Not Back to School Blog Hop-My Classroom week 2

OK, week 2 and it is all about the classroom area/learning area. Well now folks-before I go any further you need to understand something.  I have not always enjoyed the benefit of having a space I could call our "classroom" and in fact, it only within the last 2 years or so that I have had one that I am satisfied with, and actually enjoy.  You see, I have been doing this for so long, and due to space limitations of the homesteads over the years-have had to adjust and make do.  So here I am today, with the almost (cuz I am lacking the table area and rain gutter shelves and a few odds and ends) perfect room for us.  So please don't feel sad that you don't have something like this.  For years I had to run to the basement, find the right tub of books, heave it out into an open area, dig thru it and pull out what we needed, then heave it back into the pile, run back up stairs and try to teach.  Usually at that point, my students had gone AWOL or just lost interest...and we would sit around the dining room table and clutter it up faster than the shelves are cleared out at a Kmart Blue Light Special event! LOL.  We have shifted and tucked books into any nook and cranny we could find, moved and repositioned areas-to try to get a somewhat helpful area for it all- and usually it was not a success.  SOOOOO, this is a room that has been 16 ish years or so, and the sad thing is, I only have 2 students left to enjoy it.

OH, and we do not use only this room-we move to the "office" which is our couch for a lot of the read alouds and activities, the kitchen table (when Dad doesn't have it all jumbo-gumbo'd up with his office work/puter) and yes-we even school in the teacher's lounge (IE: my bed) so this is our central station, then we scoot out during different times, to get a change of scenery.  

The tables are MIA at this point (taken prior to purchasing them) but they are there now, so once I get them cleaned up enough to see them (not the piles of books and junk on them) I will post it.

so this is what you see when you turn to the right upon entering our home-not the most ideal location, but it was the only free room. So much for my stance on keeping the library a retreat room for adults-LOL.  We just rearranged the room within the last month or so and if you wanna see what a nightmare that was-then check out this post I wrote earlier this summer, it gives you a glimpse of just how many books one can squeeze on those shelves!  LOL

There will be a table (from IKEA and a couple chairs dead center there-so it won't be so roomy.  This is not a huge room, so it'll be tight, but it is nice to have the area dedicated-mostly so I can find the stuff rather easily.

Those shelves on the left-that is my teens workbox system (IKEA Trofast series), then those 3 cabinets under the dry erase board are where I hide all my science goodies, math/reading stuff, then my paper cabinet which is loaded with spiral ntbks, cardstock, glues/painting stuff, folders, loose-leaf paper, and my collection of construction and drawing papers. That is my favorite cabinet!  

yes, this is blurry for whatever reason-I think I had it on the wrong setting but cuz the sun is up front on the house now-the flash won't work and so what I get is a dark shot...but I have included one that is a bit less fuzzy.  The TV will be used on occasion for history videos and such, then I have an old fashioned radio that plays cassettes cuz yes-some of us still have those (and I refuse to buy a new CD when I already own it in a cassette form cuz I only have one main student left-my teen has already used those such things), and those 3 totes are where I am storing my current FIAR books, lapbooks, and State Study materials/books.

our goal is to create a window seat and curtain-but alas, there is not enough time right now...so it is an all-purpose shelf.  This faces the front of the house, we get a pretty view most of the day til the sun comes in and blinds the snot out of us...[UPDATE: I laugh at this part-what's there now- a discombobulation of a laminator, a radio, several 3 ring binders for my son's stuff, and a couple piles of stuff....so as pretty as this looks here-this is not how it looks now].

found these babies at the Dollar Tree-wasn't that nice of them to stock their shelves with these fold-able totes that just happen to match my decor?  [UPDATE:  these are no longer used for this stuff-the lapbooks are in 3 ring binders, the other stuff in various areas and these have workbooks and projects stuffed in them].

The section with the teacher's shelf and another shelf is on the other side of the window, but right now it is a total disaster, so no pic.  Sorry.

OK, so you have moved from the front look to the right around the room-after my work area is the large opening/door that is open to the front hall (bath across the way-very handy for potty breaks and with the front door there, I can make a mad dash outta the house and off to the looney bin when things get tough) and are now looking at that wall on the left of the first pic.  This is where a 5 ft section X 2, of the rain gutter shelving units will go.  I want to display the history and science books that we will be using or are extras discussing the subjects we are studying.  That little curved shelf to the right, is where I have some of those mini-totes which hold my son's readers, misc. stuff and the bottom has my boxes with my cards for their schedule books.  Their number cards and schedule books are temporarily in their dump/finished work holders til I figure out where they will live.  

UPDATE (Nov. 2011):  I have IKEA tables but not the fancy ones I wanted, instead we bought the $20 ones that have a white top and black pole legs.  They are perfect and light weight enough for my need to constantly move stuff around.  We bought some black rolling chairs from them too.  I actually bought 4 tables, but it was too crowed in this tight area so I took one out so we now have a bit more room to walk around.  We still have not put up any gutter shelves. OI.  Just not enough room...and I don't see where I could put some outside of over the IKEA shelves. That still may happen-not sure.  


I just didn't get to organizing much this past summer and so the classroom is a bit of a mess.  Not something I am proud of and it is rather embarrassing b/cuz as I already pointed out-it's the first room folks see when entering the house. Perhaps over Christmas break I can figure that out.  What I need is a room double the size-I have too much school stuff!  LOL  But seriously, a big room where I could have some areas specifically set aside would be awesome. But this is a good set up for now and I will continue to dream.  


Anyhoo-that is our education area.  Of course, the couch wins every time and lately the kitchen island has become rather popular for science experiments, crafts and other fun time activities.   

The "Not" Back to School Blog Hop-Week 1, Curriculum Choices

This is the first time I have taken part of this fun blog hop and am looking forward to reading what others are going to use (nosy I guess? LOL). 

I have 2 students this year-one Jr in HS and the other will be in mostly 3rd grade materials.  I will start with the high schooler and then do the boy's materials. 

HS Jr Girl:

 

Math: Life of Fred-Beginning Algebra this year.  We will focus on math the entire school season, and do the Advanced Algebra level, once the first book is completed. After struggling terribly with just about every curricula for it-we took the year off (outside of some minor math projects, etc) to recoup.  Her career choice is not math dependent so we do not need to have her complete Calculus prior to graduation-we'll be satisfied with a good general knowledge of algebra and then focus her Senior year on consumer math.

Science:  We just need to wrap up a couple more modules of her Apologia Biology to be done.  I had hoped to get this completed over the summer, but after the crazy busy year we had, esp. the spring, along with a couple trips-we didn't get to it.  We will also be working on her science notebook (general post about it) (and also, you can read about the additional post about some pages we included too) like before. Then once done-we'll not do science until next year.  We need to make the math priority-so outside of nature study projects, that will be it.

History:  We will pick up where we left off in the All American History Vol 2 book that we started last fall. We do a variety of activities, such as notebooking, projects and such to go with this. 

Geography: Continue with Mapping the World by Heart. We started it, then had to set is aside, and altho she knows the basics, I would like her to have a better detailed knowledge than she does, so we'll give it another go.  Plus, I am covering the US States with my son, so she will do a lighter level of it as a refresher [since we haven't done it in several years with her].  The maps we'll use are from a great map set by HS in the Woods-their Olde World Style US Maps.  I love these, and they will make a lovely notebook from it.  

Language Arts:  Continue wrapping up the Learning Lang. Arts Through Literature-Gold/American series-we have just a few more sections I want to hit.  Once done-we'll move on to the Brit. Lit or focus more on the writing criteria.  I want her to have one good research and one good essay done by the year's end.  This will require time to do the research/reading/actual paper(s)...so that is our focus.  I will also have her do the Advanced Winston Grammar series...I like to spend time on the structure and details closer to when the student will need to take the ACT tests-we work on it generally all through the school years, but this series is excellent and really keeps it fresh for that testing purpose. 

 She will also work through a couple ACT Prep books a few times per week, to start getting her into that mode.  We use the Real ACT Prep Guide and the Procrastinator's Guide to the ACT 2011 (altho we have the 2004 book and it'll have to do).  With all the good literature my kids read, the narration, and copywork-they have a pretty good prep for this.  Our goal is not to have them get a perfect score-but take it to help with poss. scholarships and over ride some of the entry level courses colleges have as prerequisite...sometimes they can jump ahead to the higher levels simply by their scores. 

Like I mentioned-we do copywork from various sources and this year-we'll include Queen's Copywork for girls and the Thematic Copywork Lessons-Lessons from Leaders (which actually is for the history lessons).  


Bible: I saved this one for last, because I simply do not know exactly what I am doing here-I have a couple ideas, and will have her read literature based on Christ and his life and so forth-but have not made my final decision-so this remains as my last hurdle to tackle when it comes to her line-up.


We'll also throw in 2 artists/musicians to study as well (for both kids to do).  That is on top of working on getting her driving time in for driver's ed, and the usual life things.  


We do NOT do every subject every day (except for Bible/Character study)-I try to do keep it so it doesn't become so mundane that they fall asleep whilst doing their lessons.  By having history/math and L.Arts on some days-science/copywork/nature study/etc. on the others [or whatever] it helps avoid the boredom.  


Remember too-in college and lots of high schools now a days-they do not have the same subjects every semester/all year long (math, science, history, lan. arts) but rather do a semester's worth of whatever and may not hit that subject again for another year or 2.  So don't feel you have to do every subject, every day, every year during the high school years!  You don't.  In fact, by not doing so-you will give your student a better idea of what they will experience in college.  Sorry, just had to point that out.  If you have a high schooler or will soon-you are welcome to download the notes on a lecture I presented-it offers up more ideas/links/helps on schooling your teens...you can find that on our HOPE Ministries site.  

As for my 3rd grade son:

Science:  We'll continue wrapping up our study of Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy.  I don't push a ton of science in the earlier years-formal that is, so we are taking our time.  We have to finish Mars and the rest of em.  I also have him working on continuing his Lapinder on it (first post) [another post] in conjunction with our Science Center activities.  We will also have some projects through our FIAR Bk 4 studies too.  My goal is to do much more nature study too.  So I will work that in when ever I can.

Math:  Abeka Arithmetic 3, various games, math living literature [list of books and another list], little tie in activities [great site: Home Education Resources and Enchanted Learning (membership is so worth it) and Homeschool Share (lapbook and FIAR projects, plus check the Workboxables cuz there are lots of ideas there too) to just list a few].

History:  LOVE, LOVE Beautiful Feet Books history programs! We'll be continuing on with this series-Early Am. History with our notebook too.  Since he is young enough-we stroll through at a leisurely pace and truly take the time to enjoy this stuff.  We'll be picking up with George Washington (which is awesome cuz last summer we visited his house MT. Vernon)...we'll probably do some crafts, mini-projects and such done along with it.  

Geography:  We'll be starting the Study of the States.  Now, this is a bit early on the scale of when others start this, but we're going to only cover 25 this year.  We'll visit each state and mull over them a tad, create our notebook and do various projects with it.  He will have a much more detailed notebook than Sissy's and we'll do lots of puzzles and such too. We will use the maps by Homeschool in the Woods mentioned above.  I have a whole geography post that you can read, It's all about the States on my What's in the Box? blog-it give more details on what I am using.  Oh, read the comments section too-a gal linked in another help to go along with it as well. 


Language Arts:  We do a mixture of things-mostly though my precious boy needs to have some major reading skills/spelling skills work.  Being that he is dyslexic-this has been a true struggle-so we'll focus most of our time on improving and working on this vital area.  

We use All About Spelling and their All About Readers (along with Hooked on Phonics-I have an older set, but hey it works, so we piggy back it with other basic readers I have collected through the years).  

Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting and Memoria Press' Copywork books (he is on book 2). I may throw Copywork for Little Boys from Queens HS in there after he completes the third book.  I reviewed those MP copywork books and love em...so we'll continue on with where we last stopped.

We will also be doing lapbooks (most are from Homeschool Share) to tie into our Five in a Row BK 4 (digital downloads) studies (but I am mostly just doing my own thing using the lapbook info for ideas) and the  books. I have one download but simply do not want to drop that kinda cash right now...these are side dish studies. I will use what I can find for free and work around others' ideas to get a mini study for now.  I am planning on one book per month.  


We also do narration too.  


Bible:  Again-I am unclear as to what exactly we'll use as our backbone material.  I want to work on character study this year with him and have a few resources but am unclear as to what that all entails right now.  So like his Sissy-I have to figure this out (and soon) too.  


So there you have it-the basic layout for the kids this year.  And as past experience has taught me-the best plans can be laid to waste due to well,  LIFE...so I keep an open mind and stay flexible.  I also am reviewing again for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine on their Homeschool Crew, so I will add in the goodies we get, as well.  You can read about the products I have reviewed on my 1 of 100 (plus 25) TOS Crew Reviews Blog.  There is lots of info for ya there.  


Thanks for stopping by!