HomeSchool Week: A Peek in our Classroom

I daydream of a class room with chalkboard walls, a dozen globes and vintage educational posters. Right now, that Is not a part of our reality.

We don't have a room dedicated to school. We don't have spare rooms right now. In a few years we will be in a new home with extra space...if we don't have any surprise adoptions ;)

Right now we are blessed to have a bedroom that is bigger than anyone would ever need. We use half of it as our offices and home school room.

This is Rhiannon's portion of the room. On her desk we have any textbooks or activity books we are currently using, her chalk board and white board and her globe.

In her drawers you can find her paper, crayons, pencils and anything else an average kindergartner would need (except her scissors of course. Those are required to be in a locked cabinet...foster parent problem haha)

Hanging on her wall she has her alphabet pennant banner we made last year and clipboards to show of her good work. Soon enough we will have my chalkboard up, we are just trying to find the right place.



In my section of the room, I have my desk which is loaded with everything from invoices and orders to foster and home school paper work. This is my main hub. I blog here, I manage our home here,I teach from here.

On the desk you will always find my bibles, home school calendar, chrome book, the cute little props and most likely a mess that has exploded out of my creative mind moving to fast for its own good.

Choosing Joy Scripture from Thorns of Grace

In the drawers, lots and lots of paper work and handbooks and records. It's a chaotic mess that only I can navigate.

The white drawers next to me, all of our activity books and craft supplies.  We also have learning games and stuff like that in there. It's my type Z personality trying to be a Type A.

Hanging on the walls: a reminder board, another calendar (because the day planner, phone and google calendar aren't enough) and daily or weekly to do list.


This is our space. It's not perfect but we love it.

Where do you spend most of your days?

HomeSchool Week: Our Schedule

One of the biggest perks of homeschooling has got to be the ability to make your own schedule. From the time you wake up and do school to the days you take vacation, it is all up to you.

This year we went with a traditional school year vs. year round scheduling. We added in a few vacation weeks and played around with holiday breaks. Any vacations we decide to take that are not on our calendar, we will simply bring school along with us and make it a little more fun while still educating.

Our school year will look something like this:

First Day of School was September 3rd.

In School: Sept 3rd - October 11th

Mini Vacation: October 14th- Oct 18th (yep, baby girl gets a week off for her birthday. Spoiled)

In School: October 21st-November 22th

Thanksgiving Break: November 25th - November 30th

In School: December 1st - December 15th

Christmas Break: December 16th-January 3rd

In School: January 6th- February 28th

Mini Break: March 1st-March 6th

In School: March 10th-April 20th

Easter Break: April 21st- May 3rd

In School: May 5th-June 10th

Our weekly Schedule changes a little bit from time to time Most weeks we do school at home on Monday Wednesday and Friday with classes at Integrity on Tuesdays and Art Co-Op on Thursday. On occasions where we have field trips or holidays during the week, we will do that days work on Thursdays.

Our at home school days start anywhere from 8:30am - 10:30am depending on wake up time and fussy babies. Curriculum has been broken up based on the number of days in our school year and how units or topics in the books flow together. Most days go something like this:

• Begin with prayer and a devotion.
• 1-2 letters in Handwriting without tears. 
• Start with workbook then play with manipulatives and finish by writing on whiteboard or chalk
• Units are broken up into 5-15 sections. We do anywhere from 2-4 sections a day with the activities that go along with them.
• Start with text book plans and hands on work, finish with activity book
• Play with pattern blocks or base 10s for 10-20 minutes
• 3-5 pages from Explode the Code books
• Read from books we have brought home from the library
• 1 page of geography and any mapping activities that go with it.
• A portion of homework for History and Science

Depending on holidays and fun things happening around us we will also throw in little crafts, cooking or other fun stuff.

It is enough work to keep us busy but not enough that it is not doable in a day. We have fun together and Rhiannon is not only being educated but she is being trained up in the Word and learning to love to learn...tongue twister. 

Coffee Date

Hi friends.
If we were to go on a coffee date today, you would see me chug a coffee in 2 seconds flat and then order a second. I'd ask you not to judge and tell you it has just been a long week.

 {source}

Once that was taken care of I would tell you that today we are sending out all of our foster care paper work. For reals this time.

I would tell you how we had some hang ups with our doctors office and the DMV. I may even tell you that at times, I thought this just wasn't going to happen. That I thought maybe I had heard God wrong. Maybe it was a mistake, that we weren't called to this.

After that was off my chest, I would tell you how God gave me a peace about this. How He brought me to the realization that those hang ups weren't to cause stress but were needed. That maybe, just maybe, the child that is supposed to be in our home just wasn't ready yet.

I would tell you how I have a peace knowing that God is orchestrating a perfect plan. He is making a path for us to follow. It may have ups and downs but it is all part of the journey that we are on.

Next topic of conversation would probably be our homeschool plan. I would tell you about how I finished up Rhiannon's calendar and have even started adding in some field trips. How I am starting to stress out a little. That I'm not sure that I am cut out for this and am a little afraid of messing her all up. How I am freaking out a little about school hours with me being a part time working mom. How I don't know what I am going to do. I may wig out a little. Just tell me it will be okay. I can pull it together rather quickly.

After I was so selfish to talk about myself for so long, I would apologize and ask what has been going on with you. I'd love to hear what is happening on your end. Please, share.

The blog now has a reply button to all comments, feel free to discuss with eachother. We are all friends here. :)

Alsooooo.... I'm linking up with my friend Alissa for a Coffee Date Linky and think you all should to. Go!  And let me know if you do so I know to look for your post :)

Scheduled

Hi. My name is Kristen. And I am a homeschool mom.

  

This past year we introduced Rhi to the joy of learning with a very relaxed Pre-PreSchool. This upcoming year? Well it's the real deal. She will be in full blown homeschool/preschool. Earlier in the week I put together our homeschool calendar. THE hardest part of homeschooling so far. I kid, well a little. It was tough. Deciding what weeks should be spent in school and out of school proved to be quite the challenge. Luckily, if it's not working, I can change it. Yay for homeschooling flexibility!

So we now have a calendar that works for us...I think. This is what our school year will look like:

In School- August 27-October 5 (6 weeks on)
Vacation- October 8- October 19 (2 weeks off)

In School- October 22-November 16 (6 weeks on)
Vacation- November 19- November 23 (1 week off)

In School- November 26- December 21 (4 weeks on)
Vacation- December 24- January 4 (2 weeks off)

In School- January 7- February 8 (5 weeks on)
Vacation- February 11-February 22 (2 weeks off)

 In School- February 25- March 22 (4 weeks on)
Vacation- March 25-April 5 (2 weeks off)

In School- April 8-May3 (4 weeks on)
Vacation- May6- May 17 (2 weeks off)

In School- May 20-June 21 (5 weeks on)
Vacation- June 24-July 5 (2 weeks off)

 In School- July 8-August 2 (4 weeks on)
Vacation- August 5- August 23 (3 weeks off) 

Putting together our own calendar gave me the freedom to have a school year structure that works best for our family. There are lots of perks for us.
Shorter Vacation times, meaning less time for Rhiannon to forget what she has been learning all year. Vacation days planned around our family vacation times.
Vacation time surrounding both kids birthdays (a perk I threw in there for them).
 And those are just a few.

I didn't add any government holidays to the calendar. We will deal with those on a month to month basis and make up the off time with weekend field trips and such.

Have I mentioned how much I love the flexibility? Everything is made for us. To fit us. And if it's not working I can change it.

Now that our calendar is setup, our curriculum is here and we are scheduled for CHEA next month, I feel so much more equipped and ready.

So 2012-2013 school year, Bring it! But not too hard, I'm still scared of you.