Scheduling

I am starting with the schedule below. It will be tweaked within the next few weeks to see what runs smoothly in our home.

I teach both kids History and Science at the same time. Language and Phonics might seem like they are also at the same time, but they are not. One of the boys will be doing the On-line Explode the Code while I work with the other boy on his Language Lesson, then we will switch.

Workboxes are work at your pace and feel free to ask Mom questions we you need to. This will help the boys with independent learning and self starting. They will each know what to expect each school day and what is expected of them. This system also allows for me to be even more organized. When I put the Science project in the box, I will also put all of the supplies in the box so we are not wasting time during learning hours looking for items. I can also put the educational games we have laying around the house into the boxes for a nice break in the day. What I enjoy best about the workboxes is that it takes pressure off of me. It will keep the kids motivated to complete their work and complete it in a timely manner. Our school is closed at 3pm, workboxes must be done. This way the boys can rest then hang out with the neighborhood kids {once their homework is done}.

6:30 wake up/quite time for mom

7:00 kiddos wake up/eat/clean kitchen/make bed/start laundry

8:00 school starts with History and Science

9:30 start workboxes

10:00 – 11:00 snack and recess if weather permits

11:00 Language and Phonics

12:00 make lunch/eat/clean kitchen

1:00 Math and finish workboxes

3:00 school out or earlier no later --- time to be with friends!

6:00 dinner/clean kitchen

6:30 fall sports

7:30 start getting ready for bed

8:30 bed for kids --- time for me to hang with my man J

Fridays – we are at co-op. The boys will be expected to do Language and Math at home before co-op starts. At co-op they are taking a Gym, Science, History, Art and Cub Scout Beltloop/Pin class.

I also decided that I should try to do a monthly meal plan. I have a lot to figure out with homeschooling two young boys {last year I only had one home} schedule wise. I do not want to be standing in the kitchen at lunch time wondering what to fee the four of us. Why four? The love of my life is working out of the house in September. {Yahoo!} I made my schedule including snacks and how our schedule works for co-ops and such.

Geography

The past few weeks the boys and I have been doing some morning school but not too school-ish. We are not doing a huge list of subjects, it is more for us to spend time together and get a feel for the various subjects we will be doing this school year {Okay, so I get a feel for the subjects!}.

A few weeks ago we focused on a geography lesson from A Child’s Geography. The style is very similar to The Story of the World series that we use for History. The publisher of A Child's Geography offers a free sample of the lesson right here.

For the activity the boys made a Paper Mache globe. The boys went outside and dipped newspaper strips into a mixture. The craft took much longer than I anticipated due to the humidity. It took a few days for each layer of strips to dry. So we only did 2 layers of newspaper. { I forgot to take the camera out for this messy project.}

Here is a picture of the globes – drying.

The boys enjoyed painting the ‘world’. We still have the globes laying around the house, I guess we need to find a home for them. Maybe they could be Christmas presents for the Grandparents!

FREEBIE OF THE DAY

Check this out! If you choose to, you can register at the FREEBIE OF THE DAY website. Each week The Homeschool Freebie will send you an e-mail with all of the resources that will be available that week. Each resource is only available for a day so you need to go to the website and download the materials that you would like on the day it is available. Some examples are unit studies, lesson plans, classic books and much more.

Our School Room?

I would rather call this the Family Room! We just happen to have a couple of desk and a bar full of my teaching supplies down here. The school room is really all over our home so we have a School House! Part of the day the kids will be in the family room, kitchen and outside. I noticed some other blogs that have all sorts of school items hanging on the walls and special rooms. We are not able to do that at this end of the block!

Here are the desks the boys set up. The cart system is new to us therefore I have not had the time to make the tag system for the outside of the cart. I need to get a move on with that!

Here is my storage area in the bar. Do you like how I used the old workboxes as subject dividers for myself? I still need to sit down at the computer and make some pretty tags to hang on the boxes.

So that is it. A small School House to enrich my boys lives. To see other school rooms hop on over to the Heart of the Matter.

Dirty Coin/Clean Coin

Ryan found a very dirty dime. In fact, it was so dirty the rest of us thought it was a penny! After cleaning it up, Ryan was correct - it was a dime.

Want to clean your coins?


What you will need:
Dark colored coins (up to 6)
Plate
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon vinegar

Put coins on plate, if using more than one coin, make sure they are not touching each other. Sprinkle salt on top of coins. Pour vinegar on top of the salt. After a little while they will start to look cleaner. You can also rub the coins around in the mixture.

Why and How?
The coins are not dark because they are dirty. They are dark because they are tarnished. The “dirt” is really a chemical that forms on the surface when it comes into contact with oxygen/air.

Vinegar is a chemical called an acid. Acids also react with metals. The vinegar dissolved the coating on the coins exposing the clean metal. The reaction can happen without salt but the salt speeds up the reaction.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Friday we went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Science Museum. We were each given a hand held listening devise. There was a kids channel and an adult channel. Okay, I admit it - I enjoyed the kid’s channel! Every once in a while I would flip over to get additional information on my adult channel. Why did I listen to the kid’s channel? Nosey, I just wanted to know how they could present this information to keep the kids interest. The museum did a wonderful job at accomplishing that!

There were displays set up so we could see the pottery that the scrolls were found in, shoes, money and jewelry. I learned how and why the archeologist record there information and why they leave part of the excavation unearthed. It was so intriguing to me to just learn about the way of life over 2,000 years ago and actually see the items. They boys enjoyed the money cup and the story about a robber on the kids channel {I missed that story, I must of actually been on the adult channel}.

On the kids channel they made a big deal about walking around the corner to actually see some of the scrolls after we had gone through most of the exhibit. My boys are running up begging to go around the corner so they could see the scrolls! I was shocked. They were actually having fun at a Museum! Once around the corner the boys were shocked. The scrolls were small pieces. But, they enjoyed looking at them. When asked what their favorite part was – it was the money and the scrolls.

Overall, our family had a fun afternoon at the Museum.