The first "official" week: Rome

Our first week is off to a great start. We are finishing up Rome before we start the Middle Ages. Today we learned about the rise of Christianity in Rome. The kids drew some pictures of the nativity on the glass of the backdoor with Dry Erase markers. Thankfully, no painted surfaces were harmed during this craft activity.

For a snack, Chloe wanted to make snow cones with a nostalgic Snoopy Hand crank I got at a resale shop. I love it because I had one just like it as a kid. it took them about an hour to come up with three tablespoons of "snow". Eventually I had pity on them and broke out the blender.

We ended the day creating some mosaics with dried beans. This was not our most popular activity. The glue gets on your hands, then the beans stick to your hands. Everyone got frustrated halfway through so we scrapped the activity.

John is lobbying pretty hard to include Super Mario as part of his kindergarten curricula. He has made some persuasive arguments for how it would improve his hand eye coordination. Couldn't we count it as P.E.? But I have a suspicion that a certain sister is coaching him.

It has been so nice to be back into our usual routine. Everyone is happier over here!

Curriculum plan for 2010-2011

Here is our plan for homeschooling this year. For the Most part, we have stayed with the same curriculum we used last year. I am writing our Literature program again, but this time I wanted it to correspond to our History (Story of the World). The more our subjects relate, the smoother it all seems to flow. I included links over to my homeschool planning blog where I am putting it all for now.

• History: Story of the World Vol 2 (the middle ages)
  
• Math: Singapore Math/Horizon Math
• Science: Apologia Astronomy, The kids are participating in the nature classes at the local arboretum, Study Scientists and discoveries that relate to the middle ages and we are going to add in Magic School Bus Lapbooks and unit studies
  
• Literature: My Own that corresponds to our history.
• Phonics for John: Hooked on Phonics
• Grammar: First Language Lessons
• Penmanship: Handwriting without Tears
• Latin: Prima Latina
• Fine Art: Artsonia

I am so excited to get started, and so are the kidlets!

Home School Room Makeover

We started school "officially" this week. Now that we have all three kids "enrolled :)" it was time to get serious about where we were going to hold our school sessions. Previously we were just all over the house, wherever it was convenient. That worked for us, but I realized I had three times the curriculum to house and would need table space for three little bodies :).

Since we have never been formal folk over here, losing our formal dining/living area is no big deal. It works out perfect at our house, because we won't have to move books to eat lunch. Our main dining area is in the kitchen.

I am a big fan of multipurpose rooms/furniture. Our home isn't enourmous, so I wanted to be sure I didn't go too "schooly" where it would be awkward to use the room or table for other purposes.

I painted and treated our dining table with an antiquing paint treatment. It is hard to see in the pics, but it came out really well and I won't mind at all if the table gets a few more scratches and dings.