Preparing for the Next School Year 2

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Getting Ready for a New School Year!!!

Hi there!  It's been a while since my last post, took a break to refocus on family and home priorities.  It was a much need and well spent break.  But from the looks of it I have some updating to do on this blog. Yet, it feels good to get back into the swing of things.



For a couple weeks now the local stores have had school supplies on sale.  I don't know about you but this is when I load up on the things we need.  Usually, I hit these sales at the last minute scrambling and rummaging through the left overs.

This year, I took the second week of July to sit down and take inventory of our school supplies -because I knew the stores were prepping for their back to school sales starting the last two weeks of July.  It's so much cheaper to stock up at this time than to pick-up an item when it runs out.

Things I purchase:

•  3" 3-Ring Binders - to file kids work and my paperwork/lesson plans
   (re-use for next year until no longer functional)
• 1" 3-Ring Flexi Binders for any books I print out
• Dividers with tabs
  (separate subjects)
• Cahier books for journals
• Packs loose Wide Rule paper for kids / College Rule for me
• Computer paper
• jumbo pencils
• pink erasers
• mechanical pencils (for older children)
• refill lead and erasers for mechanical pencils
• box of crayons for each child (keeps everyone happy)
• liquid and stick glue for each child
• construction paper
•  scissors each child
• rulers each child
• colored pencils
• markers
• water color paints
• rubber bands
• stickers
• tempera paint
• index cards for our vocabulary
• Clips
• Staples  (book making)
• Duct Tape (for projects and book making and well... it's Duct Tape!)
• Organizer Pockets for storage of Pencils and erasers in the Binders
• Reinforcement labels for loose papers in binders
• Pens for Mom to grade with
• Dry Erase Markers Big and Small
• Dry Erase Boards - Awesome for Preschoolers and Elementary learning to read and write

 I thought about back packs-but we don't do enough traveling to justify the expense and with 5 kids it's too much to try to keep track.

I don't normally have to pick up everything.  But this is what is on my inventory list and if I'm out or low I stock up at this time on these items.

This is also a good time to pick-up dress clothing and shoes for the kiddos.  I typically shop Goodwill or thrift shops for our clothing.  But for dress clothing I hit the sales for those two to three nice outfits for special occasions.

So, when do you prepare and where do you shop for the next school year?  Maybe your ideas to could help any newbies or families stuggling to make it work.

First Day of New Learning Year...

Monday is officially our first day of our new learning year and I'm already making adjustments before we even begin.

This year we're putting more focus on our language arts since I feel we were a little weak.  I'm wanting to do more dictation and copywork. My biggest task is implementing it.

Here's the thing, my 85 year old grandfather has some how managed to rupture his hip muscle and is pretty much immobile right now and in need of 24/7 care till we can get him mobile again.  He's taking it pretty hard considering he's a very active, independent man for his age.  Not to mention, he's still dealing with a broken heart from losing my Grandmother last December. But because he's such an awsome "Papa", the kids and I for 3 days out of the week are helping care for him.  So, between caring for him and runnning after the 3 year old and 1 year old, I think there will be more copy work than dictation.  I'd still like to dictate once out of the week as a sort of test.  But it will have to be on the days we are home and my house work load is low. (Scratching brain right now.) Maybe, I can get the three year old and one year old to take a nap-their schedule has been so messed up that they don't know up from down right now.

Any-how, I think what I'll do is use the on-line worksheet makers and print copywork ahead of time using text from the McGuffey Readers and Scripture for the older two.  For my five year old, I'm going to use some free worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler (thanks Sheri) to help her with letter formation as well as use her composition book (just to get her use to it).  We'll read the text, then discuss the text/letter formation, then they'll do the copywork, and then review.

For our Math, we are going to review our math facts and previously learned concepts these next few weeks since we took two months off.  We'll be using Math Mammoth and supplementing with Ray's.  Though, I see us using Math Mammoth more than our Ray's considering our situation right now.

For our Bible Study, I have been reading a bible story right after breakfast and have the children read a Psalm and Proverbs to my grandfather-hoping it brightens his outlook a bit.

For History/Geography and Science, we'll read from our history based or science based literature. Then go over unknown vocabulary and do Notebook pages and a science project once or every two weeks. I'm trying something new with our History/Geography and Science we're going to alternate quarters-hoping this will elimate the rushed feeling I get when teaching these subjects due to we heavily depend on library books and always seem to have to return them before I'm ready.  I thing we'll do the same for our Art and Music Appreciation.

Piano lessons have been put on hold for the moment. So, I'll sub with a forgein language-Spanish preferably.

I actually had a schedule all done up-but now needs re-tweeked.  Maybe when I find some more time I'll post it.

Thanks for listening to my rambling and please pray for the healing of my grandfathe's hip. Thanks!

PS- There's a new tab above blog for Handwriting/Copywork gernerating.  Feel free to take a look.