School Room

We moved about a year ago to a house with more rooms.  On the main floor, there is a room that works great as a school room/guest room.  The kids do most of their quiet work independently in this room.  Any projects and work with me is done elsewhere (living room or kitchen normally).

We decided we wanted a Murphy bed with bookcases on either side for the room.  The bookcases would be used to store all of the school stuff, and the Murphy bed would make converting to a guest room easy.  We got the bed done in January, but it took until recently to get the bookcases done.  Now, the room is "done."  We are considering adding more storage on top of what we just built, but other projects are going to be completed first!  The additional storage will likely come in handy for the high school guides as well as bedding.

For desks, each of my kids has a Lifetime fold-in-half 2x4ft table.  The younger two have it on the second lowest setting, and the older two have it at the second tallest setting.  If we have company, these are easy to take out of the room!  And they are very handy when we have company over for dinner as additional seating.

To store their current school materials, each child has 1-2 plastic crates.   These fit file folders, so they can easily sort and contain their books.  They also have "magazine holders" to store big items, their guides, and binders.  When we take down the tables, these bins can go in the bottom of the cabinets.

The closet stores the craft supplies.  When company comes, some will get moved to the bottom cabinets or to the top shelf so guests have some storage.

We have used the room like this for two weeks, and it is working well.  We actually pulled the tables out this weekend, and it was easy to take down and put back up!  (That is also why it is so clean in these pictures - it was just after setting everything back up.)

MtMM - Take One!

My oldest started MtMM at the beginning of this month.  I cannot believe she is so close to high school!

We are doing most of MtMM as written.  Below are our changes to the guide:

• Math: Horizons Math.  She will finish PreAlgebra soon and start Algebra.
• Writing: Since we skipped WWTB1 in CtC, she is doing WWTB1 with her brother in CtC.  When they finish, she will go back and finish the creative writing from Rev2Rev.
• Bible: We found with Awana, that during the school year, it was too much to do HOD independent Bible as well.  So this summer (when she doesn't have Awana), she is finishing the Bible she started in RtR and Rev2Rev.  She is in Awana Trek, and they have daily Bible study plus read half of the NT each year.  Each book they read from the NT they give a summary with key verse, author, theme, etc as well.  So it is a lot of studying!  We are still doing the Apologia book together though.
• State Study: We have decided to skip this.  She does want to study music theory, so she will do that instead.
• Dictation and DITHOR: These we do but not exactly as scheduled in the guide.  We do dictation daily instead of three times a unit.  DITHOR we often do daily for a genre and then take a week or two off.  It varies depending on outside distractions to our school day though.  We will aim to do five genres this year though.

MtMM wasn't too hard to organize!  I ended up with two binders for her.

The first binder is economics, history, worthy words, president study, and geography.  Economics, history, and president study are simply the notebooking pages sold by HOD.  For worthy words, they are instructed to answer questions about a famous speech or writing on index cards.  Another parent typed up those questions into a single file.  I chose to print this file, as I knew she woudl loose the index cards.  And it is easier for when we don't get to the discussion immediately.  Finally, for geography, I printed the student maps from the CD and put them into the pocket.  She will put them in the binder itself when she is done with each one.  The teacher maps are in a binder with the maps from Rev2Rev (I might add RtR maps to that same binder as well).  At the back of this binder, we have the storytime bookmarks.  The appendix of the guide has a page similar to the file I printed from Facebook.

For science, I went through the guide page by page.  I typed up all questions that were to be answered (mostly from the books).  It was tedious, but it will make checking work so much faster for me!  For days were they are to do a written narration, I made a page with lines.  For the Elements book, I chose to purchase the pdf version online.  I could then easily copy any of the activities into the file I made for my daughter.   And then for labs, I recreated the lab form from the appendix of the guide.  If I only had 1-2 kids, I don't think I would do through all of that work.  But with four kids, I think it will be worth it!  At the end of the binder, I have the pages printed for some fo the activities in the Elements books inot sheet protectors.  These are pages that are in the Elements book, but they are also free printables on the author's website.  

Next, I fot everything ready for the nature journal.  My daughter already had a nice set of colored pencils, so she will use those.  I bought the markers and journal from Miller Pads and Paper.  Then I got pens from Walmart and she gathered the last remaining things from the house.  We put them in a little bag so nothing gets lost or misplaced.

With so many books, she needs two bins to store everything she needs for about 5 units!  A few of the spines are huge, so they take up a lot of space!

Preparing Take 3!

My third child just started Preparing!  This child is not as organized as the others.  She tends to loose things regularly, so I am having to keep on top of her!

This time through, I am trying just one binder without page protectors.  I have only set it up for about 1/3-1/2 of the guide.  When I go to print out more pages, I might have to take out some of the old work.  But that is okay.  Hopefully it will mean she won't have pages stuffed everywhere this way.

For science, I printed out the very simple pages I had made for #2.  Each week they have a science lab, five questions, and a notebooking page (the other day is an oral narration).  For the question day, I have the questions typed out so I can check them without the guide.  For the notebooking pages, I have some lines at the top for the verse.  This keeps their writing a reasonable size while still having them plan most of the page on their own.  And then for the lab day, I have a form typed up.

For history, this time I decided to use one of the files from Facebook.  Most of the pages have basic instructions at the top, leaving the page mostly blank.  I like this option for this child because it is easier for me to check at the end of each unit to confirm everything was done.  With four kids in four guides, I needed an easier way to make sure everything was done.

For timeline, we are continuing the baseball card holder option.  This is so much easier for us to keep and store!

And then at the end of the binder, there is room for her to store any projects.

Outside of the binder, she has three composition books.  One is for dictation, one is for grammar, and the last is for writing.  My kids continue these year after year until they are full. They also each have a journal for their common place book.

Here is a look at her current items in her plastic bin:

And here is her binder:

CtC Take 2!

My second child is now more than half way through Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ.  I made a few minor changes to how I set everything up for my oldest, as I find my initial set up is never perfect.  But, the first set up is still good!

I did not buy the new Bible study.  I contemplated it for a while, but I think it would be too similar to what my kids are already getting at Awana and church.  I like the depth of Genesis for our family at this point.  So, for the Bible study/Geography binder, nothing really changed.  I did decide which travel log would be best for him and only printed those, but that is the only change I made.

For history, nothing changes as well.  Since the binder is only the HOD notebooking pages and a few page protectors for projects, there is nothing to set up differently.  I am recording myself reading the history books for my son though.  He struggles with reading a little, so I thought this would help him immensely.

Science is the main area I have made changes.  Instead of three sections in the binder for notebooking, five questions, and lab reports, I made pages for the guide covering all of those.  In the main area, the pages are printed in the order that they are completed.  Then in the back, there is an area for animal prints, birds, and plants.  Little books seem to get lots in our house, so keeping these in a binder seems safer. 

Also for science, I purchased the audio for the Apologia book.  Again, since my son struggles with reading, having the book read aloud will likely be helpful.  I am also record the audio for at least the next two books as well. 

For poetry, I have decided to not do large sheets.  We are just going to do 8.5x11 sheets and store them in a standard binder.  Larger sheets just took my oldest a long time to paint (background color mostly).  And this child has amazing fine motor skills, so he will be fine with a smaller canvas.

Here is a picture of his current material on his desk: