New Bee Homeschooler

When I leave my house with a silver long earring in one ear and a small gold earring in the other because my mind is on curriculum choices, I know it's time to go ahead and purchase it. I think part of the reason I have put it off is because it is my last time to sit down with Mr. Senior 2013.  The words of the poem Babies Don't Keep keep haunting me. I share it often in my new bee workshops to remind them of fleeting time but the words have come true for me this year. {sniffle}

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

                                    Empty the dust pan, poison the moth,

                                    Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

                                    Sew on a button and butter the bread.

                                    Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

                                    She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

                                    Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

                                    Lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo.

                                    Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

                                    Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peek a boo

                                    The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

                                    And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

                                    But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo

                                    Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

                                    Lullaby, rockabye lullaby loo.

                                    The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

                                    But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

                                    So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

                                    I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Back to reality,  math and grammar are really the only two subjects we try not to skip around on. The rest of the subjects we work in alongside our unit studies. Basically, I like to refer to our curriculum as resources that we pull from.

Too, part of this year, Mr. Senior 2013 will be with us and part of it he will be getting credit at the community college. So he does not need much. Knowing this year that my schedule will be ever changing and adding in the fact Mr. Awesome is next up to learn driving, I want a few more laid out resources this year. There is a graduation party to start planning too.

Composition/Grammar/Spelling.

Mr. Senior 2013

Composition - He prefers to read and use a good teacher's manual like WriteShop. Since he prefers to read about his writing lesson, then brainstorm, he chose WriteShop.

Grammar - He likes so many, but we both think Bob Jones will finish his training nicely this year.

Mr. Awesome

Composition - So different than my first son, he prefers the video interaction with Andrew Pudewa so he chose Institute for Excellence in Writing {IEW}.

Grammar - Bob Jones

Tiny

Composition - IEW

Grammar - Bob Jones

Spelling - I use two spelling programs so I can determine how fast we move. All About Spelling and Calvert.

I have never viewed myself as a writer. {Aspiring or otherwise. How can you be aspiring? You either are a writer or not.} However, I feel both Write Shop and IEW give solid step by step guidance to any style of writing. Listing writing topics is also a must in any solid writing program. Both programs weave nicely into unit studies because the boys can apply each step to any unit study topic. If we are in between unit studies, they choose a topic of their own choice or from one provided. Nice.

Reading/History/Composition Topics.

All of this comes from our resources we choose for our unit studies. So I bit the bullet and purchased all 4 years of Tapestry of Grace {TOG}, the digital edition. Last year, I purchased two years and it was such a relief in helping me to plan some of my unit study topics. So I purchased the other two years this year. I have a few resources I may use from Story of the World for Tiny but Tapestry of Grace is for multiple ages and I can use it for a longer time.

Beautiful Feet history literature choices makes it easy to narrow down to a realistic amount of reading we can do for the year. It will always remain one of my favorites as a guide to what I feel is some of the better quality literature.

Mr. Senior 2013 needs to focus on U.S. History and World History so Beautiful Feet gives him that help. I have some resources from TOG for this same time period, so we are set.

Science/Reading.

I have so many books on science and try to include living books for part of their reading as well. It does get harder the older they get but I am determined to keep them reading living books. But to get in our experiments for the year, I have always liked A Reason For Science because you can purchase the kits that gives you all the science supplies you need to do an experiment. You may need one or two things from your house like some salt, or a plant but even the straws, string and cups are included for each experiment.

It is pricey but I had to weigh that against my time this year of having to list, round up and purchase the supplies.

Mr. Awesome and Mr. Senior 2013 have to focus on chemistry and physical science too.

Fine Arts.

I also purchased some fine arts packages from Barb at Harmony Fine Arts. Barb is a friend of mine but more than that she inspires me to take time to learn about art.  We have had a good amount of music exposure but the younger two boys I feel need more art exposure. You know how I feel about products that come from talented home school moms who are blessed in an area. They are gifts and I want to use their gifts in an area to inspire and educate my children. They understand the demands on our time but also the fact that we need freedom and flexibility from anything we purchase.

Barb just won an award this past Saturday from Practical Homeschooling for First Place in Music Appreciation and Art and Second Place in Art Appreciation. Congratulations Barb!

{Mmm, I hear give away coming up!}

Math

Math U See works for Mr. Senior 2013 and I like Horizons for Tiny to finish up. I still need to check for Mr. Awesome if Math U See is a good fit for him this year.

Doing our unit studies we choose as we go along and any outside classes, we already have a full schedule.

If we have to change anything this year, we can on a moment's notice.

Also, switching subjects here {no pun intended}, we just changed our Facebook page. We have been trying to move away from our old name New Beginnings to our new name New Bee Homeschooler. We share freebies for both Dynamic 2 Moms and New Bee Homeschooler on our Facebook page. Be sure to click LIKE on our new page to get those freebies there too.You can follow us on Google + but both of those pages we share other freebies.

Here is the link to the new Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Bee-Homeschooler/152877401517180

I have a couple of giveaways coming up. Also the last half of the month, I will focus on organizing the kitchen and recipes. Too, I try to satisfy *special requests* for specific curriculum planning pages and I have a form to share for that coming up.

I couldn't finish setting up our school area until we finished making curriculum choices, so I will share pictures soon on that. I have a topic on "Faves" to share on some things I feel makes my day easier, organized and well just fun.

Also, we are still on our Meso-America unit study so that lapbook is coming up. Because there are many new followers {you know how I feel about that word, don't like it. Subscribers? uggggg worse yet. Friends? better} that have come over from Homeschool Freebie of the Day, I wanted to catch them up on what you may already have on my Meso-America Unit Study as I mosey along.  I can't have any lost followers, subscribers, friends. {ok ok}

Grab the notebooking pages and game cards.

Here is the link to the blog post for the notebooking pages.

Here is the link to the blog post for the game cards.

There, not lost anymore.

Don't forget to click LIKE on our brand new facebook page .

I was inspired by this quote today as I ponder it in helping Mr. Senior 2013 make his final curriculum selections. Oh sappy moments I am telling you will come and go, mostly come lately. I hope I have not changed him but empowered him in his last year.

"If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be."

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~

Hugs today, you know I love ya!