Today's Wisdom

Thursday, October 29, 2009

A Typical Day At Our School


8:00 - oops, overslept again. We might as well change this to the start of our day instead of oversleeping because we're pretty routine about it =) I have my morning quiet time, get myself ready, wake the kids, enjoy my first cup of coffee, get breakfast on the table and cleaned up. It's Thursday so today's breakfast menu is cereal and fruit. Today's fruit of choice is bananas. After breakfast, the kids start their morning chores which include getting dressed, personal hygiene, fixing beds and being in school room before the timer goes off at 9:00. But for today they have one less chore because it's PJ day (decided on that last night =)! I start a load of laundry, make another cup of coffee for myself, and enter the school room ahead of the kids to welcome them. And sure to catch a quick glimpse of facebook and email =) Hubby leaves at 4:00am every morning so he's already got a good dent into his day.

9:00 - really, it's before 9:00 but we've also decided to have show~n~tell today so that begins right away =) kids then start their school jobs which are found posted on Monday's on the job chart. They have the same jobs for the whole week. This week, Jonathan is in charge of passing out everyone's folders, holds the Bible during pledge time & makes sure all lights are turned off in the house except of course for the school room. You have to be VERY specific with this crowd, I've learned. Stephen is the calendar man & holds the Christian flag for pledge time. Sarah does the weather report and holds the American flag during pledge time. After all chores & pledges are done we move to our school table and it is now 9:30.
9:30 - Bible Time. We are using the 3rd grade curriculum for all called "Growing With God". Today's lesson is on character. We end by singing our October hymn (The Lily Of The Valley )and song (Little Sunbeams). Next, we move to either science (Apologia's Exploring Creation) or history (Mystery of History, Vol 1) and we do that together as well. Today, it's science.

10:00-12:15 or so - The kids use their folders to direct them to do what is next. Each one is filled with the day's work. For example my 11 yo, 6th grader's (Jonathan) folders today are...

Folder 1 - Spelling which he does with his brother using Sequential Spelling.
Folder 2 - Piano practice for 20 minutes, timer
Folder 3 - Abeka Math Speed Drill, timer
Folder 4 - Abeka Language Arts, work with mom
Folder 5 - Abeka Reading
Folder 6 - Abeka Math Worksheet, work with mom
Folder 7 - Writing With Ease (Jungle Book excerpt today), work with mom
Folder 8 - Usually has a fun item..since it's almost Halloween everyone's fun item today is "cooking with Mom"..we're making cupcakes

My 8yo, 3rd grader's (Stephen) folders are...

Folder 1 - Spelling which he does with his brother using Sequential Spelling.
Folder 2 - Writing With Grace
Folder 3 - Abeka Math Worksheet
Folder 4 - Abeka Language Arts, work with mom
Folder 5 - Piano practice for 20 minutes, timer
Folder 6 - Abeka Reading, work with mom
Folder 7 - Abeka Math Speed Drill, timer
Folder 8 - "cooking with Mom"..we're making cupcakes

My 6yo, 1st grader's (Sarah) folders are...

Folder 1 - Abeka Math Worksheet
Folder 2 - Abeka Letters and Sounds Worksheet
Folder 3 - Abeka Language Worksheet, work with mom
Folder 4 - Abeka Reading, work with mom
Folder 5 - Piano practice for 10 minutes, timer
Folder 6 - Spelling
Folder 7 - Abeka Math Speed Drill..not timed yet though
Folder 8 - "cooking with Mom"..we're making cupcakes

Sarah gets to the work with mom first so she is the winner =) I work with her on all her sheets and reading and we go over any mistakes made on independent work. Stephen, now reaches his work with mom and we do the same thing. During my time working with Stephen, Jonathan reaches a work with mom but knows not to interrupt me and skips it to go to the next thing. Yeah, it worked today =)

12:30 - We're running a little behind but not too bad. I fix lunch while working with Jonathan on writing.

12:45-1:30 lunch and clean up

2:00 - music with Grandma..normally this is on Wednesday's but had to be rearranged for the week. She takes all 3 kids so I do a mad cleaning dash! Switch over a load of laundry, wash up some stray dishes, get some ham and pineapple in the crock pot for supper, fold and put away a load of clothes, sweep and mop the dining room and kitchen, grade papers from today and restock folders for tomorrow, check email

3:15 - kids are back, they spent some extra time there today playing and enjoying their Grandparents. Now, we bake our cupcakes and I write about our day =)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Solar System Fun

Our balloon solar system =)  Oh yeah, and we do wear costumes to school sometimes too!




 

Counting Money

We use real money to count with but the bills in the register are fake because Sarah put them in there =)

Paperdolls





Noodle and Paperclip Art

Stephen's is our family....the Fab Five =)



Sarah's is the burning bush =)


Jonathan's is 3 crosses during Jesus's death =)




Their job was to come up with anything they wanted too.  I enjoyed this activity and they did too.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Inside Jonathan's Folder

Jonathan's Folder (6th grade)
1 (Language)
2 (Spelling)
3 (Math Speed Drills)
4 (Math)
5 (Reading)
6 (Music)
7 (Writing)
8 (Art)

 

Inside Stephen's Folder

Stephen's Folder (3rd grade)
1 (Math speed drills)
2 (Math)
3 (Reading)  His book is on the shelf because it makes the folder too bulky.
4 (Spelling)
5(Language)
6 (Music)
7 (Cooking)
8 (Writing)

Inside Sarah's Folder (1st grade)

This is our first week using our folders.  I think the 8 included in the folder will be enough for us since we're doing several subjects together this year.
1 (Math)
2 (Writing)
3 (Phonics)
4 (Reading)
5 (Music)
6 (Alphabet)
7 (her fun one today- Tag book)
8 (Spelling)
After she's done with each folder, she takes the number and adds it to her "I'm done" chart.  I want to add some chores into the chart too I think.

I've already gotten lots of great responses and we're only on day 2!  "Mom, I love school this year!"  =)

Folder System

I first saw this system over here.  I totally loved it and she even has the cards you can print out too!  Here are the kids' folders.
This is my folder where I put our daily assigments by child.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Sequential Spelling

We decided to go ahead and add in some spelling.  Both boys are using Sequential Spelling.  It's easy so far but the words get much harder.  They like doing it with the dvd and I like it because they can do it somewhat independently.  She talks a little different than we do so I have to translate sometimes though =)
Melissa

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Teacher Gifts

Awwwww, they do love me! =) Apple from Stephen, Bib from Sarah, and hand sanitizer from Jonathan! They surprised me this morning with teacher gifts. I have the best kids!

Melissa

Our Day

Sarah using her math, cutting, and gluing skills.
Stephen is happy to be back at school.
Jonathan is not quite so happy.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Happy Birthday Sarah

One of Sarah's favorite things to do is school work so she was happy that her bd fell during a school day! The big SIX today!

Melissa

Monday, August 31, 2009

Math Time

We all LOVE math =)

Melissa

New Table

I think it's going to work great!

Melissa

Morning Pledge Time

We start out the day with pledges to the American Flag, Christian Flag, and Bible. Then we do our Bible study for the day.


Melissa

Welcome Back

We started back today with a light schedule. Here are our Bible vocabulary words from today. And our much used white board. Love it!

Melissa