Back to School By: Stella Age: 10

Hello All!

You might wonder why I put this post up so 'early'! Well, for us, it isn't! I am in the middle of the last day of my first week of school as I type this.
Why? Well, it's pretty simple, the BABY!!!! :)

We have had a wonderful beginning week, and I'll tell you all about it:

Our System:
Let me explain what we do for our school. Mater is now teaching three grades, Kindergarten to Rus, 4th Grade to Leo, and 6th Grade to me (Stella)!
We all have a schedule. I'll explain it briefly. We all start school after doing breakfast and chores, at 7:45 a.m. We group together at 8:00, have Bible time, prayer, and the pledge till 8:30. (Even little Tert joins in!) Then Tert takes a nap, Rus plays, and we read till about 9:30ish or 10:00ish. Then we do independent work and Mater teaches Rus until lunch. Then we finish up school. I'm done at about 2:30 and Leo soon after. (He works with Mater after me.)
It works well.

Our Books:

We switched over to Veritas Press this year from Sonlight. We have really enjoyed it a lot. Sonlight worked for the first couple years, but then we stopped it.
We have a lot more independent reading time this year. We have one big book though that we read as a group in our time in the morning before independent work.
Right now we are reading Swiss Family Robinson as our big book. It is really fun!
Leo is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! I am reading Elsie Dinsmore books!

Science:
We are studying the Solar System this year and we are going through a really fun course! We are learning all about the Solar System and we also are going to make a mobile of the Solar System with Pater!

Independent Work:

For our independent work, we have a HUGE binder and then a couple little binders. We have files where I keep spelling and my journal, Shurley English 6 Notebook, and thing like that! We have our Math Notebook in the binder too, along with a schedule and list of independent work to be done.

Quick Overview of Kindergarten:

Mater does the main teaching with Rus. Mater does the Phonics Museum, which is a cool thing that is based on a little boy going to a museum, (he doesn't want to) but he is led by a Knight (Percival) and along the way learns his letters! Rus loves it and is doing great with it. It has little books along the way too.
Leo does a big number book with Rus that has a lot of activities in it for him.
I do a cool thing called Literature Pockets. It is based on Nursery Rhymes that he learns along the way. What I do, is I make pockets for him out of construction paper and staples and a hole punch. Then we have activities throughout the week. I'll give you a sample week:

Little Bird Nursery Rhyme and Pocket
Day 1:
Make Pocket, and a Little Folding Book, Coloring Sheet, Start Learning Rhyme

Day 2:
Make Little Bird out of Construction Paper, Glue or Tape, Markers, Googly Eyes if wanted,Say Rhyme With Bird

Day 3:
Fill in Worksheet about a Little ------, have him think of an animal that hops, and have him draw it (Rus did a Spider) Finish Memorizing Rhyme

Day 4:
Prepare for Next Week, Make Photocopies

It is really fun, he loves it!

Well, that's pretty much all that we do! We love it and are looking forward to a great year!

Pictures will be posted soon!

By: Stella
Grade: 6
Age: 10