Making Changes

We're a month into our new school year and things are going really well.  We've headed into 2nd grade, and things are definitely getting more serious.  We finished everything up last May and then I spent the entire beginning of summer researching and planning out what we were going to do this year.  I planned to go in the same direction we had been and ordered some different Abeka & BJU curriculum.  When they got here and I looked through everything it just seemed very daunting and not at all exciting.  I was dreading planning it all out and spending so much time in the "classroom."  I then saw yet another post on Sonlight which I had completely disregarded in the past as not school-ish enough and not our style.  I read about it though and then started to research it a bit more with an open mind and actually got excited about it.  I started thinking bout how our school doesn't have to follow textbooks or look like a typical schoolroom, that's a perk to homeshcooling.  We could make school whatever we wanted and for the first time that seemed exciting and limitless instead of scary.

I prayed and thought about it long and hard and then I took a leap.  I returned all the curriculum I had just purchased and decided to purchase Sonlight instead.  It's so unlike me to change my mind but once I got it all in hand and the girls got excited about all the books and wanted to start in the middle of summer, I knew I had made the right choice.  We got our box in along with everything else I wanted to add in from various other sources and I got busy coming up with lesson plans and a solution that would work for us day in and out.  So far all my planning and hard work has paid off becuase things have been running so smoothly and we've managed to stay on top of everything for 5 weeks.  I can't wait to go into the details and share how it's all coming together.  I just feel so blessed to have the freedom to make these choices for our family and do what fits us best!

Our 2014-2015 - 2nd Grade Curriculum

I feel so confident in our choices for this year and both the girls and I are already loving everything.  I love that they are excited about school again! 

Here's what we're doing for our 2^nd Grade Curriculum...

• Bible: Grapevine Studies – Old Testament, Sonlight Core B  
• Math: Math U See - Beta
• Spelling: All About Spelling – Level2
• Writing: Writing with Ease - Level 1 & 2, Sonlight Language Arts
• Grammar: First Language Lessons - Level 1 & 2
• Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting – T  
• Phonics: A Beka Letters & Sounds 2
• Vocabulary: - Wordly Wise A
• Reading: Library Books & Sonlight Readers
• History: Sonlight Core B (Ancient Civilization 1) 
• Science: - Noeo Biology 1
• Logic: -Mind Benders 1 & 2
• Art:  Co-op Classes
• Language: American Sign Language 

First Day of 2nd Grade | 2014-2015

We've changed things up this year and I can't wait to share it with you.  We had a wonderful first day and I can't believe how grown up my girls are getting.  I adore these two and am so excited about our new curriculum and how much they love it!  We're definitely cultivating a love of reading in this house!

First Stories

One of the areas where I feel I didn't do as much as should have these past years is writing.  While the girls did handwriting worksheets every day and I had them write a sentence last year and draw a picture here and there, I didn't really put the focus on it like I should have.  I didn't focus at all on spelling, but the girls would still get really frustrated since they didn't have the reading foundation they needed to write out their stories or sentences.  Now that they are reading better I thought we should focus on our writing a few days a week.  We still do handwriting each day, but now we'll be doing writers workshop 2-3 days a week as well.  The first day will be a rough draft of their story and a simple picture to go along with it.  The second and third day will be for revising and then publishing their story.

I wanted to keep it simple and again, not worry about the correct spelling of things so I'm having them ask themselves 4 simple questions so they can edit their stories themselves.

1. Did you sound out all your words?
2. Did you start each sentence with a capital letter?
3. Did you end each sentence with punctuation?
4. Did you use a finger space between each word?

They were so excited to get their new composition books and had been asking me each day when they got to write in them, which I thought was a good start.  We talked a bit about stories having a beginning, middle, and end.  We also talked about how you can ask questions and then add details to your story to make it more involved and exciting.  After the way our writing went last year I was expecting them to balk and get upset, but they jumped in with excitement and 45 mins later they showed me this...

Brin decided her first line didn't follow the rules since she forgot a space, so she re-started it.  I don't want them to erase for their first draft so they can see and learn from anything they may need to work on.  Here's the interpretation of her story... "A dog bumped into a tree.  Because he was chasing a ball.  Who threw the ball?  It was the dog owner."  She obviously has work to do on her spelling, but she did pretty well sounding things out.  I was really happy with her story though and felt like she developed it pretty well for her first time. 

 Av is my "just get it done" girl so she has a bit more revising to do.  She too did okay with her sounding out,  though she kept inverting her "th"  She mostly needs to work on starting her sentences with capital letters and she also randomly capitalized letters that didn't need to be so that needs work.  Her story says, "The cat had a hat.   The dog had a hat.  The cat was striped.  The dog was spotted.  The End." 

I plan to setup a writing station that has all the rules posted as well as story and drawing ideas, but I haven't finished it yet.  I'm excited to keep them writing though and then see how far they come after they've been doing it for awhile.

First Day of 1st Grade | 2013-2014

We had our first day of school last week, and it went great!  The girls were so excited about starting as they watched the curriculum trickle in over the summer and as I'd unpack things I'd show them a glimpse of what they were going to be learning.  I was so happy when instead of dreading it they kept asking, "What day do we start again?" what a blessing!

As is tradition we spent the first few minutes taking our back to school photos.  It's amazing how much older they are looking.  I can't believe I have two 1st graders!

Avalyn is on the Left & Brinly is on the Right

And for comparison I thought it would be fun to look back over the past 3 years.

Avalyn

 

Brinley

Visit iHomeschool Network to see all the other "Not" Back to School Photos!

Our {Home} Schoolroom | 2013-2014

Welcome to our 1st Grade Schoolroom!  Our schoolroom hasn't really changed much since last year.  It still doubles as the playroom, though with the girls getting older we have gotten rid of quite a few toys and made room for more books, games, and crafts.

On the left wall is my desk, our calendar wall, chore chart, whiteboard, and all about spelling board.  My desk holds my computer, printer, daily planner and then all my teachers manuals or test booklets we are currently using.

Our back wall has our flag for the pledge, our extra curriculum, misc workbooks, manipulative, craft supplies, toys, books, puzzles, and games. Even though the girls are getting a tad big, they do still fit their little craft table we got when they were toddlers.  It's nice for messy crafts or for subjects where they need to sit and face the whiteboard.

The right wall has both girls desks with our added drawers for this year.  We're doing a modified workbox system and each drawer has 1-2 of their subjects and it makes it easy for me to ready their schoolwork for the next day.  We also got a new 4 cubbie Expedit from Ikea which along with some new storage tubs is great for their smaller toys... like the lego city currently residing on the top.

It's nothing too elaborate, but I feel so blessed to have a room dedicated to our schooling and a space where the girls can focus and learn. 

 

Linking up this week iHomeschool Network!
Check it out for a ton of other amazing homeschool rooms!

Our 2013-2014 - 1st Grade Curriculum

It’s been a busy summer and I’m glad I started our planning early in the summer so I had everything ordered and ready before school started.  I feel really good about our choices for this year and I’m looking forward to an exciting year of learning with my 1^st graders!

Here's my plan for our 1^st Grade Curriculum...

• Bible: Grapevine Studies – Old Testament, AWANA Sparks
• Phonics/Language: A Beka Language 1 & A Beka Letters & Sounds 1
• Reading: Abeka Readers, Library Books
• Writing: A Reason for Handwriting – A, Writer’s Workshop
• Spelling: All About Spelling – Level 1
• Math: Math U See - Alpha
• History: Story of the World – Volume 1 (Ancient Civilization)
• Art:  How to Teach Art to Children, Misc. Art Projects, Co-op Classes
• Language: American Sign Language
• Science: - Library, Documentaries, Co-op Classes

Calendar Time & Bible: Like last year I plan to start our day with the pledge, calendar time and singing. We'll then go into our virtue of the week and continue to rotate through these all year so they really get instilled in the girls. We'll practice our verse for Sparks and do the lesson together over M-W and then we’ll do our Grapevine lessons Mon/Th/Fr.  The girls are SO excited about this curriculum!

 

Phonics/Language/Reading: For our Phonics and Language lessons we’ll be going through A Beka’s Language 1 & Letters & Sounds 1. I also got a set of A Beka 1st grade readers 2nd hand and I have a set of A Beka readers from when I learned to read back in the 80’s. We’ll continue to do daily read aloud’s and get library books for reading as well. The girls have been reading through them over the summer and have really enjoyed them.

 

 

Writing/Spelling: For writing this year we’ll work on our handwriting with A Reason for Handwriting book A. We’ll also be doing a writers workshop weekly where the girls write a story and then revise and publish it throughout the week. We’re so excited to start All About Spelling Level 1 this year for our spelling curriculum.

 

 

Math: We’re continuing on with Math U See Alpha this year. The girls did great with Primer last year and we’re excited to start a new year. 

 

History: We’re starting Story of the World Volume 1 this year which will be spent in Ancient Civilization. I’ve heard great things about it and I’m excited to see how they like it. We’ll probably do some of the recommended projects that go along with the lessons. 

 

Art: For our Art we’ll more than likely do a variety of projects throughout the year as well as do art through our Co-op in the Spring. 

Language: Since their Uncle Josh is deaf we’ll continue on with. They already know the alphabet and a variety of vocab, but we’ll make it a tad more formal this year and start putting sentences together and having basic conversations. I have a bunch of old ASL textbooks that we’ll mix and match to fit our needs. 

 

Science: The girls love science and are super into documentaries. All summer we’ve watched a ton of documentaries including the BBC’s Planet Earth, Discovery Channel’s North America and a whole variety of Shark Week episodes. I plan to continue checking out books from the library that interest them as well as watch documentaries and then possibly do a Science class with our Co-op. 

Linking up with iHomeschool Network for the "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop Curriculum Week!