Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 1

Like other CC bloggers, I'm very excited to have a place to record my plans for each week. I'm hoping to look back to my planning posts, make a note of what worked and what didn't, and then try not to laugh too hard. ;) And here we go...

Bible
* Read Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, and memorize them using the CC memory work song (to see my post on creating a Memory Work Flip Chart, click here). I also love this Answers in Genesis book and will use it with our daily Bible reading. To see how I plan on integrating the new CC timeline cards with Bible stories everyday for the first six weeks, see this post.

English
* Read some books on prepositions:

Growing a Godly Girl has a preposition book list here that's helpful, too.

Geography
* I really like the idea of tying everything I can back to the Bible. I looked up all the Scripture references of Mesopotamia and the Euphrates River (those were the only places in our geography memory work that I found in the Bible), and we plan to read and discuss them:

Mesopotamia - Genesis 24:10, Deuteronomy 23:4, Judges 3:8, 10
Euphrates River (called The Great River in the Bible) - Gen. 2:14 and 15:18, Deut. 1:7, Revelation 9:14 and 16:12

* Listen to Story of the World 1: Fertile Crescent, chapters 1-5, while the girls color their maps.

We absolutely love SOTW, and we're planning on using this CC Cycle 1 + SOTW match-up throughout the year.

* Speaking of maps, I really like this one and the ones from MapTrek. During the week, we'll work on identifying the places in our geography memory work.

* And then we plan to read more books about this region, because my girls really enjoy books (woohoo!).

(Okay, I know the above book looks totally not-girly, but my oldest girl (she's 4) LOVES the whole series, including this book! She really likes gory things, which may or may not bother me... I haven't decided.)

* We also have the Audio Memory Geography Kit, and we'll start to listen to that in the car or while the girls are coloring.

* And we'll play with our Map Friends, which has been the biggest hit of the school year by far! The girls LOVE them, and they really do turn playing into learning (which I love!). See my Map Friends post here.

(Nemo is Anna's favorite 'friend.')

History
* Color some Ten Commandments coloring pages while I read Exodus 20. These are the pages we'll use the for the next activity. I have them printed out in their regular size, and then I also shrank them down to fit over each finger (see below). I love the connection between ten fingers and ten commandments!

* Complete this really cool handprint activity after coloring. I also have the train craft from that site ready to go, but I'm not sure yet if we'll get to it.We'll just have to see (can you tell I'm practicing my flexibility?). ;)

* Play the Ten Commandments sequencing game from another really helpful site, Biblestoryprintables.com:

* And play this file folder game, too, also from Biblestoryprintables.com:

* I really like this lapbook for the Ten Commandments:

* We also have the Wisdom and Righteousness Cycle 1 Memory Work Lapbooks, so I'm hoping to do a little of this week by week for each subject:

* Watch this great set of DVDs as reinforcement:

Science

* Read Genesis 1:20-30 and talk about classifying animals.

* Work on this Animal Classification lapbook (we'll use this for the next six weeks):

* Here's a neat little illustration that we might throw in:

Latin

* I'm planning for Mary to simply color the Song School Latin coloring pages while we listen to the corresponding song. We're only going to do this one day a week. Next year, we'll go back though and actually do the lessons.

Language Arts

* Mary is going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and that's going well. 

* We'll start up Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School.

Math

* Mary really needs to work on number recognition, so that's what we'll be doing for a while in math in addition to the weekly CC skip counting memory work. I do have some neat number mazes from Confessions of a Homeschooler (awesome site!) ready to go for fun practice.

Those are my plans for Week 1! How much of this will actually get done.... well, we'll see. ;) If you haven't been over to Brandy's Cycle 1 Weekly Link-Up yet, check it out! You'll see what other CC mamas have planned for the first week of school. 

Lookie, Lookie

We have a big update for this post! Click here to see our new school room (not our dining room!).
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They say confession is good for the soul, bad for the reputation. Well, it's confession time: If your window blinds are open while I'm driving down your street, I'm probably going to sneak a peek. Is that terrible? (I know I'm not alone on this!) Today, I thought I'd offer you a quick peek inside our dining room school room, just for fun. :)

This is our command base.

I have a memory work review schedule, prayer requests, Bible story reference, and some pretty cute pictures of my girls on the white board. Across from that, I have our Composer of the Month chart and some Song School Latin coloring sheets (free pdf).

Mary has seen me printing stuff off this summer, and she has fallen in LOVE with Ancient Egypt! Yesterday we just had to make cardboard pyramids for her Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I've got some awesome Ancient Egypt toys that I've secretly stashed away for when we hit Week 2. In between the pyramids is or review card jar. I've got sight words, numbers, miniature maps, and just anything I think Mary needs to work on. After each meal, she gets to pick a card or two and tell me what's on it. It may sound extreme, but she really enjoys it!

I've started a Bible Stories notebook after being inspired by this great site. I plan on letting the girls color a Bible story coloring page while I read the corresponding story. My hopes are to tie the story into our CC work, like reading about Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar while we study the Seven Wonders in Week 4 (the story behind the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is so sweet!).

And here are the books we've collected so far, most are about the ancient worlds, which seem to fascinate Mary. Some of these are in the local library, but our CC group is pretty active, and I don't want the pressure of trying to be the first mama at the library to get that one book on Greek mythology. Know what I mean?

Well, there you have it, and you didn't even have to drive by and hope my blinds were open. ;)

Organization, Organization, Organization

Organization is the buzz word of the month as many mamas, including me, try to figure out what in the world we're going to do this school year! I've mentioned before that I'm a planner, so I've been gathering Cycle 1 ideas and what-nots for over a month now. This is how I'm organizing all the CC Cycle 1 information so far. (If you're not sure what CC is or would like to know more about it, click here and here.)

First, I find most of my ideas online from other blogs or Pinterest boards. The absolute best CC blog is Brandy's at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood. I'm on her site so much that I just call her by her first name now and pretend we're good friends (y'all do that too, right?). ;) Be sure to check out her site if you're a CC mama!

When I find things that I'd like to do, I write a description and paste the link into my CC Cycle 1 spreadsheet.

My wonderful, smart, handsome hubs set this up for me online with Google Docs, and it's my favorite planning tool. At the bottom I have tabs for each week, so I've been able to keep up with things I like for all 24 weeks of CC. Then I print out the week's list of resources and put that list in a page protector in my Cycle 1 binder (no picture, sorry, it's just a plain ol' binder). Then I go through each lesson plan, idea, resource, etc., and put a mark next to the ones that I definitely want to do this year. I've found lots of stuff that would appeal to older kids (my oldest will be in the K4 class), so I've made a column for that, too. Afterall, we'll be going through this cycle again in a couple years, so I'll already have most of my resources in one place with this spreadsheet. I keep thinking how much easier planning will be when we start repeating cycles!

For my binder, I'm using Brandy's (my pretend-friend, remember) one page planner, and it's awesome! I've got tabs for each week with a lesson planning page and my spreadsheet printout. Next, I keep already-printed items in a file box, which seems to be getting the job done, although I think I need a bigger box.

Then each week, I plan to move that week's stuff from the box to the wall.

Sounds good, right? Well, keep in mind that I've never done this before. I'm new to homeschooling and new to CC. I'm expecting lots of hits and misses, but I learn best from my own mistakes, so there's my silver lining. And I'm so thankful for the whole CC community, in real life and online. It's so encouraging to know that there are other mamas out there to help when the going gets tough and to also share in the joys. That's one of the main reasons I felt a calling to start this blog - community. I want it. I need it. And even blogging this little bit has helped me feel connected to other CC mamas.

On my organization to-do list is to make a tri-fold board like Brandy's. I'm waiting to complete that project until closer to the first day of school, but I can't wait!

That's about all I've got for planning and organization right now. I'll keep you updated, and thanks again for checking out the blog!

Welcome!

I am a die-hard jump-right-in sort of girl. I started researching homeschooling options before my oldest daughter was two. I love, love, love to plan! I ran across the classical approach and knew this was what I wanted to do. Then as Mary grew and her personality developed, I thought I would go with a different method that was literature-based to appeal to her love of books. However, as the year went on, I wasn't really comfortable with that much freedom; I wasn't exactly sure where I was taking my little one, if that makes sense. I didn't find a rhyme or reason, and we certainly didn't hit any kind of rhythm. Of course, she was three, and so I wasn't expecting too much. At the end of this past spring, a friend told me about Classical Conversations (insert Hallelujah Chorus here!). I hurried home, looked it up, fell in LOVE, and emailed our local director about any available K4 spots. Did I mention that I like to jump in with both feet? Classical Conversations (CC) offers a framework for classical education, actual goals, and a community of like-minded Christian families. This was a no-brainer for us. So, we're all signed up, sight unseen, and we've been rockin' to the new Timeline Song for about a month now. I've been scouring the internet for ideas and lesson plans (Pinterest is addicting!), which I absolutely love to do, and I've been reading some outstanding CC blogs, namely Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood. If you want to know more about CC, check out Brandy's site; it's simply jaw-dropping how much information she has gathered! So, in keeping with my do-or-die personality, I decided to start a homeschooling blog, too. I plan on posting my weekly plans, hits and misses, and general homeschool mumbo jumbo. Mainly, I want to have a place where it's okay if I talk about school stuff all the time (I know my hubs will appreciate the break!). Thanks for checking out the new site. Enjoy!