Fifteen Things

I came up with this list last week and thought I would share.

Fifteen Things All Homeschool Mom's Will Understand

1. Kids who demand your attention before a sufficient amount of caffeinated beverages has been consumed. (In our house it's a small cup of coke and my depression and anxiety meds)

2. When someone suggests that teaching is an easy job.

3. Trying not to laugh when a student says something hilarious but completely inappropriate.

4. When your kids are giggling and you have no idea why.

5. Non-teachers and Public School Teachers telling you how you should be running your homeschool.

6. When your kids find you on Facebook or Instagram.

7. Bidding farewell to your evenings and weekends. They are spend checking your lesson plans and making sure you have everything you need for the week.

8. The first Monday after a school break.

9. When your kid asks you a difficult question that you definitely don’t know the answer to.

10. The complete loss of your privacy, and, at times, your dignity.

11. Waking up early in the morning, even on weekends and holidays. It's engrained into your brain and there is no getting rid of it.

12. Trying not to catch the flu from your kids.

13. Getting the flu and teaching that day anyway.

14. Explaining to your friends why you won’t hang out with them in the evenings. I am way too tired from doing my teacher duties on top of wifely/motherly duties.

15. Trying not to cry in front of your kids when your struggling child finally gets their head around the thing you’ve been trying to teach them all year.

Literature Unit's

This year our main focus for Sage in Language Arts is Literature. We are using the Literature Unit Studies form Confessions of a Homeschooler. Sage picked out 6 books, one for each learning period. I am beyond proud of the choices he made. He could have picked easier kiddy books but he chose to read books that most kids don't read until late middle school or even High School.

Living Reference Books

In addition to our Social Studies and Science Curriculum we will be using what we call "Living Books" to help us review and study more about each subject.

 Social Studies

Our Fifty States- National Geographic

United States of America Talking Puzzle- Melissa and Doug

Science

The Incredible Machine- National Geographic

Atlas of the Human Body- Robert's College Anatomy Book

Reference Folders

Since we longer have a dedicated school room and no where to hang anchor charts I had to come up with an idea so the kids could still access them if they had a question or needed a reminder. After a few hours the Reference Folders were born.

 This one holds Math and Language Arts anchor charts.

This one holds our fold out World and U.S. Map and State 

Anchor Charts that we will use with the Road Trip U.S.A 

curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

2014-2015 First Day Pictures

While the first day of School isn't for another 2 weeks, I decided to go ahead and get pictures out of the way. I cannot believe that we have a fifth grader this year, just one more year of Elementary School for Sage. Aurora, my baby is in Second grade, I cannot believe how fast they are growing. I am beyond blessed to be able to keep them home with me.

Serious 

 Silly

2014-2015 Classroom

While I still don't have everything done, I have done all that I can for now. The Homeschool charter that we homeschool through still has the majority of the curriculum and I should be receiving it next week sometime. Thankfully, school doesn't start until after Labor Day.

I have been working very hard to get this part of our home ready for the year and with a severe back problem it has taken me much longer than I would have liked.

We will be using our kitchen/dining room for school this year

This cart hold our supply caddy, Library book basket, math manipulative's, and cubby's for misc. things

This dresser has definitely seen better days but it serves it's purpose well. The middle drawer on the left hold the teacher's manuals, my lesson planner and all of my things. The middle drawer on the right holds construction and art paper.

The top left and right drawers hold Sage and Aurora's mini white boards, writing paper and still have plenty of room for their workbooks for each subject. There is also a basket for them to put their finished work in so I can grade it and log it onto their state required individual learning logs.

The bottom left drawers hold extra crayons, pencils, pens, index cards, notebooks and lined paper. The bottom right holds art supplies.

Thankfully both of the kids are old enough to not need posters and calendars on the walls. my project this week is to make a reference binder for our anchor charts so if they ever forget or just need a reminder they can look it up easily.

I am linking up with the iHomeschool Networks 6th Annual Not Back to School Blog Hop. Click {HERE} to see other great homeschool spaces.