School Year 2012/2013

We just finished our first 2 weeks of school! Woo Hoo! Yep, Kiera is in 2nd grade this year and Nathan is in Kindergarten. I'm going to share some pictures that I mostly took from my phone. If you're on instagram and you follow me you've probably already seen some of them.

So let me start with WHAT we're doing this year.
I decided to do the Kindergarten curriculum from My Father's World with Nathan this year. I did it with Kiera and I kind of didn't want to have to think to much for his curriculum this year. haha that sounds bad but I know other homeschool moms understand that right!? I like how it starts with making a book about the days of creation and then moves on to the different topic/theme of the week. For a 5 year old I like this style. He finished his book already and I love listening to him narrate to me about the days of creation. On Wednesday we started S for Sun and are talking about "Jesus is the light of the world".

Now for Kiera I used Ambleside Online for her curriculum last year but had omitted a few of the recommended books to read because of how sensitive she is. I'm glad I did. I wanted to continue with Ambleside but then received a catalog in the mail from Heart of Dakota. I hadn't heard about them until a friend who is in our nature group told me that, that is what they use. So I wanted to check it out. I like how the history readings are set up. Basically they felt like the ancient history with the Greeks should be postponed until the child is more mature (because of sensitive souls) which is how I have felt all along for my children but kind of didn't know how to switch it up. So basically I looked through Ambleside's Year 2 book list and Heart of Dakota and did some picking and choosing from each one.

Now I was stuck on how to organize our week and then I came across this blog. http://fisheracademy.blogspot.com/ and she talked about how they were planning and how she put together a check off list. So I downloaded her template (basically) and started plugging in our stuff, adding and changing up what we needed to do. So ever week Kiera will have a list of what she's suppose to do each week. Here's week 3. Front page has her daily and back has her copy work verse and the poem she will learn over a few weeks. She has memorized almost all of it after two weeks.

Both kids have binders for all their work but Kiera has number tabs that will coincide with the weeks. So every week will have one of these sheets at the beginning of it. This has been SOOO helpful mostly for ME. She likes being able to see what's next and check things off as she goes but seriously, this is a life saver for mommy.

So from the list you can see what books we're using. I'll post pictures too.

Just to make it clear, the top things are done every day. If there is a * symbol by a book that has to do with what term it's to be read in (I like having the 3 terms that Ambleside uses, Term 1: Sept-Nov, Term 2: Jan-Mar, Term 3: Apr-June). So you can see we're reading "Understood Betsy" during term 1 and (OL) means I can read it (for FREE) on-line. So that means, "Wind in the Willow's" will be read in term 2 and "Robin Hood" in term 3.

For Narrations I have her re-tell back to me what I have read to her and I figured 3 narrations a day was good. She has gotten so much better at the details since last year! 

We still haven't started our Timelines or Book of Centuries so I need to get her going on that and also the science project which will have to do with baking (for this term).

So Monday we do a singing lesson (with Mom), Tuesday is an art class (with Dad), Wednesday they have gymnastics which is not on this schedule, Thursday we go to nature studies so our Spanish lesson will sometimes fall on Wednesday or Friday. Friday is a piano lesson (with Mom) which the theory part overlaps with what we discuss on Monday's for singing.

Kiera's doing quite a bit more writing than last year but to avoid her having to write things down that aren't necessary (in my opinion) some stuff we do orally. Like in her English book, Preparing to Build, we do the exercises together instead of her having to copy down the correct way to write a sentence or an answer she just tells me, with the punctuation too.

For handicrafts I'll be teaching Kiera how to sew by hand a picture and she's been practicing her crocheting that her Grandma showed her.

So there you have it!

Here's some pictures from our first two weeks of 2nd grade and kindergarten. :)

Puzzles, Legos and Lincoln Logs and pots and pans are what Domenic plays with and Nathan and Kiera join him between subjects.

Kiera starts to read and her brother's sit down next to her. She enjoys reading to them as much as they love to listen. :)

Doing school on the living room floor.

The kids caught a grasshopper and after a couple days (maybe 3) it molted! Here's the old skin.

Art class!

 Circles, triangles and ovals.

Nathan practicing his letter S in salt. Totally reminded me of an etch-a-sketch. I let Domenic draw in a small container of salt too.

 She's getting stronger!

Thinking hard, the head gets heavy. ;)

Monach at the ENC in Newport

Robert gets to go on nature studies too!