Our New Year Is About To Begin!!

Yes, it is that time again... and after a VERY busy summer we are heading back to school in the morning...

My plan for this year is much more relaxed and easy... I am of course really not much of  planner, but went into more detail this year than normal with hopes of easing the stress and increasing the fun...

I also let the kids choose several fun 1 week units to do this year... (around the 2 week plans I made) and of course there are always the "rabbit trails" which take us all over the spectrum...

My plan starts with our schedule.. We basically did a "school year" round plan this past year and it worked well for us as we were able to take off frequently and did light work (very light) during the summer... (and we still were able to take the month of July off for FUN) .. So this year, I am expounding on that schedule and going with a 4 week on and 1 week off schedule...This will allow me the needed time to order library books, gather supplies for science experiments and CLEAN THE HOUSE!! (need I mention catch up on the laundry? )

We love living books, so we are doing several short unit studies with lots of rabbit trails I am sure...Some of my favorite places for finding resources for these are:

 Homeschool Share

Homeschool Helper

Easy Fun School

The Homeschool Mom

I will be posting several other sites throughout the year as I use them in my plans and units...

Here's  rundown of the various other curricula I am using for the kiddos:

Tommy:

Horizons Math 4

Rod&Staff LA 3

Spectrum Spelling (he loves it)

Various reading materials (living books, Junior Great Books, and CLP Nature Readers)

Latins Not So Tough

HWOT

Libby:

Math-u-See (Foundations)

First Language Lessons

Spectrum Spelling

Hooked on Phonics and various readers

HWOT

I am combining science, history, art, and music into our group studies and hope to introduce some Spanish once a week (that's a maybe, we'll see where it goes idea)

I am going to be using information and ideas from SOTW, Galloping the Globe, Apologia Astronomy, FIAR (Vol1-3) and the Explorer's Bible Study this year in many of our units... I like to pick and choose where to go and follow my own path, so I find it easier to pull out things that go along with what we are wanting to do at that time...

I also have started making out my meal plans again, only this time, I am planning for the full 4 weeks, which should make things much run smoother in the kitchen...

On my shopping list this year, I ordered several great games and am really looking forward to the chance to incorporate them into our year... 

I bought Banagrams for spelling and LA

 

This is a great game from Highlights..It helps kids expand their knowledge of world geography. Each player is an agent on a top secret mission. Be the first to collect a correct set of data cards by answering geography questions and then reveal the suspect, the place and the missing item to successfully complete the mission and win!

The third game I ordered was this..It's called Map Tangle and it like a "Geography Twister"... We've already played with this one and the kids love it!!

Since Electricity was on the plan this year, I ordered these 2...Tommy is gonna have a blast with these...

Well, this is a brief rundown from the school on the "Windy Hill"... We are looking forward to a great year!!