First Day of Homeschool 2013/2014

Today was our first day of the 2013/2014 Homeschool year. DJ is in the 8th grade and Caitlin is in the 4th grade. After much thought, soul searching, and searching for curriculum I finally decided on the lessons we would use. Because, last year I kind of was lazy, and used FLVS a lot for DJ, which he really did not enjoy at all, I wanted to make a change. I want my kids to enjoy learning and the way that they learn. That is one of the reasons I decided to homeschool. So, after an awesome day, with no complaints on lessons, I think I have found the right set of curriculum. We also made a schedule, for Mon-Thurs lessons. Now, this will change here and there, due to Run Club and Earth Kids, but hopefully we will be able to keep it on track. All chores will now be done on the weekend, as opposed to every Monday morning. I made each class 60 min in length, to make enough time for each lesson to be completed. Each lesson plan subject is meant to be covered in a week. For Caitlin some of these are only a day. She will be able to make up a lot of time in History and Language Arts this way. Because Caitlin's lesson in History, was on timelines, we made a homeschool day timeline, shown below. For Language Arts, Caitlin read a poem about dreams, then she drew a dream picture, also shown below.

DJ:

Science: CK 12 Earth Science 60 minutes
History: Lesson Pathways Medieval Times 60 minutes
Language Arts: Open High School of Utah Grade 9 reading The Outsiders 60 minutes
Math: CK 12 Arithmetic 60 minutes
Spelling/Vocab: AAA Spell 30 minutes
Spanish: 123 Teach Me 30 minutes

Caitlin:

Science: Lesson Pathways Beavers 60 Minutes
History: Lesson Pathways Timelines 60 minutes
Language Arts: Lesson Pathways 4th grade 60 minutes
Math: Saxon 3 and Daily Math Warm Up 60 minutes
Spelling/Vocab: AAA Spell 30 minutes
Spanish: 123 Teach Me 30 minutes

Adventure Island Last Trip

Since the four of us could not decide on one movie to see, we decided to head to Adventure Island. We have season passes to Bush Gardens, which includes their water park. We went once in June, when my sister was here visiting. Today, there were like 50 people in the whole park, and it was awesome. No waiting in long lines. They rode the rides several times in the three hours we were there. Trust me if you have ever been to a big park you know the wait time is absurd. This will be our last trip to the water park, for this year, but plan on Bush Gardens in the Fall. We had a wonderful day!

Our Last Week of Summer Vacation

I have no idea what is up with Blogger, but I have been having a terrible time getting pictures to upload, no matter which way I do it. So, there are no pictures for this post.

We had a great Summer, and accomplished a lot. We had lots of fun with family and friends. July was very wet and rainy, so Caitlin and I enjoyed painting and making jewelry. She also got her own creative ideas and used the little bit of sewing she has learned from my mom to make things for her Pet Shops. We were going to take the kids to the water park this week, hubby is on vacation, but we have decided against it. It has been so stormy that there is not much sense to drive almost three hours for a possible one hour swim. So, we will be getting odds and ends done around the house, swim, and going to the movies and dinner. We usually only visit the movie theater once a year. So, this will be an extra treat. Only problem is no one can decide what to see. We will probably have to see two different movies. I am working the whole weekend, so nothing special planned then.

Wilderness Survival School

We have two weeks of Summer Vacation left. Public school begins school tomorrow, but we don't start back until the day after Labor Day. Since I am constantly searching for new and interesting websites, that will help us achieve our goals, I found Wilderness Survival School. I was not technically looking for that subject, but was searching for Earth Kids stuff. This Wilderness Survival School website is awesome! You can sign up for a free ecourse, which of course I did. The kids will be doing the first ecourse together, as a part of their Science school work. If your kids love nature, or you just want to get them involved in nature more, then check out Wilderness Survival School.