Getting Ready for School! - 8/26/12

Organization is key!!
Whew! It took a LONG time to get ready for school this year!

First I had to tackle the gargantuan MESS that we call our homeschool shelves. I thought I could do it in a day. It took more like a week. There was just SO much stuff to go through. I actually "got rid" of a lot of books. That means I decided to let them go. I listed a bunch of them on Amazon, and then the rest I am just going to give away at our homeschool group. The ones that don't sell within a few months on Amazon, I will box up and sell at a homeschool used book sale.
Here are the before and after pics:

Before

After

The next part was almost harder - deciding on curriculums , making 36-schedules, and daily planners for each child. There was some slight overlap for Jem and Scout since they are doing the same History topics and therefore some of their other subjects are linked up too, but much of their work is separate, so there was a lot of work involved. Each thing seemed to take about a day each what with the rest of life getting in the way.

Here is what I finally came up with.

 

For full file click here

Preschool Planner

Click here for full document

Sample of 3rd Grade 36-Week Schedule

3rd Grade Planner

Click here for full file

Sample of 7th Grade 36-Week Schedule

7th Grade Planner

Are we ready yet?? Not quite. I still have those Calendar Notebooks to put together. I'll have to do those in the morning. Oh, and I want to put a workbox system in place for the preschoolers, and maybe even Jem. I think it would make school more interesting/doable/independent/something for him.  BUT, that's a big project because it means cleaning out a whole set of drawers near my desk. Who knows how long that will take!!  We'll have to start school without that stuff in place and go from there. 

Oh, side note, this year we are trying something new. We NEVER get all of our planned school done every day of every week. So this year I decided to prioritize our plans for each day. The top boxes MUST get done every day. Then the middle boxes, and then the 3rd boxes. They are ranked in order of importance for our school year this year. We are focusing heavily on Math and Literature and then Grammar/Spelling and Writing. Time to get back to some basics and get on the ball this year. Last year we let things slide a bit. I really wasn't feeling good most of the year. I'm crossing my fingers that this year will be better and I'm hoping that going back to our more organized and scheduled life will help us accomplish our goals for the year. Fingers crossed!

Summer 2012 - Part 2

Summer has gone by so fast!!  We all took some much need to time to just rest and do whatever we wanted to do, and now we are all ready to get back to school. The kids are actually WANTING to start school again which is great! This was the first time in several years that we did NO school at all during the summer and I think it was a good thing.

Here are a few updates:

Scout finished her Into the Woods camp at Theater Works and had a blast. The show was adorable and she did a great job! She auditioned again for Kids Alive! which is a singing/dancing/acting group at the theater and got in to an older girls group now called Kids Alive 2. She is planning to audition next for Annie at Arizona Broadway Theater in Spetember. This will be a big audition. The shows there run Tuesday through Sunday! She says that's what she loves :)

 

Jem GOT THE PART of Winthrop in the Theater Works production of The Music Man!! He was so excited. I was relieved because he was so confident and sure he was going to get it that I was worried he'd be devastated if he didn't. He worked really hard preparing for the audition, so I guess it all paid off. The only problem has been that he caught this nasty cough that has been running through our family and has had to miss 3 rehearsals! He has been sick enough that his blood sugar has been running higher than normal and a couple of days he even had keytones - not good.  Hopefully he will be back on track next week. The show runs from October 5th to the 28th and you can get tickets HERE.

Diabetes is with him. In sickness and in health.

Some important events happened in July and August:

Jem had his second Diabetes Anniversary!

 

Bella had her 19th Birthday!!

Freddie had his last day as a preschooler with us and his first day as a kindergartener!!

  

 Here are some random shot from the rest of our summer fun:

D-friends and preschool friends meet-up at the sprinkler park

Lunch with Gramps at Peter Piper

 

Freddie fell in the mud while playing in the sprinklers. At first he was crying, but then he saw how funny it was.

Ice Skating at Polar Ice Starlight Event

Homeschool group Activity Day - We played games, made bookmarks, and built wood projects.

M&M Painting

And that's it for Summer 2012!  Now on to the next school year!!