another home school update. ready, set, learn!

My mind feels so crammed full of home schooling info, curriculum, books and schedules that it may just explode any minute.  One moment I am excited, the next, completely overwhelmed.

I wanted to sit down and properly type out a post, chock full of everything I have done, purchased and thought of to prepare for school this fall.  To be honest, I have no idea what I am doing.  And most days I believe I've gone completely nuts to think I won't go crazy with all three boys at home.  All the time.  And with the mister working round the clock.  I'm not sure when I'll breath!

My older sister spurred on the idea of homeschooling and although that is not the path they are currently taking, she has been such a great support, constantly emailing me links to this and that.  My whole family has been nothing short of great, always so positive about our decision.

We have a room downstairs designated as the "school room".  It has slowly morphed into a lovely little place to house our craft/art supplies, stacks and stacks of books and all of the school odds and ends one might want.  I had a few pieces of furniture already but knew I wanted to supplement with a few new things from IKEA, which I know the mister was extremely thrilled about building.  I decided on the Besta cabinet and an Expedit.  Because really, one can never go wrong with an Expedit.  Ever.  With those two items, plus a small table and chairs and a filing cabinet, we were set!  Here's a little hint—I bought these child safety locks to keep Nic out of the craft cabinet and filing drawer.  And so far they work like a charm!

I chose to go with the ever fabulous shoe box containers from my beloved store, The Container Store.  Oh that store gets me every time.  It makes my heart pitter patter and I am sure it is what makes the world go round.  It is that good.  The organizing of the room was my favorite part.

I ended up switching a few things when it came to curriculum.  I veered a bit from my original thoughts and will hopefully be satisfied with my decision.  Seriously, the art of choosing this and that is what gave me such a headache.  I might have canceled an order or two when trying to decide.  Below is a little list of what I went with.

First Language Lessons (Well Trained Mind)
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons
Handwriting Without Tears
Life of Fred
Right Start Mathematics
A handful of fun readers from Usborne
Art Treasury Book
Playful Learning
Books from Barnes and Noble (one can NEVER have too many books)
Science kits from Peek Aren't You Curious
Spelling (Free downloadable lists!)

I also hit up Target like a mad woman and frolicked down the school aisles like I was a kid again.  New pencils!  New crayons!  Too good I tell you.

And now I feel like I am in school.  I am reading through all the work books, studying the first few lessons, trying to wrap my mind around the things I want to teach, the creativity I want to foster.  I have a tentative schedule mapped out.  We will do about 2 hours of school in the morning, followed by lunch.  Then when Nicholas goes down for his nap, we will either do a fun art project, science experiment or bake/cook.  My oldest declared that he wants to learn to bake and cook and so, why not I say!  After that and a bit of free time, we will wrap things up with another half hour in the afternoon focusing on our theme for the month or the author study we have chosen.

There you have it!  The map and white board still need to go up but other than that, we are set to rock and roll.  My boys have already dug into some of the supplies and are playing school as I type this out.  Their favorite, the laminated calendar and pointer.  Big hits!