"Electrifying" Science

Bug used the ideas in this book (which we picked up at Goodwill for 59 cents) to do some activities during his school break

Bug gets help from Dad to light a bulb using a battery and wire

Bug starts construction on his house that will be lit using his "new" science discoveries

Dad even made a working "ceiling fan" for Bug's house

Bug's house: all lit up & complete with ceiling fan

Homeschool Planning

Visual help in planning our homeschool days/weeks

I got the above idea for planning here. For my case, the blue represents Baby Girl's subject areas, the green represents Bug's subject areas, and the yellow represents Doodles' subject areas. A quick glance lets you know that Doodles' workload is the heaviest this year, as it should be since she's moving into middle school (whew, where did the time go!) Each child will not do every subject area on every school day, plus we have all day co-op on Mondays, so I had to figure out how to get the bulk of our work done on Tues. - Fri., leaving Mondays open for co-op and "catch up" work, if necessary.

I have this schedule for Baby Girl (special needs preschool):

Monday-Homeschool Co-op; Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready (book purchased here)

Tuesday-Baby Sing & Sign; Oak Meadow Preschool; iPad activities

Wednesday-Baby Sing & Sign; Slow and Steady Get Me Ready

Thursday-Baby Sing & Sign; Montessori activities; iPad activities

Friday-Oak Meadow Preschool; Montessori Activities

I have this schedule for Bug (4th grader):

Monday-Homeschool Co-op (science, literature, and Scripture Adventures); Independent reading

Tuesday-Friday: Further Up and Further In ( this unit study covers Bible, literature, art, music, history, science, geography, cooking, writing and critical thinking); Math

Tuesday, Thursday: Cursive

Wednesday, Friday: Grammar

I have this schedule for Doodles (6th grader):

Monday-Homeschool Co-op (science, literature, geography, and theater); Beautiful Girlhood book with Companion Guide

Tuesday-Friday: Sonlight Core F (previously 5) (this covers Bible, literature, history, geography, research skills, hands-on projects, and language arts; Math

Tuesday, Friday: Grammar

Wednesday, Thursday: Latin (First semester); Art (second semester)

Friday: Projects (Alternating on a weekly basis: Week 1-Cooking Project; Week 2-Current Events; Week 3-"Your Choice" Project; Week 4-Report on a recently studied topic, person, or location)





Preparing for Our Upcoming Homeschool Year

   This coming week we will take a break as I prepare for the upcoming year, which will bring some new and challenging events. We are looking forward to new learning adventures. ( If you'd like to see what I'll be using with each child, you can scroll to the bottom of the blog & view our 2012-2013 curriculum.) One thing this year that is totally new for us is joining a homeschool co-op. We will meet once a week, and the kiddos are really excited about it! This means, of course, that we will do all of our other schooling on a 4-day week rather than 5-day week timetable. I am going to be working on how to schedule our days, with input from the children, too, because they usually have some helpful ideas. Another new thing for us will be separating Doodles and Bug for each subject area. Originally they were together for Bible, history, science, and read-alouds, and then I separated them for science this past year. Now they will be separated for every subject. This also creates the need for a new schedule. I will post our schedule at the end of this week (when I'm done working on it!) Even then it will be tentative, though, because we won't really know whether or not it's successful until we've had a couple of weeks to put it into practice.
   On a different note, Baby Girl has been happier this past week, which is a HUGE blessing! It is so much easier to face her delays and special challenges when she is a content little girl. We have also seen her make some progress in expressing her needs both verbally and with sign language. I am praying for BIG strides for her this homeschool year!