Anyway, so we kicked things off yesterday! There were a few whimpers of disdain at pulling the books out, more so from C-man, Diva Dancer has been telling me for a bit now that she was ready to go! We knocked out a few things, a back to school/"what I loved about my summer" report, some math and handwriting. We had to take a lunch break and head out to replenish our pantry some, and we also bought the supplies to make L-Baby a "Busy Box"! This was a fun task...he needs something to occupy himself with while I am working with his siblings. So, we bought a Rubbermaid box and filled it with Crayons, $1 zoo animals and dinosaurs, pipe cleaners and fuzzy pom pom craft balls, Matchbox cars, ping pong balls, a Sesame Street video we found in the discount bin, a Play Doh set we found on clearance, and a few other odds and ends. So far, BIG HIT!!! Only drawback...he wants 24/7 access to his box! It is going to be a great thing to have on hand though, I'm very pleased at the ideas that I got from friends and Pinterest!
As for my big kids, I'm still kind of piecing things together for their curriculum. Summer just ran out on me SO fast! I wasn't totally prepared to get these kiddos started! They are both working on writing lessons in Handwriting Without Tears. I'd never used this with them, I've only heard about them, good reviews. I found teacher manuals in our used bookstore awhile back, McKay's, and was looking through them and liked what I saw. I ordered a workbook for each of them thinking we'd give it a shot! So far, so good! Diva Dancer has been itching to learn cursive, so I got her the beginning cursive book. She is THRILLED!!! Now, HWOT only goes to 5th grade, HOWEVER...C-man's printing had been taking some steps backwards, so I felt like he needed some review. As it so happened, HWOT had a review printing book for just such a purpose! SCORE!!! I snagged that without any hesitation! I am overwhelmingly impressed with his book already! It was taking him through steps to make his letters smaller, which I have been trying to do, but it wasn't working out well. I don't know what clicked, but shrinking down his printing is making a HUGE difference in the quality of his printing! Whatever works...Momma is loving it!
Both kids are working on Math U See again. They still seem to thrive with it, so why fix something that's not broken!? We will continue with that!
I have American History planned for both of the kids this year. C-man has taken a couple of classes at our Co op over the years, but I'm really wanting to get more comprehensive with it and do a year long study. I'm also hoping to fit in some Tennessee history along with it. There are so many historical places in our area for local and state, and I really want to explore those places, for my own benefit as I am not a TN native, and for my kids. I have A Beka curriculum and will use that as my primary source for lessons. I have also pinned a number of supplemental ideas on Pinterest that I want to use. SO much information to be had out there, I'm very excited for our year!
For reading, I'm going to kind of let the kids guide me on that this year. Diva Dancer has learned to love reading chapter books! She read Soul Surfer this summer for their reading challenge and enjoyed it so much! She's picked Stewart Little to start out this year. We will be doing oral reviews and book reports with their readings. C-man has yet to really find the joys of reading. However, he did read his first Harry Potter book for the summer challenge, which those books are a bit of a challenge in sheer length! He's pretty familiar with the movies, so I think that helped, at least we are hoping! He's picked the next book in the series to read, and I am PRAYING that he will find a groove and find a love for reading since it's subject matter that he enjoys!
Health we are going to continue using A Beka. And then the kids are getting ready to start back with all of their dance and soccer, so PE is totally covered!
English/Grammar I am struggling with. I'm using some Rod and Staff books as a springboard. I like them, they are a solid curriculum! However they have a very vintage feel to them and do not really appeal to my kids very much! Once co op starts, C-man is taking an Institute for Excellence in Writing course and a journalism class. I am just going to build on his assignments from that, and maybe let it flow over into D.D.'s studies as well the best I can. This summer we were also working on a journal project. I would write to each of the kids and give them some topics to think about and have them respond and hand the journals back to me. We'd talk over them and I would try to help them correct their sentence structure and brainstorming and such. When they caught on to the fact that I was actually trying to educate them, they kind of lost their momentum AND their amusement with the project! It's a project I'd like to restore this year though. I thought it was cool! haha!!!
D.D. is taking a Spanish class at co op, I am sure that there will be a need to practice some during the week in between classes. She is also signed up for a Pinterest crafts class. C-man is taking a cartooning class that he and his buddies are thrilled about!!
English/Grammar I am struggling with. I'm using some Rod and Staff books as a springboard. I like them, they are a solid curriculum! However they have a very vintage feel to them and do not really appeal to my kids very much! Once co op starts, C-man is taking an Institute for Excellence in Writing course and a journalism class. I am just going to build on his assignments from that, and maybe let it flow over into D.D.'s studies as well the best I can. This summer we were also working on a journal project. I would write to each of the kids and give them some topics to think about and have them respond and hand the journals back to me. We'd talk over them and I would try to help them correct their sentence structure and brainstorming and such. When they caught on to the fact that I was actually trying to educate them, they kind of lost their momentum AND their amusement with the project! It's a project I'd like to restore this year though. I thought it was cool! haha!!!
D.D. is taking a Spanish class at co op, I am sure that there will be a need to practice some during the week in between classes. She is also signed up for a Pinterest crafts class. C-man is taking a cartooning class that he and his buddies are thrilled about!!
Science I am still kind of floundering with! D.D. is taking a cooking class at co op and they honestly both love helping out in the kitchen, so I think I need to do some internet research to find some kitchen experiments and focus some time there. C-man has a passion for bugs, so I want to expand upon that some! I just caught another grasshopper today! I think Mr/Ms hopper may quickly become the center of this weeks science lesson! He is signed up for a science class at co op that is 1/2 Grossology (the weird body functions type of studies) and 1/2 astronomy! He and I are pretty jazzed about that as we both enjoy studies of space! I think we will incorporate that into our home studies as well.
Bible studies...I picked up a book for C-man awhile back called Weird & Gross Bible Stuff. Right up his alley! He's got a Bible by the same publisher with similar studies mixed in to the text, so I am hoping that they will correspond well. D.D. I'm having a little trouble with. I am looking at some tween books about growing up, making friends, appearances, friendships, etc. I have several that I have found that look good, I just need to research more and decide! That is sometimes the hard part :)
Well, that is a look into what is going on at Lighthouse Academy this year! We (or at least a portion of our student and staff body) are excited about where God is leading our studies this year! Thanks for checking us out!
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