Not Filing This Year

I really liked having my whole year planned out, but I discovered that different kids worked at different levels than I expected. So, I was constantly having one work on a week or two ahead, another 2 weeks behind, and our together stuff could be anywhere. There were some things that consistently didn't get done, so I ended up starting a file for each book that I ripped apart to put them back together eventually (still haven't got that done.)

The other problem I had was the teacher's manuals. It was a pain to have to put things back into binders at the end of the week and I ended up having months to do at one time.
I think filing is awesome, and if I didn't have so many kids to homeschool I would continue to file our year at one time. This year though, I'm going electronic! My tablet will replace my instructor's binder. It should make my bag a lot lighter to carry around.

I love that Peace Hill Press offers almost all of their curricula electronically. I am purchasing the instructor's manuals to put on my tablet. We also buy the mp3s of Story of the World to put on our iPods and my iPhone. I can't put everything on there (Rod and Staff I don't think will ever go electronic,) but I will put everything I can find in that format on my tablet.

Our Math Mammoth is pdf based, so I have put that on there. I'm still printing Miss Purple's papers, but at least I can view what she's doing.  I haven't put the Sequential Spelling dvd on, but I think I could. I just wish Teaching Textbooks had an app of some sort.

Mr. Yellow Starts Kindergarten

Mr. Yellow is 5 now. I don't know where the time went, but here we are starting Kindergarten. I love that I don't have to follow a traditional time to start school with each child. He wasn't ready for Kindergarten at the start of the traditional school year, but he is now. We are following his lead and really letting him choose which days to do school and what to do when, totally different than I did with Miss Green her kindergarten year. I'm still paying dearly for my control issues those first years homeschooling. The only thing I "make" him do, is review is OPGTTR poems. He doesn't mind too much, but I like to review them at least 3 times per day. It distracts him from the important work of playing, which no 5 year old enjoys.

We base our Kindergarten work on the traditional 3 Rs, Reading, Writing, and Math, but I've found he's a science buff. He sits beside Miss Green while she does biology, and at the end of every page asks her what it was about. So, he is doing science with Miss Purple and Miss Pink and thoroughly enjoying it. He does get frustrated when he can't remember things that they do, but we are working on that. I try to make sure I ask questions of him first that he's able to answer.

Without further ado, here's his list for Kindergarten.

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Explode the Code: Books A, B, and C
Math Made Easy
Miquon Math
Developmental Math
Writing Fundamentals
Apologia Zoology 2

Closer look at our filing system

Here's one weeks hanging file folder. From left to right you have my items, Miss Green's folder, Mr. Blue, Miss Pink, Miss Purple, Mr. Yellow, Science, and History.

This is my binder. I have post-its, a pencil holder, and lined paper in the front. I use the lined paper for writing narrations quickly before adding them to their illustrations or dictating them back to them. Below is the same binder on the side. From front to back you have history and science together, Miss Green, Mr. Blue, Miss Pink, Miss Purple, and Mr. Yellow.

Kindergarten ABC Workbox Ideas

I've mentioned Mr. Yellow is showing signs of being ready for school work. He's developed quite the addiction to my phone and tablet. If I don't have him right beside me, he's sure to be hidden with one of them under the covers in his room. The little stinkerpot! So, I've been trying to make sure I have several fun activities planned for him to do independently. I get him started and then let him

have fun with it. I haven't been using our workboxes since we moved, but I'm ready to get them out for him now. I think they'll work beautifully for him, so I've been brainstorming ideas. Here's what I have thus far.

Handwriting Without Tears Capital Letter Pieces

We have these already along with the cards. I've been planning on adding magnets to the back forever, but I see

now they have magnetic pieces now. It's about time! I'll probably just add magnets to our existing set though.

Roll-A-Dough Letters

We have these too. I'm not thrilled with them, as my kids haven't had the dexterity to make the long thin pieces needed at the age they need these. I do like the idea of them, and I see that you can use them with shaving cream or rice. We may do something along those lines with Mr. Yellow.

Lauri Alphabet Puzzle Boards

I love Lauri products, and this one is no exception. It has 3 parts, matching the shape of the letters, matching the shape of the picture, and putting the two together.

Alphabet Art Puzzle

This is one of the prettiest alphabet puzzles I've seen. I think this will be my 3rd child to use it.

Clothespin ABC Match-up

I love Erica's printables. I printed this one up and laminated it. Then I printed the alphabet on labels, stuck them on clothespins, and Mod Podged them.

I'll probably also use some of the File Folder Games I made for Miss Purple when she was this age.

I found them!

I actually managed to find the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading magnets. This means we can start reading with Mr. Yellow this week! I need to add the cd to iTunes, so it will be on my phone. After that, its all systems go. Have I mentioned how much I love having in iPhone? I had an iPod Touch before, which I adored, but the unlimited data plan on the iPhone is just amazing. The kids use it all the time when w
e're on the road and need to look something up. I let Mr. Yellow use it when we're at swim practice. It's hard

for a 2 year old to stay in the same place every night for 2 hours with very little to do. We used to haul lots of toys and books in for him, but now I just consider that his screen time. I don't let him use it for the full 2 hours, but it does keep him entertained for as long as I'll let him keep it.

At the moment, he's enjoying the Starfall app. Everytime it plays the ABC song he runs to me to have me sing it with him. It's adorable.

More finds from the barn

Today one of the boxes we went through was full of binders. Some of them were Story of the World activity books, but others were the kids history and science binders. It was so fun to see their handwriting from 3 years ago.

Another box had a lot of printer supplies, i.e. labels, greeting cards, photo paper, and tri-fold brochure paper. I see some printing in my future!

Mr. Yellow is showing many, many signs of reading readiness, so I guess I need to get fired up in that department. We started learning the Short Vowel poem from the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Now if I could only find the magnets to go with it. I think may still be in the barn somewhere. Hmm...

I've made a lot of printable math activities for him. I am loving Confessions of a Homeschooler right now. She's got great stuff like a Number Word Match-Up that he has great fun with. We put the laminated print out on a cookie sheet, and then he matches up his magnetic letters to the paper. Then he counts the items and "reads" the word and points to the number and says it. He also likes the Number Dots Worksheet to use with pompoms from Dollar Tree. I got him some little tongs, so he uses tho

se to pick up the pompoms and put them on the print out. He likes to count while he's doing them and then he says the final number. I've also let him play with the Cuisenaire Rods a bit after Miss Purple is done with them and he uses them with the fabulous Cuisenaire Activity and Exploration Book. We haven't played any of the games yet, but he has done the pictures. He's getting the hang of them for sure. I have the Cuisenaire letter book, but it may be another one that's in the barn. Are you seeing a pattern here? Speaking of patterns, I've also got pattern block work planned for him. We have the Melissa and Doug set, but I want to get a magnetic foam set to use with the Patternables book we have on hand, in page protectors no less!

I tore up the Capital Letter Stories workbook and put it in page protectors, so he can do it over and over again with dry erase markers. I recently saw the same system at Wal-Mart, but in a dry erase form. I prefer the page protectors though, as I can choose which letters to put in his binder for the week. This system reminds me of Handwriting Without Tears, but its a little more colorful/kid friendly. We have the wooden letter pieces for that program too and need to pull them out in the coming weeks.

Oops!

I loaded up with Miss Pink and Miss Purple this morning to make the 3 hour drive to my brand new nephew, but the car wouldn't start. I've suspected the starter was going for a few weeks, but this morning it completely gave up. So, I'm house bound until Daddy gets it or the van fixed.

When we moved back to this state 3 years ago, we knew we would be in a rental for about a year before moving into this house. Instead of unpacking everything in the rental, we loaded up the barn with things that weren't in use at the time. Fast forward 3 years, and now we'd really like to use the barn as, well, a barn. So, today we went out and filled up the truck bed with boxes to sort through. There's lots more to go through, but this made a good start on it.

We found the greatest stuff, including some of the kids most loved toys, i.e. dress-up clothes. My greatest find though was all the school supplies! I found my missing Story of the World 4 cd set, unopened. I've since bought the mp3s, so I guess I can put this one up for sale. I found a lot of Bob Books, which are perfect for Mr. Yellow in the next few months. We also found a lot of Peg Puzzles, which Baby Orange is loving. He puts a piece in and claps for himself. The greatest part is he claps whether he gets it in or not. It's just hilarious and adorable. Mr. Yellow is also liking the alphabet puzzles we pulled out. We discovered duplicates of the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and the Usborne Internet Linked Science Encyclopedia. These were put away before I cataloged our books in the rental, which reminds me I need to update those records. This just scratches the surface of the great stuff we found. Most of what I'm excited about is for Mr. Yellow's kindergarten year. He's starting to show signs of reading readiness. It's such an exciting time! More on his plans later though. For now here's Miss Purple's list.

Song School Latin We've used this before, with Miss Pink. She enjoyed it, and I imagine Miss Purple will as well. We love the songs!

Math Mammoth 1A She's nearly done with this, so we'll soon move on to 1B. I haven't done well making sure facts are memorized, so I need to add some drill work.

Miquon Orange I used Miquon when Miss Green was 4. I pushed a little too much and we both ended up hating it. However, I scored this for free when CurrClick had an Easter giveaway. I printed out the pages that use Cuisenaire rods, (another find in the barn) and have her working 1 or 2 a day. I've seen her make connections that weren't there before, so I think I'm going to buy the Red book and continue in the same way.

Writing With Ease 1 I would say how wonderful this is, but I think I'd be repeating myself. One thing I don't think I've mentioned is how this series piques their interest in some classic books. We've gotten a lot of library books after using passages from them for narration and dictation.

First Language Lessons 1

She's loving the poetry memorization. I've typed in some of the definitions, which we'll start doing as copywork soon. I use StartWrite for that, which is quite handy. I can easily print out different fonts for different kids.

Handwriting Skills Simplified Level B Her letter shapes are pretty good, but she doesn't know how to use the lines yet. I'm hoping this will help that issue.