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!!

First Chapter Book!

I am beaming with uncontrollable pride right now, because this morning, Hunter finished his first chapter book, The Fantastic Mr.Fox!

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I decided to present this book to him, just to see how it went, and to make sure I was meeting him at his level. Hunter read every single word of this book out loud to me, reading one chapter per day. At the end of each chapter, he drew a picture of what had happened in the story. I am still deciding what I will do with the pictures - I'm thinking either a nice report cover or spiral binding, not sure yet.

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At any rate, here is Hunter, looking as though he just conquered the world!

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New Home, New School Room!

After a mid-year PCS move, we are all settled in our new home in Texas. Until May, that is :o)
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In this house we decided to have the kids room together, so that our third bedroom could be used as a schoolroom. This is working out perfectly, because Hunter and Morgan do SO well together, and having a designated space for school is very, very fun!
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I really didn't like having school posters and pocket charts in our living room in the last house. Having a separate space really helps with organization and focus. It also allows us to hang as much stuff on the walls as we want, without taking over the dining room!
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Here are a few pictures:

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We are loving this set up, and as we search for a new home at the next duty station, having a secluded school room is very high on our priority list!

Apple Pie by Hunter

Reason number 1,273 to love home schooling: spending Monday morning together in the kitchen, baking an apple pie with the apples you picked last Monday morning :o)

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Last week, our Five in a Row book was How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World. (I will post our lapbook on this sometime tomorrow) Our unit study culminated with the baking of a magnificent apple pie.

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Step One: Combine dry ingredients

(ps - how adorable is the juxtaposition of the Urlacher jersey/puppy dog apron??)

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Step 2: Pour dry ingredients over apples that took mom forever to peel and slice with a paring knife because she got all ready to make the pie and realized she doesn't have any kind of a peeler...

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Step 3: Press pie crust into 9" pie plate

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Step 4: Destroy any evidence that might suggest you used a store-bought pie crust.

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Step 5: Pour coated apples into *homemade* pie crust.

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Step 6: Place top layer of *homemade* pie crust, and flute the edges. That's right, flute.

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Step 7: Paint the *homemade* pie crust with an egg white (or as Hunter, the five year old comedian, prefers to call it - boogers)

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Step 8: Put the pie in the oven and wait patiently...

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Step 9: Sniff and admire :o)

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All in all, our project was a huge success! We had a great time together, and Hunter is extremely proud of his pie - we are so excited to rip into this bad boy during half-time tonight!

Mike Mulligan

This week we started a new curriculum (although, we are still doing Math-U-See and A Reason for Handwriting/Spelling)

Five in a Row!

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This is awesome. Each week we have a new book, and do projects in five different disciplines (social studies/geography, language arts, art, math, and science), all relating back to the story. I chose to incorporate lapbooks, because it keeps all of our components in one place, and let's face it, I like things that way!

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We started out with Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Over the course of the week, and with just this one story, Hunter explored steam powered machines, learned about stewardship, measured squares, wrote about personification and character traits, and drew trees from both aerial and close-up perspectives!

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I took a few videos of Hunter giving a 'tour' of his first five-in-a-row lapbook. A few disclaimers:

-please excuse the pj shirt :o)

- I swear on McDonald's Frappes that I did not tell him to say all that stuff about having fun doing projects with his mom... if you listen closely, you can hear me melting behind the camera :o)

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I printed off all of the lapbook components from HomeSchool Share - they have GREAT five in a row resources!

I can't wait to start this week's book - How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World!

Charter School

After a fun and busy Labor day weekend, Hunter started classes at the Big Sur Charter School. I had a lot of fun making this day as special as possible for Hunter. I have very fond memories of my first days of school growing up. Shopping with mom for new supplies, new outfit, new backpack, and dad going in late to work so he had time to make us waffles :o)
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Fortunately, Justin had the day off as part of the long weekend, so we started the day off together with blueberry muffins and some sausage

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The annual front door picture

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Is he a handsome kindergartner or what??

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Cubby!

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Hunter, with his first ever homework assignment - and 'all about me' poster that he had to present to the class!

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After we dropped Hunter off, Morgan, Justin, and I headed to the Paris bakery for breakfast part 2, and coffee

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Four hours later, it was time to pick Hunter up. He was super excited, and said he had a great time. To celebrate, we went out to Baskin Robbins for a treat

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We are two weeks into this charter school thing, and I'm still trying to decide what I think. Hunter really enjoys it, has made some friends, and seems to be benefiting from the time he spends there, so we'll stick it out for now. Tomorrow we are taking a field trip to a local apple orchard, so that should be fun!

Branching Out

Recently I met some fellow military homeschoolers in the area at a park day. It was there that I learned about a new charter school called Big Sur Charter school. They have been operation successfully down in Big Sur for many years, and this year, they are opening a 'branch' in Monterey.

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After attending an informational meeting, and discussing Hunter's specific educational needs, Justin and I decided to go ahead and enroll.

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This is a state-funded charter school that exists only as a supplement to homeschoolers. Hunter will be attending three hours of class every Tuesday and Thursday starting the first week in September. These classes will be with five other Kindergartners and possibly a few first graders. They will be led by a teacher who will provide opportunities in music, art, and science. In addition to the classes twice per week, there will be field trips at least once per month. The best part of this set-up is that we, the parents, are in charge of content. The parents decide what classes the teacher will teach, and what field trips we want to take. In other words, the way it should be :o)

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I am so excited to be a part of this charter school! It is going to be a perfect fit for us, as Hunter will be able to enjoy all of the 'fun' things about Kindergarten (art, music, recess, field trips, etc...), while at the same time, cruising at his own lightening-fast pace in math and reading at home.

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We will also be starting a new curriculum at home, called Five in a Row. As I have mentioned before, Hunter is well beyond the phonics stage of reading (he was reading Stuart Little to me the other day!). On the flip side, Hunter is still only four years old, so it is difficult to find reading material with age appropriate content. Through Five in a Row, we will be reading classic stories, but delving much, much, deeper, and focusing on content and comprehension, rather than mechanics. Stay tuned, as I'll be sharing our experiences with this new curriculum!