Summer has just flown by this year. We have had a fun summer full of trips to the lake, nature walks, visiting a cave, a dam, and a train museum, camping, a visit from my parents from California, and local events. More recently the skies have been clouded with smoke from all the nearby wildfires. Some days are better than others and on the worst days we stay pretty cooped up indoors to avoid breathing it in.
On these days that we are stuck indoors I have been working on plans for our upcoming homeschool year. I am so excited for all the learning that is ahead of us, honestly I learn just as much or more through homeschooling as the children do!
This is my first year with 2 students at different levels doing formal schoolwork. For the past couple of years I have been using the Charlotte Mason Curriculum from Ambleside Online with my oldest son. I love it so much. It is rich and full and the books we are reading are amazing. Also it is free, you just have to buy the actual books many of which are free or very cheap online if the budget is tight.
I was a little unsure this year having two students(plus a preschooler and a baby) how I was going to schedule and organize all of it so that I could work with each one individually in the areas they need me to. I have a yr. 1 and a yr. 3 student this year so I started by printing all the book lists and schedules for those two years. Then came the fun part! Ordering and receiving books in the mail! I bought a cute baskets for each child’s books and as the books arrived into the proper basket they went.
The children each have their own basket for books including the preschooler.
I also have my own teachers basket which contains books we all read together, books that are used by both students and my handy binder full of plans and schedules.
I filled several notebook pages with note on all the different aspects of our day. In order to help me visually lay out our daily schedule I actually wrote out each subject and the time allotted on a piece of paper then cut it up. This allowed me to arrange and rearrange them until everything fit together and I created the perfect schedule. Well probably not perfect, it is only on paper so far, it hasn’t been tested in real life yet!
Laying out the schedule. Excuse the very poor photography, this was done late at night 😉
Last night I stayed up way too late finalizing everything and printing out these pretty schedules. I used Microsoft Excel to create these, which I had never really used until a couple years ago when Andrew taught me how to use it. After printing them I covered them with Contact paper to make them sturdier and I can also write with a dry erase marker on them. I love the way they turned out!
Overall daily schedule, school schedule broken down by person, and our morning meeting list.
Our overall daily schedule
All the pretty schedules. Can you tell schedules make me happy?!
My Yr.3 student’s personal schedule with room for me to write assignments with a dry erase marker and him to check them off.
And my YR. 1 student’s schedule, same idea as above.
I also have had fun assembling all the supplies: maps, timelines, math manipulatives, etc.
Each child has a blank note book that I traced maps to go along with their books into. Some maps are partially labeled and some are blank for them to label as we go.
Even my preschooler get a map book with a map of our property that I traced from Google maps!
I printed they lyrics and chords off for our hymns and folksongs. My intention is to actually learn them on my mandolin… we’ll see. But at least we will sing them.
I love the book that I got printed at Shutterfly with all our art study pictures for the year.
Someone on the Ambleside Online Facebook group was kind enough to create the file and share with everyone!
Some puff paint letters and phonograms for my child who will be learning to read.
I am also excited to be setting up the den as a school room this year! It is right off the main part of the house which makes it feel not so secluded but still a little separate. We have bookshelves in there, a writing/art desk, our storage cabinet, and the computer desk. I also want to get a small loveseat for reading together on.
An entertainment center used for storing all our supplies and a lovely rolltop desk.
Book baskets with a timeline above.
I cleared off this desk mostly so I would have place to do my painting but it will also work for schoolwork. And the top is the beginning of our nature display area.
I like that the cabinet closes up and everything looks neat and tidy. Actually the desk closes too I just didn’t close it before I snapped the picture.
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