Planning. Planning ,Whose Been Planning?

I have, I have!
I have really enjoyed planning this coming year. I went back to my old paper and pencil method after using a computer program last year. The program will be amazing when I have to make transcripts but I never went back to it each week to check our progress. I do use it now to keep track of all of the books we have read... it prints beautiful reports. I thought about buying a plan book this year but opted to create my own in Excel. I am so proud of it. Creating my own spreadsheet allows me to breakdown each subject the way I need it.

First I glanced through all of the texts and planned the year broken up into 9 weeks. I still have some segments to research such as independent reading, art and memory work. I think we will start out with an original Fun with Dick and Jane basel reader I found on the shelf. For art I want to do some sort of Artist Study but I cannot decide who to start with, and I want to add in Drawing with Children occasionally.

After I have an overview of the year then I will go back and write more detailed weekly plan a few weeks at a time.

Here is the curriculum we will be using for first grade:
Phonics: continue Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Read aloud: Dr. Dolittle, James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Farmer Boy, Charlie & Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland.....?
Math: Math U See Alpha (finish) and Beta
Copywork: Creating own sheets with a handwriting font. Topics include personal information and nursery rhymes the first semester.
Language Arts: Following a Beechick style by focusing on capitol letters and punctuation in copywork and reading. Once we are finished with the phonics text we will use Language Lessons for the Very Young.
Science: Following the Well Trained Mind outline of Life science, Animals, Human Body, Plants. I am creating m own lessons.
Social Studies: Story of the World: Ancients
Art: I want to just do an informal artists/ picture study
Music: I dropped the formal study through the book Story of the Orchestra because part of the year we will be gone 3 days a week to some sort of music lessons.
Nature Study: If we get outside daily I will be happy!
Memory Work: I don't know what I am doing here....
Outside Activities: Piano Lessons, Keepers of the Faith, Library Club, Homeschool Choir, local University Homeschool Music & Gym classes

Whew! I am tired just thinking about it. But also very excited about a year of exciting topics.

Mini Vacation part 2

We spent the second half of our day at Lost River Cave in Bowling Green Kentucky. It was beautiful. You can spend the day there with out spending a dime if you like to walk trails. We went to ride the boat into the cavern and mine gems. So we spent a little. If it hadn't been almost 100 degrees we would have explored the trails too. Check out their site to read the neat history of the tiny, young cavern.

Kentucky Moths

All of these pictures were taken at our hotel in Cave City Kentucky. I have NEVER seen moths like these in real life. I just walked all over our floor and snapped these shots. I have not even looked them up yet. So if you can name them fill me in.

Mini Vacation

We took a one day trip to Tourist Trap, Oops, Cave City Kentucky. No, as much as I jest about the touristiness, is that a word, we plan on making an annual pilgrimage to the land of caverns. We went to Dinosaur World. If they'd lower their prices it would be a perfect place to spend sometime.. It was $50 for 3 adults and one child but you get an armband to come and go throughout the day.

Book of Centuries

I finished G's time line book. I have been wrestling around with how I was going to create it and finally decided on card stock and a three ring binder. I used Photoshop to create the cover with images that come to mind when I think of history.



Then printed a line on each page so that it would be more consistent and professional.


I also switched colors for different time periods.


I used the following resource to guide my decision making...
Charmaine Wistad's Timeline Book

Creating a Timeline in Microsoft Word

The Date of Noah’s Flood

I will also use the following for image resources....

Classical Education Timeline Stickers(ordering)

Gallery of United States Presidents

Historical Timeline Figures Cd-rom (bought at Convention)

Edupics

Timeline of Art History

Clip Art Gallery

Cool Clips

Classroom Clip art

Famous Kings & Queens of England

Social Science Clip Art (update)

If I had unlimited $$$$
Time line Cut-Outs

History Through the Ages

Awwww

Baby wild bunnies at Nana's. The one G is holding isn't a part of the nest. the pictures are about 2 weeks apart.

Junior Gourmet

G learned how to make scrambled eggs with minimal supervision. Now he'll eat them three times a day. Hee Hee (I don't know if you can see the color of the yolk but they are Bright, dark, yummy orange. They are from one of our homeschool friends. We cannot , I cannot, eat store eggs anymore. They just pale in not only color but flavor. Can you tell I'm out. LOL)