“Back” to school is always an exciting time. As a year-round homeschooling family, I find it important to be intentional about making this time of year special for the boys- and mama! Back to school is a way for the children to mark the passage of time and its a time of renewal. For Mr. Man, moving up a number is a big deal. This year is extra special because Monkey officially joins brother in the ranks of “big”. So, how do we make this time special? Of course, I take advantage of the sales and renew our supplies. I go through the children’s clothes and donate all the things that have become too small. We are sure to take the obligatory first-day photo. My husband thinks I am insane, but its a mom thing.
All summer the boys have been excited to see the ever-growing stack of new curriculum. We’ve made some changes this year and are excited to dig in. We’ve added a lot of reading books to our shelves over the summer and will be doing a lot more notebooking this year. At the moment, The Bad Guys series is one of our favorites. I’ve also added quite a few in the way of non-fiction, including the Who Was/What is? series. I’ve also worked on adding some fun thematic days into our plans and we will be focusing more on Science and Social Studies this year. We will be trying out the Masterbooks’ curriculum including God’s Design for Life, Math Lessons for a Living Education, My Story, and Language Lessons for a Living Education. Monkey will start out using the curriculum from Lifepac, as well. These are complete changes from the curriculum we did last year and we’ll see which we decide to continue forward with. I did decide to bring A Reason for Handwriting back into the mix because the boys were getting very lazy in that area.
The boys are excited to have their own assignment boards. 
This helps give Mr. Man a visual and helps him transition between activities. We will also be implementing a new incentive activity that will, hopefully, eliminate some of the whining I hear when I say the word “school”. Since Pokemon is currently THE thing in our house, the boys will be collecting Pokemon eggs. Each egg contains a Pokemon which they can add to their book as they try to “catch them all”. To earn an egg the boys will collect tokens by doing schoolwork without whining and following the newly implemented Family Rules. Tokens will go onto their token boards and can be traded in for a Pokemon egg when they have ten tokens.
The Bean boys are definitely looking forward to new adventures. What do you do to celebrate the beginning of a new school year? What are you most excited for?
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Summer is coming to an end. It’s hot and we’re burnt out. We school throughout the year but have been pushing to finish a few areas before moving on in August. Curriculum boxes are arriving. We are anxious to start the new and the boys are tired of the (same) old.
Space day was a hit! The books we read (
boys having fun with it, as well. We had tried it in the past and I was a little concerned that it wouldn’t work for us. However, the next day Mr. Man specifically asked to do school that way, again. Success! Mr. Man completed his notebooking page on his own. Monkey is still learning to write, so he dictates to me and I write it down using a highlighter, which he goes back over and traces with his pencil. Then, he adds his own artwork.
Here, the children were each given a crayon and chose a mold to design a ring or racecar crayon. Of course, the boys chose racecars. They would insert their crayon into the machine and watch the crayon melt and fill up the mold. Then, they watched as the crayon was cooled and rehardened. After the activity was complete, they were able to take their racecar with them. The children enjoyed watching the process and I was surprised that they were patient throughout the activity.
Drip Art: Like Melt and Mold, the children are given crayons to put into the melting machine. At this station, the crayons are dripped onto spinning paper, similar to the old paint spinners I remember as a child. The outcome is a unique work of art. There is a lever that allows you to control the speed of the spinning and change the effect of the design.
At this station, you color a picture (dragon, unicorn, fairy, etc.) and then scan it into the computers. Your picture is turned into a digital design. You can choose a background for your creation and email it to yourself.
in front of a screen. Their picture was projected in front of them as a rainbow of paint poured down over their heads. The kids spent quite some time enjoying this station.
There is also a snack and dessert shop available if you get hungry. We stopped here to enjoys some brownies (who needs birthday cake?) The last activity we enjoyed was a panning for gold type station. Although, this is an added cost activity. You purchase a bag of sand and pan for different types of rocks. Monkey loves rocks, so for his special day, we went ahead and got the kids some sand. This activity was much faster than expected, but they were happy with the treasures they were able to take home.
skills. Each player takes turns rolling nine dice. Each die ha
which I came across more recently and love! These are hands-on activities put out by Carson Dellosa Education and come in a variety of subjects including math, science, words study, language arts and seasonal. The idea is to have the children complete an interactive activity on one notebook page and then use the next page to show their learning and skill mastery. I have included a few examples of the pages my boys have completed. Why do interactive notebooks work for us? First, my boys love it! When I tell them we are notebooking I get “yays!” instead of the typical moaning about school time (we are still working on this). The activities are fairly quick and easily show me if they have mastered a skill or need more practice. Monkey loves “cutting” and it’s an excellent way to sneak in some extra fine motor practice for Mr. Man. I also love that, after an activity is completed, there is an opportunity for the kids to tap into their own understanding, personalize their work, and become active participants in their own learning. This is also a great way to engage them and get them ready for a more traditional style of notebooking. One of my favorite things about the interactive notebooks is that I can use t
This page I loved because I didn’t even know he could read number words! I wrote the numbers, gave him the words and was shocked when he did this independently. What a great skill assessment!
We have officially been homeschooling for a year now. I see so much growth in the boys and I have learned so much, myself! As I reflect on the past year, I thought I’d share 3 things that I have learned…
end, the benefits of therapy did NOT outweigh the stress. Our tutor is amazing and is able to give him one-on-one attention, while giving Mama a break and the ability to give Monkey some much needed….uh, demanded…. attention.)
MamaBean Az 