We are ready

So I have finished all the details on this years lessons. I am as ready as I ever will be. We will start school officially on August

Schedual is done

I was able to get the final schedual done this last week. I am so glad! I only did the first 12 weeks so that I can easily make adjustments if things arent going as I planned. At about week 7 or so if things are working (or not) I will finish out the year schedual and be done with it. I am just waiting for our student pages to show up for SOTW. I am in the process of making a binder for the kids that will have all their worksheets, assignments, and other info in it for the week. I figure this will help Caitilin know exactly what we are doing and Ian will be able to entertain himself while we are doing school. I am going to print off some worksheets and games for Ians binder. I have an account with Enchanted Learning so I figure I might as well utilize it.
We went to my moms this weekend and I noticed a billboard on the highway for the local museam. They have on exhibit an exhibit called World of the Pharoahs. Perfect! Since we will be touching on ancient Egypt within the first few weeks we are going to make a trip over there to check it out. I think Caitlin will really like it.
So the only thing left in my planning is some awesome feild trips. I think I will only plan one a month, but make them an all day family event. I dont know, we'll see what I find.

Books books and more books

The other night a friend dropped off a ton of books for the kids. They are in heaven with so many more options. Yesterday was really quiet around the hosue becuase the kids were reading all day long. It was a great day and I am so glad to have all these books.



Books and boxes, nothing better than this.

Bad picture but it works. Last night we read "Quick as a Cricket". We were also given a huge floor puzzle with the illustrations and words on it. The kids had a good time putting it together and then retelling the story.

Art Poetry

I wanted to make poetry a little less boring for Caitlin this year. Last year while she like it we spent a lot of time talking about the imagery in each poem. This year I decided to pick poems that have strong imagegery or feelings associated with each, then we will choose an art medium to explore those themes. I plan on doing a little of everything, paiting, sculpture, mosaic, ect. I think this will help her remember the poems while giving her a chance to "feel" the poem. I think it will work really well. At the end of the term I plan on putting together a book or pictures with each poem, that way they have a more personal meaning. I am looking forward to it.
At the right is the list of poems we are going to use for the first term.

The first poet we will explore is James Russell Lowell.