Back to School...

We are officially back to school. Macie started ninth grade at BTS and Breesa started her elective program. She had a full day of P.E., music, science, and chapel with desk work in between.

Macie loves her new school but Breesa’s first day was a long one. It was a little exciting for Breesa (or maybe just Mom) because it was her first day of going to a “real” school. She always wanted to go to school like Macie but after the long day, I think she prefers homeschool.

Nataly also got to go along for the ride. She sat next to Breesa for the first half of the day. Then headed down stairs to the nursery to run off some energy.

Back to School

It seems school is starting rather early this year. The middle of August is a little early to me. I, being of true home-schooler fashion, prefer to start after Labor Day and finish by Memorial Day.

Never-the-less, school will be starting on August 15th. We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of school because we will finally have something to do.

We found that after arriving in St. Joe and unpacking: we didn’t belong to any clubs; we didn’t have Girl Scout meetings; and basically we had nothing to do. We missed the summer activity sign-ups and everything else was on hold until fall!

So we are actually excited to start back to school. Macie will be attending Baptist Temple Schools (BTS). While Breesa will be homeschooled but joining the BTS on Mondays for electives and the St. Joe Homeschool Group on Tuesdays for co-op classes. Nataly will be along for the ride!

As far as supplies go, I have been shopping the Walgreens sale ads for the last few weeks. The necessary supplies were minimal and we had most of it. But there were a few exciting additions to our supplies. Namely, BENTO BOXES!! Bento Boxes are a Japanese lunch box. A very precise and compact way to carry your lunch. All three girls LOVED eating their first Bento lunch. A miracle for that picky eater of mine. Lunch was fun! I will continue to share as we explore our new lunch boxes.

Macie’s box with pasta, cantaloupe, pretzels, diced cheese, and a granola star.

A day in our preschool

Here is our preschool schedule...

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Preschool

Calendar Activities - month, day of week, date,weather

Reading - 15 minutes of reading

Letter of the Week - various activities, work on letter book, http://www.starfall.com/

Math -number of the week

Bible - read, story, songs, verse, practice hymn
Pre-writing - work in wipe off books
Postcard Learning - choose one post card per week
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Most of her activities achieve more than one goal. For example, working with the calendar teaches number recognition, days of the week, weather, sequence (what comes next), and so on. Reading usually has fiction and nonfiction. We read about baby animals or read I Spy books themed with numbers. Bible is usually combined bible verses from Sunday school or practice hymns she will sing for the congregation. Also, her writing books are more than one subject as well. She is essentially learning to hold her pen right. However, they are themed with numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc.

So here is a break down of our preschool...

Calendar - We sing days of the week. I always ask her "what comes next?" We put up one of our weather elements. Sometimes she likes to read all the letters on the days of the week. We just play with the calendar until she's ready to do something else.

Reading - We have a dozen of our favorite fiction books, but we usually save those for bed time. Reading during the day is usually structured towards whatever we are learning. Right now she has titles like, Ten Apples up on Top!, Dr. Seuss's ABC, Fairy Numbers, Five Little Bunnies Hopping on a Hill, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, The Alphabet God's Way. She also has some very basic board books that show the alphabet and things that start with those letters. I took a picture of her reading this at her desk though we usually read on the couch or in bed. She likes these books because they are similar to the game she plays on the computer.

Letter of the Week - Each week we focus on a new letter. This week is C c. I focus on her learning the "big" and "little" letters as well as the phonics. This has been a BREEZE with http://www.starfall.com/. I have to limit her time on the computer and she has learned nearly all the lower case letters on her own. Last year we learned the big letters. So I wanted her to learn lower case this year as well as phonics. But while playing the computer games, she learned lower case in no time at all. So we are basically working on phonics and reinforcing lower case.

We are also making a letter book. I make a large letter on the page and she glues things onto it. We also post the letter on her learning board and practice it throughout the week. Another activity we do is walk around the house and look for the letter.

Math -Math at this age consists of counting, ordering, sorting, or recognizing numbers. Math is probably the easiest to slide in with other areas. At the dinner table, she likes to count how many boys and how many girls. We read lots of books with numbers. We practice the calendar numbers. We find numbers in the house. She has an I Spy board book based on numbers.

I have created a caterpillar out of numbers. Each week we post a new letter on the learning board and move the old number to the growing caterpillar.

Bible - We don't have this one nailed down. I have gone back and forth on which bible stories to read. We do well with learning verses and practicing songs. I write her verses on construction paper and hang them on the learning board.

Pre-Writing - This is Breesa's favorite thing to do. Sometimes she disappears and I can find her at her desk doing her workbooks. She is so proud of herself when she finishes. She usually gets a sticker as well.

Post Card Learning - When my grandma passed away she left me a shoe box full of post cards. Being a homeschooler, I couldn't toss them. So I have decided to let Breesa pick one card or group of cards per week. Then I find movies, books, or activities to teach her about that subject. So far we have done the king crab, foxes (snow fox and red fox), and this week it's light houses. We will actually go to see one so that will be exciting. She really gets a lot out of these and it's like a science lesson when we study animals or history when we study something like light houses. We post these on the learning board also.

Learning Board...I am sure by now you are wondering what her learning board looks like. It was inspired by the Letter of the Week curriculum. We post everything we are working to the learning board. When we are finished we move the items to a specified location. The bible verses go on one wall. The numbers go with the caterpillar and the letters go down the side of a book shelf. I haven't decided on a place fr post cards but I may put them in an album to look through. I also keep a sticker chart on the board so that we can keep track of what subjects we are getting done. I don't focus on getting it all done every day. But at least with stickers I know when we did it last. Plus she likes them!!

My Home Organizer

I was initially inspired by Fly Lady, but Candy's blog got me moving. Here is my Home Organizer, also called many other things by other ladies. If you want more information on starting your own, check Candy's Home Management Binder University or list of other women's binders. Her web pages is http://www.keepingthehome.com/. The links are in her side bar.

So here is the tour of my binder...

Here is the cover. I decorated it with scrapbooking stickers, cute quotes, and Thomas Kincaid stickers.

The pocket of the binder hold mail, usually bills. There also happens to be a paint sample for the front porch, stickers from my daughter, and some other junk I have yet to file. My pencil holder has a few pens, pencils, a highlighter, and post it notes. I use the notes all over my binder to remind me things to update or create. The first page in my binder is a page of notes from a book I am reading. It includes 10 things to pray for everyday in regards to my children.


The tabs in my book are
Red - Calendar
Purple – Daily Routines
Yellow - Cleaning
Green – Meal Planning
Blue – To Do
Red - Budget
Purple - (empty)
Yellow - Social
Green – Home School
Blue - College

The first tab is my calendar section. I printed these from Donna Young. Pretty basic stuff.

The next tab is our daily schedule. I break it into blocks. Rise & Shine, Morning, Afternoon, and Bedtime. The morning and afternoon blocks are done in any order really. Just get it done before lunch or before dinner. The Rise & Shine and Bedtime are done first and last in the day. I find it easier to keep this sort of schedule because days are hectic and at least I know I have a basic list to get things finished. A minute-to-minute schedule is not easy for me to follow.

The next section is cleaning...my least used section. Ok I'm still working on this area. I made these sheets in Excel. The first is a list of chores that only need to be done weekly, such as mopping, cleaning glass, etc. I like this because if I need to skip something at least I have a record of when it was done last. (I can skip something different this week...should I repeat I am still working in this area??)

This page is a list of chores to do every day. It mostly includes quick cleaning, wipe downs, emptying trash, straighting type stuff. The days 1st-15th are on the front and the 16th-31st are on the backside.

Also in my cleaning section, you will find a laundry list of which load to do on each day. Homemade Cleaning Recipes and Age Appropriate Chores.

The next area is my To Do List section...perhaps my favorite section. I love to make lists...I grew up on them. Anyway, I didn't feel a need for pictures of this one. But I keep loose, leaf paper in this section and my many to do lists. My husband is working so hard on all our projects, that I recently re-wrote the lists. My lists now include To Do: Around the House-my list of things that need done. I have a To Do: Projects on the House-a list for Pierce and I to stay on the same page about the direction we are moving in remodeling our house. He is working on the list as I type...yay! The next list is To Do: Decluttering. Since we are remodeling and unpacking, there is always somewhere to declutter. I might make other lists and keep them here but that is all I have for now.

The next tab is my Budget section. I didn't include pictures because most pages have personal information on them. Anyway, I get a lot of printouts from http://www.crown.org/. They are a great financial resource. I keep a list of financial goals and a percentage guide for family income. This is a page that has many income brackets and lets you know what percent of your income should be spent on each area. For instance, housing expenses for a family of 4 range from 39% to 29% of net income. I use this to make sure we are spending our money in the right areas. It has been my inspiration for getting our food budget down. Gas is next!! I printed it from the Crown website. I also keep a list of debts to pay. If there is someone who can't be paid when the bill comes in, I list them on this page.

Ok back to visuals...

This is my meal planner. I plan three meals a day for most days of the week, unless we are out of town or busy that night. I rarely cook what I have listed for that day. But I have to make this or my meals are a mess. Instead, I cross off what I make. I may not be in the mood for something so I steal tomorrow nights meal plan and cook it tonight. Then I just cross it off. Some days I plan lunch and write "leftovers" beside it for dinner because I know I can make enough to last for both meals.

I also keep a list of meals we like make. This way I have ideas when I am planning my menu. I will ask my family what they want. I jot the ideas down at the top of my meal plan. Then I head to the store. I try to match what's on sale with their requests. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I use this system to keep the budget down, instead of buying what they want regardless of the price. I also have a master grocery list I printed from online at Donna Young. But I have a sticky note to make a new one. My list is much different than hers and it took me FOREVER to get my shopping done using this one. Needless to say, I only used it once. I keep the old one in there to remind me that I need to make a customized grocery list.

The next tab is yellow and I called it the Family Yellow Pages...ha ha. Anyway, I keep phone numbers here. Also, there is a page for birthdays and anniversaries. But I never send cards so I don't really know why I have it. I guess I intend to get around to it.

The second to last area is Homeschooling. I love this section because I am currently working on it. The first page is a list of Breesa's Daily Preschool Tasks. This is what it looks like...

Preschool

Calendar Activities
Month, Day of Week, Date
Weather

Reading
15 minutes of reading

Letter of the Week
Check daily activities

Bible
Read story
Songs
Verse for Sunday School
Practice hymn for church service

Math
Number of the week
Activity or Game

Writing
Pre-writing books

Personal Care

It is more or less an overview of my ideal day with her. I blogged a whole post about this. It's in the side bar. Anyway, we don't always get to everything but when she needs an activity to keep her busy I try to pull from this list first.

This is a handout from her Sunday School teacher with the bible verses on it for the next few months. We post the current verse on her learning board.

This page is a list of things typically taught in preschool. You can find the list at World Book. They have all grades listed. I copied this to a document and customized it by adding a few things of my own and deleting a few. I try to keep this fresh in my mind. That way, if we stumble upon a learning opportunity, I can remember what she still needs to work on. Daddy likes this area too. He loves to teach her things and I can let me know what she needs to work on. I highlight the tasks when I think she has learned it. Most are easily taught while going through daily activities.

I also have a list of activities for my kids. Activities are things they like to do and are mom approved... boredom breeds trouble. Here are some of their things to do..

Jenga Blocks
Play-Doh
Moon Sand
Finger Painting
Game Boy
Water colors
Reading
Crayons or Markers Drawing
Puzzles
Playing Outside
Bowl Matching Game
Foam Book
Baby Einstein
Pom Pom Animals
Park
Hide n Seek
Tea Party
Pet Shop
Candyland
Webkins
Babies
TV or Movies
Hi Ho Cherry-O
Fly Pen
Memory
Play with rock collection
Dress up
Board game
Computer

This list is handy for when they are bored or I need to keep them busy so I can get something down. It also helps if I want to spend time with them we can do something they will enjoy.

I also have some pages going into this section for Peyton. She will have a list of books to read this school year. I will have a page to keep track of her ACE paces at school. Some handouts from school may go here. I have quite a few of her old homeschool books she likes to work in. We have Home Ec, Typing, Photography, and I am ordering the Prairie Primer. So I will keep anything for her in this section as well.

The last section is our College area. Pierce and I both take classes online. I keep our paperwork in this section. The page shown is a list of classes needed to graduate. I keep track of our classes and which ones to take next.

That's all there is to my binder. I wanted to add that I keep loose, leaf paper in the back. Whenever I am brainstorming a new page, I make it on the notebook paper first. Then type it when I get around to it.