Yep...it's almost that time!!

We start school on August 31st!!! WHOOO HOOOO!! I don't know which one of us is more excited...Aly or me...or even Lili. Okay...so Lili won't be officially Homeschooling this year since she is only three, but you can bet your bottom dollar that she will be right in the middle soaking up so much!!

I have to pause here and tell you a Lili story...

Yesterday afternoon the girls were playing on their computer while I started dinner. They were on a website that had this really cool game where you could make up star constellations and see real ones too. Anyway, they were playing away and I heard Lili say to Aly, "WOW Aly...those are beautiful constellations! Do you think that Mamma will teach us about the constellations this year in school?" I never even heard Aly's response as I was too busy laughing at the fact that Lili even knew what a constellation WAS!!


After I stopped laughing I was really brought around to a very sharp truth...one that scares me and thrills me at the same time...Lili really will be right there learning along with Aly this year. She will pick up on everything and probably give Aly a run for her money in some areas! I can't wait to see how they BOTH blossom this school year!! This is one of the things that most excites me about homeschooling...it is sort of the "one room school house of old" idea!! I definitely won't be able to just pass down Aly's curriculum and lesson plans to Lili because she will be so ahead of the curve on much of it. Everything will have to be revamped to suit where she is at the time.


Speaking of lesson plans...I have been going crazy getting our lesson plans ready for this year. It has been very interesting to say the least as I am not really sure how it is all going to fall into place for Aly. She wants to learn everything RIGHT NOW!! She would home school 14 hours a day if I would do it. I am trying to have enough material to keep her busy should she take off like a comet, but I must make sure to not pile on too much and frustrate her.


I have lots and lots of reading lined up for each subject (we are CM'ers and LOVE the library!) and lots of fun activities to supplement as well.


We will be doing Language Arts: Vocabulary and some basic grammar. I have lots of fun supplements like MadLibs, online games and other games on hand to keep her busy too!


For Social Studies/Geography: we are learning about the 50 states. We started this last spring and she can't wait to get back into it. I am supplementing that with the "Which way USA" collection from Highlights. We get two new states each month along with a map of those states. The books have all sorts of fun activities to do to help you learn about the state and you use the map to answer questions and such as well. She learns all about the history of the state, the flag, the capital, basic geography, people and industry, and other fun information. We just got the next two books yesterday in the mail and was so over the fact that I wouldn't let her do it right then!

If needed, in January we will add in A Child's Geography. If not, then we will start it next Fall.


Science will consist of: Weather, Seasons, measurements, basic systems of the body and her Animal notebook. Her animal notebook is where she studies one animal of her choosing and then in her notebook she draws a picture of the animal and writes some basic facts about the animal that she learned. So far we have a Loggerhead Turtle and a Crocodile! (the week she does snakes, I'm planning a trip to the south of France so I can relax and not think about the animal that FREAKS ME OUT the most!!!) WHEW...okay....I'm better now. Moving on....


Oh...by the way...all of these things she notebooks. Notebooking is so much more FUN than testing!!! ( It also takes care of our portfolio requirement for the county) Basically, notebooking means that you learn all about something and then you take a piece of paper and fill it up with pictures and stories and whatever else you want to fill it up with concerning what you just learned. Kind of like a scrapbook. Then you add it to the appropriate notebook...Science, language arts, geography, math...whatever. We LOVE TO NOTEBOOK!!


For History: we will be learning about some historical people instead of events at this point. We will spend about two weeks on each person and do lots and lots of reading and even a few videos and field trips thrown in for good measure. Of course she will not only Notebook them, but she will enter them into her "Book of Centuries". It is a big three ring binder that we made a timeline in. It is so cool and she can add to it for years to come!!


Math should be fun: Continuing work on addition and subtraction, money, telling time, word problems (she LOVES these), 100's chart, and number lines. Oh...and she also wants to learn about graphs and charts??? Go figure!! We haven't formally starting working on fractions, but she loves to measure stuff when we cook and pretty much has the whole, half, quarter thing down pat. I think we will just keep working on that as the opportunity presents itself during the day.


Oh...lest I forget foreign language time: She wants to learn Chinese in the worst way, but I think we are going to wait a bit on that. We are, however, going to continue in our Sign language class. She knows a good amount of signs, but I think we are going to focus on fingerspelling and reading someone else fingerspelling. Found a GREAT website to practice that!!!!


The most important subject we will do is our Bible time: That will constist of Character Training (using Polished Cornerstones and Instructions in Righteousness ) Bible Memorization, Bible study and memorizing the books of the Bible. She and Lili already have them memorized up to about Job so we will just review and pick up where we left off. Oh and we will be learning two new hymns each month. I KNEW that I wanted to continue with this after they learned "O Worship the King" and I listened to them sing it at the top of their lungs in Walmart one day. What an awesome witness that was!!! To me and to everyone who heard them and stopped and commented to me at how it brought a smile to their hearts to see these two little girls holding hands singing it not caring a bit who was listening.


We will also be doing Copywork to work on her handwriting and some poetry reading. Obviously I will be doing much of the reading, but she is reading so well, that I will be letting her do a good bit of it. She loves to read to her sister too...which is a great help when I need to occupy them while I am doing something!!!


Oh...I almost forgot her daily sketch pad. She has a sketch pad that she takes outside and picks something to draw. It might be a plant or an lizard...whatever. She just draws it, dates and describes what it is. She started this in the spring, but we didn't get to keep up with it much this summer. She is looking forward to doing it again!


Okay...well the girlies are driving me nuts to go outside and play, so I better get going before they start a Mutiny!!!


I'll add more to this as the school year starts and moves on!!!

Blessings In HIS Mighty Grip