FREEBIE!!!!

Who doesn't love a Freebie?!?!

Queen Homeschool Supplies is offering her book on how to teach language arts using Charlotte Mason's method.

This is truly the best language arts program I have ever used and I have used many. My children love it because of the simple and short lessons. I love it because it is so beautiful and each concept is introduced in a way that they can understand and retain the information. 

Don't miss this freebie! 

Week Three- Without Me

This week I was out of town for work. It was my turn to learn some new things. I got to tour an amazing church and learn new ways to reach our younger generations for Jesus. It was FANTASTIC! I missed my kiddos though. They were at home plugging away at their school work. 

• Skittles learned what a limerick is and wrote a few himself. 
• Twizzler finished his first Hooked on Phonics section and started to read the chapter book. 
• Hershey spent most of the week just trying to breathe. His asthma was flared up pretty bad. 

Week 2 Was A Blast

This week has gone so much better. School work is taking about 4 hours to complete each day for Skittles and Twizzler. Hershey's lesson is about 30 minutes tops.  

• This week we were thrilled to find an experiment in our geography curriculum. We learned about tectonic plates and the layers of the earth and of course, volcanoes. So we got to make a volcano. I found this awesome Pin on how to make a volcano. We enjoyed it so much that we made it erupt like 10 times. 
• Skittles is finally getting the hang of his science class and has worked a little bit ahead. 
• Twizzler is doing Hooked on Phonics this year for reading. Even though he is able to read, he still struggles with sounding out new words especially if they are longer. So far he loves it and I am amazed each day with the fluency he is able to read his assignment after each lesson. 
• Hershey likes to listen to our read aloud lessons and he even insists on notebooking along with us. He has his own notebook and he "writes" on the lines. 

We had our first week back at co-op. We are only going a half day, every other week which is so good for us this year. The kids are taking some great classes. Skittles and Twizzler are taking Music and Spanish. Skittles is also taking a finance class. Twizzler is taking a manners class. Hershey is taking American Sign Language, a bug class, and Show and tell. I am teaching a bug class (shudder) and show and tell.... I am sticking to the less-nasty bugs. This week we learned about butterflies.

Week 1 - A Rough Start!

We began school just one week after moving into our new home. We did not even have a table to set our books on. 

I posted pictures of our first day of school throughout the day for family and friends. From Facebook, it looked like we were having a lovely day. What a JOKE!

Each one of us took turns crying at some point. I bawled my eyes out and cried out to God, "WHY?!? Why are you making me do this?!? We are all miserable!"

• Skittles struggled with his new science program. It is an online course and learning how to navigate it was a nightmare the first week.
• Twizzler had not yet finished his math from last year. He had 4 lessons to complete before he could move on to this year's math. Those 4 days were awful. It took him a couple of hours each day to get through. 
• Hershey started his first week of preschool. We learned about Cows, squares, the number 1, and the letter A. One of his lessons was to glue squares onto a big letter A. After I got him all set up he told me, "You are ruining my life" When his brother's heard this they felt very ashamed. They had been yelling this at me all week. Hearing our little parrot echo their sentiment over a simple art project gave them a reality check.

Our Curriculum 2015-2016

2015-2016 Curriculum

Click on the images for more information.

Daily learning notebook-  

Elementary notebook

Most days, not every day, we try to start off with just going over the weather, calendar, and etc. I printed off the pages and put them in a presentation book. The pages slip into the plastic covers of the book and can be written on and wiped away each day. 

Hershey uses the Preschool notebook. There are also pages with letters, numbers, and shapes. We use them with his preschool curriculum. 

Bible 

Increasing in Wisdom and An Honorable Boy

Again, we do not do these EVERY day but we are trying to start the school day with prayer and bible study. These books can be done independently but we mostly go over them as a family and discuss them together. 

History   

Story of The World 

We switched to Story of the World this year for a few reasons. We do not use the activity book. We read the story together. After the story, the boys give me an oral narration and I write down key words on the white board. Then they use those key words to create a written narration in their notebooks. 

I found these awesome timeline cards that go with Volume 2.  I also found a tutorial on how to make them smaller. We are entering them into a timeline I created myself.

Geography 

A Trail Guide To World Geography 

We are doing just one lesson per week from this book. There is one activity per lesson as well as questions for each age group and vocabulary words. 

I am using maps I printed from dmaps.

Art appreciation and Cursive 

Pictures In Cursive

This cursive writing program is awesome. I was skeptical when I ordered it last year but I thought at the very least we could use it as a picture study. Twizzler learned how to read and write in cursive using these books. They are beautiful, simple, and effective. 

Math 

Teaching Textbooks

Math is a touchy subject among homeschoolers. It is a struggle to find what works for your family. We have been using this for 3 years now and it is fantastic. The best part is that they don't not just give the answers but they walk you through how to get the answers for EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM! 

English 

Language Lessons

I LOVE English. It was always my favorite subject in school but I struggled to find a program that I loved to teach and they loved to learn.... until last year. Queen's Language Lessons are just the best Charlotte Mason inspired language arts program out there. It is my favorite subject again and my kids love it too. 

Science 

PACES

Twizzler is using PACES this year. We have clearly veered off of the Charlotte Mason path in this subject. I taught science and nature studies for YEARS using CM's methods but it was not working for us any more. A friend of mine talked me into giving ACE a try and the kids LOVE it. 

FLVS

Skittles is taking an online science class through Florida Virtual School. This is our first venture into the public school world. Although he would prefer to be using PACES, we are giving this a try. 

Spelling

Learning to Spell Through Copywork

This is our second year using this series. Like all things by Queen, it is simple and effective. 

Literature and Reading

Hooked on Phonics 

Twizzler is using Hooked on Phonics Master Reader program this year to help with his fluency. So far he loves it! 

Skittles is not using a reading program. I have not had to use one for him in years. We just choose a variety of good literature to read from. After each chapter he writes a brief narration about his reading in a notebook. 

Copywork

Thematic Copywork

We use copywork for handwriting, poetry, character building, and for examples of good grammar. 

Skittles is working through Copywork for Boys.

Twizzler is working through Copywork for Little Boys. 

Summer

We had such a fun summer. 

We kicked it off by visiting family in Rhode Island.

We celebrated Independence day with friends. 

We spent a week at summer camp. 

We spent almost every Friday at the beach. 

I managed to slip in some nature studies...

We tried some new foods. 

It went by way too fast. How did you spend your summer?

Weekly Wrap-Up: ALMOST DONE!!!

I thought we were going to be done this week. We have finished up a lot of stuff but we have some more to go. 

Language Lessons- Usually I do a 32 week school year but our curriculum is 180 lessons. So we still have a month left. However after this week, I will let the kids do as many lesson per day as they want to get the book finished early. Skittles and Twizzler are copying poems this week. 

Math- Skittles finished Teaching Textbooks 5 on Tuesday. Now he is just practicing his math facts using fun apps on his tablet each day; Medieval Math Battle is his favorite. 

Writing- Twizzler is still working on cursive letter formation. This week he worked on letters I-L. Skittles wrote about the Trojan War and drew a picture of the Trojan horse. 

History- We have been reading about the Roman Empire in Story of the World. This week we learned about the persecution of the Christians and then the first Christian Emperor. 

Spelling- Twizzler studied words ending in the letter -y. Skittles completed his final week in Learn to Spell Through Copywork book C. 

Science- Skittles is having a ball finishing up his PACE about Flight. Twizzler is still learning about different habitats. 

Reading- Twizzler finished Revolutionary War on Wednesday. He is just gobbling up these Magic Treehouse books.  Skittles is about half way through Treasure Island. 

We had our co-op promotion night tonight.  I can't believe that Skittles is going to be a middle schooler and Hershey is a preschooler. I am very proud of Twizzler who has come such a long way in his reading this year.

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