lot of typing.  And it even includes a little thumbnail of the cover. That thrills me to no end and it will come in handy seven years from now when I need to find the books for Kayleigh. I'll know exactly what I'm looking for.

Step 4 Create Plans

My Lesson Plans for the Year

Next on the agenda is to create the lesson plans using the lesson plan feature. First I name the plan. Generally I name it after the resource or the core. My Sonlight cores get one lesson plan per core. So all the Bible, history, readers, and read alouds will be under one lesson plan. All other resources get their own individual plans. That's just my personal preference that's geared to how my mind works. Limited workings as they might be. lol


Once the plans are created, I can start entering assignments for the year. That's right, for the entire year. Some of them are incredibly easy because I can use the auto increment feature. I can set up all the assignments for the year in minutes. Math is usually like this and books where you only read one chapter a day. The auto increment feature lets you zoom right through that process with ease.

Auto increment makes planning easy

Other assignments can take quite a bit longer because you have to type in everything individually. It does take some time to set up but it's well worth it in the long run. I have the time to do all this during the summer when we're not schooling or doing a lighter load. To have to do this in the school year would just be painful. By entering all of the assignments for the year now, I save myself a lot of time when I'm busy teaching.

Lessoning planning during the school year is just a few clicks to choose assignments for the week and then printing out the assignment sheet. It takes me less than ten minutes once a week. That is such a blessing for me.

The Lesson Plan feature is hands down my favorite thing about Homeschool Tracker. I heart it!

A Sample of our Core Plans for the Year

 With the lesson plan feature you can create reusable lesson plans. As in you can reuse them with subsequent children. And not have to enter all of the assignments again. I use Sonlight as the spine for our homeschool. Do you see how huge this is for me? I only have to type in the assignments for the 8 billion books per core once. Just once! And I can use them again for all my children. Okay, I only have two but still that saves hours and hours and hours of work. lol

When Kayleigh moves up to the levels that I have entered as lesson plans, all that I'm going to have to do is click on the assignments I want to use for that week and submit them to the weekly plan. How fabulous is that? Just look at that screen shot. I just have to click on the assignments I want and then print them out. Soooo easy! (And psssstttt...you can even share lesson plan files with other HST users. And they can share theirs. You could potentially plan your year by just exploiting importing somebody else's hard work.)

Easy to Reschedule

And if we don't get to everything I have planned, rescheduling is just a couple of more clicks. The reschedule feature is my second favorite thing about HST. When I go back in HST to enter grades (just the # possible and # correct mind you, HST figures out the rest for you) I just use the reschedule tool to move items that we didn't complete. It's so simple. It's so much easier then having to erase and rewrite on a regular planner. And tidier too. I can reschedule a bunch of assignments in about 30 seconds.

Since flexibility is one of the keys to successful homeschooling, I have to tell you that having our assignments for the year entered does not restrict us in any way. If I choose skip assignments, it's as easy as not scheduling them. Into the archives they go. If I want to add a new find or a review item, it's just as simple. I can add them as regular assignments without creating a fancy-smancy lesson plan for them. Rabbit trails?? Again, just don't schedule assignments until I'm ready to use them.

Assignment Report ready to be completed

So tell me, what are your curriculum planning secrets? Particularly from you parents of highschoolers. I need to take notes because I've only got three more years til we hit there. Waaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!

And be sure to click the button at the top of the post and see my Crew Mates takes on curriculum planning are. Tomorrow we're talking school rooms...don't forget to stop by and see mine.


P.S. Are you looking for free homeschool curriculum? I'm currently giving away Learning About God from A to Z, ends 8/5, Preschool Art, ends 8/6, and From Head to Toe, ends 8/7. And more give aways  coming.

The Curriculum Journey ~ Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

Ahhhh, curriculum...Every homeschooler's favorite topic. We love to discuss, look at it, buy it. It's a bit of an obsession, wouldn't you say?

And who could blame us? It's not our fault. There's always something new out there that we have to try, right? It might be better then what we're currently using so we're obligated to check it out. It might be the one that puts our child's education over the top.

It's an easy trap to fall into, isn't it? I know I've been tempted with the latest and greatest a time or two. And finding the right curriculum can be a journey in and of itself. After eight years, I think I've figured out what works best for my oldest down. Finally. I hope. :o)

The easiest curriculum choice for me was the one I chose for our spine. Sonlight. Just typing the name of that curriculum gives me a warm fuzzy. Books, books, books and more books. Sigh...

Interestingly, Sonlight also is one of the ways that God led me to homeschooling. I met and online friend who was homeschooling her children with it and I would just devour her posts about it. It will always have a soft spot in my heart.

Mackenzie, being a book-aholic like her mama, has thrived with it. Kayleigh goes crazy for the books too. It's definitely a keeper for us. It's pricey but it's been worth every penny. Mackenzie, about to enter sixth grade, still rereads books from the first core that we purchased. In fact, we bought the first four cores believing that we were only going to be using them for one child, so yeah, we really like it. Our bonus baby, Kayleigh, is helping us really get our money's worth. lol

We even enjoyed the science. Their language arts however...not our cup of tea. We've used Sonlight's LA twice. Once for K and again when they redid it. It was not for us either time. So we moved on to Learning Language Arts Through Literature. We used the red book and we liked it a lot. Covered all the necessary skills, threw in some cute little crafty stuff. It was a good year. Unfortunately I didn't care for the next level. So guess what? We moved on. To First Language Lessons.

This was the grammar curriculum of our dreams. We love, love, love, love, loved it! For four glorious years. Then we were ready to move onto Susan Wise Bauer's Advanced Language Lessons. She let us use the first 15 weeks for free!! It was wonderful. Then SWB pulled the rug out from underneath our LA love fest. She decided not to publish ALL after all. Oh how cruel!!! I still have a hard time talking about it. Sniff,

So we've moved on, again... to Growing With Grammar. And it's good and solid. We both like it. We don't love it like we did FLL but it has it's pluses. Like it's much less teacher intensive then FLL/ALL. She can do it all on her own. And that leaves me time to spend with the little one. God knows best. Always. Amen!

Math? We've been through a few math programs in our time too. lol We started with Saxon K. I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't like using it when I was a traditional school teacher and I didn't like it as a homeschooler. Teeny, tiny Mackenzie squeaked out one day, "Mommy, whhhhhyyyy do we have to do patterns agaiiinnnn???? Whhhyyyy??? I'm smart, I only need to do it once." Who could argue with that logic? Do we really need 120 lessons on patterns for the small fry? I think not.

On to Singapore. Loved it. Would still be using it if it weren't for the previously mentioned "latest & greatest curriculum trap." You see someone mentioned Math-U-See to me. I was intrigued. I ordered the demo dvd. I watched it once and was a thousand times better at math.  Instantly. We switched. It's been awesome. God knows best. Always. Amen!

I was almost tempted again by Teaching Textbooks. God told me NO! He's always right you know. But it does look great and I've heard nothing but positive things about it. That being said, I hope Kayleigh does well with MUS too. I already have all of the DVDs and IGs. lol

Science was always Sonlight at first. We loved it. It came with all the required supplies for the experiments. That's really all that this mama needs to be happy. Everything in one box so I don't have to go on a hunt for experiment supplies. I'm easy like that.

Then trap was sprung again, in the form of Apologia science. A unit approach to science. Interesting. And you could buy a supply box. So we used the astronomy course and it was a pretty good year.  I wasn't totally sold yet so I decided to alternate between Sonlight and Apologia science. Now days we do strictly Apologia. For Kayleigh, I think I'll do Sonlight science for the first couple of years and then switch to Apologia in 2nd or 3rd grade.

Our Bible studies are a true testament to our eclecticness. LOL We've used quite a few. There is the Bible of course. Woot! We've used Sonlight's Bible options, Apologia's What We Believe series, Classical Academic Press, Grapevine Studies Stick Figuring Through the Bible, Bible Study Guide for All Ages... We've enjoyed them all.

Writing... I don't want to talk about writing. LOL We're still looking for our perfect fit. Next up on our list of things to try is Institute for Excellence in Writing. Fingers crossed!

So there you have a, rather long-winded, short version of our curriculum journey. Shew! If you're interested in all everything that we're using for this year click the tabs at the top of my page. There's one for our Sixth Grade curriculum and one for our Preschool curriculum.

So tell me, what is your favorite curriculum?


P.S. I'm giving away a copy of Learning About God from A to Z this week. Check it out. Ends 8/5. And a copy of Preschool Art: It's the Process, Not the Product. Ends 8/6.

Click the button at the top of the page to see what my Crew Mate's thoughts on curriculum are. And be sure to come back tomorrow for a peek on how I do my homeschool planning.

Pick a Method, Any Method ~ Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

Classical, unit studies, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, school-at-home, Waldorf, unschooling, online... Homeschooling methods are as varied as homeschoolers themselves. And each homeschooler has their own take on the methods themselves. There is nothing cookie-cutter about a home education. And I don't know about you, but that is my favorite part.

So what's the method of madness for our homeschool? Do we have a classical bent? Do I spend hours creating amazing unit studies? Do we spend tons of time out in nature?

The answer...yes, no, maybe, sometimes. All of the above. None of the above.

I guess that makes us eclectic. lol Although some days it does just seem like plain, old madness.

I personally don't subscribe to one particular method. We use bits and pieces of several different methods and make them something unique to our family. We get our love of living books and composer/artist studies from Charlotte Mason. If we find a subject that we can't get enough of, we'll do a little unit study. We've used a few text books in our time. I've even been known to use a bit of the Montessori method.

Eclectic in our house is always evolving. Since homeschooling allows me to tailor my children's education to them, our methods change as they do. What we're using this year might not be the best fit for the next year. What worked for Mackenzie might not be the right fit for Kayleigh. Each year is a new adventure and it's never like the one before it.

There are some things that have managed to remain constant...

**Living Books over Text Books. There are never enough books!
**Field Trips and lots of them. Some to learn, some just to have fun.
**Don't forget the arts!
**Manipulatives are fun! Especially for math.
**Science should be messy. Sometimes.
**Get out the paint and glitter once in a while. Even if makes for extra clean-up.
**God first. Although I chose to save the best for last in this instance. =o)

So tell me, what method(s) do you prefer in your homeschool?


Click the links below to see what methods my Crew Mates prefer. And be sure to stop by tomorrow so we can talk about every homeschooler's favorite subject...Curriculum!!!

P.S. I'm giving away a copy of Learning About God from A to Z this week. Check it out.

The Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

is almost here!  

If there's one thing that we homeschoolers love, it's back to school time. Not only do we get to hit school supply sales, purchase curriculum, plan, and teach but we get to continue to hang out with our precious gifts from above.

Join me and my Crew Mates as we spend five days talking about all things homeschool... Methods, curriculum, planning, classrooms, and co-ops.

The fun runs from July 30 to August 3. So be sure to stop on by and take a peek behind the scenes in our homeschool.