Ready.... Set..... Stay Home!!!!

It's finally done! Rearranging and adding a few things, putting other items in storage for when needed again our schoolroom is finally complete! This is probably the neatest it will ever look - ha!


While our educating does not only take place here, it is a room to keep all the books we need to have easy access to, wall space set aside for learning posters, white boards, etc and yes - desks to do desk work stuff like math, writing, coloring, etc. 

I'm excited about Zanna's little corner with her "new" desk! Next to it are her workboxes. While not the textbook way to implement, I've modified it to fit our needs. I think this will be a way to keep her day going as she works her way through each drawer - some with my help and others on her own. Some days she may find a snack in one, a worksheet to fill out in another, and my iPhone for a fun educational game in yet another! 

I put together her calendar taken mostly from resources found here.
She has great ideas on her blog and I have found them most useful for little ones. She makes up some of her own curriculum - some free, others at a nominal charge. I also regularly check out this blog for other ideas for young children.
I also have a laminated wall map hung low near her desk. This will be for mapping our Five in a Row books. Each day we read the same book focusing on a different subject be it art, history, geography, science, language arts, etc. I used this program with Will for kindergarten and found it to be such a gentle way of learning with children and helped to instill a love of reading, books and stories. Plus, we get to snuggle on the couch, under the covers, or on our backs up in the playstructure! 
She and I will also be making our way through "Egermeier's Bible story book".  I love her age, her thirst for learning and her curiosity! It's so much fun to go on nature walks, listen to her start to put sounds together into words, and watch her light up when she discovers something new!

Here's one of our bookshelves and our new filing cabinet from Ikea.

Of course, we need a bulletin board to post work well done and the Wii time sheet. No Wii is allowed during the week but weekend time earned by hard work, good behaviour and an effort that goes above and beyond what is expected. Slightly subjective on my end but after all - I am in charge :). 

Here are some of the books we'll be reading and studying this year (and maybe next). I am so excited to start this course of study I can barely contain myself. I've been waiting years to get to this years study of Eastern Hemisphere. I mean come on, when do you ever study the Eastern Hemisphere except maybe in college? We'll be discovering China, Japan, India, Africa, Australia - even as I write this I get all exhilarated. 

Here's the All About Spelling board. Will started this last year and got through level 3 by doing it practically every day. This helped his spelling tremendously and I can't say enough about this program. We'll continue with level 4 and I plan on using it with Zanna too as it's a good way to learn your phonograms and helps with reading. 
He'll also continue with his Institute for excellence in Writing which is another of those treasures I'm very thankful to my aunt for recommending. I was at a loss as to how to teach writing and not only is this program wonderful in every way but I've come to appreciate much of what Andrew Peduwa says and have listened to many of his downloads in regards to education. 

Other things Will is doing this year:
The Young Peacemaker
Faith Foundations
Saxon Math 7/6
Sonlight Core F

It's busy as you can see and this doesn't count the SHEP program (Science and History enrichment program) in the fall and spring, violin lessons, karate, field trips, etc. My goal is not to cram everything into a year but take it at a pace we can handle and if we stop to explore something that he finds interesting and we skip over some other stuff, that's OK. I'm so over doing everything suggested and being a slave to any curriculum or coarse of study. We make it work for us. 

Love my little window seat and magazine rack! A good place for reading, snuggling and dreaming.

Another new addition I'm excited about - our clocks! I thought it would be fun to have clocks set to the time zones of our loved ones. So we have England, Calgary, Wisconsin and Ottawa. All done for about $14 I'm pretty happy. I couldn't have done it without my man - I have the vision, he has the plan to make it happen. We're a good team!

Finally, this is Will's daily schedule we implemented last year. Previously, I was struggling with frequent outbursts, temper tantrums and overall attitude issues. Not uncommon at this age but too often that it was a concern and disruption to our day. Thinking that it had something to do with daily expectations and not being clear about what was being asked of him on any given day, I put this together (modified from here) that clearly has the subject or activity scheduled for the day and as he finishes them he takes them off (their velcroed) and puts it in the jar. This way he seeing what the expectations are and has a sense of accomplishment as he goes along. When he's done, he's done. Then he can watch a movie, go play with friends, etc. His freedom is in his hands. He feels more in charge, I think. 


So that's about it for now! I'm excited to start but not too excited that I'm not going to enjoy the last few lazy days of summer!!!!!