The building projects are done, the room is ready, the students and teacher are excited... It's time for the school year to start!

That's right the 2013-2014 school year begins tomorrow, September 3rd.  I had a few carpentry projects to finish so the room would be ready and I finished the last one today.  I then spent part of the afternoon getting the binders set up for the kids.  I have one left to do, but that will require a trip to an office supply store to get a binding cut off and have it drilled for a 3 ring binder.

Here are some pictures of our classroom with the new improvements.

I can't believe this is our 8th year of homeschooling.  It seems like just yesterday I was starting 2nd grade with Everett and Pre-K with Annika, while chasing baby Lucas around the house.  The kids say they are excited to get started, and I have to admit, I am too.  I think the programs I picked out will be excellent and will make for a great year.

The curriculum choices are as follows.

Everett- 9th Grade

• Grammar- Analytical Grammar
• Spelling- Finish the levels 4-7 of All About Spelling (he's already half way through level 4 so this is doable)
• Literature- Teaching the Classics method using the following books (if we have time we'll add others)
• Fishing in the Air, Creech
• Owl Moon, Yolen
• All the Places to Love, MacLachlan
• St. George and the Dragon, Hyman & Hodges
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, retold by Tolkein
• Tom Sawyer, Twain
• Frankenstein, Shelley

• Composition- IEW Student Writing Intensive level C
• Math- Math U See finish Pre-Algebra and then Algebra I
• History- Time Travelers finish early 19th century move on to the Civil War, Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression, and on to World War II
• Science- REAL Science Odyssey Biology level 2 along with added reading selections
• Art- Meet the Masters
• Latin- Latin Alive I

Annika- 6th Grade

• Reading and Spelling- Barton (currently in level 3, hoping to get through 4 and maybe 5 this year)
• Grammar- Junior Analytical Grammar
• Composition- IEW Student Writing Intensive level A
• Math- Math U See Finish Gamma, move on to Delta, and possibly Epsilon
• History- Time Travelers finish early 19th century  move on to the Civil War, Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression, and on to World War II
• Science- Nancy Larson Science level 4
• Art- Meet the Masters
• Latin- Latin for Children level A

Lucas- 2nd Grade

• Phonics- All About Reading level 2 and 3
• Spelling- All About Spelling level 1 and 2
• Penmanship- Handwriting Without Tears Cursive
• Math- Math U See finish Alpha, move on to Beta
• History- Tagging along as interested with older siblings
• Science- Nancy Larson level 2
• Art- Meet the Masters

Wow!  That's quite a list now that I type it all out.

To all my other homeschooling friends, I hope you have the type of year you envision in your minds, may it be engaging, productive, and above all fun.  To all my friends with children starting back to public school or who have already started may your year be filled with joy and may your children excel in all they do.  

Happy Schooling!

I've been such a slacker, time to get back on the blog.

It's been a long time since I posted here on the blog.  This past school year has been one of many ups and downs.  We had a lot of good times and a lot of frustrating times.  We finally just had to call it a year and be done.  We will be doing some summer schooling but nothing too intense.  

Lucas will continue with math boot camp to nail down those addition and subtraction operations.  

Everett will continue with spelling and will be doing a fractions and decimals boot camp for math.

Annika will continue with her Barton Reading and Spelling lessons as well as doing a multiplication and division math boot camp.  

Annika is also undergoing a lot of evaluations to make sure we know of any other underlying learning issues she has.  She is currently in therapy for some more speech issues and some auditory processing problems.   Barton has been a huge game changer for her in the area of language arts, but Matt and I feel we have to get her evaluated for any learning problems that could be on the table so we're better equipped to guide her through her education.  

All of our math boot camps will be done using the Math U See curriculum.  So far the kids are really enjoying it and we've already had a few "A-ha" moments. 

I hope you all have a fabulous summer. 

It's almost time to start up again

It's almost time to start back into the school routine, so I spent a little time today updating the shelves.  I moved out somethings we'd finished and moved in a few things we'll now need.  I also took some new pictures while the place is still somewhat clean.