2nd Week of School

The rest of our first week of school went much more smoothly than the first day. On the second day of school, Milly sounded out three letters and put them together to officially read her first words (hen, peg, bat, etc.) Needless to say, I was such a proud mommy! It only occurred to me later that she actually read her first words even earlier than Rachael did...maybe I'll have a second bookworm? I can only hope!

Wednesday was Rachael's half-birthday. She was up with the birds and knocked out her science assignment before breakfast. She is really enjoying having a class that's done primarily on the computer, and usually wants to do that one first. Given that I haven't been a great science teacher, Switched-On Schoolhouse was a great investment for our family. We didn't do much school that day - just her favorites (science, art, Latin) - since they don't take long and she had a friend over to play for most of the day. Hooray for flexibility!

Only...flexibility can go wrong in a hurry.

On Monday, I babysat for a dear friend for a little while, then visited my mother-in-law in the hospital, took the girls out for lunch, and went to the grocery store. It was a little after 2 by the time we got home, so our school day was practically non-existent. I think we got through spelling that day.

On Tuesday, I babysat for a little longer, and Rachael got a few subjects knocked out while we were there - even though I was a mean, mean mommy for making her do schoolwork at her friend's house. We got home in time to eat lunch, and then did another couple of short subjects...but really, once it's past lunchtime, the school day just feels like it should be over.

On Wednesday, we played catch-up. Sort of. I mean, we were pretty far behind what had been written in my lesson plan book by this time, and we just kind of got lazy and enjoyed spending the day at home.

On Thursday, we went out for a playdate that lasted from 10 till 2. Rachael did English and vocabulary during the first part of the playdate, because I'm an ogre and made her suffer the consequences of not getting her room cleaned. I probably don't even need to confess that we didn't do any more schoolwork once we got home.

And by the time Friday rolled around...eh, we're this far behind anyway. What's one more day? We'll catch up next week.

Oh dear. Being flexible last week has certainly created a larger work load for us this week.

I have actually come to realize, over the course of four years and two weeks of homeschooling, that anytime we leave the house - for whatever reason, for however small an amount of time - I can toss at least half of that day's lesson plan right out the window.

We're not exactly morning people around here. I know some homeschooling families who are up at dawn and can knock out a day's worth of homeschooling before a 10 a.m. playdate. That's awesome and I envy them, but it just ain't us. My girls will sleep until at least 8, sometimes 8:30, and far be it from me to wake them up earlier. No, being an utter night owl myself, I enjoy every minute of sleep they give me in the mornings. So by the time you roll out of bed at 8 or 8:30, eat breakfast, and get three females ready to leave the house, you're looking at it being 9 or 9:30...and we live in the middle of nowhere. It takes me 20-30 minutes to get anywhere. So if we have somewhere to go at, say, 10:00...well, no schoolwork is getting done before we leave the house.

Of course, by the time we get home, everyone is either ready for lunch, or tired, or crabby, or something that prevents us from being very productive. So schoolwork gets shoved to the side again.

And the day is a wash.

Now, I'm not suggesting for an instant that we should never leave the house, never want to leave the house, or anything else that's going to offend anyone. Some things are absolutely worth rearranging our schedule for. Even playdates - goodness knows I need face time with my mommy friends as much as the girls need play time with their friends.

However, knowing and understanding my own limitations (and tendencies to call the whole week off when we get "too far behind"), I simply must start being more prudent about our daytime activities. Except for extenuating circumstances (and those have been popping up in spades recently), we'll have to do our best to limit outings to once per week - and anything we fall behind on that day, we'll be able to catch up on Saturday morning while Gene is at work.

Preschool, kindergarten, and first grades were so easy - we could knock out our schoolwork in an hour or two and have the rest of the day free to spend however we wanted. Even second grade wasn't too bad. Third grade, though, has picked up the pace a bit already. Maybe it's just that we're still learning our way through the new curriculums, and maybe this too will slow down with time. We can always hope.  :)

1st Day of School

Now that the first two weeks of school are behind us...I'm finally finding time to blog about the first day! Yes, it has been that hectic...but next week promises to be more calm. Good thing too, since we're already a little behind where I'd planned to be.

Anywho. First day. The girls were up bright and early and ready to start their new school year. Waiting for them on the kitchen table, as always on the first day of school, was a sign waiting to be colored. Crayons on the left for my little preschooler...

...and on the right for my big (holy cow, how is she in THIRD GRADE?!) girl.

They worked on their signs while I made breakfast - cinnamon rolls, which are a special treat. Special treats also being customary on the first day of school.  :)

After breakfast, the girls were finally allowed to dig through the drawers of their "workboxes." Ours might not be the exact workbox system (especially since they're not boxes at all, but drawers), but they work for us - and Rachael had specifically asked to use them this year. If you're not familiar with the concept of workboxes, it's essentially dividing your subjects into separate boxes (or drawers) and letting the child have some autonomy, as well as decision-making powers concerning the order in which subjects are done. For us, we always start the morning with our Bible lesson. After that, the girls are free to head for whichever drawer they choose. Not all subjects appear in the drawers every day. Sometimes there are special treats or games inside. And some of the subjects include a note or page marker so that Rachael can work independently, while other times, she needs my supervision. Here are Rachael's drawers:

The numbers on the right are attached to the drawers by velcro dots. When she finishes with that drawer, she removes the number and sticks it onto a laminated card...when she finishes four subjects, she gets to choose a "special" activity from a stack on the piano. It could be watching a TV show, playing on the computer, etc. She looks forward to her "earned" break time and being able to choose how to spend it...especially when mommy-imposed breaks usually mean chores to be done.  ;)

Rachael actually got a new set of drawers this year, and Milly inherited her old four-drawer set. Yes, I'm aware that the numbers are off. Actually, we're not at all sure where the number three is, and I've yet to work up the gumption to make a new one. So Milly just puts the number two where she wants it. She doesn't remove numbers as she finishes drawers anyway...nor does she have as much to do in her drawers. There's an Explode the Code workbook, math (counting, patterns, etc.) worksheets and Cuisenaire rods, coloring books about numbers and letters, that sort of thing. But it's SCHOOL, and she actually gets angry with me when she runs out of work to do before her sister does.

Here's Rachael working in her Bible study workbook...still in her pajamas, of course. They didn't bother getting dressed at all, actually, until it was time to go outside and take pictures with their signs. Yes, another first-day custom. In breaking with tradition, though, we did not take the pictures in front of the tree in our yard - which was busy being overrun by hornets. We headed up the hill to the side of the house instead.

Rachael ran out of steam on the last line of her sign, penciling in a conversation that the letters were having with each other instead of actually coloring them. So hers is pretty much impossible to read in pictures. You know what it says, though...and didn't Milly do a nice job?

Our first day actually went much longer than usual - we had started at around 9 a.m. and, after breaks for lunch, pictures, and her "earned" break, we didn't finish up until a little after 4. We wanted to explore every single subject that first day, and it took much longer than we'd imagined...thankfully, other days are much shorter.

Their first day of school ended with their last swim lesson. (Last in this series; I'm hoping to get them into another session soon.) Both girls did great with their lessons - Milly is especially fearless about jumping into the pool. Going under the water doesn't bother her a bit, whereas Rachael was always careful to point her chin skyward in an effort to keep the water out of her face. Both girls are swimming with floats and supervision, and I can't wait to see what they'll learn next.

The very last thing they did in their class was to move out of the small-ish therapy pool, and over to the big pool. There, they were led to the diver's blocks at the end of the pool (seven-foot water!) and told to jump in - with an instructor waiting to catch them, of course. This is where Rachael had a panic attack. Not only does she not like jumping in, but now she was jumping from much higher than just the side of the pool. After much reassuring, though, and holding the hand of one of her instructors until she actually jumped...she jumped. I was so proud of her.  :)

Unfortunately - having been standing right behind her sister and hearing the theatrics, Milly was not inclined to jump when her turn came. It took even more reassuring and persuasion to get her up on the diving block, and I had to stand beside her and hold her hand while she jumped - and she DID jump! But I didn't get a picture of it, and I hate that.

Next time, we'll let Milly go first and I'll have the camera ready.  :)

Coming soon: We Got Practically Nothing Done During Our Second Week of School, But That's Okay.

'Twas the Night Before Homeschool

'Twas the night before homeschool's first day of the year;

All of the boxes of books had appeared,

Exciting the children so they hardly could sleep -

They would have gladly began school last week!

Dad is oblivious - he hasn't a clue

How many things I have yet left to do -

To make sure the day's special, the best it can be,

For a girl starting preschool and one in grade three.

Tradition mandates that I must create

A coloring page to be placed by each plate,

Announcing the new grade each child is beginning

(Later to be held for a picture while grinning.)

There's the kitchen to straighten and table to clear,

Crayons and markers to be gathered near.

Paper and pencils and scissors and glue

Notebooks and binders to be brought out too.

Workboxes are numbered and carefully filled -

Assignments for every subject they'll yield.

Even Milly has boxes, since she has to be

Just like her sister, although just three.

(And a HALF. You must not forget the HALF.)

Now the rest of the family are snug in their beds,

And me? I must be out of my head

For still sitting and blogging when clearly I know

The tasks that require me to get up and go.

Once they are done, only then may I sleep

Until two little children into my room creep -

Earlier than need be, I haven't a doubt,

Ready to get all of their new books out!

-yeah, I wrote this one.

Because I'm feeling all poetic tonight, here's one more that I just found on another homeschooling blog. It made me all weepy, but then, most things do. See you tomorrow with an update on our first day back to school!

The Teacher

Lord, who am I to teach the way

To little children day by day,

So prone myself to go astray?

I teach them knowledge but I know

How faint they flicker and how low

The candles of my knowledge glow.

I teach them power to will and do,

But only now to learn anew

My own great weakness, through and through.

I teach them love for all mankind
And all God's creatures, but I find

My love comes lagging far behind.

Lord, if their guide I still must be,

Oh let my little children see

The teacher leaning hard on Thee.

- Leslie Pinckney Hill

BOX DAY!!

I was thinking this morning, as I checked tracking information online for the seventeenth time, about how I could explain the joy of Box Day to a non-homeschooler, or a new one who hasn't experienced it yet. I thought that first I should lead off with a definition.

Box Day (n.) - any day in which a homeschooling family receives new homeschooling supplies via mail, UPS or FedEx. Although typically books, may include software, manipulatives, etc. A homeschooling family may have many box days throughout the school year, but the primary Box Day is the day on which the majority of the coming year's school supplies arrive, usually in a large box.

We actually received a large-ish padded envelope along with our big box today; inside was our geography curriculum for the year, Around the World in 180 Days. I'll admit, it looks very, very dry on in the inside...but the whole point is to investigate everything from other sources, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Anyway...how to describe to you the feelings invoked by the arrival of the box on Box Day? Well, Rachael actually summed it up quite well for me this year. As I was removing the tape from our giant box from ChristianBook.com, she said, "It's just like a birthday or Christmas!" Ah, yes, the gift of education. Love that girl.

As you can see, the girls were quite excited to get past the wads of paper and to the actual contents of the box. I am so glad that they share my love of a brand new book, unopened, unread, fresh and full of possibilities. And then, there they were:

I started pulling out book after book, and each one was met with ooh's and aah's from the peanut gallery. Even the math book was well received, which is a drastic improvement over last year's boo's and groans. Milly was thrilled when a book came out of the box that was just for her. After looking through it for a few minutes, she hastened it away to upstairs locations unknown, where her sister would be sure to not lay one grubby hand upon it. (I finally convinced her to bring it back down and leave it with all of our other school books.)

Rachael was quite happy with all of the selections, but was most enamored (unsurprisingly) with the art book. She was also quite happy to see Volume 2 of her beloved history curriculum, even if it did come with a test booklet (gasp) and an accompanying activity guide roughly the size of the New York telephone directory.

Although I didn't take pictures of what came next, I can assure you that I spent quite some time paging through each book myself, and already have my lesson plan for next week nearly complete. I also took much nerdish delight in the installing of Switched-On Schoolhouse, playing with the background themes and customizing the assignment calendar, and I can't wait to do the tutorial with Rachael on Monday.

The best thing about Box Day, other than seeing the delight on my girls' faces as they looked through their new books? They're begging me to start school tomorrow instead of ghoulishly forcing them wait until Monday. (How many public-school kids do that?! I certainly didn't.)

But wait they shall, for Mrs. Mommy needs to finish with the lesson plans. Besides, the first day of school is always a special day, and I have to plan for that too.

And now, I'll be in the kitchen poring over our new math curriculum if anyone needs me.

Getting ready...

The books are all ordered and should be here soon. I've stocked up on more notebook paper, pencils, glue and crayons than should be allowed. I've assessed the inventory of homeschool detritus hiding in the cellar and only have a few more small items to pick up before school starts on Monday.

I haven't cleaned off the full-to-overflowing bookcase in the kitchen yet, but hey, I have time.

I did pick up the last "big" homeschool item today - a seven-drawer thingamajiggy that will henceforth serve as Rachael's new workboxes (an upgrade over last year's five-drawer system.)

Milly made friends with it immediately. Why she felt compelled to dress it in apron, shoes, and Burger King crown is still a mystery.

As you can see, the shelving unit is pretty tall - as Milly is a bit of a giant herself, compared to most 3-1/2-year-olds.

I had actually gone into Big Lots to look for a plastic milk crate or two - the better to store the junk I have yet to clean off of the overflowing homeschool shelf. I quickly realized that I would be better off at Dollar Tree for plastic storage and was just heading toward the exit when I spotted the monster drawers. It was the only one left that had seven shelves, and it practically demanded to come home with us. Since we have more subjects this year than we have in years past, it really will be helpful to have around this year.

Haven't heard of workboxes? Well, here's a blog that explains it fairly well so I don't have to. I'll admit, I haven't bought the ebook that fully explains the creator's vision for workboxes ($21 for an ebook? I don't think so) but I've grasped the concept from what others have shared, and Rachael and I loved using them last year. However, last year they were upstairs in what I considered our school room - out of sight, inconvenient, and ultimately abandoned mid-year. This year, they're more centrally located...in the kitchen. Maybe not the ultimate in kitchen decor, but hey, we're a homeschooling family. There are going to be books everywhere until my last baby is off to college, and I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts - not hide it all away for the benefit of no one, since no one that I invite into my home minds looking at our homeschool stuff anyway.

I numbered the drawers this evening, but need to pick up some more velcro dots before my vision will be fulfilled...I'll share more about our system when it's ready to roll. At any rate, I decided that the BK crown was a nice touch, so I let it stay. ;)

Now that we've set a date for our official "first day", I'll admit that I can't wait to get back into our school routine. There's something about a pile of fresh, new, never-read and never-written-in books that I just can't resist. According to my tracking info from ChristianBook.com, tomorrow should be Box Day...I'll be feverishly filling in my lesson plan book for the next couple of weeks once everything arrives, and trying to resist the urge to start before Monday!

It's that time of year again!

My girls have had a pretty great summer. It started with a week at the beach, where Milly discovered a passion for swimming. Rachael spent a week at a Girl Scout day camp at a nearby ranch, where she rode (and painted) horses, walked alpacas, hiked, fished, played with birds and sugar gliders and a coatimundi, and made a great new friend. Then she spent four whole days (over night!) at church camp, where she worshiped and swam and ziplined over a lake, and was ultimately chosen by counselors as one of the eleven "best campers" (out of hundreds of kids) and got to ride in a real race car. After that came the week-long Junior Naturalist day camp, where she learned about all things environmental - to include spending a day catching crawdads (crawfish, crayfish - depending on where you're from) in the river. She's still taking piano lessons, and loves to play. And two weeks ago, both girls started taking swim lessons - prompted by Milly's aforementioned love of swimming, and a little by Rachael's fear of it. Add playdates and overnights into the mix, and it's been a very busy summer - I feel like I haven't seen much of Rachael at all!

With activities winding down - and my longing for an end to the running and a return to a more peaceful routine - it's definitely time to start thinking about back-to-school.

We wrapped up second grade back in May with Rachael's first standardized test. She took Seton's CAT-E test, which includes only English and math - the only two subjects that must be reported to the county school board. (There are longer, more thorough standardized tests to be had, but I'm not a fan of providing them with any more information than they require.) Since she is registered with the school board according to where she "should" be, age-wise, instead of where she actually is, capability-wise, she took the first-grade test - so it was no surprise to anyone when it returned from being graded with a perfect score.

I mailed her test scores off to the school board along with our Notice of Intent to Homeschool (NOI), and we're all "legal" for the 2011-12 school year. She is technically of age to be in second grade this year, but we'll be doing third grade work, with some higher level subjects thrown into the mix.

It took me a while to piece together this year's curriculum, since she requested one change (math) and I knew that we need to make others (Bible, science.) I finally made all of the decisions and ordered our books this morning. They're scheduled to arrive on August 4, and our first day of school will be August 8.

Here's what Rachael will be using this year:

• Bible Study Guide for All Ages. This is described online as a comprehensive Bible curriculum for ages three to adult, which admittedly made me a little wary at first. The more I read, though, the more I fell in love with it. One teacher's guide includes everything you need to teach children of different ages, but student pages can be ordered for beginner, intermediate or advanced - so both of my girls will be able to use the same Bible curriculum this year. It doesn't just teach Bible stories (which Rachael has heard so many times that she can recite verbatim, and is a little tired of re-learning each year.) Instead, this guide is made up of 416 lessons, which will last for four years if you study two lessons per week. It's broken up so that some Old Testament and some New Testament is studied each year - and it's much more in-depth than just Bible stories. For instance, the first questions for Rachael's level is: "Name the four parts of the New Testament." Huh? Four parts? I had no idea about that one myself! There are the Gospels, of course, but then...? The answer, in case you're wondering, is Gospels (Matthew-Mark-Luke-John), History (Acts), Letters (everything else until), Prophecy (Revelation.) I'm honestly not sure how Milly will do with it, although she's always an attentive student in Sunday School. Her questions are more simple, of course, and her student pages filled with more pictures to color - so maybe she'll enjoy it too.
  
  
• Learning Language Arts Through Literature. We've used this curriculum for the past two years and absolutely love it. It's an all-inclusive English curriculum - reading, spelling, vocabulary, handwriting, grammar, etc. We'll be working through the orange (4th grade) book this year. Because LLATL focuses less heavily on spelling than on the other topics, we'll supplement with...
  
  
• Spelling Workout. We used this for the first time last year and, although the sports theme wouldn't be Rachael's first choice, we both really liked the layout of this workbook. She'll start on book E (5th grade) this fall - a few spelling words on the ChristianBook.com sample page include questions, mechanic, inquire, and character. Rachael is, thankfully, very much like me in that reading and spelling come quite naturally to her - it frightens and amazes me that I'm ordering a 5th grade book for my 7-year-old, but she's up to the challenge!
  
  
• Wordly Wise 3000. I actually ordered this completely on a whim when I was shopping for our other curriculum. According to the product description, "three thousand carefully selected words taken from literature, textbooks, and SAT-prep books are the basis of this exciting vocabulary series that teaches new words through reading, writing, and a variety of exercises. Each lesson's alphabetized word list gives pronunciations, parts of speech, and concise definitions, and uses each word in a sentence." So yeah, vocabulary. Rachael loves trying new books, so this should be an interesting addition for her. Not having seen it in person, I ordered the 3rd grade book.
  
  
• Miquon. Although I liked Math-U-See, Rachael never enjoyed it and practically begged for a different math curriculum this year. I had decided on Math Mammoth, after we printed and enjoyed several free worksheet samples back in May. After a lengthy discussion with her pediatrician (and a fellow homeschooling mom) at a museum visit on Memorial Day, though, I've decided to give Miquon a try instead. Miquon has six workbooks to work through, and I've ordered the first three, even though that will mean backing up for a bit of review at first. I was impressed with Miquon's more holistic approach to teaching math - all four arithmetic operations plus fractions in the first book, which (according to their website) "gives children the basic tools early so that they can be independent problem solvers from the first day of school. Miquon encourages children to explore a variety of learning styles without freezing them with rigid rules or algorithms. Many children develop unconventional ways of arriving at correct results through their own investigations." Well, amen to that! I'm looking forward to the new curriculum, and will supplement with more worksheets from Math Mammoth if need be.
  
  
• Switched-On Schoolhouse Science, Grade 3. I'll admit, as far as teaching goes, science has been my very worst subject. I don't know if it's because I was never a big fan of science or because our old curriculum (Apologia) just wasn't a good fit for it. (I tried to like Apologia. I did. I love it in theory, but in practice...not so much.) And it's because I recognize my own lack of motivation in this particular subject that I looked more closely at Switched-On Schoolhouse. This is a primarily computer-based course, although a) it will be supervised by me (not required of the program, just my own intent) and b) there are plenty of non-computer based assignments and experiments as well. The 3rd grade software covers plants, animals, energy, body systems, matter, time, sounds, seasons, rocks, and more, complete with quizzes and tests. I love that I can do so much customizing to the program before she starts using it too. This curriculum is definitely our biggest risk this year - at $81, it's much pricier than anything else I've purchased. I'm fairly certain that it will prove worthwhile, though, since SOS will teach her better than I likely would - and I know she'll love it since it means using the computer to do her schoolwork.
  
  
• Story of the World, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages. Although I debated a new history curriculum for this year too, Rachael was admant about sticking with SOTW. She adored the first book, even though we didn't do many of the activities and mostly read together. (It still surprises me that she doesn't mind sitting and listening to me read, even two or three chapters at a time. Even though she's capable of reading these books on her own, by the way, I read to her so we can discuss as we go.) I think I'll enjoy it more this year since we'll be learning about the middle ages - the fall of Rome, the Byzantine Empire, great kings of France, Vikings, the Crusades, Martin Luther, the rise of the Renaissance. The history nerd in me is loving this already! I did order the accompanying activity book, as well as the quiz/test book - something we've never used before, but third grade seems like a good time to start.
  
  
• Around the World in 180 Days. Another new addition to our curriculum that I'm looking forward to! ATW is a geography curriculum that teaches on a continent-by-continent basis - a little about the continent's history, plus major countries, geography, and culture. More than being a textbook, it's described as "a series of questions that the student must research in order to answer." I can already see the dusting-off of the encyclopedias on her bookshelf, learning how to more effectively search online, and the checking out of lots and lots of country-specific library books!
  
  
• Draw Write Now. Another book purchased on a whim, Draw Write Now is an art/handwriting collaborative effort. The first book is farm themed, and teaches children step-by-step how to draw chickens, pigs, etc. There are handwriting assignments to go with each story - and I don't think Rachael will mind the extra practice, as long as she gets to draw too. Just a fun little add-on for this year.
  
  
• Latin's Not So Tough. I struggled with this decision before ultimately deciding to go for it. We've toyed around with languages in the past - a few words in sign language, some Spanish basics, salutations in French - but this will be our first actual foreign language curriculum. Why Latin? Because Latin is the basis for five romance languages, so learning Latin first will make it easier for her to learn other languages later on. At least half of our English words come from Latin as well - studies suggest that knowing Latin improves verbal SAT scores later on since the student is better able to make educated guesses. Also, Latin grammar has very few exceptions in phonics or syntax, so it's supposedly easier to learn than English - yet makes English easier to understand once you know Latin. Learning Latin also helps develop the mental ability to sort and analyze logically - and that's pretty important. So, I went with the most user-friendly Latin program I could find - to include workbook, quizzes/tests, answer keys, flash cards and pronunciation CD. This may be our biggest challenge this year, but I think it'll be a lot of fun too.

The only "traditional" subject that I've left out is health - and that's because I can't find a single health curriculum that I really love the look of. So I've decided to teach health on my own, with the help of online resources and library books. I'm fairly confident that I can handle it. :)

In addition to her "book work," Rachael will continue piano lessons through the school year, Girl Scouts will start again in early September, and so will dance class. Yes, I finally put her back in dance! We're both very excited about this - she loved gymnastics, but her build is much better for dance. And since she twirls everywhere she goes anyway, it seems like a natural choice for her. She's enrolled in a different (more reputable) dance studio than the one she attended at ages 3 and 4, where she'll learn ballet and tap (no jazz, no tumbling, no baton - I think her old studio just tried to incorporate too much!) I've so missed leotards and tutus and can't wait to shop for her new dance gear!

Side note: dance is being funded solely by Scentsy this year. Need any? :)

What about Milly, you ask? Well, I'm not completely sure. We're going to attempt to do preschool this year, since (according to her and Rachael) she was in pre-preschool last year. However, I fully recognize the differences in my girls, and know that Milly may not be ready for preschool at 3 1/2 the way that Rachael was. She is less mature and less cooperative, but very smart - she can do preschool "work" now; it's just a matter of whether she will. So we'll take it day by day - if she wants to "do school", fine. We'll do school. And if she doesn't - well, that's fine too.

As far as curriculum goes, we'll be using the Bible curriculum that I told you about earlier, as well as Happy Phonics (Rachael and I adored it, and Rachael was reading before she was four because of it.) I also ordered the very first book in the Explode the Code series for her - Get Ready for the Code - which teaches beginning letters, sounds, visual tracking, writing, etc. I'm sure she'll eat this up since she loves workbooks (I have to MAKE her stop, or she'll finish one off in a day.) She already knows the alphabet, so it won't be a huge challenge - just something schooly for her to do during school time. We'll continue to point out math in everyday things - counting, sorting, patterns, etc. And of course, we'll read like it's going of style, which we pretty much do anyway.

Milly is the absolute star of her swim class, so chances are excellent that I'll enroll her in the next class once this one finishes up. Girly is fearless in the water, and does everything the instructor tells her to do, without hesitation. I love seeing this, since she's uncooperative about 75% of the time at home. I'd love to put her in a dance class too - I think she'd enjoy it, and it'd be super stinking cute, but dance isn't cheap. (See above Scentsy link!)

I've gone over a calendar and counted out our required 180 days - we can be finished in mid-May even if we take a whole week of at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, one week for Spring Break, and a few days for each girl's birthday. Truthfully, we'll take extra days off too, just "I don't feel like doing school" days, so I can likely stretch it through the end of May.

So, there's our 2011-12 homeschool plan. I can't wait for "box day", to see and hold and look through all of our new books - that's definitely one of the highlights of the whole school year!

One other goal for this coming year: to keep up with this blog. That's been my goal for the past couple of years, actually, and one has only to scroll back through my previous posts to see how well that went. But I have newfound motivation in my hopefully-someday-homeschooling dear friend Danielle (not to mention my must-homeschool-because-she'd-be-so-awesome-at-it friend Melanie.) And of course, I'll want the documentation someday for myself - it's so easy to get caught up in the everyday routine that I just don't think to write about it. If I slack off again, girls, please give me a virtual kick.

Here's to a great 2011-12 school year...coming very soon!

Art co-op and some interesting statistics...

This past Thursday was a big day for Rachael - her first day of her new art class!

I found out earlier this year about the Danville School of Arts and Science - a very professionally run co-op for homeschoolers. They meet three Thursdays per month, and Rachael informed me after her first class that she doesn't want to miss a single class, ever!

I thought that she would have been more torn over which class to take - DSAS offers art, science, Latin, drama, and even a personal finance class for high school students. She IS very interested in the drama class as well, and I would love for her to start Latin at a young age, so maybe she'll take an additional class next year. As for this year, her education in art history and technique is being funded by a generous grant from the Gramma Foundation. ;)

With her big box o' art supplies at the ready, we headed into the church that hosts the co-op on Thursday afternoon and headed for her classroom. She was the first one in, so she chose her seat, said hello to the teacher, and spent some time checking out the orange newt living in a terrarium on the table. As other students started pouring in, Milly and I eased toward the door. Of course, Rachael has been in other classroom-y settings with actual teachers other than me - Sunday School, dance, gymnastics, our previous co-op, Girl Scouts, etc. But somehow, this felt more like a "real" school to me, and the mommy part of me was a little reluctant to go...but I should have known that (Rachael being Rachael) she would be perfectly fine, and she was. She made fast friends with a little girl sitting beside her, and had a great time sketching for the next hour.

Meanwhile, Milly and I settled down in the room across the hall, and had fun chatting with some of the other parents. Even Milly was a little more social than usual, after the necessary checking-out of the restroom and water fountain. She was a little upset that there were no cupcakes to be found (they did have some at the open house a few weeks ago, and one of the moms overheard her complaints and promised to bring her some soon!)

Rachael bounded into the room with her sketch pad when the class was over, to show off her drawings before storing her supplies away for next week. She absolutely can't wait to go back, and I can't wait to see what she learns next!

* * * * *

Now, how 'bout those interesting statistics?

We received a flyer from Henry County Public Schools in the mail on Friday afternoon containing the 2009-2010 Annual Report. They were thrilled to report that all of the county schools are fully accredited - which is awesome for our area and the students that attend those schools. I'm a little confused that only "93% of our schools made Adequate Yearly Progress", but okay. They're accredited.

Then they proceeded to show a graph for each school in the county showing percentages of students that made "Adequate Yearly Progress" (I haven't bothered doing the research to find out why that it is capitalized!) in each subject.

There are eleven elementary schools in our area...two middle schools...two high schools. Does this seem a little strange to anyone else? I shudder to think what class sizes are like in middle and high school now - especially since the high schools switched to the block system (four classes per day, as opposed to seven) back when I was in high school, aaaaaall those years ago. On the bright side, it seems as though class sizes may be reasonable in elementary schools, at least.

Anywho...out of all of the elementary schools, the one that Rachael would be attending ranks 9th place in English, 10th in writing and history, and is in dead LAST place in both math and science.

The middle school that she would eventually attend had lower ratings across the board than did the other middle school, and her would-be high school rated higher in science, history, and math - but only by tiny percentages.

WOW. Add this to my list of reasons for homeschooling. I can absolutely do better than that!