WW - Sleep Reading

Procrastination Bubble

So today I broke out of my procrastination bubble and realized I have one week left. One week and we are back to school full time and grade 1 to boot. I have a list that is 50 pages long (I exaggerate frequently to make a point) of things that I need to do.  Today I organized my binders, minus the tabbed dividers I haven't bought yet. Tomorrow I will laminate and colour the rest of my french flash cards, and maybe pull out the pages of my Elemental Science work book and place them in a binder for easier access. Memory box is done, except for needing a few more things to memorize. I am sure I will come across ideas as we progress through the next few weeks though. I have a feeling I am forgetting something important, so don't be surprised if you can here me screeching all the to wherever you live once it pops into my head. Since I am sure I will remember at 2:00 the morning of our first day so I won't have any time to get what is missing.

I'm excited to start though, she's excited although she is in for a shock when she realizes Gr. 1 isn't quite like K. I've got to find some way to get this kid to fall asleep earlier or else I am going to have a uber cranky kid to deal with every morning. It's currently 10:12 pm and I can still here her chanting something from bed. Oh yes, to top it all off we are going through another heat wave and it is totally making me not a pleasant person to be around. Then I take a deep breath and say, I can handle this because someday I will live here.

WW - Extinction by Baby Gate

It's not quite the same with a reenactment but this is the gist of what she showed me. This is a Prehistoric Squirrel from the Ice Age (actually from the movie Ice Age).







This is how they became extinct. Although squirrels aren't extinct I thought it was pretty funny. Extinction by baby gate.

Not Back to School Blog Hop: Student Photo Week

This is my girl. She's 5 (almost 6) and really enjoys getting her picture taken. The only problem is that 90% of the pictures involved either weird faces, or one/both eyes closed so it's hard to find a picture of her just smiling. At least one of these is a self portrait from a few days ago and the bottom one is a picture of both her and I.

Not Back to School Blog Hop: School Room Week

School room week. A frightening thought for me since we live in a two bedroom apartment that hasn't been completely unpacked or set up yet. So I have been working at tidying, organizing and moving stuff. Too bad I don't have unlimited funds because I know how I want it to look. What I want and what I can afford are two different things (think Ikea catalogue). That always seems to be the way though.




This is of the computer area viewed from the kitchen, our school room shares with the dining room. Roo is demonstrating one of her worst habits of peeking over her glasses in this shot. It drives me nuts. Her desk is beside mine against the wall since she tends to get distracted easily, there is not much for her to stare at in this spot. The newly laminated world map an addition fact sheet are posted on the wall.




Same shot, slightly different angle, to include the white board and her old desk. The urge to fiddle inside of the desk was too extreme so a friend found us a flip top desk at a garage sale. When we do white board work she either sits in my chair or bounces on her bouncy ball in the middle (a good energy release for a very active child).




Our book cases, mine, hers and ours. Baskets filled with miscellaneous math manipulatives, games and crap I don't know what to do with yet. Every homeschool room is not complete without its Michael Jackson, David Bowie and Evil Dead movie poster;) This was not the wall I initially wanted these shelves on, but due to the age of the building and the slanted floor it was the best choice.  




Standing in front of the bookshelves you get the glorious view of  the fire escape:)




Due to lack of wall space our calendar, weather charts have been banished to the side of the fridge. It's actually a good spot though since it is pretty much visible from my desk.




Busy, busy work circling the things she likes from the Build-a-Bear catalogue. Those pink heart balloons are from my birthday last week. She made my husband drive all over town to find the exact colour and style she wanted. The computer is showing her favorite game of Jumpstart.




So that is our homeschool room. More tidying and organization is needed but overall this is what it will look like (unless we win millions of dollars). Most of our read alouds are done in the living room and in bed but since I haven't cleaned those rooms yet, there was no need to photograph my shame:)

First 12 Weeks of Weekly Schedules Done!

Semester 1 Grade 1, 2010-2011 School Year

It feels good to have completed some of them. I know I have a lot more to do, but I can go at a more leisurely pace now that I have finished the first 12. Some of the cells changed a bit when I changed it into pdf format, so some words have been cut off. I know what it says though, so it's no big deal. I am trying to get the dining room/school room set up and organized. Currently I have my new, large world  map poster off being laminated. I hope that they get it done soon, because I would really like to get the room looking more complete. It doesn't help that it is hot as he!! in here and I break into a sweat just by typing on the computer. I wish I could say that Fall was in the air. We went to see ABBAmania (Abba cover band) last night at the outdoor festival we have here during the summer. Roo loved it! She is a complete Abba fan and danced and jumped around throughout the whole thing. It made putting her to bed an easy job last night.

NOT Back-to-School Curriculum Choices

I have always wanted to join a blog hop. I have good intentions, but never seem to follow through by the close date. But I thought what the heck to this one  “Not Back 2 School Blog Hop” @ Heart of the Matter. I enjoy looking at other peoples curriculum choices, so maybe someone will enjoy mine. These are my choices for my dd5 (almost 6) Gr. 1 school year.

Language Arts

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind 

Complete Writer Writing with Ease 

Spelling Workout B & C 

Math

Singapore Math 1A 

Singapore Math 1B 

Evan Moor Skills Sharpener Math 

History and Geography

Story of the World: Volume 1 Ancients 

Evan Moor North America 

Evan Moor South America 

Science

Elemental Science Biology for the Grammar Stage 

Language Studies

Song School Latin 

Nallenart French L'Art de DIRE 

Music and Art

MusIQ Homeschool Piano 

A Composer Study I put together 

Artistic Pursuits Book One

Memory Work
Selections from Living Memory to Correspond with what we are learning. 

I am still in the process of writing up my weekly schedules on my Excel spreadsheet. I seems never ending. I think I have finished up until week 11, but once I am done I will feel so much more prepared. Good thing I am not starting her new school year until September, although we are still doing summer work right now. 

Imagine This View From Your Bedroom Window

Seriously, can you even imagine. Roo loves this picture that we found while searching France on the web. She always talks about how much she wants to live there to enjoy the cheese and chocolate. We have been focusing a lot on our French lessons lately and she seems to really want to learn. I picked up about 15 French childrens books from the Value Village today for super cheap. Although they are in complete French with no English translation she made me read two of them to her at bedtime. I had to pick through the words I knew to give her a very minimal translation of what was going on.  She seemed to enjoy it though and new some of the words herself (colours and such). I would really loves us to be fluent in this language. Not only for travel benefit, but it will open so many doors for her in the future.