We went shopping today for a few supplies, and to compare some costs! We are using a milk crate filing system for all of our school work. Each month will have a file, with folders for each week. In there I will put all of the work we will need for each day. It's going to be great! I already have the stuff sorted and printed, but I need to get the supplies to put it together!
We bought some more small school supplies also. I keep stocking up on crayons, markers, glue, etc everytime we go to walmart or target. It's so cheap this time of year, it makes sense to really create a stockpile! I did go cheap today and bought non-crayola crayons though!
Tomorrow we'll pick up a bunch more supplies. We'll get the items needed to organize our school work, a math workbook for Casten (found a GREAT one from Sylvan today at Sam's! It's very detailed, and has some fun activities for him to do when he wants extra work!), our accordian files for daily work, and I'll also order most of our curriculum! The kids are BEGGING me to start school now!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Back to School!
Summer is coming to an end. Yes, it's only the end of July, and we still have August to look forward to, but for the Queen family it's time to start school again!!!
This will be our last week of summer! We are spending it getting the house a bit more organized, fitting in a few last minute fun things, and collecting all of our curriculum! The kids are excited to start schoolwork again. We are really excited for the curriculum we've chosen. I think it will be perfect for our family!
We have run into an issue for Casten, he's between grade levels. He is at about a mid-first grade level. Some of the first grade stuff is just too easy, and a lot of the second grade stuff is a bit tough. Ultimately this only applies to language arts and math. We've decided to keep him at a first grade level for language, but for math we are doing a quick two month first grade review with workbooks from Sam's and will hop into second grade math in October! Alyssa will repeat 2nd grade math this year. She really struggles with math, and we are hoping that by repeating the 2nd grade math it will really stick with her. Miss Maizie will be doing preschool. I am putting together her curriculum. It worked wonderfully for the first two kids, why change it? Both Casten and Alyssa went into kindergarten reading, and way ahead of the rest of the class in all subjects!
For Math this year, we are using Math Mammoth. http://www.mathmammoth.com/ I have read some great reviews of the program. I love the fact that it's a download, so I can use it over and over for each kid! It is also very budget friendly. I was afraid to spend too much money on a math program, since I'm not sure what level the kids will be at. Teaching this, Alyssa might really "get it" and we'll be buying a 3rd grade program before the end of the year. I felt the same way about buying the 1st grade program for Casten (which I have since decided against) I have some supplemental workbooks to go along with this if it's needed and some great online resources as well!
We have run into an issue for Casten, he's between grade levels. He is at about a mid-first grade level. Some of the first grade stuff is just too easy, and a lot of the second grade stuff is a bit tough. Ultimately this only applies to language arts and math. We've decided to keep him at a first grade level for language, but for math we are doing a quick two month first grade review with workbooks from Sam's and will hop into second grade math in October! Alyssa will repeat 2nd grade math this year. She really struggles with math, and we are hoping that by repeating the 2nd grade math it will really stick with her. Miss Maizie will be doing preschool. I am putting together her curriculum. It worked wonderfully for the first two kids, why change it? Both Casten and Alyssa went into kindergarten reading, and way ahead of the rest of the class in all subjects!
For Math this year, we are using Math Mammoth. http://www.mathmammoth.com/ I have read some great reviews of the program. I love the fact that it's a download, so I can use it over and over for each kid! It is also very budget friendly. I was afraid to spend too much money on a math program, since I'm not sure what level the kids will be at. Teaching this, Alyssa might really "get it" and we'll be buying a 3rd grade program before the end of the year. I felt the same way about buying the 1st grade program for Casten (which I have since decided against) I have some supplemental workbooks to go along with this if it's needed and some great online resources as well!
For language arts, we will be going with a series that I have read amazing reviews on!We are using the Growing with Grammar books, http://www.growingwithgrammar.com/ . We are really excited to use these! It's a set of 3 workbooks for the kids. They have great information for the kids and the work that goes along with it is simple, yet challenging. This program we'll do by the appropriate grade level (Casten in 1st, Alyssa in 3rd). We'll be doing all 3 books, Growing With Grammar (GWG), Winning With Writing (WWW) and Soaring With Spelling (SWS).
Recently, I've fallen in love with another homeschool blog. I'm amazed at the creativity and organization of some of the homeschool parents out there! How these people have time to teach their multiple children, keep their house clean and running smoothly, AND run these amazing blogs, I don't know! This blog, http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/ is one of these! This woman has come up with some amazing unit studies, some of which she has for free, and others that are a small download fee. While trying to piece together some electives, I stumbled upon her blog. She had exactly what I was looking for! We will be using her Roadtrip: A journey across the United States for geography and history this year. It's an amazing program, that I think the kids will find really fun! We will also use her studies on artists and composers! I think the kids will have a lot of fun with those! I'm using some of her preschool sheets for Maizie also.
For Science, I'm putting that together! Some of my favorite programs out there are ones that are pieced together with books, and experiments. I'm using those as a guide for subjects to study and going from there. Our first study will be on the human body. We are excited about that one! That will last 2 months and cover a whole variety of topics. Jay and I are most excited for the healthy eating part. We are hoping to teach the kids about good nutrition and get them to try some new things! Hey, parents can dream, right?
In addition to all of these fun things, we'll also be doing our Bible and character studies. We'll continue on with learning more about our amazing God and his love. We'll focus on why it is important to know our Creator and to study His word. We'll also learn how to be a family of faith, and to become the kind of people God has created us to be!
All in all, I think this is going to be a great year! With us starting early, we should be able to take some time off when Baby Fire Alarm gets here. The kids are so excited to start this school year and they absolutely cannot wait for our new baby to get here. I hear at least once a day, "Is it time for the baby to come out yet?" or "I wish it was Christmas,so Baby Fire Alarm were here already!" (Fire Alarm is the name Casten has chosen for this child. He thinks it's the perfect name, and we have found it's a funny nickname! Of course if this baby is a boy, he just might end up being named that! No ideas for good boy names this time!!!)
All in all, I think this is going to be a great year! With us starting early, we should be able to take some time off when Baby Fire Alarm gets here. The kids are so excited to start this school year and they absolutely cannot wait for our new baby to get here. I hear at least once a day, "Is it time for the baby to come out yet?" or "I wish it was Christmas,so Baby Fire Alarm were here already!" (Fire Alarm is the name Casten has chosen for this child. He thinks it's the perfect name, and we have found it's a funny nickname! Of course if this baby is a boy, he just might end up being named that! No ideas for good boy names this time!!!)
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