First Day of School, 2013

We started school today! We are a homeschooling family, but I like to stick with, or pretty close to, the city school schedule. We start when they do, but finish a good bit earlier.

Can you tell they were excited?

Curriculum

We are using the A Beka Curriculum for the 3rd year in a row. I am a huge fan of A Beka. I was homeschooled using A Beka, went to a private school that used A Beka, and I just like it. I am not a very creative teacher and do prefer a more classic type of home education. I like how most of the prep work is done for me, and all of the subjects flow well together. I like knowing that if for some reason we felt like we needed to send Cade or Henry to a private or public school, the transition would be relatively smooth as far as academics go.

Schedule

In years past, we I have been very laid back as far as a schedule goes. Last year we had a good start, but my mom had many surgeries, spent months out of town in the hospital, and passed away all with in the first 3 months of school. Needless to say, things didn't continue to run very smooth. I never really did get it all back together. Yes, we finished on time, and did everything that needed to be done, but I wasn't as organized as I should have been. That led to days that were not filled with as much fun as they should have been.

This year is a fresh start and I am committed to making it a great year. I am learning that we really do function better with a schedule. I also get a lot more done when I have a plan and stick to it. Will everyday looking exactly the same? I'm going to say no. I'm sure there will be days that we choose to do other things, but for the most part, here is what we are doing.

 7:00 - everyone up, showered, dressed, breakfast, beds made, dishwasher emptied, breakfast cleanup
 8:30 - we start school and work our way through the lessons for each subject
11:00-11:30 - we should be done with most of school and I work on my daily housecleaning chores. The boys go outside to play.
12:00 - Lunch time and then any quick errands we have
1:00 - Henry's nap time. Cade finishes up any reading that needs to be done and we can work on any school work that was too hard to do with Henry around. Henry is included in our Bible, History, Science and Health lessons, and does a pretty good job coloring and playing while we work on Grammar and Math, but I know that there will be days that don't go just as planned.

 Today was great! Everything went just as planned. It actually didn't rain this afternoon so we were able to get some pool time in, followed by a little ice cream. Happy first day of school!