This year I'm taking part in www.ihomeschoolnetwork.com 5th annual "Not" back-to-school blog hop. I hope you are too!

We don't have a school room per-say. If you've read my homepage you'll see that until recently (just this May) we were full time campers, so our whole camper and the whole of the outside was our school room (except for Mama and Father's bed, that was our only children fee area unless we were having a movie day because that's where the big tv was lol).

Now, we have just purchased a four bedroom home. Each child has their own room at this point, we tried having a play room but no one played in there and it wouldn't have worked for a school room either because the girls like working by Mama's computer (which is in the living room) since they both have some educational games they like to play when they're finished with their "work". And besides that Mama spreads her time out between chores, the girls, and checking on the Eldest Cracker Jack who works in his own room at his built in desk.

* Please do not mind the mess, nor the things that you see need repaired. We have only been here a few months and got it at the best price. On our budget it will take a bit of time to fix it up but it's home.*

So... this is my dining room table where the Peanut and Cracker Jack's all begin their day with Mama. Breakfast, morning binders, journaling, and spiritual work. Then it's English and Arithmetic at the dining table for both girls while the Elder Cracker Jack takes his student planner into his room to get started. Next to the table there are three drawers built into that little alcove, that's where we keep most of our school books and supplies. Eventually there will be a whole built in unit of book shelves, drawers, cupboards, and a television shelf. Behind the one chair you can just glimps a box of our crafting supplies.

This is a quick picture of the Elder Cracker Jack's "school nook" in his bedroom. The older tv in the room is not plugged in but instead helps block the view through the window onto our sun porch. It's his job to keep this area organized (those books underneath are my fault most of them are mine and I haven't moved them to my room yet) and as you can tell he hasn't been keeping it very organized lately. He also does most of his reading in here, he claims it's because it helps him concentrate ... and in a way it does but that's because his sister's aren't allowed to bother him in his room lol. You can just see his Michigan State (go Spartins!) lamp, he really likes their sports teams and wants to attend that college when he grows up if he doesn't decide to become a preacher. He tends to do his reading on his bed, but he didn't want me to take a picture of it, so out of respect for his privacy (he's 11) I only mention it not show it.

At lunch we all eat at the dining room table, but it's touching the kitchen and this makes it easy for the Cracker Jack's when it's their turn to make lunch for everyone. Or for Mama to ask about the Elder Cracker Jack's morning lesson when I make the lunches.

(And we just found out that a friend of ours has a whole kitchen of cabinets, upper and lower, to refinish our kitchen!)

This is our screened in sun porch that doubles for our entry way to our front door. This is where Peanut likes to do a lot of her "work" in the afternoon when the weather is good (we're in Michigan right now and it will be cold soon so we'll be moving afternoon lessons back to the dining table). Art, Science, and History are each done here alternately depending on the day of the week. There is a third yellow chair but the Elder Cracker Jack only grabs it when he's going to join us working at that little table.

At least once a week we take a nature walk as either part of our science or part of our Friday afternoons. This is our view out our sliding glass door, with this as our inspiration we'll be attempting to be outside as much as the weather permits.

This school "year" (we actually school year round but by "year" I mean the traditional public school year) we plan to stay in Michigan while we work on this house. But this summer it's back to our other home in Kentucky for a week or two and by next winter we'll have bought property in eastern Kentucky. We also plan on several camping trips in the next twelve months and we "school" during those as well. The ultimate plan is to be in Kentucky from about New Years until May, Michigan from May until December, and camp on our way back and forth along with several vacations ... one of which will be o visit family in Texas!!!!

When we travel I tend to pack each child's back pack with their English and Arithmetic books, a couple notebooks, pencils, and a workbook or two. Then I pack a small box of "fun" reading books and coloring books. Another small box with crafting/art projects get tossed in. My grade book and lesson plan book go into my backpack along with a few printed sheets about the areas we're going through/too so that we can have learning experiences. I do not pack History or Science materials as when we travel I tend to do these "lessons" as something comes up.

So that's where we school. Although I had beautiful dreams of an excuisite homeschool classroom, it just isn't in the cards in our house. But I love our house and homeschooling and so we spend most of our time together. Maybe our future home in the eastern side of Kentucky will provide a room of it's own for schooling, but most likely we'll still be all throughout the house enjoying learning and each other's company.

Hope to see you there!!!!

This year's curriculum choices are much the same as last year for the Cracker Jacks. We'll be using A Beka books appropriate to their grade levels (3rd and 6th) for Language Arts/English, Arithmetic, Science, and History. We'll be supplementing those four subjects using some of Khan Academy and also some links and information provided on www.allinonehomeschool.com. We'll also be doing several science projects, book reports, a unit on Kentucky and a unit on Michigan, a month long unit on Native American history.

For Religion this year the two Cracker Jacks will be attending religion class at our church as well as doing some memory verse work.

For Physical Education all three children will be attending swim lessons both this fall and in the spring (they seem to forget that the ground is still there when they pick their feet up), we're not sure what we'll be doing during this winter but we shall certainly figure it out in due time. And the Elder Cracker Jack has chosen to continue daily practice on his running skills, telling me that he plans on being able to out run any high school track member by the end of the school year.

As for music this year the Elder Cracker Jack wants to learn how to play the guitar and the Younger Cracker Jack wants to learn to play the recorder and start flute in the late spring. I still need to locate some good information on famous composers to round this area out.

I'm still working on Peanut's curriculum for this year, and will be posting a week worth of lessons a week in advance on our me of her lessons will come from A Beka books but the rest will follow a format of something similar to a letter a week preschool plan. The first of these lesson plans should be posted during the last week of this month.

For art I try to find projects that go along with a least one of the lessons we're working on. Although the Younger Cracker Jack plans to work on her crochet and finish every project in her crochet book with the ultimate goal of making and selling things to sell and donating any monies made to help penguins. The Elder Cracker Jack wants to work a lot on model cars this year and to make some robots so this aught to be a productive year for him. Peanut randomly states that it's play dough time at any given time during the day all week long so she'll of course be working with play dough a lot this year.

We also supplement a lot (at least for the younger two children) with Mead workbooks at grade level. The children all enjoy working in these. The Elder Cracker Jack was very upset when we stopped being able to find them for his new grades a couple years ago.


So let's get hopping!!!!!!

*Although I use A Beka books and Mead workbooks neither company asked me to write about them, I include them in our lessons because they work for us and I believe they are good material.

Today should have been a typical Thursday in early August for us. The Elder Peanut should have been working on his test prep (just to prove that he's made it through fifth grade) and the girls should have been enjoying the day off. Instead the morning started with a trip to the doctor's for Father, he's alright but it gave us a quick scare when we got informed we needed to come in unexpectedly. The Elder Peanut DID start his work on his test prep after we got home from the doctor's office, but quickly got involved in an abundance of other things - helping clean up construction mess outside, cleaning inside, preparing lunch while Mamma did more cleaning, more outside cleaning. By the time we actually noticed the time it was already past 3pm! A quick call later and we were on our way to Grandma's house, with a quick stop at one of Mamma's friends mom-2-mom sales.
Well, it was supposed to be a quick stop but we stayed and visited. None of the kids had seen each other in about eighteen months. And Mamma got so wrapped up with visiting that she completely forgot to BUY anything! We were there for an hour and then decided that we should probably get over to Grandma's house for a quick visit.
By the time we got back on the road it was after 7, so instead of BLT's (with turkey bacon) and soup for dinner we made a quick stop for pizza. Then it was home, eat, quiet time (quickly), and bed.
Not a typical Thursday at all, but I do wonder if all that cleaning could be counted as a mix of home economics and shop?