Sunday, March 28, 2010

Curriculum Plans for Next Year

Anyone who knows me well knows tax season is full of business for me. We filed a lot later this year than we typically do, as W2s were lost in the mail and we had to wait for new ones to be sent. But we got them done and received our refund last Friday. Because of hubby’s long stretch of unemployment last year, we didn’t get back as much as we are used to, but we did get enough to do what needed to be done and a little extra, so I’m not complaining!

I always plan our curriculum for the following year and purchase what I need with our refund. We are going to be doing some new things next year that I am really excited about!

  • Latin’s Not So Tough Level 2 – I think next year is going to be a good time to start formal Latin study for Drew. I looked at a lot of programs, but I chose this one because of all the awesome reviews, ease of teaching, and the fact that it used the classical pronunciation.
  • Critical Thinking – I purchased some material from Critical Thinking Company (again, for Drew) to prepare him for logic studies in a few years. They have so many awesome books, we are going to start with Building Thinking Skills Level 1 and Reading Detective: Beginner.
  • Saxon Math 5/4 – I’m a little nervous about switching math programs, but I think this is going to be a good choice for us. We have used nothing but BJU math since first grade and we really like it. But as we are delving into harder concepts, I am noticing Drew’s homework and test grades slumping a bit. I am hoping the review cycle with Saxon will remedy that. the big selling point for me was the Saxon teacher cd-rom. This little puppy is going to save me LOADS of time everyday! And I won’t have to worry about confusing my kids on the more difficult subjects as the cd lessons will cover how to do the problems. The only thing I am worried about is that the BJU math has not prepared him enough to move into a more advanced program, but we will just take it slow and review, review, review!
  • Lessons in Responsibility for Boys Vol.1 – I have had my eye on this for some time now and I think this book will be a HUGE help to my boys. They are getting older and it is becoming extremely important to me that they begin to mature into responsible adults. I am hoping this series will spur on some great discussions in our home and help them to understand the importance of responsibility in every area of their lives.

In addition to our new things, we are continuing with TOG and I will be purchasing units 3 and 4 of year one, along with the lapbook templates. I already have all the other materials I will need to get us through year one. I don’t see us finishing year one until Fall 2011, since we are going half pace for now.

I also purchased BJU Reading 2 and 4 (mostly used) for next year. I went back and forth on this and was seriously considering using MCP Plaid Phonics and Reading A-Z, but especially since Isaiah was a late reader, I don’t want to make any mistakes with this subject! So I decided to keep using the BJU reading program for both boys. I am hoping next year will be the last year I feel Drew needs a formal reading program. Depending on when I feel he is ready to move into Dialectic level work, that’s when we will nix a reading curriculum and focus more on literature and reading from TOG. So we may end up doing BJU Reading 5, too. Time will tell. I am also thinking about ordering the Phonics Review workbook to go along with Isaiah’s reading, but I will wait until I have a chance to dig into the curriculum before I decide. I learned the hard way with Drew that phonics is so very important and shouldn’t stop after they learn to read. Especially if it doesn’t come easy to them.

We will be continuing with Easy Grammar through next year also. Right now Drew is about a quarter of the way through EG 3, and Isaiah recently started EG 2, so I am getting EG 4 from a friend later in the year since we won’t be ready for it for a while.

Isaiah will continue with BJU Math through 3rd grade, then I will switch him to Saxon 5/4 also. I had already purchased an additional 3rd grade math worktext last year, so I had no need to purchase anything for his 3rd grade math.

Hmm, what am I missing..

Oh yes, I also went through my TOG booklist and picked out a few of the books that I thought would be worth it to buy to add to our library. A couple of these were selected because I can not find them at my local library, others because they are used in several week plans, and others just because I thought they would be nice books that we would get a lot of enjoyment from. All of our other books we will get from our library. I will continue to purchase books for units 3 and 4 as I can throughout the year.

That pretty much covers our plans for the 2010-2011 school year. I put a lot of work (as I always do) into choosing curricula that would be a good fit for my kids. I am relieved it is all ordered and now I can stop stressing over it, LOL! Now all that’s left to do is wait fro my boxes of books to arrive, which is my favorite part next to opening the boxes and pouring over the books for the first time.

Have you started planning and purchasing for next year? What things are you excited about using? I really want to know!

Blessings,

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Homeschool Blog Hop #6

Theme For The Week: 10 Random Questions

Time for a bit of fun this week. Just copy the 10 questions below and enter your answers after each one of them for this week's blog hop.

1. What time is it right now? It is Wednesday at 7:37pm
2. What are you wearing? Cotton Capri’s and a hoody 
3. What is your mood? I’m feeling pretty tired and grouchy 
4. What is one thing your children learned today? Sometimes it’s better to just take a day from lessons to enjoy the sunshine!
5. What did you (or are having) for dinner? We had pizza at 3, and the kids are at church eating dinner there, so hubby and I will prob just piece around
6. What's one book you are currently reading? Don’t Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman
7. What behaviour (in people) is the most common but also the rudest? Lack of common courtesy
8. What can you see out of your nearest window right now? The sun going down, the parking lot
9. What are you currently praying for? A peaceful home
10. What is your favourite hot beverage? Dark roast coffee with vanilla creamer


MckLinky Blog Hop

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Monday, March 15, 2010

Weekly Wrap Up 3.14.2010

image

I know, I’m a little late but hey – you know me well enough by now to know that I am rarely ever on schedule for anything, LOL!

We had a fun, full week this week. Let me begin by sharing how our first week with our redesigned workboxes turned out. If you haven’t already read about my recent tweaks, you can find that post here. For a brief recap, I ditched the boxes and and am now trying out a much more compact version with file folders. Everything went pretty well last week. We actually used our schedule books (we had long abandoned out schedule strips as the boys kept forgetting to use them) and they helped us stay on task throughout the day.. I also noticed there was a lot less up and down movement from the table, since most of what the boys needed was right there on the table in front of them. We are utilizing a “holding station” for those items that don’t fit neatly into a file folder, but so far we have only had to use it for a couple of things every day. Both of the boys seemed to enjoy using these folders and we got everything done this week we had planned (even though we took Wednesday off because it was Drew’s birthday). There are still a few things I would like to eventually change, but they will have to wait til I can purchase a few things.

One of our TOG related projects this week was to make our own 10 commandments stone tablets. This project originally suggested cardboard, but I didn’t have any boxes large enough so we used poster board. I had the “stones” cut out ahead of time. The first day I mixed up some gray craft paint, and the boys painted their stones front and back. Originally, I was going to have them write the commandments out with a sharpie, but our gray ended up too dark for that. So instead we used chalk! It worked perfectly, although the boys had a hard time writing neatly because all the chalk was in little pieces.

100_2605 100_2606

We also watched 4 movies this week about the patriarchs. We watched Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. It was nice to have a fun way to reinforce all that we had been studying. Joseph was the unanimous favorite.

We were also blessed to have a couple of 50 and 60 degree days last week. It was so nice to have the sun pouring through the windows. Of course, we could not sit inside and let all the beautiful sunshine go to waste, so we spent quite a bit of time outdoors on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the older boys ran around like crazy kids the whole time and I didn’t manage to get any good pictures of them, but I did get a few of Joey.

100_2598 100_2601

100_2597The boys have made friends with a couple of girls that live in the complex. Wednesday night, the gorls invited them to a neighborhood outreach at a church within walking distance. So Bobby walked them over and got information from the adults running it. Apparently, they host this outreach several nights a week for area kids. Apparently, not may parents get involved because Bobby said they looked shocked to see a parent there. They provide a healthy dinner for the kids (complete with dessert) and set up games for them and open the gym. I promised the boys we would allow them to go as often as we could. They said that since they didn’t know Drew was coming and it was his birthday, they would have a cake for him this coming week!

Drew’s grandmother came from Myrtle Beach to visit him for his birthday. She arrived Saturday and will be flying back Monday afternoon. Drew loves hanging out with her and she always spoils him with eating out and movies and such. Tonight he is spending the night with her at her hotel, as he usually does when she comes for a visit.

So that pretty much wraps up this past week. I am sure I am forgetting a few things, but I am getting sleepy and having trouble keeping my eyes open! The spring forward thing messes with me every time. Hopefully I’ll be back on track in a few days. Hope you had a great week!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Homeschool Printing Expenses (and how to save money)

image

I am all about getting the most out of my money however I can and as a homeschooler, expenses can add up quickly. I have always made use of the internet for various games and printables. Up until the last year or so, I have always had Lexmark printers. They are inexpensive and easy to use. But I have found as my kids get older and our needs have changed, I have had more and more ink expenses. About 6 months ago, i finally got fed up with my Lexmark all-in-one, and decided to purchase a new printer from a different manufacturer.

image

I decided to go with an HP all-in-one. I was happy with my purchase for about a month til it was time to refill my ink. I found that no one refilled the cartridges so I tried to figure out how to refill them myself. I didn’t have very good luck with the process. That was ok, I figured the cartridges were cheaper than the Lexmark cartridges had been, so no big. But I soon realized I was going through these cartridges even quicker than I had with my Lexmarks. So, I decided I needed to do more research and buy a different printer.

In this process, I discovered Continuous Ink Systems, refillable cartridges and auto reset chips. Wow, how did I not stumble across all of this information sooner?

I settled on an Epson model that happened to be on sale at a local office supply. I paid a bit more for it than I was used to, but I figured since I had previously had so much trouble with my cheap printers, maybe a little more money would give me a printer that would last longer and perform better. The best part of this purchase is that it was a wifi printer!

image

My next step was to buy an ink refill system. I originally was looking to purchase an CIS, but decided that after having just purchased a printer, I need to keep my costs down (so as not to cause my husband to have a cow). So I instead decided to purchase a refillable cartridge kit.

image

I paid about $50 for my kit and it has already paid for itself! My kit came with 4 full, refillable cartridges (designed for use with my printer model), and 4 large bottles of ink to refill them with. I would have paid about the same to purchase 1 set of OEM cartridges from Epson.

There is enough ink in the cartridges and the bottles to equal about 12 regular cartridges of each color (and possibly more). When my printer registers the cartridges as empty, I simply take out the “empty” cartridge (which is actually about 3/4 full still), place it back into the printer, and reinstall it. Then it shows up as full and I’m off and printing again! AWESOME!!

This is the best way I have found in my 6 years of homeschooling to have worry-free printing. I can now print whatever I want without worrying if it’s going to use up all of my ink, and that my friends, is an awesome power for a homeschooling momma to have (evil grin).

It is very easy to find these kits, though the prices vary greatly depending on your printer/cartridge model and the place you purchase it from. You can find lots of them on Amazon, or you can just do a Google search on “continuous ink systems” or “refillable cartridges” and get lots of results. I happened to purchase mine from SuperToBuy, but if I end up repurchasing any in the future I will order them from this Amazon seller. They include more ink with your kit AND they offer a one year replacement guarantee on their cartridges.

All in all, I have been extremely satisfied with my purchase. If you do a lot of printing, like me, it is definitely worth the initial investment to purchase one of these systems or kits.

Happy Printing!

: ) Cassie

Oh the AGONY!!

With my little guy quickly approaching his 2nd birthday, and my oldest 2 turning 10 and 13 this month, my poor heart is aching. Aching for just one day backwards in time to hold a tiny bundle in my arms, to smell that sweet newborn smell. Even to hear that tiny newborn cry one more time. But alas, I know there is no such thing as a time machine, and instead I must force myself to accept the fact that my babies are growing up, even my youngest baby. Time stops for no (wo)man.

Reading through my blog feeds this evening and seeing this post did not help a bit: A cute little, pudgy baby!!! Oh me oh my, what I would give to kiss pudgy cheeks again!! I think this is one of the cutest babies I have EVER seen (with the exception of my own, of course)!

Go ahead, just try and tell me you are not the least bit affected my these adorable pics!

Ahhh, I think the fact that they can’t stay babies forever is the single most painful fact of motherhood. What do you think?

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Friday, March 12, 2010

Greenwood student sues to stop prayer

Wow, I can't believe this is happening in my own backyard! My pastor posted information about this today and I am shocked. Then again, we live in an anti-Christian society, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise. Click the link to read the article from the local newspaper.

Greenwood student sues to stop prayer | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Please pray over this situation. 

Posted using ShareThis

: ) Cassie

Friday Follow 3.12.2010

image

Yes, it’s time for another Friday Follow extravaganza! Not familiar with Friday follow? Go here to check it out!

I wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you to all the people that visited my blog a couple of weeks ago. I spent quite a while clicking through the linky’s checking out other blogs through the week and I found some real treasures!

While you are visiting, why not grab my button to share on your own blog?

Madeinhisimage
Here is the code:

 

Here’s hoping you have a wonderful weekend!

 


MckLinky Blog Hop

This week’s Friday Follow is sponsored by…

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

WOW I Needed This Reminder!

This recently posted on HOTM and it really spoke to me. I have been really struggling with my attitude of late and this is a great reminder that the atmosphere of my home starts with ME.

1 Corinthians 13 for Homeschool Moms

March 10, 2010 by Misty

9 Comments

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and teach my children Latin conjugations, Chinese and Portuguese, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, and no matter what I say, they will not hear me.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know my children’s bents and God’s plan for their lives, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and am the keeper of the teacher’s editions and solutions manuals, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and even keep up with my giant piles of laundry and dishes, but do not have love, I am nothing, even if all the people at church think I’m Supermom.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and my formal dining room gets turned into a schoolroom and our family vacations look more like educational fieldtrips, and if I surrender my body to be burned, never having time to get my nails done, put makeup on or even take a bath, but do not have love, it profits me nothing, because all my family cares about is the expression on my face, anyway.

Love is patient with the child who still can’t get double-digit subtraction with borrowing, and kind to the one who hasn’t turned in his research paper. It is not jealous of moms with more, fewer, neater, more self-directed, better-behaved or smarter children. Love does not brag about homemade bread, book lists, or scholarships and is not arrogant about her lifestyle or curriculum choices. It does not act unbecomingly or correct the children in front of their friends. It does not seek its own, trying to squeeze in alone time when someone still needs help; it is not provoked when interrupted for the nineteenth time by a child, the phone, the doorbell or the dog; does not take into account a wrong suffered, even when no one compliments the dinner that took hours to make or the house that took so long to clean.

Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness or pointing out everyone else’s flaws, but rejoices with the truth and with every small step her children take in becoming more like Jesus, knowing it’s only by the grace of God when that occurs.

Love bears all things even while running on no sleep; believes all things, especially God’s promise to indwell and empower her; hopes all things, such as that she’ll actually complete the English curriculum this year and the kids will eventually graduate; endures all things, even questioning from strangers, worried relatives, and most of all, herself.

Love never fails. And neither will she. As long as she never, never, never gives up.

Misty Krasawski is the overly-blessed mom of eight children whom she homeschools in sunshine-y Florida. She has been clinging ferociously to the hand of her Lord since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, homeschooling for the past thirteen years, and has eighteen more years ahead of her with the children who are glad she will have done most of her experimenting on those who went before. Her wonderful husband Rob has much treasure laid up for him in heaven for having been called to such a daunting task. After the house goes to sleep she can sometimes be found gathering her thoughts at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MistyKrasawski.

1 Corinthians 13 for Homeschool Moms | Heart of the Matter Online - bridging the gap between child and parent

Wow, totally awesome article, thanks for writing it Misty :)

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Review: TOS Download N Go – Expedition Australia

image

I have always dreamed of visiting Australia (along with lots of other places), so when I received a free copy of Download N Go: Expedition Australia to review, I was ecstatic! When I learned it was co-authored by Amanda Bennett (the unofficial homeschool unit study guru) I just knew we were in for a treat. But before I go any further, let me tell you exactly what a Download N Go unit is…

“Download N Go™ is a brand new, innovative, E-Book series brought to you by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse®.

Units are theme based and full of exciting discoveries and motivation to develop lifelong learners.

This series takes two outstanding homeschooling resources (Amanda Bennett and TOS), along with the best learning components, and creates a superior product . . . one that blends the unit study concept and lapbooking fun into one great adventure.

Units are reusable year after year—nothing is consumed. There are no expensive resources required! Each unit includes a great list of books that you can use to enrich your study, but they are not required.”

-Product Description from The Old Schoolhouse

Unit Study? Lapbooking? Sign me up! This E-book resource is packed with fun, full-color activities and includes lots of internet links, so I highly recommend using this resource on your computer for easy, one-click access to the web resources. This material is recommended for kids through 4th grade, but it could easily be adapted for older children, too. If you are wondering what this resource looks like, you can download a sample of it here.

Before digging too deep into this product I just have to share MY favorite aspect of this (and the other Download N Go units) resource. I love unit studies, but many times when you purchase a prepared study, you have to go through and break everything down into practical daily lessons on your own. Not so with this study! This unit is designed to be covered in a week, and it lays out each day’s objectives FOR YOU! No guesswork here! Every day you will cover several different subject areas such as geography, wildlife, history and culture. And every second of this study is packed with interesting information and fun, creative activities.

What exactly will you glean from this study? Here’s a brief overview:

    • Day 1: Where on Earth Is Australia?
    • Day 2: Some of the Special Places in Australia
    • Day 3: A Bit of Australian History
    • Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Australia
    • Day 5: Fun and Games in Australia

There is also a great resource list (divided into daily sections) which you can use to find books for further study on whatever topics interest your kids the most! The really neat thing about this unit study, is that when you are finished with all of the included activities, your students will end up with a themed notebook AND a lapbook! Or you could combine it all into one interactive notebook! As a special reward for completing their study, your students will receive a printed Expedition Australia Certificate of Exploration. How cool is that?

I have already shared with you what MY favorite things are about this resource, but what did my kids think? I’ll start off by telling you we all really enjoyed this study. It was a fun way to take a step back from our studies of the ancient world and take a look at a culture we really knew very little about. Drew, my 10 year old really enjoyed going through each day’s materials and checking out the internet links, especially the videos! Both of my boys enjoyed drawing a picture of their own Great Barrier Reef on a full color background and learning about the koala. Isaiah, my 8 year old liked learning about the different sayings and expressions used in Australia. It is really tough to pare it down to just a few things we liked, we really enjoyed all of it!

The only drawback I can think of to this product is that you may use a lot of color ink in printing off the reproducible student pages, but you could always print them off in grayscale using draft mode to save ink. We were lucky to have plenty of ink to print everything off in full color which made the pages more visually appealing and seem less like “homework”.

If you are interested in purchasing this resource for use in your own homeschool, it’s a steal at only $7.95 and you can purchase it from The Old Schoolhouse Store here. You can find the entire series of Download N Go E-books here and you can also purchase them for $7.95 each. TOS also has several different packages available if you are looking to purchase several units at once.

I am hoping to utilize more of the units in the future. We had a great time doing the study and the format of the lessons were right up our alley.

*I received this product for free for reviewing purposes and I did not receive any compensation for this review. The opinions therein are my own.

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Review: TOS Wannabe Series - Firefighter

image

Since my boys were old enough to talk, they would tell anyone who would listen what they were going to be when they “grew up”. I have heard them aspiring to be everything from astronauts to zoo keepers. SO when I received a copy of “When I grow up, I want to be a Firefighter” to review from The Old Schoolhouse, I was ecstatic!

Last year, we were presented with the opportunity to take a tour of our local fire station. The whole family really enjoyed it and we learned a lot about being a firefighter. The boys asked LOTS of questions (as they always do) that the firemen graciously answered. Throughout the coming weeks, they continued to ask more questions and I did my best to answer them. That’s why I was so excited to receive this E-book.

This study covers it all! You will learn about the history of firefighting, the equipment that is used, how dogs help firefighters, and what it’s like to spend a day in a real firefighters boots. It is designed to be used with all ages and can easily be used as a stand-alone unit or as a spine to use with additional resources. This E-book has tons of awesome features including clickable internet links for further study, pictures and figures, glossary references at the bottom of each page, reproducible worksheets, and colorful pages. Some of the activities included are:

  • quizzes
  • writing prompts
  • related science activities
  • projects and model instructions
  • hands-on activities
  • Firefighter math
  • vocabulary activities
  • copy work/notebooking pages (print and cursive)
  • handwriting practice (print and cursive)
  • coloring pages
  • Bible verses and memory work
  • games
  • recipes
  • a reference section for additional materials and websites fro further study

For the older student, lots of in depth information is contained including job requirements, salary comparisons, and in depth information on robotics in firefighting.

When we used this resource in our homeschool, our favorite activities were the games, the coloring pages, and the section about fire dogs. There really wasn’t anything about this resource we did not like. It is set up in an easy to use format and would be very easy to use the recommended resources section to study areas of interest in depth.

This resource is very reasonably priced at $8.95 and is available for immediate download after purchase. You can purchase it here from The Old Schoolhouse. Make sure to check out ALL the awesome titles in the Wannabe series here.

*I received this product for free for reviewing purposes and I did not receive any compensation for this review. The opinions therein are my own.

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

An AWESOME Video You Gotta See!

I was doing my normal before bed activity of reading blogs and I came across this gem. I just had to share it!

All I can say is WOW!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Random Thoughts From My Noggin 3.9.10

The toddler stage is so different from the baby stage! And although I have been down this road before, I am continually amazed at what treasures a day can hold.

We are learning so much more about the same topics we have already studied many times before just by approaching them in a new way (with Tapestry of Grace). And all of us are really enjoying the literature selections, too.

Sometimes I will stretch a literature selection out because I am worried that it will be too much for them or they won’t enjoy the story. I am continually finding that they are LOVING most of the books and that we are finishing them earlier than planned, purely because they end up begging me to read MORE!

I joined the February Organizing Challenge last month and neglected to even begin decluttering my closet. However, I did reorganize all of my kitchen cabinets and made a makeshift pantry for my canned goods.

Dear Hubby is enlisting into the Army (active duty) and he has to lose a little weight so he can pass his taping. He has already lost over 5 pounds by cutting out soft drinks, and working out a couple of days a week (we got him a month-to-month membership at a local church’s fitness center). He plans on gradually increasing how often he works out. I will write a whole post about this big upcoming change in our lives when he reaches his weight goals.

Tomorrow is my Drew’s 10th birthday. It makes me want to cry.

We are planning to have a dual birthday party (Jasmine’s birthday is a little over a week after his) and they both want to have friends sleepover. Lord help us!

My parenting style? Unfortunately, I’m a yeller. Yes, I know I shouldn’t and that I am teaching my children awful habits. I’m working on it. Old habits die hard.

Joey has developed a new fascination with climbing onto the dining table. We are trying to break him of this. He’s a pretty stubborn kid, it’s slow going. He has also figured out that he can slide the safety gate aside and go upstairs whenever he wishes. It scares me to death. We are brainstorming a way to prop the gate so that he can’t move it. The only reason we are concerned is that there is no carpeting at the bottom of the stairs and if he were to fall and hit his head, it would really hurt him. He actually does a great job of traversing the stairs but I’m still a nervous momma!

And for my closing thought? WHY am I sitting here writing a blog post when I SHOULD be getting school started? Ok, ok, I’m going!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Monday, March 8, 2010

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Weekly Wrap-Up 3.6.10

image

My blog has been pretty dead the past few weeks. I have no excuse for you other than to say I haven’t felt much like writing anything lately. I have had lots of ideas for posts, they just have not made it to a finished product.

Wondering what’s been going on the past few weeks? There has been no shortage of events in our home, from toddler colds to crafts. Here are some highlights…

We have been doing weaving projects for Fine Arts, here are some pictures of the kids working on theirs

100_2554 :100_2555

They are not finished yet, they had to be put up out of reach one day, and I have neglected to remember to get them back out.

I have also redesigned our Workbox System. I just wasn’t getting the boxes filled every day and it has been a pain trucking things up and down the stairs to get them ready. We have been using daily workfolders while I spent time trying to figure out how to make our workboxes work better for us. Here’s what I came up with:

100_2589

 

I used materials I already had on hand. These are bankers box file holders that I painted. I could not get the kind of coverage I wanted with he craft paint I had, but they do look better then with no paint at all. This system uses file folders instead of boxes and is more compact and will sit on the table next to where the boys are working.

 

100_2590

 

This part of the system I cannot take credit for in any way shape or form. I got the idea from Sheri at What’s in the Box? She made weekly schedule books and you can read all about it on her blog here.

 

 

 

100_2591

I was originally going to make my schedule books just like hers, but then I realized how many velcro coins I would have to use. SO instead I used her printables to make a reusable daily grid. The left page will have the day of the week and the date written in with wet erase marker. I am thinking I will use the 6 boxes on the left hand page for chore cards.

 

 

100_2593

Here is a view of the folders inside the box. I taped the numbers onto each tab and placed a coin on each folder to hold a Work With Mom card when needed. Things that are too wide to fit into these folders will but put in a “Holding Station” box with post it numbers on them. There will be a “Holding Station” card in the folder that tells them they need that item from the box to complete the work. You can also get those printables from the link I shared above.

100_2595

 

This page (on cardstock) is a temporary addition. I plan on printing and laminating a more permanent one with reminders to make sure all their materials are put away for the day (yes, this is an issue in our home). As they finish each folder, it will go behind this divider, and this “happy” is what they will see when they are done for the day.

 

100_2596

I know, not very pretty to look at, don’t ask me why I didn’t paint the backs also, I just didn’t. Anyhow, attached to the back of their box is a baggie to hold their schedule numbers and Work With Mom cards as they complete each folder. I have not yet decided if we are going to have an “inbox” as we did before, or if I will just have them place completed pages back into their folders when done. I will probably do the inbox, it worked well for us.

 

I have also figured out a way to utilize my wonderful Homeschool Tracker Plus program with TOG, and I am devising a way to use it in streamlining my workboxes also. I will keep you updated on that. To wrap up the school stuff, here are our plans for the coming week:


Lesson plans - 3-8-10 -

I will be back to share more pictures and news about what we have been up to soon!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...