School Days Part 2

If you're reading this post and haven't already read my post on School days go back and read that one first.

SO this is the post where I tell you about exactly what we do. What we use for curriculum, what materials we use, etc.

One of the most valuable things I have is this HUGE teacher's plan book. There have been several times I've stopped using it simply out of laziness, but every time I begin to be thorough again and use it faithfully I LOVE it. It has LOTS of space to write down everything we're doing or plan to do. I use to just write things after we'd done them, but now I'm trying to plan in advance which days we will do which subjects. I find that having them written on the planner makes me more apt to stick with the schedule.


For our Bible time we are using Alpha Omega's LIFEPACS. You get 10 LIFEPACS for the year and we've just finished doing our first one. I know that may seem lazy but I know the girls get so much Bible time with Sunday school and AWANA that I don't stress too much about them getting a lot at home. Besides our whole life and home is infused with the Lord so it's more than just learning from a workbook. We chose the 2nd grade level books since I have one girl in 1st grade and one girl in 3rd. Second grade is right in the middle and allows us all to work on the same thing at the same time.
We do have some classroom rules. Most days none of these things are an issue. But having something written down and understood by the girls just makes things run smoother.

Sorry these photos are out of order ... this is a peak inside the huge planner ...

Although we do have a room designated as our 'school room' ... it's small and also serves as a home office, craft room, etc. So we mostly use that room to store all our things and we often do school work on the kitchen table where we can totally spread out. The only problem is that come meal time we have to clear the mess! So I decided to keep the books and workbooks we use the most in this large plastic bin and everything can be put away nice and neat and it can even be kept in the dining room - this still allows us to use our table to eat when we need it.

We also have a small bin for the tools we'll need each day. Pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, sharpeners, etc. We have a LARGE craft supply but we only keep this small amount of things on the table for every day use.

For language/phonics/spelling Joy is doing Abeka. She has 3 workbooks. One is spelling and poetry, one is language {which has grammar, creative writing and reading comprehension}, and one is letters and sounds which is about phonics. For spelling I have her write the list of words out {which helps practice handwriting}, then I give her a few days to study the words, then later in the week I test her on spelling the words. I let the girls take their spelling tests by writing the words out on the white board. I call out the word and they write it down. They love using the white board so it works well. For language and phonics she does one page from each book each day. Some days we miss one, some days I might let her skip just for a break. But most days she does both.

For math she also uses Abeka. She has a workbook and does one page per day.

Hope is using a program called Switched on Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega publications this year. It's our first year trying it out and so far she really likes it. All of her math and language are done on a program on the computer. No workbooks. She loves to use the computer and is very happy to have a break from workbooks this year. The program also gives her a grade at the end of each lesson and she loves to come and tell me 'hey Mom I got an A, 100 today!'

One area that we tend to slack on is handwriting. I see the value in it, I really do. It's just not something that I'm super worried about stressing about for now. I do ask the girls to write things as neatly as they can, and I will go back and ask them to re-do something if it's written poorly. But I'm very inconsistent as far as making handwriting a regular practice. Some days we do some handwriting sheets - but many days we do not. Some days I tell them that if they write their spelling list as neat as they can - then that can be their 'handwriting' also.

The next post will be about the extra stuff ... thanks for sticking with me as I write all of this out!