We haven't disappeared...

I've been horrible, once again, at keeping up this blog.  It seems that homeschooling the children keeps me a little busier than before.  But really that's a horrible excuse, because I was barely blogging then either.

I do have a few excuses though.

I was asked to work the next Women's Cursillo weekend.  I was super excited, except for that part of having to give a talk!  One of my top three fears is speaking in public, and the fear is tripled when I have to talk about something personal.  I put off working on my talk until literally a week before I had to turn it in.  And then I prayed, a lot, for some help.  I so wish I could share it with you all!  I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and I truly can't wait to share it with the 32 women who will be making the weekend.  Did I mention that one of my dearest friends and my MOTHER-IN-LAW will be there?  I'm so excited!

We've been busy, busy homeschooling.  I've been pretty good at keeping up with our lesson plans and not getting too off track.  Our little homeschooling group has kept it's word of doing a weekly field trip.  A couple weeks ago we visited the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center.  Zep has become so intrigued with dinosaurs lately and SUE was on exhibit there.  It was a wonderful trip, and the kids had a blast!

So my lack of posts is definitely not from lack of adventures!  This blog of mine and I will be able to find some time again someday!

"Not" Back To School Blog Hop: School Room Week

It's time once again for more blog hopping with Heart of the Matter!  This week she has us all focusing on the room we'll be schooling in.  I sort of chuckle at that, because I'm almost positive that we'll be schooling just about everywhere.  Zep and I prefer to kick our legs up on the living room coffee table to do his work.  And I'm longing for the days when cooler weather heads our way, so we can throw out a blanket in the backyard and do our assignments in the beautiful outdoors!

But...I did prepare a room!  Let me just say, I LOVE IKEA!  For a cheap fix for any room it's the way to go.  We started organizing this room back in May and it finally was complete this week.  I'm excited to show it to you all...

The wall of IKEA shelving...

I'm still trying to figure out how I need to organize everything.  I suppose that once I have a little more experience I'll get a system down.  For right now I have each of the kids books grouped together.  I took an area for myself.  And, of course, all shelves within the reach of the babe are dedicated to her toys!  The boys have desks together, and I put a smaller table by the windows for days that Sunshine feels compelled to eat color with crayons!  :)

The bookcases are from the Billy collection at IKEA.  They even sell doors for the shelves that cost about $10 each.  You can see the one I bought on the far left.  The desks are also from IKEA.  Each desk cost $10.  They're pretty sturdy for being so cheap.  They're a bit tall, so you'll either have to buy adjustable chairs or look into the adjustable legs for the table instead of the ones I have pictured here.  Lastly, the chairs are also IKEA, but I don't suggest those.

My desk area...

I've had these desks forever!  They were my daddy's and now they'll be used to homeschool my children.  This is also were the computer area will be.  Hubby got me the awesome cork board; I repaid him by hanging it myself!

Supplies...

These are the greatest gadgets ever!  We've got all of our colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, scissors, etc in these two little hangie thingies.  They're fantastic!  FYI:  To buy said hangie thingies see IKEA's kitchen organization section.

And that's it!  I absolutely love this room now.  It has changed images multiple times over the last years and this is by far my favorite look.  I'm counting down the days till I'm able to ring our school bell and get our first day started!

Not Back-To-School Blog Hop: 2011-2012 Curriculum

I just love taking part in blog hops!  I've already posted our first-year curriculum, but I have to do it one more time to take part in this newest hop!  Thanks to Heart of the Matter for hosting.

Getting to this final list was a big ol' pain in the rear end.  Being new to the homeschooling world, I was very confused with all the choices that were out there for curriculum.  I must have changed my mind a bazillion times.  It finally came to a point where I had to just say, "That's it!" and write down the final curriculum in red ink.  I'm super excited with our choices, and I'm counting down the days until we start this wild ride!

And here is what our final list looks like:

*This is only for Zep, who will be entering first grade.  Bright Eyes will be in 4K, so he will mostly be just hanging out with us and/or Sunshine.

Language Arts

• Literature (Tales/Fables/Classics/Poetry) - We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan.
• Writing - Writing With Ease Level 1
• Grammar - First Language Lessons Level 1 & Language of God Level A
• Phonics - Little Angel Readers B,C, & D
• Handwriting - Handwriting 1 for Young Catholics
• Read aloud and silent reading - First Grade Faith and Freedom Readers & Scholastic Level 1 & & 2 books.

Math

• Saxon Math 1

History

• Story of the World: Volume 1

Religion

• We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan for religion.
• Hubby is going to teach the kids an extra amount of catechism in the evening after dinner from The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism. 

Science

• Noeo Science: Biology I

Geography

• Maps, Charts, and Graphs Level A

Art Appreciation

• Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It's A Renoir! Intermediate

Music

• Piano lessons given by the famous pianist, ME!  Yeah right, I'm just hoping I can teach him to read music!!
• 36 Traditional Catholic Hymns and several other classical pieces that we'll listen to before bed each night.

And that's it folks!!!  After months and months of struggling with what to do next year...this is it!  Am I expecting it to go as wonderfully as my mind is dreaming it...absolutely not!!  I'm pretty sure we'll be doing a lot of shifting as the year goes on.  I'm not a teacher, but I love my children.  And maybe, just maybe we'll learn to love to learn together!!!