My New Planner, The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner

It is almost that time again, time to get school rolling again.  Books ordered, supplies bought, school room ready.  The only thing I did have was a planner.  I had gone back and forth looking for a new planner for this coming school year, although nothing really fit the bill for my crew. I had finally decided that I was going to make my own UNTIL I was given the chance to review the 2010 Schoolhouse Planner from the Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  To sum it up, I think it is the Big Mac Daddy of School Planners! 

Once I downloaded my my planner I started going thru it and I just really couldn't believe it, it has EVERYTHING!  Literally! I was very impressed.  I was thrilled to be able to customize and print the pages that worked for us.  This planner was not only made for homeschoolers, it was made by homeschoolers.  It is not only for school but for the home.  All the things that a homeschooling mama needs to keep her house and school in order.  I love it! I love it ! I love it!  Ok, now that I got that out of my system here are some details...

To start with, on the schooling side of things, you get daily planning pages with customizable dates to adjust to YOUR schedule.  I really liked this idea since we don't school on Fridays I don't have to feel locked into someone else's schedule.  There are even several to choose from depending on the number of children you are schooling. 

There are week at a glance forms, quarterly planning forms, unit study tracking forms, and even forms for unschoolers.  They, I believe, have thought of EVERYONE!

The school planner includes many great extras like Bible reading schedules, and forms for curriculum information, goal setting, field trips, library books, science labs, grade keeping, instrument practice, extracurricular activities and TONS MORE.

Each month the planner has several great ideas that you can incorporate into your home/school like in September you can read about different back to School Traditions, in December you can try a Family Spa Night (doesn't that sound just dreamy after all of the holiday hustle and bustle.  Hold please while I go mark this on my calendar) or in May you can read about making your Nature Walks more successful.   I love learning new ideas that I can incorporate into our little home. 

The Schoolhouse Planner also includes several encouraging and how to articles to help us thru the school year.  Two of the articles that I really enjoyed were, Top Five Tips for Managing Your Homeschool While Managing Your Home by Malia Russell and Beating Burnout: Don’t Just Survive THRIVE! by Heidi St. John.

The household part of the planner is also full of goodies.   If you are a list maker or an organizer of any sort, this planner will definitely WOW ya! 

There is a calendar, a phone directory, chore charts (for you and the kids), to do lists, health records, car maintenance forms, birthday and anniversaries reminder list (Praise God, I really need one of these babies!), cleaning schedules, family schedules and budget records sheets.  Like I said EVERYTHING!

Every month you also get several new family friendly recipes to try out.  The ones I am looking forward to eating making are Taco Soup, Lentil Chili, Cranberry Pork Roast and Pumpkin Pie Dumpcake.  The planner also includes several grocery lists, weekly and monthly meal planners.  I don't think I could survive with out meal planning and the forms in the planner make it very simple to do.

For only $39.00 you get a fabulous planner that will help you to organize your homeschooling efforts and your home.  Well worth the price!  Almost all of this planner is reusable Year after Year.  All you have to do is print the pages that work for your family, you can stick them in a binder and your DONE!  You will be all set to keep up with homeschooling, your home and you even get to Keep Your Sanity!  Hard to imagine, I know!



I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew,and I have used this product for review purposes.  I was not otherwise compensated.

The LSG School/Playroom

I posted pics of our school/playroom a while back.  Since then we have added a few taller bookcases and have a different table ($15 at a yard sale) in there.  I also got rid of the larger TV and replaced it with a smaller one, I decided I would much rather use the space for books than a TV stand. 

Yes, we love books (and YES! I got my new camera, Yippee)!  Yippee!  Do you see the little 13in dinosaur in corner just under our laminated wall map (which I got at Borders for super cheap)?  This table was supposed to be a island in my kitchen but all my real life friends and finally even I agreed it was too big, so it ended up in the school room. 

I "try" to keep the books separated by subject or type.  Kinda like this, math books, science/nature books, history/cultures/countries/maps, readers, Bible stories, health/manners, chapter books, coloring/activity books, etc.  I also try to keep the different series together.  My lovely children do not always share my passion to be organized (sigh) but for the most we keep it together. 

We currently have 3 workboxes (which we REALLY LOVE), I am considering getting one for Little bits but I am thinking the same thing you are probably thinking, where in the world would I put it.  Those 2 blue creates contain our file folder games in one and the school books that we do together in the other.  That tall shelf in the corner does hold some books but it mostly holds math manipulative's, art supplies, paper, beads, a flower press and activity bags.

To display our artwork I strung a clothes line across the whole back wall and we just clip them there.  

For our games and toys we use these white wire shelves along with some laundry baskets from Target.  The baskets are sorted by blocks, toddler toys, heroes/men, Little People, cars & trucks, dolls, doll clothes, Dora doll house stuff, etc.   I try to switch out the toys on top of the train table for the boys, they really seem to enjoy it. 

We have a large green tote for all things dress up - clothes, purses, hats, shoes, swords, capes, Hulk boxing gloves (don't ask, it was a Hubs thing), etc.  The couch was a $50 purchase from craiglist (I really L O V E Craigslist BTW).  Usually, I sit there to read Bible, Read alouds and History with the kids although this summer we've been hanging in the family room. 

We do alot of the subjects we do together in the school/playroom, like Bible and anything that we read together.  Language Arts, Math and anything they are doing independently seem to get done at the kitchen table.  The school/playroom is right off my kitchen. 

I have to admit I am kinda glad to be starting school again.  I had high hopes of doing some school thru the summer and yeah, it just didn't happen, other than Bible and a read aloud.  Oh well, maybe next summer or maybe not : )

You can check out some other schoolroom ideas at My 3 BoyBarians.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Blogger Mommies

Did I tell you all that I bought a new camera?!!  I am very excited, one of my new best friends (the UPS man or the FedEx lady) is supposed to drop it off to me TODAY!  Shhhh, did you hear that?  I think it was angels singing the halleluia chorus!

So, while you all are patiently waiting for me to get my act together over here I was thinking you all would like to visit some of my favorite Blogger Mommies .....

Raising Olives - Kimberly is a Christian Homeschool Mama of 10.  She has some great wisdom on Parenting, Homeschooling and Feeding your Family on a Budget.

Joyful Creation 2 Honor Him - Joyce is another Christan Homeschool Mama.  She clips a mean coupon and is great at organizing!

Smockity Frocks - I just love Connie, she is so funny!  She also homeschools more than a few children.  She taught me how to make homemade pie crust the easy way!  No more junk in a can!  Hey Connie, if you are reading this, the LSG family would love to come for dinner ANYTIME!

Heavenly Homemakers - Laura is truly an inspiration!  This woman cooks up a storm and I am sure she has an awesome freezer stash to show for it.  She has some awesome recipes, we especially L.O.V.E her Giant Breakfast cookies.

Raising Arrows- You will find more great ideas on homeschool a houseful and raising a large family.  I think the wisdom she gives about adopting a large family mentality is very good.  We do some of the things on her list such as color coding and the bath routine. 

My Blessed Home - This is a blog that I recently started following.  She has oodles of helpful organizational tips, homeschool how-to's and chore ideas to keep things running smoothly.


I hope that you enjoy visiting these ladies.  They are some of the staples in my google reader.

2010 - 2011 Curriculum Choices

I finally have all my books for this coming school year in hand or on the way.  Thank you Lord!   Here is what I am planning on using this coming school year:

These are the subjects that we do together as a family:
Bible/History
This will be our 3rd year with My Father's World (MFW).  Bible and History are pretty much woven  together.  We are doing Creation to Greeks this year, which means that we are going to be starting the actual history part of MFW's 5 Year Cycle (last year we did Exploring Countries and Cultures). I am very excited about this because I LOVE HISTORY!  Unfortunately, I did not have this same enthusiasm when I was in school, otherwise I would probably not have spent most of my summer in summer school studying US History.   Aren't you just so thankful for the ways God grows us.  Ok, moving right along....We will be studying the Old Testament, using our Bible and Victor Journey Through the Bible.  We will also be using Ancient World and Streams of Civilization: Volume I for our history resources.  MFW also gives a WONDERFUL list of books to read each week to go along with our weekly topic  They suggest that you allow the kids to read these alone, BUT I have to admit I kinda get my little feelings hurt when they read them with out me.  I really enjoy reading these with them! 

Keys for Kids is little devotional that the kids and I have been enjoying for a few months, I think we will continue this even if we just listen to the audio version during lunch time. 

We are also going to be trying out Mystery of History I - Creation to Christ and the 1st Quarter Folder book that goes with it. 

MFW & MOH are both stand alone curriculum for history, but I am hoping to kinda of intertwine the two.

Science
MFW has us studying creation and the pyramids for science.  We will be using Genesis for Kids for experiments, Dinosaurs of Eden for creation studies, Pyramids to study the science aspects of the pyramids and Archimedes and the Door of Science for ancient Greek sciences.

  

Health
For Health we are going to be reading Prudence with the Miller and working thru the workbook that goes with it.  We are also going to be reading thru a great set of Health readers called How Your Body Works,  Gareth Stevens Publishing.

Music
We will be studying music from Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel. 

Learning hymns and Lord willing, Lil Chef, Computer Girl, and Alpha Boy will all be joining the children's choir at church this year.

PE
This is very non stress for us.  When it is nice out, the kids go run play, jump on the trampoline, ride bikes, race, play tag, etc.  When it is too cold or just not nice outside  I have a few exercise videos they do like
Denise Austin's Fit Kids, Walk the Walk and we even have a really old Tae Bo by Billy Blanks

We also have a Smart Fitness CD by Kimbo that the kids really enjoy.  You will be hearing more about this soon as a review.

Foreign Language
You may remember that we reviewed Olivita Oink's Bilingual Barnyard, well the kids really can't get enough of this SO we are going to be working on this again this year.

We are also going to be starting English from the Roots Up along with MFW.

Art
For art the kids each have a workbook from Abeka, because they really like them. 

I also am going to have the girls work thru Draw & Write Through History. They will be drawing for art and making their own pictures for their history notebooks.

We will of course be doing lots of other fun artsie crafty things too!

Family Read alouds
This could probably be a post all by its little self.  I love books, possibly more than I love crock pots!  I have a weakness for them to be honest.  I have "planned" several books for us to read this coming year, hopefully we will get thru them.  Here they are:

• Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John
• Star of Light by Patricia St. John
• The Tanglewoods' Secret by Patricia St. John
• Summer with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell - this the 1st in the series,  we are currently reading it.  the kids LOVE it!
• Autumn with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Winter with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Spring with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Grandpa's Box by Starr Meade
• Pearables Vol 1-3
• Hero Tales Vol 2 by Dave and Neta Jackson - we read Vol 1 last year and really liked so I hope to read Vol  2 this year.

These are things that the kids do separately from each other:
Math
Still thinking and praying about Lil Chef's math this year.  We have Math U See's Delta program which focuses on division and we have Mathematical Reasoning Level E from the Critical Thinking Company that we have been reviewing.  Not sure which we will stick with this coming year.  I think I am leaning towards the Critical Thinking math book

Computer Girl is going to be doing Arithmetic 2 and Math Drills from Abeka. 

I will be having the girls using different things to practice their math facts like, Hot Dots Flash Cards, Learning Wrap Ups, Time Tales and online math games.

Language, Phonics & Spelling
The Lil' Chef is going to be using Language B from Abeka, which I found at a used curriculum fair for only $2!!!  I was super excited about this one!  She is continuing with Abeka Spelling for grade 5.

Computer Girl will be using Letter & Sounds 2, Spelling 2 and Language 2 all from Abeka.

I know that alot of people dislike Abeka BUT I feel Abeka has a very strong Language Arts program and produces excellent readers.  I do not however do everything in the teacher manuals, we generally just use the workbooks and sound charts.

Handwriting
Normally, I use Abeka for handwriting but I am reviewing Peterson Directed Handwriting for Cursive for the TOS Crew so we may stick with that.

Reading
I go back and forth  with reading.  Sometimes we do the Abeka readers and sometimes I let the girls pick books that interest them.  This year I am going to do the same.  I really want Lil Chef to read the Noah Webster reader from Abeka and Wisdom and the Millers but other than that I plan to be flexible. 

For Computer girl, she will work in the 2nd grade Abeka readers plus she is going to work on these Bible Phonetic Readers that I ordered her.

Pre K Stuff
Last but not least Alpha Boy, he is going to be working on Hot Dots Jr Cards, Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler and ABC & 123 from Abeka.  I am really just going to focus on our letter sounds this year.  He will also follow along for Bible, PE, Music and Art.  He also hangs a bit with us for Science and History. 

Workboxes
We are definitely sticking with our workboxes this year.  They have really helped us to stay on top of things and be more orderly.  We do it a little differently than the Workbox System book.  She has lots of great ideas in the book but we pretty much just work thru our boxes 1-10. 

Olivita Oink's Bilingual Barnyard Review

I have never really taken the Foreign Language plunge with the kids, I think it was because I have felt they were kinda young and truthfully, I didn't want to add anything else to our homeschooling plate.  Then one day, I came across Olivita Oink's Bilingual Barnyard, a Spanish Program that looked different then anything I had ever seen before.  The program's creator, Jackie Payne, is a homeschooling mom who wanted to teach her own children Spanish in a way that was enjoyable for them.  The program is designed for children 10 and under and is based around an adorable little Piggy named Olivita Oink.  There are 40 DVD classes, each  one is 10-15 minutes long and has 2 worksheets that accompany them.  By viewing each class at least 2 times, the program would run for one semester.

The Lil Chef, Computer Girl and even Alpha Boy have been hanging out with Olivita for a few months now and they LOVE it!  This is one of those things that the kids bug me to do always ask for.  We have been doing the program twice a week and they are really retaining what they are learning, they still sing the song they learned from the 1st or 2nd class.  The classes were filmed in Colombia and are done is a very creative and enjoyable way!  There is singing, field trips to different places and lots of learning.  The children have learned how to greet each other, colors, family member, body parts, and common household objects in Spanish, among other things! 

You may view samples classes on the Olivita Oink website.  Olivita Oink's Bilingual Barnyard is available as a DVD and Workbook set for $129.99 and additional workbooks may also be purchased.

Day at the Museum (Full Screen Edition)

This past weekend we, as a family went downtown to the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC.  It was a blessing for the hubs to be with us because usually our museum type trips are during the week when he is working. 

Checkin' out the butterflies.

Hey Dum-Dum, we got gum-gum!

We had up finished our MFW curriculum a few weeks ago so I let each of the kids pick a topic to study for the next 3 weeks as we finished up our core stuff (reading, riting and rithmetic).   My 3 year old, of course chose dinosaurs!  So, after our week long study I thought it would be appropriate to go see some dinosaur bones.  The kids really enjoyed the 'hall of dinosaurs."  Beings that we had just studied dinos, I was able to discuss facts and falsehoods with them and see how much they had really learned.  I have to say it was a blessing to hear how much they had retained.  They remembered alot of the different dino's names, they of course know that dino's were part of God's Creation and they didn't evolve over millions of years.

My son love the T Rex!

The Triceratops is my favorite dino!

I was kind of concerned about taking the kids into a secular museum that does not value the truth of God's word even a little bit, but it was a good opportunity to discuss what God's word says.  We skipped the evolution halls because quite frankly I don't think I could have stomached all the pictures of apes turning into men.  Umm, Excuse me Mr. Scientist, but if we evolved from apes, why are there still apes???

Anyway, on to the rest of our day.  We got to see oodles and oodles of birds, which we all loved.  We saw lots of butterflies, sea creatures, a coral reef and the mammals hall which had a newer modern style.  Personally, I liked the good old animals in their natural habitats better, the hubs always says that I am old before my time, I guess he is right.  We were there for a little less than two hours because we had to rush back to the van to pay the meter, they only give you 2 hours and the last time I was in DC to do the museums I got 2, yes 2, $50 parking tickets.  The hubs was adamant that we not let that happen again.

The Hall of Birds was neat, we all really enjoyed this exhibit.

These were TV screens in the floor, which was part of the mammals exhibit.

The cheetah and his lunch.

They did have some pretty cool interactive stuff that the kids really enjoyed.

Checkin' out the mama Kangaroo's pouch.  They remembered what a marsupial was, yay!

A mini coral reef.

No thanks!

The butterfly hatchery.  They have a really cool butterfly garden which we did last Spring. 

                                              

We decided that it was to far to walk back so we decided that we would pack it up and drive over to the Air and Space Museum.  Well, as we were driving we decided to go to the Lincoln Memorial, none of us had ever been.  Honest Abe is my oldest daughter's FAVORITE President, she is like a walking Lincoln Fact Book.  So, she was super excited to say the least.   After circling around 3 times we finally found a parking spot and off we went. 

Like little ducks following their paw. 

This was taken with the Lincoln Memorial behind me looking out at the Washington Monument.

We got to hear a recording of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, I Have A Dream speech.

The Lincoln Memorial was very cool, to stand there and read "Four Score and Seven Years Ago..." was a WOW!  The statue is huge!  After, watching the Night at the Museum II, I couldn't help but think he might hop up and start chatting it up with us : )

The Gettysburg Address.  This picture doesn't do it justice, this wall is HUGE!

Honest Abe.  My daughter reminded me at this point that he was the tallest President ever.  : )

This was inside the Lincoln Memorial.

Close to where we had parked, there was a very large statue of Albert Einstein.  The kids of course wanted so badly to climb all over it but instead I made them smile purdy for the camera!

Hey Einstein! 

If ever in DC, definitely check out the Smithsonian Museums, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument.  I think next time we are going to check out the Spy Museum.