Thursday, August 26, 2010

A New School Year

Our school year has gotten off to an AMAZING start! (I can only hope our entire year goes so well!) I think the thing that is helping the most is my fabulous planner. I make my own in Excel; because our homeschooling schedule is not traditional (we school Thursday through Sunday), I started making my own a couple of years ago. Also included in my planner are tentative schedules for Casey and Will and my plan for history (SOTW 3 and "From Sea to Shining Sea"). So far, the hours I spend planning everything out are paying off!

We started this school year on July 30. Casey is in third grade, Will is in first, Tricky is in PreK 3/4, and Chaucer is... well, he's everywhere.

Chemistry is the science choice for the YEAR - a whole year on one subject, help me. We started off with an experiment - making ice cream. I remember making ice cream in my high school chemistry class using milk, salt, and a baby jar. The high school ice cream experiment was a flavorless (save for all the salt) disaster. Homeschool ice cream, on the other hand, was SOOOO very good (especially considering it was 97 degrees that day).
Chemistry is brought to Gratia Plena Academia by Elemental Science.


History has been fun, too! We're using Story of the World 3 and From Sea to Shining Sea - along with 10 weeks of the American Revolution for Kids - for the spines. I also have a TON for independent reading for Casey (and a few for Will, too). This weekend we're discussing King James I, Guy Fawkes, Jamestown, Pocahontas, and John Smith. I've planned some great field trips this year - hopefully we'll even make it to Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Roanoke Island before this school year is over!

Will was initially very excited about all of his school books - he has a significantly higher number of workbooks for first grade than he did last year. Notice, I said "was... excited." Reality set in quickly - he now realizes with all those new workbooks comes more work!

Tricky is excited to be working along side her brother and sister - but also enjoying the freedom she has to go play after working for a short while.

Chaucer is (as I said before) everywhere - crawling, standing, grabbing, squealing, eating, and playing. I love it!


As for extracurriculars, Casey and Will are both taking piano, voice lessons, and karate. Fun!