Meet the Students

The 2013-2014 Sonlight Academy for Girls
student roster 

Favorite Subject: Snack

Least Favorite Subject: Anything involving a pencil or crayon

Favorite Color: Rainbow

Favorite Book: Tickle Tuts Toes

Favorite Song: He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Aspirations: To drive her parents crazy!!

Loves: Rocks, My Little Pony, Food

One Word Description: Exhausting!!







Favorite Subject: Sonlight

Least Favorite Subject: Math (Although she LOVES Mr. Demme)

Favorite Color: Teal

Favorite Book: Septimus Heap series

Favorite Music: Disney Songs

Aspirations: To be Alice at Disney World (I'm not making this up.)

Loves: Reading, Instagram, Disney

One Word Description: DRAMA!!!

Welcome to Our School

It's time for the annual Not-Back-To-School Blog Hop, School Room Edition.  We moved this past year so we have a brand, new school room. It's radically different from our Old Room.

We just LOVE it!!! So without further ado, here's the grand tour, working counter clock-wise from the door.

To your right next to the door, you have a strange little niche. It houses a small book shelf with some of our older Sonlight Cores, my laminator (woot!), and our All About Reading board. We have a lot of book shelves and they suck up most of our wall space. So there the board sits. It works out fine for us to sit on the floor and work on reading. 

Next up, our circle time area. Those windows are my absolute favorite part of the room. So much natural light!!! Kayleigh spends a lot of time here doing calendar, Bible, and read alouds. Some storage bins from Ikea hang out there too.

We use the wall space here for Kayleigh's Bible time line cards and to show off her hard work. She loves to show her daddy what she did at school.

Next up is my desk area that I rarely use. The kid's computer is there as well as the printer. I love the photo hanger on the wall, which I use for art. You can get them at Target. So cute and many styles. 

On the other side of the piggies, Cherry and Luna, is Mackenzie's domain. I'm afraid to open her desk draw and see what lives in there. She also has a spot for her art. Kayleigh's work boxes provide a nice table for those messy piggies. Kayleigh doesn't have a desk, just a little table to work at. Next time I'm near Ikea I'm getting something bigger. I'm old and my back cannot take those little chairs for much longer.

Our book cases and storage bins. We use Sonlight and we need lots of book cases. We could actually use a few more because I've got 3 or 4 more Sonlight cores packed away for lack of room. This upsets Mackenzie because she LOVES to reread those Sonlight books. The poor dear is clearly deprived of reading material.

Last stop on the tour, the back of the room. A door to get out and a closet filled with stuff. I'd show you the inside but the pictures came out blurry and I'm too lazy to retake them. Nothing falls out when you open the doors, unless Kayleigh has been digging in there, so it's managed to stay semi-orderly.

The desks, storage units, book cases, and filing cabinet all came from Ikea. I forget what style the desks were but the storage units, with bins, are all part of the Trofast System. And the shelves are the Billy book cases. I HEART Ikea!!!!

And there you have it, The Sonlight Academy of Girls.  Thanks for visiting!!! Don't forget to tour other school rooms by clicking the blog hop graphic below!

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

This week is student week on the Not-Back-to School Blog Hop. So without further ado, here are the students of the Sonlight Academy for Girls.

Sonlight Academy for Girls 2012-2013 Class Roster

Favorite Subject: Sonlight

Least Favorite Subject: anything with "Winter Joke" Promise

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Book: Harry Potter series

Favorite Music: One Direction

Loves to: read, piano, art

One Word Description: DRAMA!

Favorite Subject: Snack

Least Favorite Subject: Coloring

Favorite Color: Pink

Favorite Book: Three Sleepy Kittens

Favorite Song: All in All (or Jesus Lamb of God as she calls it)

Loves: rocks, tape measures, and small dolls with hair to brush

One Word Description: Crazy!

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.

Not-Back-To-School Blog Hop: Meet the Students

 

Mackenzie

Fifth Grade

Favorite Subject: Science

Least Favorite: Anything published by Winter Promise

One Word Description: drama, Drama, DRAMA!!

Kayleigh

Tot School

Favorite Subject: Snack

Least Favorite: Nap

One Word Description: TROUBLE!!

(Not) Back-to-School Blog Hop: Week Two, The School Room

This week's topic is the school room.  We are very blessed to have a dedicated space for school and storage.  I'm not saying that we do all of our work there but quite a bit.

Looking in from the door.  Our main bookshelves, which house some of our Sonlight cores, tot books, instructor guides, and whatever else I shove on there.   On the right, holding my beloved Canon printer, is the shelf where I keep Kayleigh's activities.  She used to have tot trays on the lower shelves but I need those shelves for books.  So the trays are now in drawers.   In the center is Kayleigh's table and in back is Mackenzie's keyboard.  It has a place of honor next to my laminator.  =o)

Standing in the back of the room you can see the desks for Mackenzie and I.  Since we've moved to all Macs I can now keep my current IGs where the cpu tower used to go.  I LOVE that they are right next to me when I need them.  It might be my favorite part of the room at the moment. LOL

The other side of the room is a lot of storage.  Math manipulatives, art supplies, science stuff, educational toys and games.  The closet there is chock full too.  It's still semi-organized since our redo last year.  (If you're bored, go check out the before pictures in our school room makeover.   Frightening. LOL)

Things I'd like to change...

The wall color.  It red doesn't go at all with my colorful trofast bins from IKEA.  It was red when we moved in.  That I might be able to change soon since the it's chief-selectee season and those guys will be looking to make $$$$.  They'd be happy to move all of those bookshelves and paint.  

I'd rather have just a window instead of the door wall.  That's never going to happen while I live there.  I don't care that much.

More wall space to hang maps and such.  

The tinkerbell table.  It clashes and I don't like things with characters on them. LOL  I'm still kicking myself for not getting a little table for Kayleigh while we were at IKEA spending all of our money.   Still tinkerbell is better than nothing.  I'll fix that next time.

All in all I love it.  The furniture, except for Tink, all comes from Ikea.  I've got Billy Bookshelves, lots of Trofast storage bins, and I don't remember the name of the desk.  The chairs are from are old dining set though. 

Not-Back-To-School Blog Hop: Student Week

This week on the blog hop we're supposed to share student photos. Here's our class roster for the 2010-2011 school year. I'm in the middle of working with their "official" school year photos so you'll have to make do with this. LOL

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

The curriculum day is probably my favorite day of the blog hop. What homeschooler isn't a curriculum junkie? I have a whole page on my blog dedicated to our curriculum. You can view it here. We're very excited about fourth grade! And if you're interested in what my toddler "uses" click here.

I can't wait to see what everyone else is using. Click the picture above to join in the blog hop.

Oh, it's that time again!! Time for one of my favorite blog hops of the year. The Not Back-to-School Blog Hop. A time to share your curriculum, school space, students, and how you do things. Consider linking up and sharing how school works at your house. I'm always inspired by this blog hop. Hop on over to Heart of the Matter and join in the fun. You can ever check out last years hop.

Carnival of Homeschooling: The Story of a School Room

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling host, Sprittibee, asked, "What does your homeschool, schooling room look like?"

A few months ago she'd probably have been sorry that she asked me that. :o)

Here's our story...
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 enough storage or shelving. We are Sonlighters, after all.

Not to mention the the Wee Babe hated it!!! She'd enter the room and start tearing stuff apart. Plus we moved a living room shelf into the room around Christmas (to make room for the tree) and never took it out. Not to mention, we ordered nexts 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...(Beware it isn't pretty. Not for the faint of heart.)

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)

Here's the proof.

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 the 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.

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

It's time for another edition of Darcy's Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop.


This week were are supposed to blog about our school rooms, so here's mine.








We are very blessed to have a room just for school in this house. That being said, we aren't in it that much. We do most of our school in the living/dining room.

The number one reason is that the wee babe, for whatever reason, is very disagreeable in this room. We have toys and activities that are just for this room and yet she's fussy.

I guess it's alright for now. The couch is better for snuggling with a good book anyway.