Back to School 2013

9/3/2013

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If you didn't start your school year earlier in the summer, I'm sure yesterday was your first day of school for the 2013-2014 school year!

While I usually spend a good majority of the summer doing school planning and scheduling, this summer was different. I was in charge of my parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary party, and boy, was that fun! :) We also had lots of company, both for daily visits, and overnight guests. We did a lot of sorting and organizing, preparing for a big garage sale. I worked hard to keep the house clean and picked up because people were coming over almost daily throughout the summer. I also started planning an educational family trip to Washington, D.C. for later this school year. Whew! It was a busy summer.

Instead of presenting my girls with their year-plan in their educational subjects on their first day of school, they just dove into starting out for a new school year. By next week, I should have their year plan arranged and printed for them. Kelsi will be relieved. She loves having her year all planned out. Brittany will find that the year plan is a bit more stressful for her. She just wants to graduate. :)

Kelsi - our resident "geek"

Brittany - our social coordinator and Dr. Who fan

Brittany officially passed up her big sister in the height department this summer. There was a lot of teasing and boasting (in jest) about this amazing event, as you could imagine.

Kelsi and Brittany both really enjoy the Dr. Who television series. Can you tell? I decided to include Dr. Who-themed decorations into our first day of school. Each autumn, I try to pick something that appeals to them, and this time, "Dr. Who" fit the bill.

Back-to-School Curriculum for the girls:

Kelsi ~ 10th Grade

History/Literature/Geography: The Mystery of History, Vol. 2 (The Middle Ages); Beautiful Feet Books (The Middle Ages)
Math: Math-U-See Geometry
Science: Apologia Biology
Logic: The Art of Argument
Philosophy: Philosophy Adventure
Grammar: Easy Grammar Ultimate Series for Grade 10
Writing: National Novel Writing Month (November) plus weekly columns in our local newspaper
Poetry: Finishing up Grammar of Poetry
Bible: Stepping Heavenward; Girls Gone Wise; continued reading through the Old Testament as a family
Music: private violin lessons; youth orchestra; piano lessons
Foreign language: Spanish with Mango online

Extra-curricular activities and employment:

Youth Orchestra administrative assistant
Youth Orchestra Classroom assistant
Privately teaching 1-2 violin students
Legal counsel/assistant with local youth court program
Toastmasters Young Leaders class
4-H Teen Leader for Speech/Communications class
4-H club member: Speech/Communications (and possible other group)
Youth group at church; volunteer with Awana program

Brittany ~ 8th Grade

History/Literature/Geography: The Mystery of History, Vol. 2 (The Middle Ages)
Math: Math-U-See Pre-Algebra
Science: Apologia Physical Science
Logic: Building Thinking Skills, Level 2
Grammar: Daily Grams
Writing: National Novel Writing Month
Poetry: Finishing up Grammar of Poetry
Bible: Stepping Heavenward; Girls Gone Wise; continued reading through the Old Testament as a family
Music: private piano lessons
Foreign language: Japanese with Mango online

Extra-curricular activities and employment:

Privately teaching 3 young piano students
Toastmasters Young Leaders class
4-H Foods and Photography clubs
would love to be in dance and voice classes...but don't know if budget allows for this
Youth group at church; volunteer with Awana program

    All in all, it's going to be quite a busy year for our family. The girls will teach music lessons to their private students on Tuesday afternoons. Kelsi will also volunteer with our county youth court program on Tuesday evenings.

    On Wednesday evenings, we'll all be at church, helping out with our Awana youth program. My husband, Elmer, is the "Commander" or "guy in charge" of our church's Awana program. I'll be assisting him this year as the Awana secretary.

    Thursdays will be our music days. The girls will have private lessons in violin and piano on this day, and Kelsi will work for our local youth orchestra as well as be a helper and also participant in the program. She's in the Intermediate and Advanced groups; it's hard to believe that this is her 8th or 9th year of being in our local youth orchestra program. (I can't really remember how many years it's been! Can you tell?)

:)

How is your family's school schedule shaping up for this year?

2 Comments

Angie link

9/4/2013 03:20:08 am

Well. I sat down today to work on it, but got distracted. ;) I have it all on paper, and almost have everything in the mail. (MUS arrived today). I've got the resource room thinned out, that is what I've been working on. I no longer have a desire to have a 'public viewing' resource room. We just don't have the high schoolers here and it overwhelms the younger moms. Passing along quite a bit of resources I've been storing in a lending library. So today - I'm working on the computer to set up their e-books on their front pages to make it easy to find, double checking the kindles and print out and books. We also worked on de-cluttering the house so it is easier to care for. Hubby has a dr appt in Corvallis tomorrow, Today is the first day of school for kids in town, and friday we are going to try to go to Oaks Park. So - MONDAY. Monday we will start. ;)

Julieanne link

9/5/2013 06:12:09 am

Yes, it's a busy time of year for the homeschool moms, isn't it? :)

I've also thought about having a public curriculum "library", but instead, I've sorted through items, sold some, gave some away, and am saving some of the best ones for my children in case they want to use them with their own children. :)

We were going to go to Oaks Park, but we are really trying to be frugal and set aside $$ for a field trip to Washington, D.C. later this school year. So, maybe we'll go to Oaks Park next year! :)

Hi! I'm Julieanne!
You'll find me in the kitchen
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