Off to a start...

We are off to a good start in our schooling so far.  Mostly introduction to this year's curriculum and schedule along with a bunch of review.  It has been nice to be back in a routine, if nothing else!  My 7 year old daughter thinks so too since she asked me Sunday night, "Do we start school tomorrow?"  I replied in the positive and she was pleased, "I am so excited."  I asked her why she was excited and she explained, "Because I like it better when we have a routine!"  I still laugh inside when I think of that! 

Our adventures have been positive and revealing as to our direction (and the means to that direction) this year.  Even the projectile milk that was knocked off the dining room table during math yesterday has provided comic relief (once I realized it was almost lunch time and starting math right then was a bad idea to begin with!)  I never new a cup, knocked on the floor from 3 feet up in that spot, could ricochet liquid as far as over my desk and up 6 1/2 feet to splatter all over a picture hanging on the wall!  I know milk is suppose to be good for the skin, but I am thinking, books, carpet, furniture and fixtures don't quite fall in that category!  At least I had a good cleaning crew and, between all of us, we had it cleaned up in no time (and a rule is in place that NO milk is allowed at the table while we do school work!)

The only down side to our week is that not all of our Lesson Plans are done.  I still have a lot of work to do and all while I am working to get our Missions newsletter together for September.  But, I do trust that God will provide the time and the guidance to do all these things through His will :-)  I do look forward to most of our schedule being in order so that I can blog more often.  In the meantime, if you have a fun back-to-school story to share, I would love to hear it!   Post in reply to this entry :-)

Blessings to you this September 2nd!

Methods to Madness!

I should have named my site, BusyMom.com!  But what mom isn't busy?  I have been consumed by curriculum and when I am not working on Missions Work, I am working on lesson plans and I fear we will never be ready by Monday!  (On top of the 'surprise, company is coming Monday morning' alert I got today!  At least I had warning!)

School starts Monday... regardless.  And I have taken a day per kid to get my math lesson plans together (Far longer than previously planned!).  I know I will thank myself later for the fore site, but for now I am on the verge of 'overwhelmed' and considering an all-nighter Friday night!


All that to say, I was thinking of the blog world as I worked today.  What does your work space look like as you prepare lesson plans?  Ever wonder what everyone else's looks like?  Here is mine!

I didn't realize until after I snapped the shot that Buzz Lightyear was lending a hand!  And while this may look a bit crazy... there is actually a method to my madness ;-)  The above books are my 10 year old son's various math pieces for this school year.

Below are my 7 year old's books, AFTER lesson plans were finally assembled and the books for the year are 'narrowed down' and planned out (really, they were narrowed down from a larger pool of materials!)

 

And here is how I drew up my lesson plans:

The form is one I created in Word.  You can print off the main page here which lists; student name, subject, grade and year at the top and/or you can print subsequent filler pages here which only list subject and page number.  Technical difficulties!!  Message me if you would like a PDF emailed to you of this document until I can get the bugs worked out!

I hope your curriculum round up is going well!  And if you don't homeschool and you are reading this... I can tell you this is a labor of love ;-)

Round Up

Well, we are still under construction and tying up ends... I have a lot of empty pages still.  So, if you visit this site and find a bunch of dead links or empty spots... that is why!  It is a process ;-)  It will get better.... I promise!

I thought I should start getting some new blogs up in the mean time.  After all... it has been a YEAR!  I can't figure out where the time went and how I went that long without blogging!  I typed up many rough drafts on my desktop but never transferred them here.  I may see if I can back date and still upload them.  I sure hope this school year doesn't fly like that!  I will have to see about putting Flickr within my website and upload all the pictures we took as we worked this past year!

This week I am working hard on rounding up curriculum, laying out lesson plans, and organizing all the rest!

Yesterday was spent reviewing our new Language Arts curriculum, which I just LOVE and am looking forward to using.  I haven't used a full curriculum before.  I think this one will help... a lot... in the areas we need it to :-)  I will have to type more on this later.  For now I will share that we are using the red, yellow, and green books and I am probably more excited than the kids to get crackin' on it all!

I still don't have a curriculum for math... just using a bunch of good loose ends I have.  That has been my focus today.  Sort through all my math pieces and put together a comprehensive curriculum for each child.  I'm about half done... the biggest half behind me (Ok, that makes NO mathematical sense... halves are equal!)

Assuming I accomplish what I need to tonight with my math junk um, I mean... stuff.  I will be working on the various 'extras' tomorrow.  Organizing and filing all of our social studies, science, and health goodies.  All of the organizing and filing to do almost makes my head want to spin!  But, I am a curriculum addict and I do enjoy all my little treasures :-)

One last thing... a little treasure for YOU:  Family Fun.  I have received the magazine for years but recently a friend turned me onto their website and signing up for various newsletters.  I singed up for crafts, recipes, and printables and right now, they have a lot of fun and neat stuff.  I especially liked the weekly planner pages... too cute for words!  Check it out!

Happy schooling :-)