Sticking to a daily schedule

Schedule, routine, time map...whatever you want to call them, I'm just no good at sticking to them!

Sometimes life gets in the way.  We have every intention to do what we call "book work," but then an opportunity to go somewhere or do something interesting comes up.  

Field trip to butterfly nursery!

Of course, that's one of the great advantages of homeschooling--schedule flexibility.

Sometimes a kid gets fascinated with something and we end up going down a bunch of rabbit trails that weren't part of the plan.  (Our never-ending unit study of WWII led us down lots of unexpected paths and that's why we've never been able to call it finished once and for all!)  

Nature study

Again, this is a great advantage of homeschooling.

But sometimes we get off schedule because we just can't seem to stick to one for more than a week or maybe two at the most.  

I'm an obsessive planner.  I love plans.  

Plans make me feel secure, but carved-in-stone plans make me feel claustrophobic. 

I love learning along with my kids and I love checking things off the plans I've worked so hard to prepare...but I'm simply not capable of doing the same subjects in the same order every day!

Peach cobbler and family read-aloud

For that reason, I just keep a subject list and we pick and choose from it, cafeteria style.  Here is our typical planned-but-not-carved-in-stone routine.

The ONLY things that never change:

Morning Stretch
Morning Mindfulness
Poem of the Day

Our "cafeteria-style" subject choices

 Stuff we do about four days a week, in whatever order 
the kids prefer: 

Math

Literature
Writing
Proofreading Sentence of the Day
Handwriting
Thinking Skills
Foreign Language
Philosophy for Kids
SAT Vocabulary/Spelling/Word Origins
Written Conversations

Daily(ish) proofreading sentence

Rotating subjects that we typically do daily for a week or so at a time:

History

Science

Grammar

Current Events

Art

Super's latest masterpiece!

Other stuff we work around:
 

Music lessons and practice

Volunteering

Occasional tutoring

Our homeschool group's activities
Letting dogs in, letting dogs out, letting dogs in...

I'm NEVER a distraction during school!

 

I don't write dates on my plans anymore.  I used to make files with math worksheets, graphic organizers, etc. for each school day, collated, stapled, and complete with a dated sticky note.  

Then, when we inevitably got off track, I would feel stressed that we were running behind.

Now I just use a couple of crate hanging files for whatever printed material we are using.  They are ready to go when we need them but there is no such thing as "behind" because we are getting it done at our own pace.

My ultra-complex filing system

I do make monthly goals.  By the end of August I'd like the kids to finish up their Hands-On Equations kit.  By the end of September it would be nice to have a couple of books crossed off the reading list.  And by December I'd love to see major improvement in a certain kid's handwriting...

And I have made a four-year-plan for Super now that she's at the high school level.  I want to make sure she meets our state's graduation requirements, is prepared for college, and has a good transcript for her college applications, so I think it's important to at least have a list of goals. 

Summer wildflowers

But if we spend a couple of weeks doing a big block of science and then do history for a week and then focus on grammar for a bit and then get really into a book and just read for three or four days...that's just fine.  We can go in the general direction of the plan even while straying from the details (and I can absolutely guarantee that we will stray from the details!) 

Under-desk solution for squirmy feet!

Scheduling, yes, but on our own terms.  Another great advantage of homeschooling.  

Our "Book Work" for 2014-15

 I'm not sure which family member first used the term "book work" but that's what we call our formal academics around here.  We do lots of experiential learning as well, but when we sit down at a desk or table and get serious about putting specific information in our brains, we call it "book work."


So here is the basic outline of our 7th and 9th grade "book work" this year...

Poetry

We always start the day with a poem.  I've already posted about my initial poetry choices here, but I'll add that Teaching Grammar with Perfect Poems for Middle School was a good resource last year.  We got about halfway through it so we'll finish it up this year.

Math

Hands-On Equations workbook, disc, and manipulatives

 
My kids typically want to do math early in the day.  To wake up their brains, I give them a challenge problem, and they either work together on the dry-erase board or independently in their math notebooks.  I get the challenge problems from our old Singapore word problem workbooks, Math Starters, or a fun book called Perfectly Perilous Math.  There are tons of resources for challenge problems out there, and I'll bet I've used nearly all of them at some point! 

We have a few lessons to finish in Hands-On Equations before moving on to Saxon Algebra I.  We typically do a Hands-On lesson or two, then a review lesson from their old Saxon 7/6 or 8/7 books, and then a practice packet.  I make the packets in advance (I have 21 ready to go!) but not too far in advance so I can customize them based on what the kids need to review.


The practice packets are five or six pages and typically contain a Hands-On worksheet, practice pages from Saxon or Singapore workbooks, worksheets I've found online, and at least one logic grid from Mindware Perplexors.   

Mindware Perplexors logic puzzles

 Grammar and Punctuation

Last year we worked our way through the very silly and fun A Sentence A Day.  This year the kids will learn some interesting history facts from their daily proofreading sentence.  I'll just make a copy of the sentence from Take Five Minutes: A History Fact A Day For Editing and the kids will tape or glue it in their notebooks and then write the sentence correctly underneath. 

  

Literature and Writing

This year we are using Oak Meadow's Introduction to Literature and Composition I.  They have recently reorganized their curriculum and I'm not sure if this specific course still exists, but it includes To Kill a Mockingbird, A Wizard of Earthsea,  Animal Farm, and Our Town, plus grammar lessons from The Least You Should Know About English.  The course manual suggests discussion questions and writing assignments, and we also use the Notice and Note method whenever we are reading literature.

Notice and Note signposts for close reading

By the way, I can't recommend Notice and Note highly enough--it's a fantastic way to help young readers move beyond the basics of characters and plot and get into the deeper themes of literature.  Come to think of it, Notice and Note strategies are worth a blog post of their own...I'll get right on that! ;-)

After I wrote my post about our literature choices for 7th and 9th, the kids requested two more books, and I added three more, so we are going to be doing lots of great reading this year!

Science

My science-loving kids have already started their Biology I course from Thinkwell.  The lectures and course notes are great.  The quizzes, on the other hand, are kind of confusing--they appear to be written by someone who didn't actually watch the lectures.  After some frustrating experiences with poorly-worded questions, the kids decided to just watch the lectures and study the notes, and I'll make unit tests based on the course notes.  

Vocabulary

Vocabulary graphic organizer from TeachersPayTeachers.com

I believe the ideal way to develop a good vocabulary is from reading and from hearing scholarly speech.  However, it never hurts to build on that foundation!  In addition to collecting any unfamiliar words they come across while reading, the kids can choose interesting words from SAT vocabulary books for their vocabulary study.  They really like using graphic organizers for new words.  

Philosophy

Philosophy is a favorite subject around here.  We have read about two-thirds of Philosophy for Kids, and the kids have enjoyed it so much, I ordered The Examined Life so we can continue discussing Deep Questions!  Philosophy is a good subject to do before or during lunch because the questions always spark a lively conversation.

History

We have been working our way through the wonderful A History of Us series for several years.  I really like the author's approachable writing style, all the great maps and graphics, and the short-but-detailed chapters.  We typically read and discuss two or three chapters a week.  If a topic really fascinates the kids (our never-ending unit on WWII comes to mind) we do some supplemental reading and maybe a mind-map or other hands-on project.

Thinking Skills

I'm adding a new subject to our routine this year: thinking skills.  After reading Making Thinking Visible this summer, I really wanted to try some of the "thinking routines" described in the book.  (One example of a thinking routine is called "See-Think-Wonder."  After silently observing an object or a work of art for a few minutes, students are asked "What does this object/image make you wonder?  What questions come to mind?")  Trying out would be an interesting transition activity to try once or twice a week.  It's an experiment, but it should be fun, and I'm sure it will spark some interesting conversations at the very least!

What's the story here?  What does this image make you wonder about?

Foreign Language

My 9th grader will continue her German studies.  She started with German in 10 Minutes a Day two years ago, and last year she took a German course at our local community college.  This year will be her first year to work with a private tutor, so we'll see how that goes.

My 7th grader decided to switch to Greek this year.  He'll start with Pimsleur Greek and Your First 100 Words in Greek.

Written Conversations/Journaling

We usually end our "book work" days with a journal entry.  Last year, I found this really cool idea in a book called Written Conversations.  The night before, I write a brief letter to each kid in their journal, always including a personal question or two, and then they answer my questions in writing.  These journals are not graded or corrected in any way--they are just an opportunity to put thoughts and opinions on paper with zero judgment.  

So that's pretty much the gist of how we'll be spending our school days this year.  Of course there will also be music lessons, handwriting practice, note-taking practice, volunteer work, travel, museum visits, camping, geocaching, and activities with our local homeschooling group.  We're looking forward to a great year of learning together!

This post is linked to the 6th Annual Not Back to School Blog Hop!  Stop by to see what my homeschooling blog buddies are doing in 2014-15!

Super-Awesome Classroom

Welcome to the Super-Awesome Classroom of the Super-Awesome School of Super-Awesomeness!*

Our classroom has changed a lot over the years.  Not surprising, since my kids have changed a lot over the years, too!

These tables used to be lined up so the kids could do most of their work together.  This year, they each requested their own workspace, so I put them corner-to-corner.  You can just make out the empty clothesline on the far wall, waiting to display this year's art and other creations!

 We try to keep the tabletops pretty simple.  A placemat works as a pad to write on.  Most of their supplies are kept elsewhere so they have plenty of space to work. 

 

Here is Super's tabletop.  She has a placemat, a new box of 64 crayons (yay!) and a few German flashcards.  Apparently she decided to tape a reminder about the order of operations here, too. (Dude keeps a multiplication chart on his table.)

 

A dollar store napkin holder keeps reference cards handy: shape properties, poetry response prompts, flashcards for making plural nouns, etc.

 

Super's table is closest to the heater because she is always cold in the winter!

The table in the middle holds each kids' filebox, nature journals, the hole punch, and their giant history binders (looking kind of empty after we cleaned last year's stuff out!)

 

Other everyday supplies are kept in this area.  The blue drawers hold lapbooking supplies, markers and colored pencils, rulers and tape measures, empty folders, new composition books, etc.  The white bookshelf has reference books, a couple of workbox-type activities that I put together, the microscope, and our "brain breaks."  

(Those are the little activities we do when we need to refocus or just take a quick break.) 

 

This was quite a find!  A local bookstore was going out of business (very sad) and I asked if they had any shelves to sell.  This awesome rotating bookshelf shows off the beautiful covers of our art books!

This messy bookshelf holds all kinds of things: a few art supplies, some of my teaching materials, the kids' binders, and other random stuff.  Past projects of every kind are displayed on top.  You can see my disorganized pile of posters and maps in the corner, plus a comfy reading chair covered in a beloved blanket.

This is the extent of my planning "system."  I use a Word document to plan our days, normally about a month in advance.  This year, to my complete surprise, I'm actually prepared through November!  Everything I need for those plans (worksheets, manipulatives, books, whatever)  goes into these files.  On the left: math up to 11/16.  On the right: everything else up to 11/16.

This shelf is right next to my desk and it holds a few math games and whatever books we are using at the moment.  As we finish a science or history unit, these books will get put away or returned to the library, and new books will reside here.

 

Culling a ton of books over the summer allowed us to add this great reading nook.  As you can see, Gomez really enjoys hanging out here.  He doesn't read (as far as I know) but he enjoys cuddling with readers! 

I'm not posting a picture of my desk because it's so clean and organized, it would only make you feel bad.  In other words, it's a total pigsty at the moment!  And every moment.

We love our classroom, but like most homeschoolers, we can learn anywhere we want!  As long as the weather is warm, we'll be spending plenty of time here as well.

Can't wait to see all the other amazing learning spaces on the blog hop!  Have a fantastic year learning with your families!

 

*This is what you get when you let a 1st and 3rd grader name their school.

Behold the Awesomeness!

The literature units for 2012 -2013 are DONE!

And they are all organized in these nifty little hanging bags!*

(Trumpet fanfare...)

Inside each bag: the novel, a vocabulary list, vocabulary activities, and a literature unit with author information, discussion questions, and enrichment activites.  The units are mostly from Teachers Pay Teachers or Currclick.  (BTW, If you are planning to read The Island of the Blue Dolphins, there is a fantastic novel study available on TPT, and it's FREE!)

We're using The Arrow for The Midwife's Apprentice, and some good, basic vocabulary sheets from TPT.   (Just search "vocabulary graphic organizer" and you can choose from a ton of different formats, some free and some a dollar or so.  This is probably obvious to you, but for some reason I never figured it out until I was putting together this year's units!) 

I'm a firm believer in getting familiar with new vocabulary before reading the book, so I made various puzzles and activities using the tools on ABCTeach.  You can make crosswords, word finds, word shapes, and lots more.

Next year our spelling words and our vocabulary words will be the same.  We'll also use them to study prefixes, suffixes, and root words.  And many of our writing activities will come from literature studies.  (I tell my kids all the time: if you want to be a writer, first be a reader!)

 We're starting the year with The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.  After that, I'll let the kids take turns choosing the next book.  We certainly won't get through all of these, but I made more than we need so there would be plenty to choose from.  The choices: A Single Shard, The Egypt Game, The Breadwinner, The Door in the Wall, Dominic, The Magician's Elephant, Seedfolk, Harris and Me, The Island of Blue Dolphins, Pictures of Hollis Woods, The Indian in the Cupboard, Danny the Champion of the World, The Midwife's Apprentice, and Esperanza Rising.

That should keep my little readers busy for quite a while!  And anything we don't use this year is ready for the next!

*In case you're curious about the organizer above, it's called a Clip-A-Zip and I can't remember where I got mine.  I just looked it up on Amazon and there is no way I would have paid 45 bucks for it!  Are you kidding me?  Really Good Stuff offers a similar organizer; however you have to buy the bags separately.  You homeschooler types are so creative--I'm confident you could find a clever way to make a similar system if you wanted one!