Monday, July 29, 2013

2013-2014 Curriculum Plans: Fourth Grade



Time is just flying by with my boys. I always refer to Tyler as "the little boy" and honestly that isn't the case anymore. But, I will keep calling him that anyway (he really doesn't mind).

Here is a brief overview of what Tyler will be using this school year.

Math:
Math-U-See Delta 
Daily Word Problem
Life of Fred

Language:
Lighted Lanterns which is a new Catholic Language Arts program that contains dictation, narration, writing, grammar, poetry and picture study.
Little Latin Readers from CHC
Winston Grammar
Catholic Heritage Handwriting Level 4
Writing inspired by The Writer's Jungle

Science:
Behold & See 4 in which we will do the anatomy work in our first term. Our second term will be reading some living books on anatomy: Exploring the History of Medicine and Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. Our third term work will be learning about birds using What's That Bird? and Peterson's Field Guide Coloring Book. Fourth term is undecided but most likely will be a weather unit with Caleb.

Religion:
New St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism #1
Reading of the Old Testament using Golden Children's Bible
Once Upon a Time Saints
An Introduction to the Liturgical Year

History:
Tyler will continue working on American history picking up where we left off last year. He is also doing a study of the states for geography. I will have to explain more about this later on because I'm not 100% sure how this is going to work out. We will be using Our United States of American: Catholic Social Studies for the state study.


Misc.:
Classical Catholic Memory
Home Art Studio Grade 4


If you want any further explanation as to why I choose any of these programs/books or how we plan to use them just comment or send me an email. I don't mind going into details! Here is Caleb's 7th grade curriculum.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Seven Quick Takes



1. This is my first time taking party in 7 Quick Takes Friday! I hate to admit I just couldn't figure out how to do it. I think I have it now.
 
2. Allergies have struck. Tyler and I have been hit. I have no idea what is causing it even though this happens the same time every year. It's raining today so I'm hoping it takes whatever it is out of the air. I'm not going outside anytime soon though!
 
3. Today was our first Fine Arts Friday and it went well. We learned about Shakespeare and I went to play a Jim Weiss cd of Shakespeare and realized the librarian didn't unlock any of the cds I checked out of the library. Perhaps another day.
 
4. Tyler did his first lesson from Home Art Studio and it was a hit. Which makes the awesome price of $7.99 even sweeter!
 
5. The DVD/CD player on my laptop is no longer working. I didn't think it would be a problem until Tyler did his art lesson today and he had to do it in front of the television . . . . in the living room.  . . . . which is carpet. No messes today, but I will be finding some sheets of plastic for paint days!
 
6. I would love to go out and enjoy the low 80 degree weather this weekend, but see take #2
 
7. I do get to scrapbook this weekend with family (my mom) and friends. Looking forward to it!


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
 


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Daybook: a New School Year

Inspired by Sarah's Daybook posts I wanted to create something (very) similar to her post. I believe this originally come from The Simple Woman's Daybook. I couldn't come up with a different name though!

Outside my window
Cloudy now but it was been sunny all day. Cooler today and should be all weekend. We will take it. The tomatoes are going to town in our little garden. The freezer will be stock soon!

I’m thankful for
books and that all the bills got paid when I bought all these new books for the school year.

I’m thinking about
how to create a virtue of gentleness in our home especially during school time.

In the schoolroom
it's the start of a whole new school year. A seventh grader and fourth grader are filling up the table hoping to learn of exciting adventures and miraculous science and  fine tuning the art of communication.

From the kitchen
I treated the family to a Peanut Butter Pie for the first day of school. A friend and fellow homeschool mom introduced me to this yummy creation. I always make two at a time because I don't want to waste cream cheese! Really it's all about not wanting to waste any food! ; )  I just mix together 3 oz of cream cheese, half a cup of peanut butter, one cup powered sugar, and half a container of cool whip. Pour into a graham cracker pie crust and top with the remaining cool whip. Freeze and enjoy! I do like to experiment with the recipe and use chunky PB or some sort of chocolate either mixed in our on top. Thanks Lynne for the recipe! I'm sure you will want to thank her too.

I am creating
a scrapbook! I have plans to scrapbook over the weekend with friends. I haven't done that since April, so I'm looking forward to it!

I am working on
this new blog! I've invested several hours into this project.

I am reading
too much to keep up with at the moment! An interesting read has been Bringin Up Bebe. I'm beyond baby days so this has been a entertaining book for me. I am picking up some new insight into parenting and some information can be used with my older boys. I'm 95% done with reading Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home. This is my second time reading this book, but the first time with my own copy. I'm note taking this time and finding lots of wonderful ideas!

I am hearing
the sound of dinner being cooked (and enjoying I'm not in the kitchen doing it) and very active boys. The house seems too small at times like this.

Clicking around
Shower of Roses-I've been reading this blog for about a month and it has been a wonderful find! After reading this post on Civil War lesson plans I realized she has all of her history plans on her blog. This is how I picture doing history in our house but haven't been able to configure it. Now I do thanks to Jessica! I really think it was the pictures that made it work for me.

Around the house
Nothing but the normal daily grind this week.

One of my favorite things rain last Saturday.
 
 

A few plans for next week
Should be a nice easy week. School should go smoothly and we have something special planned for next weekend. I'll give details later.

A picture
of the boys playing in the rain last Saturday.


Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The start of a new school year!


When I tell people we are starting a new school year this week about half of them wonder if our kid's report us for child abuse. Seriously?

Let me introduce you to a wonderful concept of almost schooling year round. ; )  We start mid July (usually too hot to be outside anyway) and end our school year mid-May. We take a good eight weeks off for summer break. (I think we got in 9 weeks this year.) The best part is that we take a week off for a fall break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break (two weeks), winter break, spring break, and we take another 5 random days off during the year too. This is the only way I can survive! 

Now my kids may say they don't want to start back, but what kid will admit they do? I'm sure to remind them when we get a week off that this is because we started back to school a month earlier than our public school friends. They love it!

I'm looking forward to using some different and new programs this year. To name a few off the top of my head-Winston Grammar, Lighted Lanterns, Classical Catholic Memory, Math-U-See, Catholic Heritage United States history/geography program for the fourth grade. All of these are being used with both boys except the last one which is for Tyler.

The first day went by fast, but it was an exhausting day. I didn't get any breaks from teaching except for our lunch break. I don't like to "teach" that much as I think it is best that children get their information from books and make their own connections with the material.  (And I need time to do daily chores during the day.) It was the first day though and I think things will go smoother as the days go by and we find our school rhythm again. That certainly was missing today and I suspect the schedule needs some tweaking, but I will need some time to figure that part out. Buying a coffee machine was brought up as a solution too. I may make a quick trip to the gas station tomorrow morning for some happy juice (coffee flavored sweet cream)!

Monday, July 22, 2013

New blog!

Welcome!

I was going to redecorate my "old" blog but decided I just needed something totally new. So here is the totally new.

I'm hoping to change my approach a little and perhaps my writing style, but that might take some time to change. Feedback is always welcomed.

Let me know what you think! I would love comments or if you prefer not sharing your thoughts in public you can send me a message.

Thanks for visiting!
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