Our School Room

Summer break is drawing quickly to a close and the new school year is almost upon us. It's exciting while at the same time a little scary. I've just really enjoyed these relaxed summer days. :) And this year I have a high school student! Yikes!

In honor of the coming-too-quickly event, I want to share our school room. I've done some organizing to make it a little more convenient.

Here is where we start our school days. We begin by reading a chapter of the Old Testament followed by a chapter of the New Testament. We are reading straight through each Testament. We are currently in 1 Kings and 1 Timothy. :) We then work on memorizing this catechism and read a selection from some book I've chosen. We have completed Everyday Graces: Child's Book Of Good Manners (Foundations) recently. Other books we read include missionary stories, books on manners, character-building stories, etc. We end this time by having each person say what they are thankful for that day.

I then use this table to work with whoever needs me. The little ones also usually stay here for their work while the older 3 move to the dining room, with the girls at the dining room table and Joshua at a desk.

In this closer view you can see my great big white board. I LOVE this board! It is actually a piece of the material used to line shower walls. We purchased it from Home Depot, along with the plastic edging pieces for around $15-$20. Great deal! 

I also have a small bookshelf with our currently used books close at hand and my file cabinets. I use them to file away all the workbooks that I have cut up. Yes, you read that right...cut up. Instead of having my children write in the workbooks, I chop off the spines and make them into loose-leaf pages. We insert these into page protectors and use dry-erase markers or crayons. Much more cost effective than purchasing new workbooks for each child. The only exception to this is the set of Preschool Workbooks (Early Learning Workbooks)I use when my children are around 4. 

You can also see our Markable Map on the wall. It has the US on the other side. We also have a color version of this map. 

Across the room from our table we have the computer corner. This is where the children do their Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish as well as the games for their Singapore Math . I also have a copier that my husband found for me on one of his thrift store hunts!! I LOVE having this!! He's great like that! :)

In the other corner we have the "baby container" and a bookshelf (there is another one in the opposite corner...when you use Sonlight curriculum, you need a LOT of shelf space!) and 2 rolling carts. Each of my girls has a drawer for storing her things. This includes workbooks and notebooks for the older 4, puzzles for the 2 year old who LOVES puzzles (you can see her in the photo playing with puzzles and baby toys) and a drawer with baby toys for the 1 year old....for when we let her out of jail the baby container. :) Joshua keeps his workbooks and binders in his desk drawers. 

My newest organization project this year was this closet. It doesn't look that great (this is the only part of our house that was never updated!) but I'm really excited about it. I now have a place to put all these supplies and close the door. The best part is that there is a nice bolt at the top of the door to keep little people from grabbing permanent markers and writing on my lovely dry erase board! :)

Well, there you  have it! We are pretty much organized now and ready to start the new year! (I think.....)

How about you? What kind of storage/materials do you have in your schoolroom or school space?



  

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What I'm Up To Lately

It may be HOT outside, but summer is almost over! School planning is underway!

Here is my planning list as I get ready for this school year:

• finish organizing the school room/supplies
• make a family schedule
• decide on the curriculum for my co-op Spanish class
• make a syllabus for my co-op class
• purchase our Sonlight curriculum 

Hmmm....probably more needs to be on this list...busy, busy, busy over here (inside the house since it's just TOO hot to be outside!) 

Look for future blog posts on some of these projects! 

Disclaimer: If you click on the links in this post and make a purchase with Sonlight as a new customer, you will receive a $5 discount on your purchase of $50 or more. I will receive points toward a discount on my own Sonlight purchase. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking my links, I sincerely thank you!! :)

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

As my girls and I work through finishing up our Sonlight Curriculum Core D this summer, we came to a read-aloud called Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. Now, this is my second time through this core. I read this book to my son a few years back. I must have forgotten just how wonderful this book is, because when the girls saw the cover and said, "Ewww......", I admit that I secretly thought the same thing. I even contemplated skipping over it and moving on. I'm so glad I didn't!

We LOVED this book! In fact, it is scheduled to be read over the course of about 3 weeks, but we finished it off in about 6 days!


Summary: This is the story of Nathaniel Bowditch, author of The American Practical Navigator (also known as "the Sailor's Bible"). Nat was a self-taught scholar in post-Revolutionary war America. After having been indentured as an apprentice at the age of 12, he thought his education was over. He soon discovered, however, that by determination and perseverance, he could learn on his own. He was a mathematical whiz and eventually even learned several languages on his own. At the end of his apprenticeship, he signed on to sail and there discovered that the formulas in the book used by sailors had many mathematical mistakes. He took it upon himself to correct this and thus was born the idea for his book. He also spent much time teaching the common sailors how to navigate, something they weren't expected to understand. Many sailors were able to move up in the ranks because of his teaching. 


This book is very well-written and interesting. It is also easy to follow. It does have a lot of nautical language that sometimes we didn't understand, but we either looked up what we needed to (and Sonlight gives great notes!) or we just read through realizing that sailors have their own "language". I did have to stop a couple of times to explain what was going on, but in my opinion that only enhances the educational value of the book. 


This was such a winner with my girls that Daddy heard all kinds of "Nat Bowditch" stories at the dinner table all week long! :)

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Link-ups:

Thankful Homemaker, Far Above Rubies, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Deep Roots At Home, Raising Homemakers

School Days, School Days

I've been sorely neglectful of my blog in the past few weeks. Not only have we been extremely busy, but my laptop (my favorite blog-writing tool) has been out of commission, awaiting my dear hubby's attention. Yay! He fixed it! 

We have had a difficult school year and  we are a little bit "behind" schedule. (As homeschoolers there really is no such thing as "behind", but we are behind where I'd hoped to be at this point in the year.) So as a reminder to myself and an encouragement to others who may also be a little "lagging" in their school year plans, I decided to post some pics of what our school days look like. Hopefully, this will help me to keep on going as we school through this summer to get back "on track". :)

Rebekah's favorite subject and past-time: reading a good book.

Rachel LOVES to write and she does it very well!

Joshua knocks out some seatwork while drowning out background noise with his favorite Christian music.

Our schoolroom. I LOVE our kidney table for working with my students individually or in small groups. We also have our daily Bible reading all together here. (I also LOVE my white board. It is just a full-sized shower board purchased at Home Depot. Very cheap and works great!)

The other side of the room has Joshua's desk and the computer area, where they do Rosetta Stone and listen to their Scripture memory songs. 

The Baby Container :)

Another baby container ~ containing a sweetheart! 

Boy Wanted

To begin our school day, we start with a chapter of the New Testament followed by a chapter from the Old Testament. Then we work on memorizing A Baptist Catechism, then we read a chapter or section from a book focusing on character. Right now we are working through this one:

I really love today's reading. As the mom of a teenage son I found it summed up very well my goals for his character. I remember reading it to him when he was very little and thinking how rambunctious he was and feeling a little like I was failing him in the area of child training. Now, however, although he is far from perfect, I can truly say that I am very proud of the young man he has become and I can see the hand of God shaping him into what He wants him to be. 

BOY WANTED

This "want ad" appeared in the early part of [the 20th] century.

WANTED - A boy that stands straight, sits straight, acts straight, and talks straight;

A boy whose fingernails are not in mourning, whose ears are clean, whose shoes are polished, whose clothes are brushed, whose hair is combed, and whose teeth are well cared for;

A boy who listens carefully when he is spoken to, who asks questions when he does not understand, and does not ask questions about things that are none of his business;

A boy that moves quickly and makes as little noise about it as possible;

A boy who whistles in the street, but does not whistle where he ought keep still;

A boy who looks cheerful, has a ready smile for everybody, and never sulks;

A boy who is polite to every man and respectful to every woman and girl;

A boy who does not smoke cigarettes and has no desire to learn how;

A boy who is more eager to know how to speak good English than to talk slang;

A boy that never bullies other boys nor allows other boys to bully him;

A boy who, when he does not know a thing says, "I don’t know," and when has made a mistake says "I’m sorry," and when he is asked to do a thing says "I’ll try";

A boy who looks you right in the eye and tells the truth every time;

A boy who is eager to read good books;

A boy who would rather put in his spare time at the YMCA gymnasium than to gamble for pennies in a back room;

A boy who does not want to be "smart" nor in any wise attract attention;

A boy who would rather lose his job or be expelled from school than to tell a lie or be a cad;

A boy whom other boys like;

A boy who is at ease in the company of girls;

A boy who is not sorry for himself, and not forever thinking and talking about himself;

A boy who is friendly with his mother, and more intimate with her than anyone else;

A boy who makes you feel good when he is around;

A boy who is not a goody-goody, a prig, or a little pharisee, but just healthy, happy, and full of life;

This boy is wanted everywhere. The family wants him, the school wants him, the office wants him, the boys want him, the girls want him, all creation wants him.

Source unknown
Quoted in The Children's Book of Virtues
by William J. Bennet

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Book Suggestions for Homeschooling

I teach an assortment of ages in my multi-grade homeschool. This year I have grades 8, 5, 3, and K, as well as a preschooler, a toddler, and an infant. 

One thing I've really enjoyed the past couple of years is having a whole-school Bible-reading time at the beginning of our school day. It originally started with us reading through Psalms and also reading a Proverb each day. Then we started reading Genesis. Our curriculum had us in Exodus next and when we finished it my daughter suggested we just "keep going". So we did. We changed our habit to include one chapter of the Old Testament and one chapter of the New Testament each day, going through each one chapter-by-chapter. 

After we read our chapters of the Bible, I like to have a book that focuses on character or one about missionary stories. Below are some of the ones we have read. (The Beautiful Girlhood books are used one-on-one with my daughter.)

        

   

We are part of a homeschool co-op that has some wonderful mom/teachers. I especially love the writing part of the co-op. We use this book for that co-op, as well as for at-home writing lessons.

For spelling, I use Spelling Power. I've tried other curricula for spelling and never really liked them. Then I found this one. I especially like that I can use the same book for all of my children all the way through school. 

And I simply LOVE the Apologia Elementary Science series! We also are using this one through our co-op, so I'm not as involved with it, but we used it before we joined the co-op and I can't say enough about it. It is a wonderful group of science books. I really kind of miss that I'm not able to be more involved in it this year!

             

    

For math, I wanted to try something that wasn't too costly just in case I didn't like it. Since we use Sonlight curriculum as our main curriculum, I ordered from them. They offered several different math options. One of the least expensive was Singapore Math. I ordered it and loved it! I'm not a math person, so I was a little concerned about how my children were doing in math. We mainly joined the co-op for math instruction for my 7th grader since it was quickly becoming clear to me that I would no longer be equipped to handle his instruction. I was so pleased to discover that Singapore math not only had my son ready for Jr. High math, it  had him more than prepared! He had no troubles whatsoever, even though he was a full level "behind" on Singapore math!

And, finally, for foreign language, I highly recommend Rosetta Stone. Even though both my husband and I are fluent Spanish-speakers, we have failed to adequately instruct our children in acquiring proficiency in both languages. So, we purchased Rosetta Stone's Latin American Spanish for them. I love it! Their Spanish is improving greatly. Even my Kindergartner does some of the exercises. (Mainly the listening portion.)

I'm always open for suggestions, so if you have a great homeschool product that you'd like to recommend, please leave me a comment!  Thanks!!