Homeschool Open House 2007

I am joining in on the fun over at Tiany's Homeschool Open House 2007. (See it at homeschoolblogger.com/Tiany) .... I cannot get a link to work here .... I don't know why.

My husband and I have been married for 13 years (this Oct) and are first year homeschoolers. We are in our third week of school now and have truly loved every minute of it.

We have 2 great kids, and 11 year old daughter, who is nick-named "Fancy"on my blog (and in real life) and a 7 year old son we call "Bubby" (also in the blog world and the real world). They are in 6th and 2nd grade respectively.

I work full time nights as a Nurse and my husband is self employed. We weren't sure we could homeschool with our schedules, but with much prayer and consideration, we decided to step out on FAITH. I work Wed-Thur-Fri from 7pm to 7am so I am able to do full school days with the kids on Mon-Tue-Wed with no problem. Hubby's job allows him to stay home and do Thursdays. We seem to be able to finish it all up in a 4 day week. My Mom is a GREAT support and takes the kids on Fridays while I sleep and Hubby works. She does library days, fieldtrips, takes them to P.E. at the coop and/or anything else needed. It is great having such a support system. I'm sure she will work in plenty of just plain FUN on Fridays too.

I have recently posted pics of our schoolroom and kids on my blog, but I will repeat for the sake of the Open House visitors. I apologize to those who have already seen them.

We are using the following curricula:

My Father's World - Exploring Countries and Cultures

Character Building: The Narrow Way (by Pearables)

English From the Roots Up

A Reason for Handwriting

Mind Benders (logic)

Language Lessons by Emma Searle (Primary for him and Intermediate for her)

Spelling Power

Horizons Math (2nd and 6th grade)

My daughter plays Volleyball and serves in the Kindergarten ministry at church. She is also wanting to start taking guitar lessons soon.

My son plays soccer and and wants to take up drums (Lord help us).

They also both are doing AWANA.

Our day:

Since we are new to this, our schedule is loose and will surely be evolving, but for now here is what we do:

Goal is to start by 9am

Bible Story/Memory verse practice/AWANA practice

Handwriting

Math

Reading (Independent)

Spelling

Language

Character Training

LUNCH

Geography

Science/Nature Walk

Repeat Memory verse practice/AWANA practice

Music/Art

Logic

Greek/Latin

FREE TIME

DINNER

Read aloud before bed

So far, our day (from Bible to Greek/Latin) seems to be taking about 6 hours (including breaks). Not too bad, but I think it will lessen as we get better at moving from subject to subject. They then get in about 2-3 hours of free time, then dinner, baths, reading (1-2 hours) then off to sleep. We need to work in some "Home Economics" (aka chores) into that schedule too. I need a break somewhere. haha

Here are a couple of pictures of our schoolroom (although we do a lot in other areas of the house and outside too). We have three desks and 2 big bookshelves in this small room, but it works out very well.

And here are the precious reasons we do it all:

"Fancy"

"Bubby"