If you remember anything about my curriculum choices, yeah, just go ahead and forget everything I said here cause that is all changed. Because I am the teacher and I can do that...okay!
Here is how our days have looked so far this week and how they will most probably look for a while. I think this just may be what will work for us, so here is what has changed...
For starters, that 9:00am start time was great in theory, and I wish so badly it would've worked, but in reality it just didn't. We need an extra hour in the mornings because as I told you here, my oldest is having a hard time doing so much work on her own and feeling a little bit left out {don't blame her a bit}. Starting an hour earlier gives me more time with her.
So now we start at 8:00 and we are still beginning with Bible. That is working out really well and I love love love Leading Little Ones to God. Perfect day startin' devotional, in my humble opinion.
At around 8:30 we have finished Bible as well as worked on our memory verses for the week. We are sticking with the Abeka ABC memory verse cards and I love 'em. We learn 2 per week and are filing them using the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System. Love it!!
We do history from about 8:30-9:30 and its a good way to kick off our day, I think. History has been a thorn in my side because at first I was going to do MFW and then backed out at the last minute for a more relaxed approach and tried out Galloping the Globe with some supplemental books. Yeah, that really didn't work. I think it would work, only I can't teach all day and then plan all night. Plus, I have heard nothing but great things about MFW, and I have a curriculum addiction, so I went ahead and ordered it and it should be here in a few days. Then our mornings should really flow much better...fingers crossed!
At 9:30 we begin our individual work, and Kam will still have to work independently {4th grade} but I did make some changes that will hopefully work better for her. She will keep doing 2 Teaching Textbooks lessons each day followed by flashcard practice because she doesn't have her math facts solidly mastered. Then she will play piano for 30 minutes while I am doing Math with Karsyn which takes almost a full hour. Then we work on Spelling, Writing, and Language until lunch time. I canned Kam's grammar program because it just wasn't enough. It was a great review but just wasn't meaty enough. I am going to do First Language Lessons 4 with her because it is working out beautifully with Karsyn. We love it!! It follows Abeka Language almost to a tee, but is more oral as well as fun!! This should cure my "Karsyn gets to do more fun stuff with you" business real quick. I will be posting our state of being verb cheer soon {just so you know}.
We eat lunch at around 11:00/11:30ish and the girls run and play outside until I get it ready, then we all have a nice quiet time after lunch for about an hour. It started out an hour the first few days and I kept getting this....
which was okay with me until bedtime rolled around. Then I moved it to 30 minutes which just wasn't enough so now we are back at an hour. I began this time for their required reading, but it really works better for us to do their required Bible reading here and then they can do whatever they choose in their room {as long as it doesn't have a screen and they are alone}. They have been having tea parties, doing puzzles, and writing stories. Cue the angels singing!!! There has been lots of begging to play together and that answer is always "no". I like how they miss each other for that small amount of time. They now do their required reading during our individual time and it works very well.
We pick back up in the afternoons at around 12:30ish and we do Science...here is our first experiment...
{Apologia rocks, just so ya know}. After science we finish up anything we didn't do that morning. On Mondays and Wednesdays we do Science. Thursday is our experiment/nature study day and Tuesdays we have piano so instead of doing Science where we can get carried away, we will be doing art or music. Oh yeah, about that art...I didn't order the Artistic Pursuits because I was just overwhelmed. I am going to wing this one and see what happens this year.
So that is how our day looks pretty much. We are finished every day by 2:00, which is perfect for us! I haven't tried the Spelling Power yet. It looks really awesome but really tough to figure out and I just haven't had the energy. Kam had 4 leftover lessons that she didn't finish last year in her Abeka speller and that is buying me some time.
Our first couple of weeks have definitely had its challenges. First we attended this....
and watched my sister and her super cute fiance tie the knot at the JOP so that they could run off to Cabo San Lucas together and do it all over again!!! It was so great to see and they are sooo in love!! Precious!
Then, we had a tragedy on the farm when this little cutie...
got completely crazy and attacked one of our new baby chickens. Devastating. But she is still alive {the chicken that is}. Not real sure what the Big Daddy did with the cat. {just kidding, she got mad when I spanked her and she ran off...she will be back, trust me}
Here is little Speckles right after it happened. Now she is doing much better. Dr. Kellye cleaned up her wounds and trimmed her feathers and she now resides in a cage in our laundry room while she makes a complete recovery!! She is still having trouble walking so we are unsure if those little bitty legs are hurt or what? She is doing great though.
Here she is just yesterday! She still looks so tired, huh? Poor baby!! She will get better though and maybe she will love us forever!! I love the country mentality that I am kinda new to, but loving all the same. I went to the local feed store to see if they has something I could give her and the old, precious cowboy said just as matter of fact, "Maam, all you can give her is time." I think he is right.
So I know that was a pretty looonnnnggg post, but I just had alot to tell you!!
I think I am finally getting the hang of homeschooling and have really grasped the concept and embraced the fact that you really gotta get up early and get on the ball if you want this deal to work!! All of which I am willing to do!!
Thanks for sticking around, and if you made it to the end of this post you deserve a prize!! I don't have one to give you, but Pioneer Woman is giving away a Nikon D90 so you may wanna head on over there real quick and in a hurry!!! The drawing ends at noon today, so go go go!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love comments and read every one...so thanks so much for leaving me a little note!!