The summer is coming....but not for The GreenHouse.

This year has not gone the way I had imagined it at the start of the school year in August/September. I had planned for an uneventful year filled with plenty of growing and learning. With figuring out how things should go and how they should not. And to have a summer vacation of sorts. The year started off as I had expected; full of giddy excitement to delve in to the curriculum my Dear Hubby and I had prayed about and purchased. The kids really were apprehensive about everything, but that is how they are. All play and no learning! LOL! Most kids are like this, I have come to terms with this over the year, and most parents are super excited to get started and see their children learn all of the 'goodies' they have found! By mid-year, burn-out sets in and the end of the year cannot seem to get here fast enough! I do feel like this, this year.
Our year was turned upside down when I began to watch my wonderful niece and nephew in the fall. It was a learning experience for everyone involved. I realized pretty early on, before Christmas, that I was going to be behind with the kids work. And that is a stress that I am still working through. I have had to adjust our plans for a summer, to a plan without a summer. This is what happened last year also. It will not be too terrible though, when I truly think about it. The summer has already come to our part of the country and if this summer is anything like last summer (we had a massive drought and several weeks with 100 degree or better days), staying indoors doing school work will not be such a bad idea!
My Dear Hubby and I have planned out several lapbook studies in history and a doubling up on the science curriculum will be attempted, math is always an on going course. I believe firmly in use it, or lose it! And I am torn on the spelling/grammar curriculum. I am looking at several, but I cannot nail it down! With so many wonderful choices, and very little capital to spare, I am reluctant to buy something and it not work.  So the Hubby and I will pray about it and trust God will lead us to the right one for our family.
As for this year, even though we are behind in the academics, my children have learned more valuable lessons than I could have ever taught them from a curriculum. Lessons from the heart. Learning to get along with drastically younger children and how those children think, react, act and play has been a lesson that I could have never been able to give them had we not watched them over the past 8 months. My children have grown so much in responsibility and character watching these two precious little children that I hope this year will always be a fond time in their lives and that they will use these lessons in their futures no matter where their lives lead. Even though it means we will school through the summer. Somethings are worth it.

Blogging is not my forte....

It has been a millennium since I last blogged about the kid's school day! A quick run down is that I started watching my brother's youngest children in November and the day has been WAY too busy to write about our schooling day. The curriculum I wanted to use all year has not exactly worked out the way I had hoped, but one lives and learns.
The school year is winding down and I am already preparing for next year's curriculum. We will probably school through the summer like last year because I did not have the pace I would have liked this year. Not a heavy loaded day, just a light day. School Lite! =)

Order curriculum......Check!

All of this years curriculum is ordered and on the way! As it trickles in I will add to the day, til we get it all in! Can't wait to get this year in full swing!!!

Back to school, back to life

Well, we will be getting back to school here at the GreenHouse in September. The Dearest Hubby and I are making the final choices for this years curriculum and I think we have chosen well.

At first we were headed down a different path of curricula but we decided to take that left turn at Albuquerque and piece it together instead. It has been a tough battle whittling it down to the ones below, there are some really great curricula out there to choose from! We had originally set our hearts on a boxed curricula and then God stepped in and pointed us to another path.
He is always right, so we decided not to be headstrong about it and quickly sent the boxed stuff back.

What are we using this year, you ask? Well it will be a conglomerate of different books, but it most have the same theme: Charlotte Mason's living books.

I started reading Charlotte Mason's books on education earlier this month and I agree with most of what is said, plus I see where my kids would really respond well to this type of learning style. One thing about homeschooling, you get to know your kids really well.

So this year we have:

For science; Exploring Creation with Astronomy by Jeanne Fullbright.

I have heard from several families and other sources that this is a great course! I really hope the kids are going to love it!

With all of the information and hands on experiments, I know this will keep the kids interested ALL year!
For those hands on experiments we are going to go with the Creation Sensation science kit;

to get us through all the experiments!
Also I got the lapbooks from Knowledge Box Central

Just in case we needed something else to do! Hahaha!

For grammar, I chose to add Simply Grammar;

While continuing to read The Grammar Land Story, which we got on a massive download last year. The kids really love this story and they are learning at the same time!

With my existing McGuffey Readers;

 For math, I will use for the girlchild Alpha Omega's Horizons;

This is what we used for her last year and it did such a wonderful job helping her to gain confidence in her math skills! She really needed the spiral method that is used with this curriculum.

For the boy, it will be Alpha Omega's LIFEPAC Math;

Using this one for two reasons; one, it was given to me at no cost and two, the boy was VERY bored with the Horizons spiral method, though he is solid in his math skills because of it. We wanted to try a mastery approach to see how he does. If it doesn't work, we will go back to Horizons.

For history, Dearest Hubby and I have looked and looked for curriculum and most fall short for the Historian. So in my quest to please the Sweet Historian aka Dearest Hubby, I came across the Grueber Narrative History Series. He seems pleased with the info so far and it is a go for the purchase!
So we will start at the begining and get this book first;

We will add to the series if it passes the Dearest Hubby's high standards.


For handwriting, I have chosen The Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series;

Book C for the boy;

Book E for the girl;

I really like this style and I hope it will help Josh with his handwriting. Belle is very interested in calligraphy and this is very near that. Chancery cursive is a basic style used and this will help her learn it that much easier. Then she and I can sit down and do more detailed writing!

For bible, I have purchased Studying God's Word Book C for both kids to use, since it is a study in the Old Testament.

We will also supplement with a book I found at the resale shop Bible Readings for the Home circa 1943.

It seems like a great reference book to talk about scripture. It is also in great shape for its age! I love finding old books!!!



I also plan on various unit studies throughout the year. First off will be a unit on September 11th from In the Hands of A Child that I got from Currclick posted by Freely Educate;

Well those are the basics, I am still looking for a health curriculum that I like and I want to add art but it may have to wait for a few months.

All of the items listed are my own preferences. I did not receive any compensation to post them.

The days are just flying by! My last post on this blog was in January! Life is way too busy for me!

The kids are almost finished with schooling for the time being. We will start backup when it gets too hot down here.


In the mean time, the kids are still plodding along with school while I try and get everything organized for the next year. Got J's curriculum squared away, waiting on getting the I's together. We finished diagnostic testing last month to see where the gaps where and found the areas we need to concentrate. So I think next year will be pretty good. I also was able to get two sets of McGuffey Readers at bargain prices!!! God has truly blessed us with the kids curriculum for the next year!



God Bless,
Suzyhomemaker

School, school, school, and more school....

After the long Christmas break getting the kids, and myself back into the school swing has been a challenge! God tells us to get our flesh under submission and He knows this is hard, but I think we delude ourselves into thinking it will be easier than it really is!

Today the kids had their handwriting assignment of writing Thank you notes to everyone who gave them Christmas presents.

Here they are hard at work!


After a hard day of math, history, handwriting and science it is time for some fun! Legos anyone?

God bless,
Suzyhomemaker

Happy New Year!!!

Well, it is a new year! Time to start anew! I have been reading several blog articles and general comments from people on Facebook on how they plan to make THIS year a better year! And I am so inspired to do the same! I have a lot of great ideas for the coming year and can't wait to get started!
I have already started cleaning from top to bottom and doing a MAJOR organizing blitz! Going to try my hand at meal planning too! Getting everyone on a schedule and sticking to it!
As you can see, I have some pretty basic resolutions. Will let you know how we all turn out in the coming weeks!

Until then, God bless!
Suzyhomemaker