~ Updated for 2009-2010 School Year ~
I am so very thankful that homeschool is an option for us with our 3 daughters! Here's a peek at the materials we use and how we try to structure our day. Not all days go as planned, but that is the beauty of homeschooling ~ you can get off track and still make it a learning experience!
We tend to "do school" every day of the year - as most of what we do as a family is a learning experience for our girls. From housekeeping to cooking to caring for our cattle to delivering our beef to service projects for church or community - there is an opportunity for teaching and learning in everything we do and it doesn't stop just because it is the weekend or a holiday! We complete a formal curriculum plan during "regular" school months (August - May) and use day-to-day life as our curriculum during the summer months.
The girls love to incorporate Lapbooking into our studies. Although we never seem to do as many as we'd like, they are loads of fun to do! Visit the highlighted link if you want to learn all you could ever want to know about Lapbooking! In a nutshell, the girls create little "mini books" about key areas of a topic we are studying. Then, at the end of that particular topic, we put all the "mini books" into a "lapbook" and you have a complete resource of material about the topic at hand. I've found that this is a much better way for us than worksheets and tests to see if the information is being retained. Also, the girls can go back and look through the lapbooks anytime they want, which also helps with memory retention.
Here are the course books that we're using this year with links if you want to learn more about them.
Here's what we are using this school year:
2009 - 2010 ~ 5th Grade
English / Grammar / Critical Thinking:
~ Shurley English Level 6 Homeschool Kit
~ Dr. Funster's Visual Mind Benders
~ Dr. Funster's Word Benders
~ Ridgewood Analogies
~ Editor In Chief
Vocabulary:
~ Wordly Wise 3000, Grade 5
~ Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Grade 5
Math:
~ Saxon Math 6/5
Science:
~ Exploring Creation with Zoology 2
History / Geography:
~ George Washington's World
~ Abraham Lincoln's World
~ Veritas Press Explorers - 1815 Homeschool Kit
~ Veritas Press 1815 - Present Homeschool Kit
~ Various readers regarding this time period - Johnny Tremain, Across Five Aprils, etc.
~ Maps - North America, USA, South America, Central America, Europe
Bible Study:
~ Various - character training
Extracurricular Activities:
~ 4-H Club - Sewing, Photography, Community Service projects
~ Archery - Junior Olympic Development Team (JOAD) practice weekly
~ Helping with our cattle and bees
2009 - 2010 ~ 2nd Grade
My Father's World - Adventures In My Father's World
Explode The Code Readers / Phonics
Shurley English Level 1
Math Mammoth
Draw.Write.Now Art Program
Italic Handwriting
God's Design for Life Science
Beginning Spanish Lessons
Explorer's Bible Study - Bible Beginnings II
Extracurricular Activities: Cloverbuds, beginning sewing/crochet, helping with our cattle and bees
2009 - 2010 ~ Preschool for my 4 year old
Preschool Activity Bags
Explorer's Bible Study - Bible Beginnings (ages 2-5)
For All Three Girls
Keepers of the Faith Character Training booklets
Managers of Their Chores
I have a schedule for our day that we try to follow, but on days that we get off track we try to just make the best of it and start again the next day.
Here's the schedule that we're working with this school year. My husband has been mobilized to active duty again this year - he'll be stationed at Ft. Knox, KY, as an instructor for at least one year starting October 1, 2009. Our schedule normally includes activities with Dad, but when he's gone with the military, our schedule changes somewhat.
07:00 - 08:00 ~ Morning chores, breakfast, girls dressed and ready for school
08:00 - 12:00 ~ Structured Homeschool Time with breaks
12:00 - 12:30 ~ Lunch / Cleanup
12:30 - 1:30 ~ School Art or Craft Project - "fun" project with the girls or housekeeping project
1:30 - 2:00 ~ Project cleanup / free play
2:00 - 2:30 ~ Quiet time
2:30 - 3:30 ~ Housekeeping project
3:30 - 4:30 ~ Afternoon chores / outside play / errands
4:30 - 5:00 ~ Dinner Prep
5:00 - 5:30 ~ Family Dinner
5:30 - 7:00 ~ Family Devotions / Dinner Cleanup / Free play
7:00 - 7:30 ~ Evening chores or projects / Bath time
7:30 - 9:00 ~ Girls bedtimes (R and M at 7:30; K at 9:00)
9:00 - 10:30 ~ Mommy time for relaxation /projects /consulting
As I mentioned, we don't strictly adhere to this schedule every day. If we have beef deliveries scheduled, both of my oldest daughters go along to meet our customers and help with the deliveries. My oldest daughter, who is 10, can tell you just about every cut of beef and how it is best cooked! She is really into cooking and has a great memory!
If someone is sick or we have a service project to do, we alter the time as needed. The girls are very social and outgoing and accompany me on most all errands. We use grocery shopping time to teach math and money skills, for example. Basically, we try to find teachable moments in everything we do so that the girls are really not even aware that they are in a constant learning environment. We love it this way and they seem to thrive, which is what is important to us!
If you have any questions you'd like to ask about the homeschool information I've touched on here, please feel free to email me at capturingtoday [at] gmail [dot] com.
Blessings with your school year this year!
