back to {home}school

It's been a busy week around here.  Monday was our first full day of school work since summer began.  Our homeschool soccer team has started practices again too.  So the next month and a half or so will be extra-busy for us!  Bubba was none-too-thrilled about doing full-time school again, but he's even getting back into it.  CJ is starting to have a little Preschool time...mostly playing with Play-doh while Bubba is doing school.  :D

We are currently studying the Civil War.  So much about American History that I never really learned.  It just amazes me that not only is my child learning that there WAS a Civil War in this Country, but he's actually learning ABOUT it.  And not just the dates.  He's learning about the people, the issues and how people on both sides of these issues felt and thought!  Incredible.  Why, oh why, couldn't someone have taught me history when I was a kid?  It's taken me teaching my own child in order to learn this stuff.  One of the many reasons I teach my kids at home!  Thanks again, Sonlight, for making my job as a homeschool teacher a tad easier!

It seems that autumn may be coming early this year.  The leaves are already beginning to change and it's not even September yet!  I can't believe the summer is basically over and fall is right around the corner.  But I think it's been a pretty nice summer and we even did a little school work occasionally which is nice when you are in the middle of a Sonlight Core.

Interested in homeschooling your kids too?  I love Sonlight's Cores!  Go ahead and click the link to Sonlight over on my sidebar and see all they have to offer!

homeschool curriculum shopping!

yes, it's that time for me again. time to figure out what we need for our next level of schoolwork. it's kind of weird buying it in february, but since we're nearly done with Sonlight's Core 3, it's time to order our new books so we can keep on with our schooling.

we plan to continue with Sonlight so next is Core 4 {American History, part 2}. although i've typically bought Sonlight's 5-day schedule {more books!}, i'm thinking this year i'm going to just get the 4-day schedule with the hopes that Core 4 won't take us quite as long as Core 3 has. so that covers Bible, history & geography, reading & listening comprehension. i also get our Singapore Math from Sonlight--it's a pretty good math program and we like it.

i plan to continue with apologia's elementary zoology books. we'll be on book 2...swimming creatures of the fifth day. so that covers science.

for art, i'm going to get the Artistic Pursuits for Grades 4-6, Book 1. and i plan to continue teaching bubba piano & guitar, so that covers music.

we have our English book from BJU Press and will continue with it. plus i've already got the next book for our handwriting program so i don't have to worry about that right now either. we also have Rosetta Stone's Latin American Spanish as an elective course.

and finally, for P.E. we are doing 30 minutes of exercise each day {okay so it's actually most days} using our wii fit plus. it's so hard to do much else up here in the middle of winter when it's below zero more often than not {especially when you're not outdoorsy-types to begin with!} but at least we now have something that gets us moving a little and is fun to boot! i also have hopes and dreams of using our Total Gym for P.E. but i need to be able to get the Total Gym set up again before i can {note: home remodeling can be a messy business}.

i think that covers everything. i hope i haven't forgotten something!!!!

now to actually get what i need on order!

first day of school...sort of

we just got back a few days ago from a two week family road trip. we primarily focused on seeing sites that were relevant to the american revolutionary war and that time period. thus we visited Boston, Lexington, Concord, and Philadelphia. we stopped by Niagara Falls on the way to Boston and also were able to view a lot of the land between here and there. we saw all 5 of the Great Lakes as well.

it's the first day of school for the local public school today. and officially our first day back to homeschool lessons. except my students aren't here which makes it a tad difficult to teach. ;-)

the boys have been visting their grandparents for the holiday weekend which is where they are and why they aren't home right now. we have a soccer game at 3pm today, so i'm planning to take bubba's soccer stuff over there this afternoon and get him ready for the game (they're actually closer to the soccer field anyways). if there's time before the game, i'd like for bubba and i to play a game we purchased on our trip that's about the revolutionary war. it's an educational game...trivia style, i think. it looked like a fun way to review what we've learned (and maybe learn some new facts too)!

hmmm. right now the weather is looking somewhat unfriendly. we'll have to see if the soccer game gets cancelled today. perhaps the stormy weather will pass before the afternoon game is scheduled to be played. if not, we'll just hang out at grandma's a bit longer and play our revolutionary war trivia game with them!

happy first day of school!