We started school last week, so we have one full week under our belts! WhoHoo 😉 As much as I would have maybe waited a few more weeks before starting, I know that starting now is going to give me more room to relax and be able to be looser with our schooling around the time Baby is born in November. Plus, I was feeling we needed some stronger structure to our days anyway right now to help keep the boys busy and out of trouble, so it really made sense to start sooner than later.
I still have some planning I would like to, well I guess NEED to get done in the next couple weeks. But I didn’t want to plan our weeks out too far till I saw how things are working. I am also still considering a couple of options in 2 subjects… mainly do I need to include them at this stage of the boys education or should I wait another year or two and add them in 😉
I took one evening a couple of weeks ago and planned out our daily routine and schedule. I do like a nice schedule, though with many young children living here, it usually becomes more like a basic routine as we move from one thing to another. About the only consistent factor in our days is meals and naptime! And yes, even after just a week, there are a couple of things I am finding I need to tweak. But, I am liking our routine overall, spreading out school a little more and getting consistent in bedtimes. I have also planned very simple meals this month to help ease our way into the school year. Watch for the menu post later this week!
When I planned our day, I planned it out 3 different ways. One is “normal school day”, where we are home all day and able to do school and housework accordingly. The second is a “modified school day” for the days when I would like to plan to go a ladies Bible study in the morning or we end up needing to do work stuff for my husband, but I am still home the second half of the day and want to try to get school accomplished those days. The last is an “Off day”, I am only planning our school weeks for 4 days of schooling and 1 day for errands or bigger household tasks or catch up. So, I planned out a day that still has some structure, but gives me freedom to not do school and be flexible in what needs done.
(Hopefully this link works if you would like to see the routines I am currently working off of!)
This years curriculum…..
I have a 7-year-old 1st grader and a 5 1/2-year-old Kindergartener that are formally in school this year. Both boys. I also have an almost 4-year-old girl I am doing preschool work with as she has the desire a couple of times a week. Other than that she sits and colors or plays nearby while I do school with the boys. I also have a just turned 2-year-old boy and a little girl who will be 1 in September and then the baby boy who is coming in early November. It’s quite a challenging age range now, as none of them are exactly “self-starting” or able to do much, if anything, on their own or without close supervision.
We are starting with the Tapestry of Grace curriculum this year. I was drawn to it for its strong Biblical and christian emphasis as well as it’s conducive-ness to teaching multiple levels easily using the same core and having the kids do work at their own level. I can see it being a good core curriculum for our family for a long time since I will have many children at close, but differing levels of schooling and TOG seems to be very geared for this. I am really excited about what I have seen and read in TOG thus far and am looking forward to it.
For my 1st grader we are doing:
History, Literature, Geography & Writing: Tapestry of Grace
Math: Rod and StaffMath Level 1, Book 2 (we did book 1 last yr)
Bible: 24 Family Ways and Awana verses at church
Memory Work: Veritas Press Timeline Cards
Reading/Phonics: First Language Lessons and I am working with him to be reading aloud at least 15 minutes a day (combination of school reading, Bible and science books) plus working on him beginning to spend time reading to himself (Bible, science books and some classics at his level)
Science: I will include many science based books in his reading list or stack I get from the library for him to read through.
For my Kindergartener we are doing:
History, Literature, Geography & Writing: Tapestry of Grace
Math: Rod & Staff Math Level 1, book 1
Bible: 24 Family Ways and Awana verses at church
Reading/Phonics: Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading
For the Preschool ages we are doing:
Many workbooks, coloring books and such gathered from sales and the $1 store, Puzzles, Leapfrog DVD’s and I got these 123/abc books from Rod & Staff
The kids also all have a “quiet box” with age appropriate items to play, color, etc with either while I am doing school with other kids or during naptime for the older boys. These include some flash cards and fun workbooks, coloring books, reading books, and some quiet play things like magnet letters, etc.
So, that’s what I have now. I am looking at some handwriting options and seeing what we will do there and honestly, probably won’t start anything too formal till after Christmas. I am also looking at some different math options, but at the moment we have the Rod & Staff workbooks for them to work through at their pace.
A couple of cute quotes from our first few days:
My boys asked when we were going to take a field trip to Egypt. (We are currently studying Ancient Egypt, so he wanted to go see the pyramids!) I told him that a trip to Egypt wasn’t real feasible and I didn’t really have plans to go there 😉 That Egypt is quite far away and it would take a long time, a lot of money and all to visit there. I told him, “Plus, remember on your world map, how far Egypt is from where we are? There’s a huge big ocean in between us that we would have to cross”. His reply to that was “Well, we could ask God to help us walk on water, you know nothing is impossible with Him”. Oh the faith and innocence of a child ;-)How do you reply to THAT? We decided that we would visit the library and try to find some nice DVD’s that showed the pyramids for now.
Also, as we were discussing the various subjects and matter for this year,my oldest suggested we learn Gaelic sign language. Uh, yeah…. wasn’t on my list…. don’t exactly know American Sign Language yet….. any idea if Signing Time comes in Gaelic? 🙂
This post is linked to Modest Mom’s Modest Monday’s and iHomeschool Network’s Not Back to School Blog Hop
We are TOG users too. Happy Homeschooling! Stopping by from the blog hop.
Kelly
Just stumbled upon your blog. We too use TOG and have a wide range of ages. Oldest is 14, youngest is 11 months. He was born last October, so we started school in JULY!!!! What you wrote made me smile, thinking back to last year, knowing once the baby came school would take a back seat to life 🙂
We started early last year too since I had one in September, I figured it would help if I had gotten into a good school routine before she arrived so it would be easier to get back into it after she arrived! Schools in our area usually start by mid august anyway, so it’s not terribly early for our area and I love the extra pad it gives me to take a week off here and there as we need it 😉