Back to school!

Well, after over a week of constant nagging and asking when we are going to start.  I decided it was time to buckle down and get my schedule finalized.  We started school on Monday.

 

The kids are so motivated this year...it is simply amazing.  I decided to get more organized this year and I made each of the kids their own laminated schedule to mark things off as they are completed.  It is a weekly schedule, but I believe it will serve a good purpose.  It is pretty general with just the subjects.  This way it will work with whatever I plug into it.  I have an overall plan of each subject and what we need to do each month in order to stay on task.  With four kiddos....I really need to have a plan!  

We are starting something different this school year, then we have done in the past.  We are trying out the Charlotte Mason methods of homeschooling.  So far, I really love it!  I believe the kids do too.  We are doing many things together and enjoying our time with each other.  We will also be starting our nature studies on Fridays.  We are planning to combine Apologia Biology with nature studies to encompass our love of God's creation.  We are all looking forward to the things we will learn from our nature studies and nature sketching.  We actually had an experience with a grasshopper on Monday, but that will be included in a later blog.  We will also be including many labs, which the older two will be participating in.     

With only one computer and a few different things that need to utilize the computer....some things have been placed later in the day than we would like them.  Unfortunately, only one person can use the computer at a time.  I believe this will give the older three an opportunity to find other times during the day, when they can do these things.  The schedule is laid out with a basic plan in mind, which is to keep a good flow to everything that we are doing.  So far, we haven't veered too far off that path.  I am not the best scheduler, but I believe that some type of schedule is important for my children to know what I am expecting.  I wish they made a program that you could hook up to your head and it would automatically print up what you are thinking, because I would make great use of it.  Sitting down and planning, is just a big chunk of time that I would prefer not to give up.  Oh well!  It is done at least for this quarter.  We may revamp it come October, when my eldest will be taking Driver's Ed at the High School.  For now, we will work with it until it fits the needs of our family. 

I am way behind on my blogging....I have a ton of things that I would like to add with pictures, but time just hasn't allowed that.  We discovered a few days ago, that the kids computer still had two hard drives.  We never took the old drive out, when we put the new bigger drive in.  The computer seemed to be pretty confused as to which one to use.  This was slowing down everything.  I have spent the last two evenings moving everything we wanted to keep to the new hard drive.  We removed the old drive and the computer is up and running.  The kids are going to be using a cool program for Spanish on the computer called Rosetta Stone.  I would like the computer to be working at top speed, so they don't have difficulties with the program.  The computer is all cleaned up, so hopefully I will be able to get it loaded tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!  Blessings!