Not-Back-To-School–Student Photos + a printable for you!

I didn’t really want to participate last week, since I don’t have a space for school right now. We mostly do school on the dining room table or on the floor in the living room, and you don’t need a picture of my dining room table/desk/school table.

Anyway, what I did get this week was pictures of my three. Amazingly, I got a great picture of all three of them on the first try!

Look, even Shane is holding his sign and smiling, crazy!! Of course, it went downhill from there, and I didn’t get any more good pictures of him. Got some of the other two though :-)

And now for the printable mentioned in the title. I couldn’t find the exact words that I wanted on the chalkboard signs that I found around the internet, so I made one. I wanted one for my tiny tot and one for my pre-k’er as well as 2nd grade. So, you get to benefit from that! I made all grades from Tiny Tot up through 12th grade. I did add the school year, so if you want the publisher file instead without the school year, you can email me.

As it turns out, we started school yesterday instead of next week, like I’d planned. The kids have been actually asking me when we would start school and wanting to get started…that enthusiasm did not last long, when they realized that we would actually be *doing* school instead of playing , haha. So far (2 days in!), I am very pleased with my choice of curriculum, here’s hoping that it stays that way!

So, what about you? Do you take back to school pictures? When do your kids start school?

~S

Not-Back-To-School–2013-2014 Curriculum

Yikes! It’s August! We’ve been so busy working on our summer bucket list that it’s left me little time for blogging. Okay, that and a few other major projects :-) One of those is planning out this coming school year for my two olders: trying to figure out what school will look like with a 2nd grader, a pre-k 4 y.o., and my cute mischievous baby-pants.

I think I’ve finally nailed down what curriculum we’ll be using, at least. I don’t have a weekly/daily schedule figured out yet, and I will, but it’s tricky, ya know?

ANYway, here’s the current plan, subject to change if there are parts that aren’t working.

2nd Grade

• History: Story of the World Year 2 including activity guide and student pages. We will not be using the tests this time around. Probably when we come back for cycle 2, then I will be very glad to have them :) Our history curriculum from the last two years left me feeling overwhelmed and like I was doing too much work to get everything ready, especially for how much I paid for the whole thing. SotW looks so much more complete and the text is really enjoyable to read/listen to for all of us.  I’ve started a pinterest board for all the great ideas I’m coming across too, so check it out here.

 

• Math: Math U See Beta. We’ll be sticking with Math-U-See for the long run unless it is stops working for us. I’ll be interested to see if it works for Nate too, but it works just fine for Kahlen, yay! Here’s a few pins about math too.

 

• Spelling/Reading: All About Spelling 3 / All About Reading 3 . We’re only about halfway through AAS /AAR 2, which we started mid-year last year and have been steadily plugging along all summer. I made a nice little spreadsheet for myself that correlates the lessons from AAS 2 and AAR 2 because a lot of the teaching is either exactly or very close to the same. This has saved me time because I’m not repeat teaching everything, yay! If you are currently using AAS 2 & AAR 2, and would like my spreadsheet, please email me as I don’t want to impinge on proprietary information by posting it :) Since AAR 3 isn’t scheduled to come out until late this year, we’re not really in a hurry to finish level 2.

 

• Science: Apologia Astronomy with Junior Notebooking Journal. We have really loved going through Human Anatomy and Physiology and are looking forward to another year of study. I think Nate will be joining us more with this one too, because of his interest and his age. No notebook for him, though, that’s just too much! More pinterest love here.

 

• Language Arts: First Language Lessons 2 / Writing with Ease 2 Workbook. We are super close to finishing First Language Lessons 1, and we’re just going to roll right into the next book. I’ll be interested to see how WWE goes, I think she’s going to really like it…most days. She wants to be an author/illustrator when she grows up, so I’ll be reminding her of that when we have to do writing exercises :-)

 

• The Fun Stuff: Draw Write Now / ARTistic Pursuits / Handwriting without Tears. I like Draw Write Now because I can easily just tell her to do a page, and she does. It’s good practice for all kinds of things: drawing, writing, following step-by-step instructions, completing an assignment independently. She’s worked through almost two of the books already. I have her go through them in a chronological manner, but you really could do the pictures however you want. Also, Carissa over at 1+1+1=1 has started making some great printables to go with these books if you’re thinking of using them for a younger student or a reluctant writer. For Art, we’re working through the ARTistic Pursuits early elementary books. We’re still in book 1, but when we that, then we'll just move on to the second book. As for handwriting, we’re still working through the Handwriting Without Tears books because she requests them, yay! Also another good thing she can do independently. This is also an add-on thing and not something that I’m really stuck on her completing.

 

• Enrichment: After thinking about it and praying about it, we’ve decided to enroll Kahlen in the LEAP program through the local school district. She’ll be going to school once a week for a full day. She gets to take cooking, puppeting, Spanish, PE, artistic design, and a book club. She’s very excited! I’ll be glad to have a day with just the boys, but I’ll miss her.

 

Pre-Kindergarten

• Primary Curriculum: My Father’s World Kindergarten – God’s Creation from A to Z. While I am not into over-schooling your young children AND I realize this is a kindergarten curriculum, I still feel like this will be a good match. We’ll be doing this the “lite” way, not doing every single thing. I chose this curriculum because I’ve heard good things about it as far as having it all laid out for me, which is just what I wanted! It incorporates all the areas that I wanted to have him “study” anyway, such as letter formation, letter sounds, sight words, math, fun projects, and character traits/key truths from the Bible as appropriate to this age. I got a used copy of the first edition teacher’s manual, but it isn’t as polished as the current version, so I found some great resources and put them on, you guessed it, pinterest!
• Handwriting: I am going to start going through Handwriting Without Tears’ My First School Book with him, but we’re going to go at his pace, which I have no idea what that will be yet. I want him to start taking an interest in writing, but not hate it, so we’ll just play it by ear.
• Fun Stuff: We’ll keep doing busy bags and possibly add in some All By Myself boxes or some sensory bin stuff.

Tiny Tot School

Going to try and mostly do school while Mr. Baby-Pants is napping, but I don’t know how long his morning nap will last. So when needed, I’m hoping that he will be entertained by sensory bins, play dough, and maybe a few other ideas from my tiny tot school board. I’m also trying to be better about reading to him. It’s hard with the third one! I used to read to Kahlen every time I put her down to sleep, but with Shane, I sing him a song because it’s faster, oops.

 

Whew! That’s what I have so far. I’m hoping it all works out, at least mostly. What are your plans for this year? Come link up with me and read what others are doing here.

See you next week for School Room Week! And stay tuned for this month’s menu plan also.

~S

Preschool Planning – Curriculum Overview

After having some frustration with the curriculum I have been using (Hubbard’s Cupboard – which has great information, I just felt like it was incomplete as far as implementation went), I’ve come across a new solution for this school year. I feel like this year is actually preschool, where last year was just play school and more just gave us something to do (Read here for more of my thoughts on the matter).

My friend and I that will still be co-oping the work will be using the Raising Rock Stars Preschool curriculum designed by the fantastic Carissa at 1+1+1=1

We’ll also be supplementing this with the Letter of the Week curriculum from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Each of these curriculums have a paid component that is optional with most of the information available for free. I decided to pay each of them for the curriculum. Partially because I truly appreciate all they do and partially to make my life easier :)

So, here’s the new plan sheet I’ll be using every week: (This one’s not filled in, it just has the categories listed) Plan Sheet

And here’s the first week’s plan all filled out: Ll Plan Sheet

The best part about these two curriculums is that there is really little prep work for me. I just have to print the pages I’m going to use, cut a few, and done! (Okay, so I laminated a few too, but that’s just because my new laminator is cool)

We’ll be starting all this fun in two weeks. I need some time for not doing much of anything before we jump into 4-5 days a week of school.

I’m still figuring a few things out too. Like are we going to start piano “lessons” (I can handle teaching at least the first few books)? What about stART or some other literacy component? This is a good start, I think, we’ll roll from here :)

~S

Preschool Planning – 4th of July

My turn to plan our school unit! This time, the theme is 4th of July. As I type this, my dear daughter is supposed to be taking a nap, but is too excited about the fireworks to sleep :)

To try and make this a little easier, I’ve decided this time to go through the activities one by one  and post either where I got the idea or the printable for it. Since some of them are combined, it might be not quite as simple as that, but we’ll give it a shot.

Here’s my overview page: 4th of July Unit Planning Sheet

And here's the Detailed Activity List: 4th of July Detailed Activity List2

Here’s what I used for each activity:

1. USA Coloring Page
2. Shape Race
3. Red, White & Blue Collage – Collected random craft supplies from my stash. Didn’t buy anything for it or print anything specifically.
4. F is for Flag Handwriting Page
5. Cherry Playdough
6. US Flag discussion (nothing special there)
7. Graham Cracker Flags
8. Match Flags (see page 1)
9. Make a Flag Windsock (nothing extra needed)
10. F is for Flag Dot Page (page 2)
11. Cupcake Fireworks
12. Holiday Sort
13. Sort Stars
14. Glitter Fireworks
15. Find the Fs
16. Flag Puzzle (page 3)
17. Bubble Wrap Stomp (nothing extra needed)
18. Loud vs. Quiet
19. Star Sticker Counting (pages 4-6)
20. Straw Fireworks Painting
21. Cutting Practice (didn’t find a good themed one, so I just used one that I liked. Scroll down a bit)
22. Edible Sparkler

Proverbs 15:1 song chart

Can’t wait to start this unit tomorrow!

~S

Preschool Planning - Zoo Animals

We started on a unit on Zoo Animals per the Hubbard's Cupboard 2's curriculum. Since I have to reformat it to work for me, I thought maybe you'd be interested in them too. Feel free to use whatever parts of this works for you!! I'm posting most of the files in pdf format so that more people can use them, however if you would like my original publisher files, please email me at theyoungns at gmail.com :)

Overview for the two week unit:
Zoo Animals Unit Planning Sheet

Detailed Activity List:
Zoo Animals Detailed Activity List

Some printables:
Zoo Animals Pages

Giraffe Printable:
Giraffe


Here are links to some other things I'm using:
Psalm 56:3 memory verse
Zoo Bingo cards
June Playdough
June Sensory Bin
Z is for Zebra from Confessions of a Homeschooler (using the do-a-dot page)

~S

Preschool Planning - Babies

We finished up our unit on birds, took a week off, then started on a unit on Babies per the Hubbard's Cupboard 2's curriculum. Since I have to reformat it to work for me, I thought maybe you'd be interested in them too. Feel free to use whatever parts of this works for you!!

Overview for the two week unit:
Baby Unit Planning Sheet

Detailed activity list:
Babies Detailed Activity List

A couple printables I created (for activities #5, #8, & #10):Printables

B is for Baby Worksheets:
B is for Baby

Here are links to the other pages I'm using:
Daniel 9:9 memory verse
Babies & Parents (Used these for #3 & #7)
Customized Handwriting Pages

I'll be doing our TotSchool post about our first week soon too!

~S

Preschool Planning - Easter Weeks 3-4

I really really meant to get this up sooner, it just didn't happen :(

Here's the overview for the next two weeks:
Easter at a Glance 2

and here's the detailed activity list:
Easter Detailed Activity List 2

Playdough Mountain from Desiring God

Resurrection Rolls

Easter story sequencing

Easter Puzzle and Die Game

Handprint wreath

C is for Cross magnet page

E is for Egg magnet page

Enjoy!
~S

Preschool Planning - Easter weeks 1-2

Remember back at Valentine's Day when I posted my planning info for the unit? Well, here's my planning sheets for the first two weeks of the Easter unit. Since I'm trading kits with two friends, I won't have all the planning sheets that I can give you, but I will post the ones that I do in hopes that they will be useful :)

I've divided this one out, and unfortunately, I didn't save all the sheets that I'm using as supplements, but I'll try and figure out where I got most of them.

Anyway, here's the overview of what we'll be doing for the next two weeks:
Easter at a Glance

Here's the detailed activity list including what I put into each kit and what each mom needed to have on hand:
Easter Detailed Activity List

Humpty Dumpty Magnet Page

 Make Palm Branches

Donkey Outline for donkey craft

H Handwriting page

P is for Palm Magnet Page

Easter Memory page

P Handwriting page

I reformatted this Resurrection Eggs activity a little bit so that it was easier to print:
Resurrection Eggs

That's all I've got for the first two weeks. Stay tuned for the next two weeks, I hope to get them done this weekend :)

~S

Preschool Planning - Valentine's Day

I'm excited and I wanted to share! I just came up with a new strategy for planning preschool for Kahlen. I made a new planning sheet that I think will work best for me based on all these wonderful ideas I've recently found online. I couldn't really find a complete plan that was what I wanted, so I'm going to make my own (no one's surprised) :)
Right now, we're doing school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I've set up my plan sheet to be that. Also, I have enjoyed doing a theme for each week, so I'm going to continue doing that as well. Most of my activities, verses, and theme ideas are still going to come from Hubbard's Cupboard, but I found that I wanted the information in a different format and I was adding activities as well. Hubbard's Cupboard has great ideas for Bible memory verses to song, monthly playdough, and a monthly sensory bin, so those are all on the bottom of my plan sheet.

So, here's my main planning sheet:
Unit Planning Sheet

And here's my Valentine's Day unit with the planning sheet filled out and all the info and sheets I'll need for the activities:
Valentine's Day
I'll be starting this unit next week, so I'll let you all know how my new idea works. In the mean time, if anyone wants the original publisher file so you can edit it yourself, let me know; I'd be happy to email it to you :)

~S