Second Week

         Getting ready to start our 2nd week and already a BIG change of plans. We are adding 2 more students to our Planted Oaks Academy!! My sis-in-law is moving to Arizona with my niece and nephew and are goin to live with us for  a little while. She asked if I would help her homeschool them.  So crazy weekend of scheduling and trying to get it to all work out. My schedule looks like one big jigsaw puzzle but I think it will work.  They have always attended school but are looking forward to homeschooling.

  

 

First day of school

 We have O'fish'ally started back to school today!  :)   The kids were actually pretty excited to start back today (we shall see how long it lasts). 

 The kids were looking forward to breakfast and to see how I decorated the table.  I wanted to make it special for our first day. I looked up some table settings on pinterest and then on Saturday I happened to go by Target and struck gold. In the dollar section there were so many cute back to school decorations. There were even $3.00 fidget spinners!

 The Smartie container says: "Have a great first day Smartie Pants" and the gold fish says: "You are O'fish'ally back in school".

 They each had some new notebooks, a fidget spinner and a pack of gum in their seats.

We had oatmeal bake for breakfast and then we were ready to get started!

 Joshua is on a block schedule. We started it at the end of last year and it works really well for him. He stays on track and more focused.

 

2017 School Year

       We are getting ready to start back to school after our 7 week summer break. I get asked a lot "Why so early?". Well, last year for the first time we followed a six week on one week off schedule and we all loved it!! Here is how I set it up. 180 days is six, six week sessions. I want to complete 3 sessions before Christmas and 3 after.  We take a week off at Thanksgiving and a month off at Christmas. (In Arizona we want to be out and about while the weather is beautiful and not blistering hot.) So this year we start on July 17th and our first session ends August 25. We are off the week of August 28th-1st. The next session is September 4th-October 13th and off the week of the 16th. Then for the 3rd session we are able to get 4 weeks in before Thanksgiving (take the week if Thanksgiving off) complete the 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. For this year we then have from December 11through Jan 7 off. So from January 8th count six weeks on one week off. The last session will end Friday, June 1st.

        This schedule really kept us focused and helped us complete our work. We usually scheduled playdates and other activities for our week off. However, if they take a day off they can try and make it up during our six weeks or during one of our days off.  We still have co-op or book club or things like that where ever they fall. This just helped us from feeling "behind" because of taking off misc. days. 

         After 13 years of homeschooling I really like this schedule. I hope it helps someone else too!

 

Day-In-The-Life-Week

So what exactly do we do all day??  Glad you asked.  This is my 4th entry for the "Not Back to School Blog hop found at www.ihomeschoolnetwork.com  

I am a scheduler.  I have a LOVE/Hate relationship with schedules.....I LOVE to make them and follow them but I hate how they don't always get followed and life gets in the way.  HA HA!  Over the years I have learned (and am still learning) how to be flexible (not my middle name, but my husband's). You know how people always say "don't pray for patience"  because then you will be given thing to practice being patient with.  Well instead of patience mine is flexibility.  And with 6 kids a husband with 2 non traditional jobs (meaning not the typical 8-5) and one vehicle I get to practice flexibility ALL the time.  :)  I have learned over the years to just have more of a routine and not freak out by what time the clock says.

This year we are in a season of trying to stay home regularly during the school day and focus on core  academics.  I am having to limit the number of field trips and outings, you know us unsocialized homeschoolers. (insert rolling of eyes).  Just the ages of kids this year and the struggle each of my kids seem to have with spelling and needing to practice reading.  Also we are not one of those families who can school from 9-noon and be done with everything.  Too many kids and just one of me so it takes a good chunk of our day.  At least my day anyways because the kids still get plenty of breaks but I need some one on one time each day with each one.

With out further ado here is our schedule.  Now mind you I finally came up with this about 2 weeks in to our schooling this year.  I needed to get a flow for how things were going.  So I typed this up and was all ready and excited to start it the next day when my hubby comes home and tells me he has to have band practice in our front room from 9:00-10:30 that next day!!!   Deep breaths....there is that nasty word again.....FLEXIBILITY.  Yes, I am so glad the Lord and my family have grace with me as I am definitely a work in progress. 

This is a schedule for the days we are home.  Tuesdays we are gone for PE from 9:30-11:30, Anastasia has Biology co-op every other Wednesday and Joshua has Chess club on Fridays from 9:30-11:30.  I don't make an evening schedule as that just fluxuates due to Jay's work schedule, Anastasia's volley ball, Awana's and Skate nights.  Evenings I can just go with the flow.  ;)

Daily Schedule

8:45-9:15- **Joshua and Savannah work on Journals and flash cards

                   **Natasha and Alex do calendar and letter of week with me

                     **Anastasia -  Bible till 9:35

9:15-10:30- **Workboxes

                      9:15-9:30- Alexa with me, Savannah work on Handwriting, Natasha and Jadon boxes

                      9:15-10:00 Joshua math                      **Anastasia – 9:40-10:30- Language

                      9:30-10:00- Savannah with me,  **Alexa, Natasha and Jadon boxes till 10:30

                      10:00-10:30- Joshua with me, Savannah math

10:30-11:00- Snack Break/ Swim laps

        10:35-11:25- Anastasia History with me

11:00-11:25- Language with Savannah and Alexa----Joshua Daily Gram

11:25-12:10- Science with little ones--  Anastasia - Math

12:10- Clean up for lunch

12:15-12:45- Lunch

12:45-1:35- Anastasia Science

1:00-1:40-  History

1:40-2:00- Bible with Savannah and Alexa -  Joshua Bible-  Anastasia Health

2:00-2:45- Joshua Reading , Anastasia finish health and do vocab and spelling.

Our Calendar

Jay and I sat down to get our calendars together and get some things planned out. I joke and say we just turned in our "plates" for "platters". We are going to be quite busy this spring and summer but I am so thankful to God that it all works out and does not overlap to stress us out (too much).

We are making these choices so I am very careful not to complain that we are "soo busy" because that is all you ever hear from people is "I am SO busy" and that drives me crazy. We all make choice how to spend our time. Somethings can't be helped but there are a lot of things we can say "no" to. And say "yes" to the things that are important like kids and family.

What is keeping us busy this spring and summer? Well for starters Jay has now also become the Youth pastor at church and he is also going back to school to start his MDiv (at Golden Gate Seminary). His first two classes are weekend intensives so Fri-Sat every other week for 3 weeks and then 4 weeks. Then he is planning lots of youth activities. This is on top of all his things he already does as the Worship Pastor. The kids are starting their activities; Joshua, baseball (which Jay is coaching), Savannah, gymnastics, Alexa, dance and Anastasia will be doing track but it doesn't start till baseball is over. We have added that to all our other stuff.

This is all just one more reason I am so glad and blessed to be homeschooling. We are all home together in the mornings doing school (including Jay now :) ) I couldn't imagine all going our separate ways day and night. NO WAY!

So dear hubby is going to have to learn to live by his calendar. If we follow the schedule we will be fine and fit everything in including plenty of family time and even a couple of trips!

One thing I am very excited that we have added to our schedule is a daily Bible reading. Friends of ours from church gave us the Bible pictured below as a Christmas gift. It is the Bible in chronological order and divided into 365 readings with devotional insights. It is awesome. Jay is reading it in the morning and I am reading it to the kids at night. So far we have stayed on track (for the most part). I am praying that at the end of this year we can humbly say we have read through the entire Bible in a year.

(I am sure you can find this Bible on Amazon or any Christian book store)

Please pray for us as we begin this new/continuing season in our life. Pray that we will continue to follow God's lead and direction. Pray that we can bless the youth of our church and be a shining light to them. Pray that we hold strong to our family time and not let that get pulled away from us. Pray that we can be a blessing to others in our service and ministry.

Thanks!

Our Schedule is Adjusting Yet Again...

Another season of change....that seems to be the only constant around here.  Natasha is now 20 months old and she is out growing her two naps a day.  She has always been a great sleeper by going to bed at 6:30pm, sleeping till 6:30ish then taking a morning nap from 9:00-11:00 and then another nap from 2:00ish till 3:30.  Well, now she is ready for only one nap and here is the delima: we usually get a good chunk of school work done while she naps in the morning but it is also really nice to have all three little girls take a nap at the same time.

So this week I have been keeping her up in the mornings and then she goes down for a nap with the girls at 1:30 and she will sleep till 4:00 so that is nice!  I love her dearly but she is a busy little monkey so I do look forward to her naps as well.

We have tried incorporating her in our morning school routine and it is quite the challenge but she is doing okay.  I am going to have to add in some time where each of the kids take a turn of about 15 minutes doing an activity with her.  They all will love this and that should help a lot. Because otherwise she is trying to perfect her life skills all on her own.  She is very good at emptying the dishwasher (whether it is dirty or clean), filling the dog's water dish and using lots of towels to wipe up her spills, cleaning out the pantry, and taking off her diaper when it needs to be changed...

Here she is saying the Pledge with us

and praying before we start our morning work

Don't let the cuteness fool you...... 

Back to a Routine......Kind of

We got back to school on January 4th (co-op) so we started at home on January 5th. We have taken it easy the first two weeks but the kids have still gotten quite a bit done. We are slowly getting into the swing of things with adding Jadon into our routine. One major thing we have changed is that Anastasia has started using Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS) curriculum. It is done on the computer and so far it has been working really well. It is making her more independant and keeping her focused and I can work with the others. I think we will definetly check it out for 7th grade as well at the homeschool convention this summer.

The other kids are finishing up their life cycle unit and the girls are still working on the letter J and T. We didn't start anything new yet. I told them if they worked hard the next two weeks we could go to the Zoo on Friday the 15th. Papa and Grandma Donna got us a family pass for this year. We are so excited. I think I needed the motivation myself to keep on track! I am having a hard time and just keep fliting from one thing to the next and not accomplishing much. So we will see.

Our Fall Schedule

Several people have asked me to post our fall schedule and lessons that I have made.  So here they are.  As I mentioned before, I like using Manager's of their Home by the Maxwell's to help with scheduling.  This is a general daily schedule but on Monday's we will have Co-op and Tuesday's is PE.  I also print a schedule just for Anastasia to keep in her notebook.

Here is one but I am having a hard time pasting them in here.  I am not sure if there is a better way.  Every time I save it it cuts it off at 4:00pm when I went to 9:00pm.

Our Family Schedule