We're Back!!

Since my last blog, we have moved - again - this time to Northeast Georgia! We are settling into our first (owned) home, and loving it! The crown jewel of this house was an 819sqf unfinished basement, which we have poured our hearts and souls into this summer. The basement now consists of a beautifully tiled full bathroom, a large media room and bar (who's ready for some FOOTBALL??), and best of all, a BEAUTIFUL school room!

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We are still putting the finishing touches on the basement, but we will be ready to start school after Labor Day weekend. For now, I wanted to revive my blog (which WILL be updated every Friday during the school year, with notes about the curricula we are using), and participate in the "Not Back to School" blog hop! During the month of August at 'Heart of the Matter Online', bloggers can post links to their pages about a different topic each week.

This week, the topic is curriculum, and lucky us - the UPS man delivered a big ol' box of school goodies from Rainbow Resource today!

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For Hunter's first grade year, we are going all in on the classical method of homeschooling. Back in May, I read "The Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer, and I was hooked! I will do a post next week with regards to method itself. As for this year's curriculum:

Language Arts:

- Spelling: Spelling Power

- Grammar: First Language Lessons

- Writing: Writing With Ease (vol. 1)

- Reading: Whatever he likes!

Math:

- MUS Alpha/Beta: Hunter ended his Kindergarten year halfway through the Alpha book, so we will be picking up where he left off, and moving on to Beta when he's ready

Science:

- Apologia Science, "Exploring Creation With Astronomy"

Social Studies:

- Story of the World, Vol. 1

Art:

- We are involved with the home school group at our military base. Hunter will be participating in an hour-long art class every Wednesday afternoon (I am VERY pleased to outsource painting this year :o)

Music:

- Later this fall, we will be purchasing a piano. When we do that, I will begin teaching Hunter how to read music and play the piano.

I think that's it! Of course, we are including all kinds of wonderful literature and reference books revolving around the history topics - this year it's ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. I am so excited about this year. There are many new things happening, such as reporting to the state, and having attendance and instruction time requirements, but that is all part of the adventure, and I can't wait to begin. Welcome, First Grade, we've been waiting for you!!

Teacher's Eye View

For my fellow homeschoolers reading the blog, I thought I'd give you a quick tour of how I am operating thus far...

First, the school bell in this house does not ring until I have coffee in hand - this morning things got a little fancy :o)

We start off the morning with the calendar. Hunter counts the days that are already turned over, and then figures out which number comes next. After turning over today's date, he sings the 'days of the week' song. Then, we move over to the red pocket chart and Hunter figures out 'yesterday was', 'today is', and 'tomorrow will be'.

After Calendar, we sit down at Hunter's table and read a short story out of our Devotions for Preschoolers book. This book is really cute, and offers quick stories pertaining to prayer, kindess, family, etc.

From there we move to Language Arts - Right now I use our Brainquest Pre-K workbook to introduce the printing of whatever letter we are working on that day. After that, Hunter just practices the letter on printing paper 6 or 7 times. If time allows, Hunter reads from his sight words book.

After L.A. we move on to math, again using the Brainquest Pre-K workbook. In addition, we use the spectrum math kindergarten workbook.

Those two subjects take us about 0ne hour, so by then we are ready for a break. We break for about 30 minutes, giving me a little bit of time to straighten up, do some laundry, or check facebook :o) Hunter is usually begging me to get back to school after just a few minutes.

We come back from break to do science (and starting in September, social studies). I am taking my science and social studies topics from What Your Preschooler Needs to Know.

Depending on how much time is left, I fill in with either a file folder game, or a phonics game (I have acquired several good ones from Lakeshore Learning Materials)

Some supplies I recommend and have found extrememly useful/benicifial thus far include:

A shelf designated for your school supplies

Art Supplies

Math Manipulatives

A Planbook - or if you are a little bit crazy, two planbooks (I use the brown one for longterm, theme planning, and the blue one for short term planning - this allows me to adjust plans according to Hunter's progress)

An Interactive Calendar (this one is from Lakeshore)

A Cool Pointer for interacting with above calendar (dollar spot @ target!)

An adorable, chunky pencil

A Space Designated for school time, and Pocket Charts (these have an infinite number of uses, and I found my small ones in the dollar spot at target!)

And Finally:

A loving, encouraging, and super supportive husband! (seen here eating mushrooms at the Gilroy Garlic Festival)

An adorable, enthusiastic, eager preschooler