First Day of 2nd Grade!

Here's Ms. Millie on her first day of 2nd grade:

Are you wondering how the day went?  It went great!  We got a little behind because we had to meet with her new piano teacher, but otherwise it was fantastic :)  Millie said "I like homeschool for now".  He he he.

Homeschool Orientation

I'm calling it Homeschool Orientation for lack of a better name!  I decided that since we're homeschooling for the first time, and we're formally beginning the school year on September 6th, I'd give Millie a "sample day" so she could see how things are going to work.  I structured the day exactly as it will be structured once school starts.  Here's our typical day:

Morning meeting - Millie did some copy work, did a daily devotional, and planned our recess for the day.
After that, Millie did a bit of spelling, writing, and reading.
History - I read to her out of Dinosaurs Unleashed.  She learned about the first people that discovered dinosaurs.
I chose our "recess" for the day.  We went to the library to play and get the readers for the next two weeks. 
Afterwards we had lunch.
While Elise napped, we did math (intro to the Meeting Book, and a timed addition practice test) and science (egg buoyancy experiment).

That's it!  End of day!  It went great.  It was great to have some structure to our day :)

School's About To Start, And I'm In Panic Mode!

It's not the curriculum I'm worried about anymore.  I've done my research.  I have every single day planned out for the next nine months, in detail.  I have field trips planned. 
What I'm worried about is considered taboo in the homeschool community. The dreaded "S" word: 
Socialization.
I wasn't worried about it until two nights ago, when it hit me like a truck.  As it is, we don't live in a neighborhood with kids, so Millie doesn't have the trusty neighborhood friends. Some of my best memories from my youth involved my neighborhood friends.  When she was at public school for Kindergarten and 1st, she played with everyone, she never had that one special friend.  Although she's in 4-H, a homeschool group, skating, and Sunday school, I worry that she won't be able to form a bond with anyone that turns into a BFF.

Will she ever stay up late watching movies with anyone?
Will she ever make up dance moves to Taylor Swift songs with that special friend?
Will she ever spend hours in the bathroom with BFF putting her hair in curlers?
Will she ever have sleepovers?

I spoke with a friend and experienced homeschool mommy yesterday, and told her about my current state of panic, and she told me there's only one thing more that I could be doing.

Pray.

So, although I'm not really the praying "type", I'm going to do it.  Last year I prayed to be a more patient mother.  And, while I still need to work on that, I'm going to pray harder that Millie can find that one special friend.  I hope it'll help put my mind at ease...

Not Back To School: School Room Week

We're almost set up for school to start on September 6th!  We finally went to Ikea to buy a bookshelf.  I have the challenge of living in less than 900 square feet, and trying to make everything fit in an organized, non-cluttered manner.  I'm not one for clutter, so this is really hard for me!

This is where we'll be having school:

Here's the bookshelf.  Obviously I'm new at this, because all of my materials fit on one shelf!  The top looks a little naked.  I think it's begging for a plant and a piece of pottery or a fish bowl. 

Here's our dining room table where a lot of the serious work will take place.  The white board will come down and fold up at the end of each day.  I'm still not sure where I'll put it, but I'll cross that bridge on September 6th :)

Here's the craft area where the girls like to play.  I'm quite certain that if I got rid of all their toys, and had a well stocked craft shelf (paper, scissors, crayons, stickers, pom poms, etc), they'd be perfectly content.  See the piano in the background?  That's one of the big reasons I'm homeschooling.  Our district cut music out of the elementary schools.  Now Millie will have practice or instruction daily. :)

The best part of homeschool where we live is the variety of educational opportunities in our big "backyard"!  This is what we see from our classroom in the sky:

We live within walking distance to the Minnesota Childrens Museum, the Minnesota History Museum, The Minnesota Science Museum, and Central Library (the most awesome library ever, pictured below).  

There it is!  That's where we'll be doing school.  To see other school rooms, hop on over to Heart Of The Matter and check them out





Not Back To School: Curriculum Hop

This is my first year homeschooling, so everything I've selected for this year is purely based on my research. It's my trial and error year :)  I'm excited to learn along with Millie this year as she enters second grade!

Here is it:

We'll start out our day with a morning meeting where Millie will do her copy work for the day, discuss what the weather is going to be like, decide what we're going to do for recess/PE, and do a daily devotional.

Reading - I made up my own reading program.  She'll read one book at her level per week, answer comprehension questions, enter it into a reading log book, and do activities from her Think-Tac-Toe.  Millie loves to read, so she'll read more than one book per week in her free time.  I'm just custom picking one based on what she's learning about in history, the time of year, etc. 

Grammar - This is the one I'm really nervous about!  I'm using English 2 from BJU Press.  It seems to be very complete, very thorough, and attractive.  The part that I'm nervous about is trying to fit everything into 1 year.  Since we're doing a 4 day schedule, I have a feeling that she'll still be working on English 2 in 3rd grade.  I don't want her to fall behind...

Spelling - She'll have 10 spelling words per week.  She'll start out with a pretest on Monday, and then every day work on an activity with her spelling words, including: copying the words she gets wrong, writing stories using the words, cutting letters out of magazines to make up the words, word finds, word scrambles, etc. 

History/Geography - I'm teaching her about the ancient world this year.  The curriculum I'm using is loosely based on the curriculum at http://www.guesthollow.com/ .  She'll learn about dinosaurs, ancient people, Egyptians, Greeks, medieval times, and more.  I'm basing her geography on this, as well. 

Math - Saxon math. 

Science - I purchased Sonlight science C.  I think I'm regretting my purchase :(  I'll use some of the ideas and books, and make up my own curriculum.

Spanish - I'm going to teach her Spanish using Muzzy.  I have to save up for it, so it probably won't be until later in the school year.

I've got some really great unit studies planned, art, phy ed activities, and more!  I'm excited to make this a very memorable, educational, and fun year for both of us!

Rosemary Chicken and Vegetables

I love this recipe!  Everyone ate it, Elise even had seconds.  Mmm!

8 Chicken drumsticks
4 Large red potatoes, each cut into 8 wedges
2 Large peppers cut into 3/4 inch wedges
1 Large red onion, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
2 T Olive oil
3 T Chopped fresh rosemary
2 T Chopped garlic
1/2 t Each salt and pepper
1/4 c Pitted olives, cut in half
Serve with balsamic vinegar

1) Heat oven to 500 degrees.  Position racks to divide oven into thirds.  Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with foil.
2) Distribute drumsticks, potatoes, peppers, and onion between pans.  Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Toss and turn to coat.
3) Roast pans 15 minutes, remove from oven.  Toss mixture on pans, roast 15 minutes longer.
4) Arrange on serving platter, sprinkle with olives.  Serve drizzled with vinegar.

* I only used one large pan and spread everything evenly over it.  It turned out great, and didn't require extra baking time
* I didn't serve mine with olives or vinegar because I wanted my family to eat it.  It was good without it.

Breakfast Cookies

Cookies for breakfast?  Who wouldn't want cookies for breakfast?!

Here's a recipe I found on http://www.simple-nourished-living.com/.  It's soo good.  Mmm!  And it goes great with coffee :)

Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen

Packed with the added punch of protein from peanut butter, these wholesome cookies are satisfying.
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/3 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup raisins
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly grease them.
In a large bowl beat together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs and water.
In a medium bowl stir together flours, oats, wheat germ, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Mix flour mixture into peanut butter mixture. Stir in raisins.
Drop by ice cream scoopfuls (or 1/4 cup measuring cupfuls )2 1/2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Flatten slightly.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until golden but still soft.
Remove from the oven and cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

We opted for the slightly less healthy version.  I subsituted chocolate chips for the raisins, or my family wouldn't eat them.  ;)