We are School Room Ready...

WARNING:

THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS A LOT OF INFORMATION!

(I TOTALLY understand if you have no interest in reading

my ramblings about about my school room and homeschooling curriculum 

for the 2011-2012 school year.

If you ARE willing to join me for the "tour,"

just grab a cup of something yummy to sip on and enjoy the ride...)

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The Fantastic Five Family is entering
its 3rd year of homeschooling,

and I (Wonder Mom) have been feeling
the need for a change.

 If I am HONEST with myself,

during my 1st year of homeschooling
I bit off more than I could chew,

which led to more "laziness/burnout"
during my 2nd year of homeschooling.

SOOOOOOOO,

some changes needed to be made.

1.  All three of my kiddos are "officially" on the

"homeschooling roster" this year.

(Little Wild Man will be in Kindergarten,

Baby Girl will be completing what I am terming

"1+", and Jungle Girl will be working at the

4th grade level.)

2.  We are not attending our homeschool co-op classes this year,

since I am watching a wee one,

with the hopes of picking up one or two more wee ones

to help supplement our family's income.

3.  I have created an "official" family schedule which I hope will

guide our time this year.

4.  We will be using our version of the Workbox System-

again, in the hopes of getting
more accomplished on a regular basis.

5.  Due to the fact that I was looking at the strong possibility of 

NOT homeschooling this year,

(My husband's job situation had greatly improved,

but he is still not an "official" employee of a company)

we did not make the "official" decision
to continue homeschooling

until the beginning of August.

This means that I have been planning out our year

like a mad woman over the past few weeks,

delaying the official "start" date of our school.

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Keeping all these factors in mind,

I am SO incredibly excited and thankful to be

"leading" y'all through our newly restructured curriculum...

...and reorganized school room!

This is the view a person has of the school room when they enter the house...

(though it's usually NEVER this put together!)

...and this is the view of it from the kitchen.

I am now going to lead you through the room in sections,

and I will explain bits and pieces of our
2010-2011 curriculum 

along the way.

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If you would please follow me

to the far left corner of the room which leads you to...

...the reading chair.

Here is where I sometimes do my quiet time

in the mornings and give instructions to the kiddos

for a variety of subjects.

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Next to the reading nook is the entrance to the Kitchen,

and just like any good homeschooling parent,

I make the most of my space by doubling the use of our 

refrigerator...

...for a Learning Center.

On the top left front door...

...I have our Weekly Events Dry Erase Board Calendar

set up.

(We also will use the dry erase markers and eraser during different

aspects of our Calendar Time.)

Below the Weekly Calendar Board...

...are our LeapFrog Refrigerator Letter Set,

which has, and will continue to be helpful for the younger ones

as they are learning to read.

On the right side of the fridge...

...is our new Daily Schedule.

We are still trying it out.  If anything needs to be adjusted,

we will definitely do so accordingly...

Below the schedule...

...is our Seeds Family Worship

Bible Memory Verse of the Week,

a pocket chart (Target Dollar Spot)

for games, poems, etc., and 

a little magnetic pocket holder (Dollar Tree)

for any of the pieces 

that will be used in the pocket chart.

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Across from the fridge is the door to our pantry,

which when it is opened up towards the playroom...

...it becomes a valuable part of our Calendar Time.

(You can read about how we started our Homeschool Calendar Time

by clicking HERE...)

Seems like every year I am adding more to our Calendar Time...

(it is a great time to pack in A LOT of learning)

...take our Tri-Fold Calendar, for example.

(You can read more about it by clicking HERE...)

Well this year, I wanted to increase the Science learning by adding...

...a bit more detail to our weather watching segment.

I found the above Weather Wheel at the Target Dollar Spot some time ago-

it used to be a spinner, but those "hands" did not move well,

so I took them off.

We just circle different words on the wheel that describe the day's weather

with a dry erase marker.

We will also be tracking the day's temperature with this handy-dandy 

temperature chart from Homeschool Creations-

it can be found on THIS page...

As usual,

we will continue with our Calendar Notebooks...

(Mama Jean has some EXCELLENT printables for these,

which you can find by clicking HERE,

and she was inspired by the calendar notebooks over on

Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshots.)

Baby Girl and Little Wild Man will track the weather using the above form,

which can be found on THIS page...

As for Jungle Girl,

I wanted to "amp up the volume" a bit,

so I created a more in depth Weather Watcher page for her.

(You can download it by clicking HERE.)

She will be able to check our local weather on the Internet to retrieve

all the information she needs to fill out the form.

We will also continue making sticker patterns with a monthly calendar-

this year's calendar, however, will also...

...teach us a little History.

I get this in a monthly e-letter from 

The Old Schoolhouse called

Teacher's Toolbox.

(It is an EXCELLENT resource!

If you are interested in learning more about it,

just click HERE...)

When the occasion presents itself,

the kiddos and I will be conducting simple surveys...

...which is why I created this chart.

Say we all tried Kiwi for breakfast one morning.

I would then pose the question,

"Do you like Kiwi?"

in the Question Box.

We can then each fill in a number under the 

"Yes" or "No" column based on our personal taste buds.

Since the chart is laminated, we can use dry erase markers

and use the chart another day for another question.

(You can down load the Question Boxes

by clicking HERE...)

The "Pledge of Allegiance" is also on display in our Calendar Area...

(I can't remember where I found the above printable,

I've had it so long,

but Homeschool Creations has a really cute one you find by

clicking HERE...)

Another "new" item added to our Calendar Time is...

...the Number of the Day.

Baby Girl and Little Wild Man will complete...

 ...this sheet everyday in their Calendar Notebooks to correspond to the

Number of the Day Board.

(I;m sorry, but I cannot remember where I got this sheet-

if I fin it later, I promise to post the link!)

And, FINALLY, the last "new" activity I am adding

to Jungle Girl's Calendar Notebook is...

...Boggle!

Inspired by THIS post via Pinterest,

I created a Boggle Board for our Calendar Wall...

(You can get it by clicking HERE)

...and Boggle word sheets for her Calendar Notebook.

(You can get it by clicking HERE.)

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OK,
my Calendar Time description is FINALLY over,
so let's move on around the room...

Here is the corner behind our front door.


It contains...

...a Coca-Cola crate
for the kiddos to turn in their finished work to me,
as well as deal with outgoing mail...

...the Book Bucket,
which has the picture books I will be using with the kiddos
(and other books that go along with the month's themes)...

...fabric covered cork boards to hang kiddo artwork...

...the All About Spelling magnet board and progress charts...

...and Sing, Spell, Read, and Write posters,
the USA map we will be using for 
Confessions of a Homeschooler's
Roadtrip USA curriculum,
and a All About Reading poster.


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Next to the front door is also...

...a soon-to-be hooked up Mac.

(My husband got it FREE during a workplace clean out- SCORE!)

We will be using some old suitcases as the computer desk,

and the kiddos can pull up the chair under the Book Bucket

when they want to work on it.

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In front of the schoolroom window is...

...our NEW Workbox System!

YAHOO!!!!

I acquired these boxes

(aka craft caddies)

at Sam's Club...

...and all the workbox tags from Mama Jean.

On top of each of the Workbox Stations...

...each kiddo has his/her own supply basket,

which contains all the pencils, crayons, glue, etc.

he/she needs to complete school assignments.

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In the corner by the window...

...is the bookshelf which holds
most of our main curriculum for the year.

Let's take a look,

shall we?

We will be using some of the 

Hands-On Bible Curriculum this year,

(I was given this by our children's minister when we had a 

curriculum clean-out at church)

as well as reading aloud some of the Winnie the Pooh classics.

For Social Studies,

we will be learning more about the 50 United States

with the

Roadtrip USA curriculum.

This shelf contains dictionaries and other helpful references books.

Jungle Girl's shelf contains novels she will be reading this year,
as well as our kiddo CD's.

Here are Baby Girl's and Little Wild Man's shelves.

Under our CD player is some of the Science curriculum
we will be going through,

including

AIMS' Electrical Connections

and 

Considering God's Creation.

Here are our math manipulatives for
Math-U-See 
(and Jungle Girl will be doing some Life of Fred 
this year, too) 
and 
Calendar Time...

...and all of my teacher manuals.


Finally...

...Ziggy the Zebra and his friend from Williamsburg
are eagerly awaiting Little Wild Man
to play with them during Reading Time.


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The last area of our schoolroom contains...

...our Secretary.

The top two shelves are decorated with items
that remind me of my Grandmother,
who was a teacher for over 30 years...

...and the bottom shelf has some extra art supplies.

The Secretary opens up so we can use it as a desk if needed...

...and all the drawers contain extra fun school supplies...

...like these Number and Alphabet Silly Bands.

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OK- that's all folks!

Now I just need  to pray that I can uphold...

...George MacDonald's wise statement.

Let's fill this room with some kiddos!