Our Homeschool: School room pictures!

School room storage is a popular topic on The Homeschool Lounge this week, so I thought I would post pics of how we organize our school things!

 

 This is an extra-wide hallway just before the school room.  The bookcase holds Jackson's books on top and his Pre-K basket on bottom.  I need his work to be mobile so I can take him away from where the girls are working.  On the right is our library rack, filled up with the latest load!

  This is a sign I have posted over the entryway.  Cheesy, but I like it!

 

This is Jordan's workspace.  Above the desk, she put up some of her special things.  The flashcards that she reviews daily are on the top shelf and some coloring books below.  She colors when she finishes a task and is waiting for me to finish up whatever I am doing.

 

Computer station and Mama's chair.  The girls always laugh when I roll from one desk to the other.  It's the little things in a school day that make it great! Also in this picture is our extra large map of the United States, globe, Jordan's doll house (another thing to keep her busy when I am working with Meg.)

 

This is Megan's workspace.  She has also put up some of the things that she thinks are great, including a cross she just received from her pen pal.  She also has her current flashcards on the top shelf of the desk and her animal cards on the bottom shelf. 

 

Next year Jackson will need his own work space, so we'll have to find another home for the piano.  Also on the left is another bookcase that holds our books.

 

And lastly, this is our craft closet which also holds extra science materials.
It's really just an organized mess, but I'm thankful for the extra storage.

So this is where we spend our mornings learning and laughing!  We really love this room and feel SO blessed to have a separate place for our school materials.  I'm sure that we'll have to get more creative with our storage as we accumulate more materials.

Lord bless you!

Into the New Year

Whew!  The past two weeks have just FLOWN BY!  We've been busy little bees, catching up on chores and pen pal letters, making trips to the park (it warmed up to 55 degrees!!!), and getting back into our groove with homeschooling (more on that in a minute.)  And of course the kids have been having a lot of fun tearing into the craft packs and science kits that they recently received.

Here is Megan building a circuit with her new science kit from Grandpa and Grandma Taylor. 

I am still amazed that it has held everyone's attention for this long!  This is one of those activities that the kids will sit for hours playing with, and won't argue about who has what.

In science, we are working our way through Usborne's, "Mysteries and Marvels of Nature" as well as Sonlight's Biology I book.  We're currently studying insects, so I have a pretty unhappy 5 year-old princess on my hands.  This is the face that she has made for the past two weeks every time science rolls around!  Totally grossed out by BUGS!

This girl just wasn't made to enjoy the gory details, and Usborne books are full of them!  My other two kids are loving every bit of it.

History.  I have to be honest--we have been a' slackin'!  They have kept up with the reading, but we haven't been having as much discussion time or extra activities since we picked back up after the holidays.  Which reminds me, I have to go right upstairs and get our craft out for tomorrow...right after I'm done here.  Or after the kids go to bed.  Or maybe I'll...well, I guess you can see who has been doing the bulk of the slacking!

Here's what my kids are doing right now:

This is the custom Aggravation board that my dear dad made for me for my 28th birthday.  My Great-Grandma had a board just like this one, and she and her friends would have game nights when they were younger.  Everybody in our extended family grew up playing "marbles" on Great-Grandma's board.  My mom also went to a lot of trouble to find me a marble tin that was similar to my Great-Grandma's (Jackson is holding it in the picture).  It was truly one of the greatest gifts that I've ever gotten.  And now I get to watch MY children sitting around the board, playing Marbles.  It's awesome!  Here's a close-up of my dad's handiwork.  I'm trying to convince him to go into business making boards, but he's not sure just yet.

In the next two weeks, we are jumping into the heart of the American Revolution.  I have some fun activities planned, including writing our own family Constitution and learning to dance the Minuet.  We've also been watching the entire season of "Liberty's Kids" on DVD.  I am praying that by February we will be done here and moved on to Lewis & Clark.  We need a good expidition around here!!!

Other books we are reading this month:

The Cato Gazette

by Megan and Jordan Cato

Greetings fellow villagers!  Happy New Year!

Since it is a new year, we just started reading through the bible from the beginning.  At nighttime, my dad reads the bible to us.  We read one chapter from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.  That way we can learn about Jesus.

Last night, we learned that God is a rock and the world is soft sand.  We should build our lives on the God rock.

Jordan just got her Flat Stanley journal back from Pennsylvania.  It was filled with all sorts of stuff!  It even had Hershey's chocolates in it because the family lived near Hershey, PA!  This is our first Stanley swap and Jordan was so happy to get it in the mail!

Here are some pictures of other things we have been doing:

 

WE GOT TO GO SLEDDING.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!

JACKSON MADE STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!

WE MADE A PUPPY AND AN OWL OUT OF FUN FUSION BEADS!

That's all for now!  Bye bye fellow villagers!

Love, Megan and Jordan