Hell Hath Frozen Over

It's worth checking if it has because my school plan for this year is now complete. The odds were against me, hell even I bet against myself. But remember I am ever the pessimist so I had to bet against myself, it's in my nature. I was pushing my luck with time, but the choices are finally made. I just need to input them into my schedule in a realistic, non horrifying way. I have spent the better part of the day trying to clean and organize the dining room because it in fact could be described as horrifying. This is the room we use for school. The computer is in there, all my book shelves and we sit at the dining room table with baskets of the books we will need. It's cluttered and messy no matter how hard I try to organize it. What I really want is Expedit computer desk/book shelf combo. I want it in the black-brown wood colour and with the larger size book shelf. Computer on one side, she can sit and do work on the other and all our books and supplies would fit nicely onto the shelves. It's not realistic in this apartment though, because the spot it would have to go has such as slanted floor we can't have book shelves on that wall. I'll keep it on my wish list for the next place. In the meantime baskets and crowded table it is!

This is my plans for this school year, grade 2.

Language Arts

First Language Lessons 2

Writing With Ease 2

All About Spelling 2 and 3

Handwriting Without Tears Cursive

Math

Just call me Miss indecisive, or just plain stupid. Either works in this situation. She started last year with Singapore Math 1A/1B and it seemed to jump topics too quick and I had to keep going back. So we stopped and I got Math Mammoth 1A/1B for her because it has a lot of practice. She completed it by summer so I purchased Mammoth 2A/2B for this year. I decided over the summer to finish our Singapore Math 1B book and noticed that she is doing much better with it and math is less torturous. So I ordered Singapore Math 2A/2B and will use Math Mammoth as a supplement.

Singapore 2A/2B

Math Mammoth 2A/2B - supplement

Life of Fred Elementary series - Apples, Butterflies and Cats. There are 4 of these books out right now and we love them! I can't wait for the others to come out.

History

Story of the World 2 - Middle Ages

Activity Guide for SOTW 2

It's my favorite time period so I am very excited. I also got the Pandia Press wall timeline which I am getting laminated and timeline figures from the Hannah_hs_ helps yahoo group already cut out and laminated. 

Science 

Elemental Science Earth Science and Astronomy

Geography

Ideas from The Core by Leigh Bortins for learning the world by mapping it.

Expedition Earth done secularly

Foreign Language

Latin for Children A

L'Art de Lire 1 - French

Art and Composer Study

Art - Meet the Masters Online. She is also enrolled in a weekly art class. 

Composer 
The plan is a composer a month study. Print and post a picture of the composer on the wall, read a biography on the composer, map where they lived and listen to their music. Classicsforkids is a great site for this as well. 

*** I forgot Memory Work, so I will add it at the end here. I am still using the same ideas as before using the Charlotte Mason Method for memory work (but not memorizing scripture because we are secular). I will be adding memory work for what we will be doing this year Science, History, Latin, French. 

I hope the links to everything I posted work. If they don't, please let me know.

I don't know if I am missing anything, but I feel as if I got everything I wanted to covered. The lack of having 62 hours in everyday is frustrating but I am trying to overcome it and get what I need done a piece at a time. Our school start date is after Labour Day so I still have a couple of weeks to manage. I am also implementing a chore/task sheet this year. Everything from school work to, going and staying in bed, to teeth brushing will be on it (it's a fight to get her to brush her teeth as well as stay in bed). At the end of the week the sheet will be evaluated and she will get an allowance and/or treat based on the completion and the attitude while completing. Wish me luck because I am not holding my breath on this one. 

WW - New Fall/Winter Headwear

Hand made by a friend.

Facts About Me That You Probably Don't Care About But I don't Give a Shit

This post is two fold. One because I haven't posted in a while and I have wanted to post our "This Years Curriculum" but I am still figuring it out. Yikes, I know. Second, my About Me section has been "under construction" since day one and I figured, why not hit two birds with one stone. It's going to be more like a bulleted list of random facts, not some deeply poetic dialogue about my life. Here it goes.

• First one is not a shocker to those who know me. I read all. the. time. If I could make a library into my home I would. 
• I actually want a library in my home and any of these will do.
• One of my pet peeves is stupid spelling mistakes or word confusion (ex. lose and loose). So if you notice a spelling error in any of my posts I exempt myself from all responsibility and blame it on pregnancy brain and post pregnancy brain. I firmly believe some of your brain actually gets absorbed into each child you have during gestation. It's real, believe me. 
• I fry my spaghetti. Heat up a frying pan, put in cooked noodles and pour over the sauce. Mix and cook until all sauce bakes onto the noodles. It tastes so much better. I've even converted my husband.
• I have had a crush on Jared Leto since I was 14 and he was on My So Called Life. I am not fickle with my celebrity crushes, so when an opportunity came up where I could potentially meet him I declined. What if I met him and was disappointed? That would be like 18 years of my life wasted. Who would I crush on after that? 
• If I stare blankly at you during a conversation, than it usually means you have said something stupid and I am giving you time to save yourself.
• I am introverted. No that doesn't mean shy. 
• I eat food that falls on the floor. The five second rule applies to everything except what falls beside the stove. It's scary there. True story. On my husbands and my second or third date we went to a Thai restaurant. We each had a main course and split an order of Pad Thai. So when I was trying to maneuver the noodles from the dish to my plate I dropped 95% of them on the table. Without thinking I scooped them all from the table to my plate with intent to eat them. I had a moment of "Oh shit, maybe I shouldn't have done that." and then I shrugged and figured if that turns him off then I have no hope when he really gets to know me. It turns out he liked the fact I did that.........(or so he says).
• I don't understand abstract art, it frustrates me. I just can't see it as art. Can a 5 year old paint like Caravaggio? Not fucking likely.
• I don't like clowns or Santa, they make me uncomfortable. I also don't like crocs.
• I want to live in Europe, preferably the Western half. I also wish I was fluent in another language. Fuck you high school French, you did nothing for me!
• I am a cup half empty kind of person. The eternal pessimist. The upside? I never expect anything to work out so if it does I am genuinely surprised and thankful. 
• I play the lottery weekly because if I don't, then you know my numbers will be drawn next week. This goes back to the pessimist/cup half empty thing.
• I've got a sailor mouth. Some may say the use of swear words shows a lack of intelligence and creativity. I say that when you are mad sometimes "Gosh, your making me mad!" doesn't quite mirror what you are feeling. The F word tends to get the point across quickly.  I also use the F word as verb, adverb, adjective, command, interjection, and noun. Sometimes all at once. I think that ability actually shows my high intelligence and creativity;)
• I love McDonald's, it's yummy and has the best coke. It honestly doesn't bother me that someone experimentally left a McDonald's burger out for 3 months and it still looked the same. 
• I like cheese, the super old stinky stuff.
• I've never had sushi/seafood but I avoid it like the plague. Lobsters are the cockroach of the sea.
• I firmly believe that text messaging is the major reason why kids can't spell. I for one can't bring myself to type short forms of things very often. Proper spelling and grammar should still apply to texting.
• I don't like ice cream cake. I like ice cream AND cake but not together.
• I've worn glasses since I was three and contacts since I was 14. My eye sight still sucks and I am considered legally blind without them.
• I homeschool my child because I don't believe education is one size fits all. 
• I hate the word socialization when applied to homeschool. What do you do for socialization? Do you realize you look stupid asking me that question when we are watching our children in dance or art class together. Seriously? Look it up, socializing and socialization are two different things. A) Socialization is the process through which a child learns the customs, behaviors, and expectations of certain culture and/or society. B) Socializing is getting together for a social or common purpose. It’s an activity, not a process. I want my children to get socialization from her family not public school peers and socializing is done every time you leave the house. It seems to me that people who lived in the pioneer days who saw nothing of anyone except their families and a few scattered strangers for months on end didn't worry that much about socialization. This "socialization" thing annoys me. It's a made-up concept by the public school system and our modern society.  
• I honestly don't care if you don't like me. Really. I may actually enjoy the fact that you don't. So don't think my feelings are hurt if you don't like me and we aren't friends. I've probably already thanked god/goddess/or various deities that we are not.
• Still Under Construction!