School, school, school...

Well, it seems from some of the blogs I read that school is getting ready to start. Do ya'll remember when school started the day after Labor Day? IN SEPTEMBER? But, anyhoos. Here at Clark Academy we took June off and have been having mini-school since July. Mini-school for us consists of science, Bible, handwriting, spelling, and math on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It has worked out great so far and we will continue through August (and maybe some into September, depending on how the garden and pears are doing). When we start back full swing our days pretty much go like this.


***But all this is subject to change depending on my mood, the kid's attitudes, James' escapades (and I think I am about to have start potty-training him so that is a part-time job right there), if we get our Baby Girl, or the state of my house and I begin saying "I can't stand it anymore, we are living like a bunch of heathens!" and call school off to get the house back in order. But, believe it or not, most days flow pretty much according to our routine, and my kids are learning and thriving. I was worried if they were learning, but Tyler had to take the SAT last year and he did AWESOME and I said, "Yeah for the craziness of our household, it must make my children super-focused and have the ability to tune out their mom singing the Clean Up Song to James for the 10th time that morning!" Okay, I will get the Run-On Sentence Award for the day.

Our Day in a very little nutshell that leaves out the craziness that I don't want you to know about:

Around 8 the kids do their cleanup zones, feed the cats and chickens, straighten their rooms , and someone starts a load of laundry.

We usually start school around 9. We have our Bible time all together. We are going through the Old Testament stories this summer, working on memorizing a Scripture passage, and memorizing the books of the Bible.

I can usually give Tyler most of his work to do on his own and he goes off to his desk in his room to work alone. Matt and Abbie argue over who will go first and I begin deep sighing and try to remember who went first the day before. Whoever I don't pick has James' Duty which means they will play with James, work on his school work box with him, and just generally try to keep him out of trouble. I have a box titled "James' Box of Fun" in which I have put the preschool packets I made for him, some coloring books and crayons, stickers, etc.. in it. Some days he loves it and some days he could care less. He does like it when the kids play the little games with him though.

I rotate the kids and work with them individually at the kitchen table. They each have a sterlite box that all their books and work is in so they just bring the box to the table. After we have done the work for each child for the day I call the next child and then someone else has James' duty.

After all the kids have been rotated and right now this doesn't take too long because of mini-school, we do Science all together. Depending on the morning, this will be right before or right after lunch. James usually sits in with us on Bible (he has his own very short memory verse he is learning) and Science. I am trying to use this time to teach him to sit quietly and how to listen. He will be going into big church with us soon and hopefully this is good practice. Some days it goes well, some days it is a crying fest the whole time and I put him in his bed to cry by himself.

For math we use ABEKA. We just work through the books until we are done and then move to the next grade level.

Science-Apologia Astronomy. LOVE Apologia. This year I ordered the children's notebooks instead of them making their own notebook. It was pricey, but oh my word, the difference it has made in our science work. LOVE IT.

History-Veritas Press. New Testament, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome. This will be my first time to use this and I am excited. I did not buy all the books they recommend because I found I can get many of them at the library, but I did buy quite a lot and they look wonderful. We will be doing lots of read-alouds, which I think is wonderful way for kids to learn. I also plan on doing a couple of lapbooks. I found this great lapbooking site, and I hope to do some more research and planning before September. We will also be reading some books about other parts of the world during that time period.

Handwriting/Copywork-Classically Cursive, by Veritas Press

Language-Language Lessons, by Queen Homeschool

Spelling-Spelling Power. This is the first time I have used them and I really like it. Very easy for mom and it will be good for my children.

Bible-We go to Community Bible Study one morning a week beginning in September. The kids have their Bible lessons and music. They will doing a 8 month study on the book of Genesis. Me too. They have lots of verses to learn at CBS so we don't do separate Scripture memory at home during that time. Mark is teaching them the Shorter Catechism at night before our family prayers.

Art-Once a month they will be taking an art class with our homeschool co-op.

They also are involved in Boy Scouts and American Heritage Girls.

So that's it. After writing it all down it looks like a lot, but we are usually done by 1 or 2 pm, James goes down for his nap, I do the elliptical machine, collapse in the recliner, and the kids have the afternoon to play. I then try to muster up the strength to get up and do some semblance of housework, cook supper, and look absolutely stunning by the time my man walks through the door. Not really on the stunning part cause by the end of August I am usually standing in the garden picking one more blasted tomato when he gets home and he is greeted by a glistening, dirty, bug-bitten woman who says she is not going to do this one more day. She then goes a gets a shower and comes up with a plan to make the garden even bigger next year because wouldn't it be fun to have our own pumpkins! She gets out of the shower, tells her man, and he says "Okay." knowing that the next day she will have changed my mind. I have a love/hate relationship with the garden in case you haven't noticed...