It was really fun to get to meet all of you last week, and I’m so glad you all decided to join us! I know that the Homeschool Memoirs is only going to get more exciting and encouraging as each week goes by and new homeschoolers join us! I hope you were able to “get out” and meet a few new friends and be encouraged. I know I did and found a couple interesting blogs to re-visit.

THEME

This week’s theme is about sharing your 2008-09 homeschool agendas and plans. You’ve been preparing your plans for sometime and you’re ready to go. Or you’re still in the planning-stage and need some inspiration or tips on what to use. Because many use different curriculum and methods there is always something new to be gleaned from other homeschoolers. It’s always fun and interesting to see what other’s are using and the WWWWH as Robin Sampson suggests. So this week I hope you will share what you’re doing this year for your homeschool agenda. Share the different curriculum you’re using. You can also include what age/grade you’re using it for, how long you’ve been using it, and why you like it.

Please share a Bible verse that has encouraged you or inspired you during this planning-process, and how.

Once upon a time it was no big deal how I homeschooled.  When I taught Hannah for the first year I had her in "kindergarten," I had a preschool Rebekah running around, and a baby that I nursed while reading books.  I remember I felt a little stressed at times but when I look back, it was no big deal.  Now I have 3 school age and a toddler who is a "Black and Decker House Wrecker" as she is lovingly nicknamed.  I don't by any means have the handle on how to homeschool 3 (God bless those of you who are homeschooling more than that!) but what I have mapped out has been working for us for about 8 days now.  I read somewhere that you have to do something for 21 days to become a habit--we shall give that theory a try!

A few years ago I had read Managers of Their Home and it is an excellent book.  Problem was that I felt defeated because these families had 10 kids and a clean house and I had 3 kids (at the time) and felt like I could never get on top of everything that needs done from day to day AND  homeschool.  I'm still hoping to get the house management better controlled, it isn't awful but I would like to raise the standards a little more.  The gist of the book was to have everyone on a schedule and have that schedule up somewhere where they can all see it.  I gave it a try this year.

Between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. I need to get up, get dressed, walk the dog, shower, eat my breakfast and prepare Paul's breakfast.  If I really would have it together, I would like to start a load of laundry and put supper in the crock pot but I haven't mastered those two extra items yet. :)

8:30 a.m. All of the children should be down at the kitchen table, dressed, beds made (in a perfect world--but at least I'm striving for that--so far one makes her bed very nicely), and having had eaten breakfast or eating.  At this time I sit with them and read a Proverb chapter (according to the date) and a few chapters from the Bible (I'm trying to help the oldest one and myself to read through the Bible).

9 a.m.  Hannah (11 y/o)  is to do math and other individual schoolwork she has to do.  I sit with Rebekah  (9 y/o) and work on Saxon Math.  I LOVE Saxon Math and only wish I would have tried it sooner.  I had several people discourage me from using it with younger grades b/c of the repetition but that repetition was the very thing my kids needed.  I just hadn't realized how much until we tried it about a year and a half ago.  Now I'm a huge fan of Saxon.  Love it, love it, love it! (**update**I'm finding that if Rebekah works on fact sheets from Saxon for the first 1/2 hour, I have time to work with Denny on his Saxon 1 at the same time.  I then spend the next half hour on the actual "homework" page with Rebekah for her math lesson.)

Hannah is using Saxon Math--finishing 54 to move onto 65.  She uses Wordly Wise 6 for vocabulary.  Abeka Writing and Queen Homeschool copywork for writing.  Easy Grammar for grammar.  Abeka Language C for everything they cover. :)

10 a.m. I work with Rebekah with spelling.  If you ask me, I would think that she may be mildly dyslexic.  Case in point, she was supposed to spell stout, she spelled it the first time on the paper as tsaut.  It may have been no big deal but we have covered stout a few times now in the past few days.  She can spell out but she doesn't hear/comprehend that stout is just out with st on the front.  In a word with out in it but something else with it--she writes the out part as aut.  Interesting.  She has a hard time concentrating, is easily distractible and her retention is less than average.  I think Sequential Spelling is going to be the best fit for her, at least for now.  I like the methodical way they handle the spelling words and hope that someday the lightbulb will come on and this subject wouldn't be so hard for her.  The amazing thing for me is that she is a fairly good reader.  Not an exceptional reader but average or maybe a little better than average reader.  Fascinating.  I would think the reading and spelling would go hand in hand the way it did for Hannah.  Every child is certainly different.

10:30 a.m. Spelling with Hannah.  She does Spelling Power.  I like the built in review of frequently mispelled words.  She likes the fact that I can test her now and then to see where she places as far as her spelling goes.  It is an easy curriculum and we enjoy it.  I like that she could use this program throughout her school years.  I photocopy the pages from the back of the book so it is essentially self-contained.

While I do spelling with Hannah, Rebekah is to work on her writing.  I have been told that copywork will also help with spelling so she works on Queen Homeschool copywork, copying text from a book or working in some other writing program.

Best case scenario would be that Denny would alternate each half hour between doing workbook pages and playing with Grace but it hasn't worked out that way yet.  Denny basically plays with Grace and I work with him when I get a spare minute.

11 a.m.  Rebekah is to work on phonics (which currently is Explode the Code 6).  I see her spelling struggles there too so I'm thinking I will invest in some of the 1/2 books that Explode the Code offers for further reinforcement, such as book 6 1/2.  I also try to fit in some grammar with her too, I use Easy Grammar.

11:30 a.m. The big girls prepare lunch.  I should actually be working with Denny (age 6) during this time on his Saxon phonics 1 and Saxon Math 1 but usually that doesn't happen.  I work with him on these things some time after 4 p.m.

1 p.m. We have had lunch and have cleaned up the kitchen and some other little things here or there.  We sit down to read or watch history.  This year I am working on the American Revolution with the kids.  I have borrowed many books from the library and a few videos.  Our favorite video so far was a three video tape movie of George Washington.  Hannah wasn't at sure if she'd like it at first--she said that it looked old.  I told her it was from 1984 and that didn't help her opinion of it being old.  It was kind of cool because Kelsey Grammer was in it--boy was he young!  Despite being "old," the movie was quite good and all four of the children enjoyed watching it.  George Washington seemed to have such a sweet and gentle spirit about him as well as his powerful ability to lead.  I look forward to reading more about him to see what other books say of his personality.

I also picked up some great video dramas of figures of history such as Thomas Edison, Mary Cassatt, Marie Curie.  They are about an hour long and are by Devine Entertainment.  All of the children enjoy these videos.

I love the Mystery of History but find it hard to plow through sometimes.  We are still working on Volume I so we aren't moving very fast through it.  I have decided not to do most of the extra activities although I find them to very interesting.  That is the problem, I find the activities interesting but the other kids do not.  I don't want to bog down and spend too much time on that aspect of history so we are basically reading the sections and the children narrate back to me what we read. I'm taking those narrations and placing them into a three-ring binder in order of the years that correspond to the subject we are reading about.  Hannah does most of the pre and post tests that are offered in the book.

1:30 p.m.  We read science.  Science this year is working through Christian Kids Explore Biology--reading the chapter and narrating.  Sometimes we read Christian Liberty Nature Readers and narrate each section or read a little in an Abeka health book that I have.  I would love for us to get back to Considering God's Creation but we just haven't gotten there yet.

2 p.m. I have several easy science experiment books laying around the house so I have the kids leaf through those and come up with an experiment.  They then perform it for me and/or draw a picture of what they had done.  This time also allows me a few minutes to go outside and see how our vegetable garden is coming along.

2:30 p.m. I have wanted us to read through the Little House series for years now.  It all started a few years ago when I thought we would do Prairie Primer.  I had to keep paring it down though b/c it was next to impossible, well, for us it turned out to be impossible, for us to do.  I still think it was an excellent program and hope to return to it again someday on a different level.  I hope to take bits and pieces from it such as learning the Presidents and facts about each state.  That sort of thing.  So for now we are reading Laura's books for a half hour each day and then narrating what we've read.  We are on Little Town on the Prairie right now.

3 p.m. I plan for a half hour of biography.  Sometimes that is a biography of a missionary, but as of this year we have been reading a biography of someone from the Revolutionary War time period.  Right now we are reading George vs. George which contrasts the personalities and lives of King George III and President George Washington.

3:30 p.m.  We had been reading the book by the Mally's Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends.  It is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.  It was good for me too since I am an only child and really don't know how to deal with sibling squabbles.  I also thought some of what they suggest for living with others was good for our marriage too.  Since we have finished that book and I haven't decided a different character training book we are reading Anne of Green Gables since I've wanted to read that book aloud with the kids for a long time too.

4 p.m. I let the kids go. :)  Sometimes I will use that time to work with Denny on whatever he hasn't completed yet.  I want the girls to practice their instruments and then they can have some time on the computer to play with webkinz.

You mentioned a verse that I think of in relation to our homeschooling days.  I read Ps. 118 on the day of the assignment.  The verse that stuck out to me that day was: This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Ps. 118:24  I hope that we will have a joyful year of school.  I think this schedule allows some freedom to go to Dr. visits, have gym time and other activities (since they don't happen everyday and not for the whole afternoon) and on those days when we do leave the house, we can return home, look at the schedule and pick up where we should be at that time.  Plain and simple and far less complicated than trying to decide everyday what we should be doing and when.

To God be the glory, great things He has done!