Spring Break is Over, Time to get back to work

We've had a lot of time off it seems lately and a few things left out of our schooling.

Here are the things we'll be studying the next 6 weeks or so.

We still use the workbox system but mostly just to organize our daily work. I don't use all the cards and strips.

Right now in our workboxes we have:

1. Bible - reading through Ephesians

2. Math flash cards

3. Math lesson

4. Literature - Audio Book "Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass" unabridged.

5. Reading Lesson

6. Spelling Lesson

7. M/W/F=Biblioplan Modern History; T/TH Science "Observing God's World"

8. M/W/F= History page/timeline/map/project; T/TH Science page or experiment

9. M-Poetry; Tu-Shakespeare; W-Artist Study; Th- Composer Study

10. Copywork

11. open

12. open

Poetry: Rudyard Kipling

Shakespeare: A Winter's Tale

Artist Study : John Singer Sargent

Biography

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit

Here, most of the work is done for me!

Composer Study: Edvard Grieg & Jean Sibelius

She's done it again!

Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite no 1
Grieg - Piano Concerto in A
Grieg - Norwegian Dance no 2

http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/showview.asp?ID=30

http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/showdesc.asp?id=30

http://www.classicsforkids.com/composers/bio.asp?id=25

Sibelius - Finlandia
Sibelius - Symphony 1 OR 2 (4 weeks)

http://www.classicsforkids.com/composers/bio.asp?id=52

It will help that dd has played some of these songs for years on piano! LOL

DS is really coming along in his reading and academic work. We still have our days but things are definitely better. I'm really proud of him.

January School Plans

I sat down today and laid out a plan for the month of January.

We will be using 12 workboxes each day now. It should go rather quickly, since some of the boxes don't take long at all, but I don't like putting more than 1 thing in each box. It causes ds to get overwhelmed and discouraged. And really, 12 things a day is PLENTY along with our other projects and activities we have going each week.

Here is what's in our workboxes for January:

#1 Digit Span & Exercises

#2 Bible reading and discussion

#3 History -Abraham Lincoln's World

#4 Written Narration

#5 Spelling

#6 Poetry M/W/F; U.S. Animal Flashcards T/TH

#7 Math Lesson

#8 Reading Lesson

#9 Math Game (Facts, review etc.)

#10 Grammar Game M/T; Lapbook W/Th; Presidents F

#11 Science - Observing God's World (This is new for us!)

#12 Literature - Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Wow it looks like a lot when I type it up. But even after I worked it out I noticed the lack of Fine Arts. I will add them back in February, maybe mixed in boxes 9 & 10 or box 1.

But it should be a good month.

I'm ready to get back to a routine!

Happy Homeschooling!!!

What's in our workboxes lately

#1 Digit span and chore cards

#2 Bible reading and questions (Currently studying the life of David)

#3 History (Currently reading Abraham Lincoln's World)

#4 Daily writing - written narration and drawing from history

#5 All About Spelling Homophones

#6 Reading practice or phonics review

#7 Math drill or game

#8 Math lesson

#9 Poetry or Science Reading

#10 Copywork/Lapbooking

#11 Oliver Twist - listening and oral narration

#12 empty

We aren't really doing any in-depth science. I hope to get to that after the first of the year.

All in all we are getting a lot done and ds is getting TONS of reading and writing practice which he needs!!!!

Idea: Theme Fridays

I was checking out another homeschool blog and she mentioned "Theme Friday".

I think that's a great idea!

It gives you a day to take a break from the usual and fit in all those little things you never seem to have time for.

I think we'll try it!

Workboxes and Planning

I can't believe it's just about time to start a "new" year for us! DD is graduated and on her way to college classes and work. Now it'll just be DS and me. Bittersweet.

I'll be rounding up what he's going to do next year but right now we are actually doing a bit of school every day. He really needs to keep in the habit and we are trying some neurological exercises we learned from Little Giant Steps and they need to be done consistently.

We have also been doing something called workboxes. Let me tell you, we LOVE them! They make everything run so smoothly now. I could post all about them but just check out these places for the best info.

Joyful Mother of 6 workboxes - ours look just like this.

Heart of the Matter workboxes.

There are many more but you'll get the gist of it from these two.

Once more I will say we love it!

Madlibs

I thought of a way to use Madlibs type books and make them reusable. They aren't that expensive and I recently picked up several at the Dollar Tree for $1 each. (Although this particular book came from big bro & wife.)

I decided to make them reusable because I though ds would have fun mixing them up himself and they would be great reading practice for him! Usually I do all the reading/writing and he just does the choosing.

I decided not to copy the words list and just go ahead and cut them out of the book, so that meant I only get every other puzzle. You could copy the word lists and print them out but I'm trying to save printer ink.

I used highlighters to coordinate the nouns, adjectives, verbs and misc. words. I do have a laminator but I just used contact paper here. It's cheaper.

Now, to find an easy way to store them and keep up with them! I think I will slip the page into a page protector and just toss the word strips in there too. We can sort the words before we begin.

File Folder Game - Antonymns

I made this file folder game from a recycled file folder and a poster from Dollar Tree. I used some library pockets also purchased at Dollar Tree. The tall pockets have pictures of antonmyms that "match". The smaller pockets, which I just folded over at the bottom to make them shorter, have words that the student can match.