The "Modified" Homeschool Mother's Journey...v2...The one where I talk about our 2011-2012 curriculum

If you want to join in on this meme, head over to The Homeschool Chick for The Homeschool Mother's Journey. She's provided some fun questions to answer each week!  And she's even doing a Summer Edition now!! 

In our homeschool this week next year...

I honestly feel sorry for the people that had to counsel me during my curriculum research.  My personality type tends to be more towards the "let's jump on the first train riding by" rather than "let's wait awhile and make sure it's the right train first."  As soon as I was certain homeschooling was for our family, I wanted everything done; the books bought, the schoolroom put together, the lesson plan in order.  It took a lot of prayer and a lot of guidance from some experienced homeschooling mommies to calm me down and rethink the train our family would be boarding.  I definitely rode a few on the way though...the Seton train, the Well-Trained Mind train, the Mother of Divine Grace train, the Catholic Heritage Curricula train, the Mater Amabilis train.

And here is where these trains finally dropped us off..

*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!!!

The Homeschool Mother's Journey...v1

I'm becoming slightly addicted to the blogging world of link-ups and memes (pronounced like dreams).  I love that they give me a place to start when it comes to writing.  Although, I'm pretty good at spitting out enough words (notice I didn't say good words) to fill a blog space, I'm horrible when it comes to thinking of fresh ideas. 

I came across The Homeschool Mother's Journey meme on one of the 5 billion homeschool blogs I follow.  And since "real" school has officially ended, I've decided to start calling myself a homeschooling mommy.  It's my school and I can call myself what I want to!  :)   In my defense, we have been doing some schoolwork, so I am technically teaching!

If you want to join in on this meme, head over to The Homeschool Chick for The Homeschool Mother's Journey.  She's provided some fun questions to answer each week!

 

In my life this week…

We're trying to settle into a summer groove.  This week has been a bad example of how weeks to come will go.  Tuesday was truly the only uneventful day we had.  The rest of the week we had some friends come over to play, I was finally able to take Bright Eyes to have his speech evaluated (he passed!), and then we had family in town for an evening.  I'm truly hoping that next week is more of a "normal" week, and we'll be able to get on schedule.

In our homeschool this week…

We're focusing this summer on math and reading...especially on reading.  If you know me even a little, you know that I'm ridiculous when it comes to planning.  The summer schedule is a pretty crazy example of that.  It's color coded and time stamped!  I'm insane, I know!  But so far, so good!  The boys alternated between working with me on their bookwork and doing their lessons on the computer.  And our sweet Sunshine was very sweet to us and slept until 9 each morning allowing us lots of time to finish things!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This question stinks!!  Today, I should be lounging poolside with my best friend enjoying her husband's famous mojitos.  But, I'm too chicken to be too far from the hospital in case Bright Eyes has a relapse, so here I sit...on my couch!  I guess it turned out okay, because Sunshine has come down with some sort of illness and keeps spiking a fever.  That would have been zero fun at the beach.  We did have some special visitors yesterday and today...Gramma, Bop-Bop, and Aunt C!

My favorite thing this week was…

Ultreya!  Without question....have YOU thought about going on a Cursillo weekend?????

What’s working/not working for us…

I'm absolutely loving Saxon math.  The meeting is wonderful!  I was surprised to find that Zep really didn't understand the whole month/year/date thing.  The rest of the lesson is incredibly easy, so I'm really glad we're beginning it early.  Hopefully, by the time we start learning new material it'll be just about time to kick-off the new school year.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Poor Bop-Bop thought he was going out to enjoy some quiet time with his newspaper and coffee!!  Two little boys thought it would be fun to follow suit!