end of the school year
I sort of fell off the wagon with posting, which isn't surprising to me at all. We have a lot of big changes coming up and so I hope to be better about posting regularly about this exciting time.
We finished out the homeschool year about a month ago and have been enjoying the relaxed and lazy days. I still have them do some schoolwork a couple times a week but we aren't following any sort of curriculum. They are definitely getting way more screen time than usual but since it's a million degrees outside and there isn't much to do here that's not outside, I'm rolling with it. We are still making weekly trips to the library and after we read all of the books we checked out I have the kids pick their favorite and do a book report. Basically they draw a picture summarizing the story and then give me an oral summary. Zoey also writes a few sentences in her journal detailing her favorite parts.
Our biggest change is that we are moving! We found out a couple of weeks ago that we will be moving back to Monterey at the end of the summer. We are very excited about living the coastal life, and for all of the amazing things we can explore that will enrich our learning environment. But right now, the stress of selling our beloved home is taking up most of mine and Ted's headspace.
We decided to sell our home a day after finding the news, and then within a week we had the house listed. I have never worked so hard on something, but with the help of my angel mom we were able to get it done and it looked so beautiful. We had two offers on our house a day after listing it and we signed a contract on one of them a couple days later. I feel so relieved that we were able to tackle that!
I think my body was in fight or flight mode for a week because after we entered a contract all I have wanted to do is sleep and lay around doing nothing. I am usually a person that thrives on marking off tasks and getting as much done in a day that I can, so this new sloth-like version of me is weird. Luckily yesterday I started feeling like myself and was able to get a lot of homeschool prep done for the fall!
I spent about 8 hours yesterday organizing and typing up our curriculum for fall semester. I pieced together a couple curriculums I purchased for Zoey and created a preschool for Desmond. Every year I homeschool I get a little more confident and have a better understanding of what works for our family and my children's particular learning style. I was talking with a friend about how we were bummed out by our history curriculum last year and how it sort of felt like a waste of money, but then reminded myself that it's all part of the process! We know that we didn't like that and want to move on and that's valuable knowledge to have.
Above is a sample of one of our weeks planned. As you can see we don't cover every subject every day and I like to keep Friday as free as possible for exploring and field trips. Each day is about 2-3 hours of work and instead of working all in one block we like to stretch it out throughout the day. One of the reasons I agonized over public school was the fact that they are there all day when our learning takes sometimes a 1/3 of the time! Another reason was that Zoey thrives on moving around when she works. If she has to sit still she loses focus fast. The way we work throughout the day works for us.
I love when curriculum comes in the mail! This will be our first year trying out The Good and the Beautiful and so far I am impressed! I spent a good portion of Saturday reading through the lessons and I was so excited about how much my kids will learn this year. We are using The Good and the Beautiful for Language Arts, History, Handwriting and Science. We are continuing on with Saxon math. Zoey is 1/2 way through first grade math and will probably be ready for 2nd grade math by spring semester. I also purchased a nature studies curriculum from Exploring Nature with Children that we will do on Fridays.
I can't wait for the semester to start and to share our work with you! I guess we need to find a house in California first, haha.
We finished out the homeschool year about a month ago and have been enjoying the relaxed and lazy days. I still have them do some schoolwork a couple times a week but we aren't following any sort of curriculum. They are definitely getting way more screen time than usual but since it's a million degrees outside and there isn't much to do here that's not outside, I'm rolling with it. We are still making weekly trips to the library and after we read all of the books we checked out I have the kids pick their favorite and do a book report. Basically they draw a picture summarizing the story and then give me an oral summary. Zoey also writes a few sentences in her journal detailing her favorite parts.
Our biggest change is that we are moving! We found out a couple of weeks ago that we will be moving back to Monterey at the end of the summer. We are very excited about living the coastal life, and for all of the amazing things we can explore that will enrich our learning environment. But right now, the stress of selling our beloved home is taking up most of mine and Ted's headspace.
We decided to sell our home a day after finding the news, and then within a week we had the house listed. I have never worked so hard on something, but with the help of my angel mom we were able to get it done and it looked so beautiful. We had two offers on our house a day after listing it and we signed a contract on one of them a couple days later. I feel so relieved that we were able to tackle that!
I think my body was in fight or flight mode for a week because after we entered a contract all I have wanted to do is sleep and lay around doing nothing. I am usually a person that thrives on marking off tasks and getting as much done in a day that I can, so this new sloth-like version of me is weird. Luckily yesterday I started feeling like myself and was able to get a lot of homeschool prep done for the fall!
This is a daily rhythm chart that I made for each kid. Instead of wasting paper and ink by printing these daily, I will put them in these wipe-away protective pockets that that can write on with dry erase markers. The pie chart sections can be colored in when they complete the specified section. The a-okay symbol is for good behavior, the lightbulb is for completing school work and the bee is for finishing their daily chores. My kids thrive on visual progress so I'm excited about these charts.
I spent about 8 hours yesterday organizing and typing up our curriculum for fall semester. I pieced together a couple curriculums I purchased for Zoey and created a preschool for Desmond. Every year I homeschool I get a little more confident and have a better understanding of what works for our family and my children's particular learning style. I was talking with a friend about how we were bummed out by our history curriculum last year and how it sort of felt like a waste of money, but then reminded myself that it's all part of the process! We know that we didn't like that and want to move on and that's valuable knowledge to have.
I love when curriculum comes in the mail! This will be our first year trying out The Good and the Beautiful and so far I am impressed! I spent a good portion of Saturday reading through the lessons and I was so excited about how much my kids will learn this year. We are using The Good and the Beautiful for Language Arts, History, Handwriting and Science. We are continuing on with Saxon math. Zoey is 1/2 way through first grade math and will probably be ready for 2nd grade math by spring semester. I also purchased a nature studies curriculum from Exploring Nature with Children that we will do on Fridays.
I can't wait for the semester to start and to share our work with you! I guess we need to find a house in California first, haha.
