Labor of Love Sale at TOS

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is having a subscription sale!

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is extending an extraordinary subscription offer to homeschool families. Receive a one-year print subscription for just $7.95 or a one-year plus current issue subscription for $12.95. One-year subscriptions start with the winter issue. The one-year plus current issue starts with the fall issue. Only 5000 of these special subscriptions are available from August 31 through midnight on September 15. Once the 5000 are gone, they're gone! Hurry and grab this crazy price today!

Now for the fine print… This is an advertisement for TOS Magazine. I received an Expo to Go ticket for sharing this information.

From the Teacher's Desk

Here are the plans for our upcoming school week:

Morning Devotions: The Children's Bible in 365 Stories and Leading Little Ones to God; TJ is also reading one section of The Beginner's Bible each evening

Drill and Recitation: Psalm 23; various poems (from First Language Lessons and others); major pharaohs of Egypt; counting by 2s; +1s math facts

Math: RightStart, lessons 44-46

Writing: Writing with Ease, week 9

Spelling: All About Spelling lesson 17; Spelling Workout A lessons 34-35

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 37-39

French: Mission ABC, lesson 9; French lapbook

History: The Story of the World 1, chapter 9

Science: Dolphins (Download 'n Go unit); weekly animal study with friends – butterflies

Read-Alouds: Breakfast - All-of-a-Kind Family; Evening - Betsy-Tacy and history or science books

Weekly Report: First Week!

My very first weekly report of the new school year and I'm already behind! We spent the weekend camping with some friends so I didn't get to my report last Friday. So, here it is, better late than never!

We kicked off our new school year on Monday – which was basically a review and "orientation" day.  We're not using workboxes this year so the first week  was a transition to our new system (more about that in another post). TJ really enjoyed the schedule strip we used last year so I wanted something she could use to check off her completed work. This year she has a weekly checklist with all her school subjects listed and a place to check off each as they are completed. So far this is going well – she loves the little stars she gets to color in after completing her work.

As far as completed work – we did Bible, recitation, and drill each morning. We reviewed a few math lessons (she remembered more than I thought she would after our summer break), practiced handwriting (which has deteriorated over the summer), did a few spelling lessons, and learned about dolphins. It was a fairly easy week but a nice transition to our new year.

We've started school!

I hadn't planned on starting our new school year until September but TJ was excited and ready to jump in, so we started yesterday. We spent the morning reviewing lots of things from earlier in the year and, thankfully, TJ remembers most of it so we shouldn't have to spend too much time on review. Most of our review for the week will be focused on math and handwriting (she can't remember how to write half the alphabet and I didn't review math as much as I had hoped to this summer). We are taking this week slowly and easing into things but, hopefully, by next week we'll begin our full work load. I'll keep you posted!

The Schoolhouse Expo is coming back!

The Old Schoolhouse is hosting another Expo! I attended the first event and it was really wonderful. There were some amazing speakers and I took pages and pages of notes. This event is gearing up to be even better than the first so be sure to reserve your ticket soon! Here are the details:

It's back to homeschool time and registration is open for the online Schoolhouse Expo, October 4-8. It's five days of top homeschool speakers, fellowship, and fun door prizes.

Save $5 per ticket! Register between August 16 and midnight August 22, and you'll pay only $19.99. Plus you'll receive over $200 in free E-Books.

You'll be inspired by speakers including: Zan Tyler, Dr. Jay Wile, Jeannie Fulbright,Carol Barnier, Diana Waring, Todd Wilson, Davis Carman, Kim Kautzer, Lee Binz, and many more!

A special teen track is planned--the entire family will definitely want to listen to these special sessions. We've also planned a special focus on a topic that touches every homeschool--writing. Plus, an array of other topics that will inform and inspire you throughout your homeschooling years.

Don't forget, MP3 copies of each session comes with your LIVE event ticket.

Two special preconference shows on August 24 and September 21 with Dr. Jay Wile, Jeannie Fulbright, and Kim Kautzer!

Register starting 12:01 a.m. on Monday, August 16.
The theme this fall is "Celebrate Homeschooling!" We're going to celebrate the unique blessings of homeschooling, the beginning of another school year, our families, and the freedom to tailor our children's education to best meet their needs.

If you cannot make the Live event, then the October Expo To Go is just your ticket! You'll reserve MP3s from all of the workshops. This week only, pay just $14.95!

You can visit The Schoolhouse Expo or this page for more information.

Now for the fine print… This is an advertisement for The Schoolhouse Expo. I received an Expo to Go ticket for sharing this information.

Are you ready for school?

It's the time of year when all those homeschooling moms (and dads!) are getting ready for another school year. They're busy with ordering materials, hitting those great back-to-school sales, maybe squeezing in a few more days at the beach and, in the middle of all that fun, they're also doing their favorite thing – planning lessons! Okay, maybe it's not their favorite thing (is it weird that it's my favorite part?) but necessary nonetheless.

Like every other homeschool mom I know I've been busily planning lessons and getting ready for our first day of school in September. As if planning lessons wasn't hard enough, it's been an impossible task finding a lesson planner that I felt was worthwhile. So, as any good homeschooler would do, I'm making my own planner. And what a task it's been! I either have to make each form myself or spend my time searching online for what I need. Thankfully, there's a wonderful resource that fits my needs perfectly – The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner.

Now, I had a list of what I wanted in my planner and The Schoolhouse Planner had a form, or two, or three that fit each thing on my list. A two-page calendar for every month? No problem. A yearly goal form to keep myself on track? Got that covered. A single page yearly calendar for highlighting vacation days? Of course. A 180-day attendance form? Need you ask?

With over 600 pages of resources, articles from well-known homeschooling authors (Jeannie Fulbright, Clay Clarkson, Karen Andreola, and Martin Cothran to name a few), charts, and so many homeschooling and household forms you'll be hard pressed to think of something you'll need that the folks at TOS haven't thought to include.

So, if you're like me and can't find that perfect lesson plan book, buy a copy of The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner and make your own. Now, that perfect math curriculum? You're on your own! Can't help you with that…. yet!

Now for the fine print… This is an advertisement for The Old Schoolhouse Planner. As an independent contractor for TOS I received this product free of charge.

Schoolroom Pictures

It's picture time at Heart of the Matter's 'Not' Back-to-School blog hop. After spending the last few days organizing books and craft supplies I think our room is finally picture-worthy! (Which will probably last until about two week into the school year.) We don't have the space in our small house for a schoolroom so we do our schooling at the kitchen table. At times I wish I had a specific space for all the stuff but we're making it work!

This shelf holds our every day supplies – TJ and I each have our own basket for our books and manuals, making it easy to grab our things and school at the table or the couch or the floor or outside or . . . (you get the idea!) The middle shelf holds most of the books we'll be using – Bibles, encyclopedias, and such. Science and history supplies are in the two boxes on the bottom shelf.

Here's a snapshot of the whole dining area from the kitchen. Ignore the messy table – TJ is in the middle of some serious architectural feat using plastic cups, paper towel rolls, and about two rolls of tape. As you can see, our dining area isn't meant for fancy entertaining! ;-) On the left you can see our main bookshelf. The other bookshelf is used to hold more books and binders for completed work. Under the window is a whiteboard and bulletin board. There's another bookshelf beside the bulletin board.

This is the dining area from another angle. The plastic tower holds arts and crafts supplies and the shelf above has lots of boxes for small office supplies.  The buffet holds A LOT of stuff. The left side is full of math and science things and the right side holds curriculum and books for future use. The family room is off to the left – very convenient for read alouds and videos.

There you have it – a quick look at our schooling space!

Curriculum Plans for 2010-2011

It's that time of year – we'll be starting a new school year in September (actually just continuing with many things that we started in the spring!). Here's what we'll be using:

Math: We're still plugging away through RightStart level B and will probably finish in February and begin level C. TJ and I really love this program. Horizons is our secondary program (for those times TJ needs to take a break from the concepts in RightStart and also for review in the summer).

Language Arts: We'll continue working through Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons. For spelling we'll be using Spelling Workout B and All About Spelling level 2.

Bible: Last year we had the chance to review Grapevine Bible Study. We've enjoyed it so much that we're going to continue using it this year. We'll finish up the Old Testament Overview book and begin the New Testament Overview.

Foreign Language: Last winter we began using Mission Monde ABC to learn French. We've enjoyed it so much and TJ is looking forward to continuing with this program. We're working on a French lapbook too. I'm also considering adding in the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker after Christmas. For now, we'll wait and see how everything else goes before we add in anything new.

History: We started The Story of the World series in March and we'll continue with it this year.

Science: We've finished studying the human body and plants. This summer we began an animal study and we'll continue studying animals until Christmas. After that we'll begin our astronomy study.

Fine Arts & Poetry: I'm trying not to be too scheduled with these subjects; I'm hoping to spark TJ's interest and see where it leads. For poetry we'll read through a few anthologies over tea. We're using a combination of Drawing with Children, How to Teach Art to Children, and the Usborne Art Treasury for art. And for music we'll listen to Themes to Remember and a few other CDs that we own.

The Heart of the Matter is hosting a 'Not Back-to-School' Blog Hop. This week everyone is sharing what they'll be using for the coming year. Come check it out!