Trying some new things

We generally begin our "learning year" over the summer and I tweak and twist things around until I get it just right. This summer I found two things that needed a bit of adjusting.

The first was our posters - they were taking up far too much wall space and making my living room look like a "classroom" I love them because they are great quick reference tools if they are out and visible, but really i don't like the feel it gives my living room! So I finally thought of a solution - we have a stairwell that goes down into the garage that had three very large, vary blank walls -

 This is the perfect solution because really I would not be able to put the 6 foot C-SPAN presidential poster anywhere else, the posters are easily accessible AND I DON'T have to look at them 

We downgraded our cable to bare minimum as we discovered that we can stream 90% of what we watch and save over $120 a month! Since we stream a lot of our ed things I decided to take a monitor that we no longer use - since we all have laptops - and make it much more useful - 

Are you trying anything new out this time of year? I would love to hear about it. 

Transforming Space

One of our biggest changes this "school year" will be the loss of our "classroom". Really this was more of a work/craft/study/play room, but KM liked to tell people she had her own classroom. With the recent events around here though we have decided to give up this space to turn it into a room for DN.

So in light of this change, we reorganized some small lightly used areas to fit our learning tools...

We moved the spare counter shelf into the corner of the kitchen dining room and that will be used as a display area.

I consolidated the totes and moved around the boxes and shelves to get a more organized system for books and supplies. I set up a "command station" for myself in my bedroom. I also consolidated the hall closet and put some things in the attic to make room for the science equipment and extra books. Finally I use a set of old cabinets from when we remodeled our kitchen, for future curriculum storage.

I have heard from many people, especially those that have transitioned from PS, that they started out with a "classroom" and slowly worked away from it. This has been true for us as well, we have done lessons in various areas of the house since we started, but always had a specific "school" area and had the classroom for this past year. KM has been doing her lessons in her bedroom, curled up on the couch and out in the yard, more and more this summer, so really this won't make a huge difference. The biggest thing will be the lack of schoolly posters and such that will be up on a regular basis. We will probably still make some collages and such, but I think since KM is getting older and not really needing those repetitive visual cues.

We slammed this last week of summer session lessons into yesterday, so now we will have three weeks off. I am just about finalized - hahahaha - on next sessions picks and am looking forward to finishing up my responsibilities in the camper as well as getting into some fun fall activities around here. I will be sure to post a few reviews that I have been meaning to get to, as well as our final curriculum choices.

New Study/Playroom

We had planned on doing this project more towards the end of the summer, but none of us could wait! We swapped KM's bedroom and playrooms around. Here is how our New Study/Playroom is laid out...




SC tried it out the other day and I got the feeling that she approved! She spent nearly 45 minutes in playing all by herself with Play-doh! I couldn't believe it! She is never more than 5 feet from any one of us, but she was totally enthralled with that play-doh. Guess that would be a great gift for her birthday next week!

Spontaneous Playdates Lead to...

...LOTS AND LOTS GETTING ACCOMPLISHED!

We got bit by the spring bug this morning and decided we would get some seedlings started and the garden area started - we have about a month until the last frost, but we figured if we get it going we will be on the right track -

We had put these pieces of bark aside when we were splitting wood during the winter and I came across them this morning so once they are dried and ready I will be sure to share our project!


Then KM was out scootering when we had unexpected visitors stop by - she was very excited and this led to a spontaneous playdate - the best kind of course!

This also left me with an afternoon in a quiet house -
so I tackled some things I just hadn't had time to get to lately!!!

First was the front closet -
hey there really is a floor there and I can even SHUT THE DOORS!


We just finished our winter session so I took some time to get the spring lesson plans laid out!
I always feel sooooo much better when I have things outlined and a direction to head in!


Then I headed into the playroom and changed some posters and got some project areas ready!


I got the astrology study mural background up...

Took the dinosaurs off the map and got it ready for first civilizations...

Put up the GCK Homeschool Art Gallery latest features...

I also came across this Grass Headz that we got a few months ago at the MOS and we forgot all about it - KM will be happy to get this started - I will keep you posted on how he turns out!



KM had a great afternoon at her friends and I got a TON done around here which will make our week sooooooo much smoother!

I just love it when things all come together just right!

First Day of Fall Session

Today was our first day of Fall Session when we start back to schooling full-time - or I should say back to more "book work."

Things went really well this morning! KM was up bright and early and was very happy with the new layout of the play/school room. We are so lucky to have this extra room to be able to spread things out in. Here are some of the new things I added and/or changed:

This is our Foreign Language Center - we will be continuing to work on Spanish, but will be trying to incorporate it into our other curriculum areas as well. So we will be studying the countries where they speak Spanish for part of our Geography.

This is our "Daily Tasks" board which will allow KM to be a bit more independent, I can write down the things that will need to be done the night before so that she can get right down to work in the morning and can also be aware of what else will be going on later in the day.

This is our Election Study Center. The election poster came out of Candidates, Campaigns and Elections 4th Edition and we will be using the map to outline which states are Red states and which are Blue, as well as to track the results after the election.

KM has decided to use the computer area to do her work for now - we will see how long this lasts - so I have rearranged things a bit to make it easier to spread things out.

Here she is very happily filling out her Exchange City Job Application!
We decided, since it is one of KM's favorite homeschooling benefits, that the first day would be a pajama day!

SC was here bright and early, but was very patiently looking through her library books and doing lots of coloring, while KM was working.

Things went very smoothly, we transitioned from "Preschool" times to "Middle School" times without a lot of problem. KM was very focused and did an excellent job completing her work correctly, efficiently, and neatly! All and all we had a very nice, mellow, relaxing, productive first day of school!!