School Set Up and Calendar

I can't believe it is the beginning of October already! I have been meaning to do this post for a month now! We got right into the swing of doing school again after Labor Day weekend, and it made the month of September fly by. I did a lot of thinking and planning for this school year over the summer. With Nathan down to one nap a day now, I knew I would have to restructure how we did things. Also, I wanted to introduce the calendar, and get into the routine of doing it every day. This is what I came up with, and it's been working out great so far!

These are Naomi and Nathan's "Learning Tables". Last year we did school upstairs either in the office or in Naomi's room while Nathan napped. This year I knew we would be doing the bulk of our schooling when Nathan was awake since both kids take afternoon naps. Therefore, I set up these tables, moved supplies, and got us all ready to do school in the basement. It has been wonderful! It gives Naomi  her own space to work, where Nathan can't reach and destroy what she's doing, but she's not secluded in a room by herself. By being in the basement, there are tons of toys for Nathan to play with, while I work with Naomi. Nathan loves to be a part of everything we're doing, so I set up a little table for him too! By having a little table for him to sit at, he can work on some of his own age appropriate projects, and feel like he's a big boy too.

I put this cork board up to the left of Naomi's table to display some of her favorite pieces of work. Hanging that took me back to my teaching days!

Here is a view of our calendar, basket of things we use for calendar time, and the supplemental learning board I made.

A close up of our calendar. I LOVE this calendar as it includes most of the elements I wanted to cover each day. I purchased it on Amazon.

Here is a close up of our learning board. Last year I started Carisa's RRSP program from 1+1+1=1. It's a WONDERFUL program, and we had a lot of fun with the units we did, but Naomi is ready for the next step in the reading department now. We have moved on to different things for reading (which I will share later), but I wanted to continue with the Bible aspect of RRSP. That is what the top three printables on this foam board are from. I switch them out every week. The first on the left is our memory verse, the middle sheet is the life application of the verse, and the top right is our song for the week. I love how I can pick the RRSP unit that goes along with our letter of the week, and how nicely it all ties in with the verse and song. The bottom left of the board is our letter of the week. The bottom middle of the board is our weekly weather graph from Homeschool Creations. The bottom right section is a pocket where I keep our singing prop that goes with the verse and song, and also small cards that have past memory verses on them for review. We review all elements of the board daily. The best part is that Naomi asks to do this, and really enjoys it!

Naomi singing the days of the week song. We also sing a weather song for each day but I didn't manage to get a video of it.

Here she is singing the date song. We will be adding in the months of the year song soon, but I just introduced it. I don't move on to something new until Naomi has completely mastered what we are currently working on.  She is a perfectionist to the extreme, and I don't like to frustrate her!

I had to add a picture of my two cuties for fun! This was taken on our first day of "school".

There you have an overview of how we are set up for this school year, and some of our daily routines. I feel very prepared for the year, and so far things are going smoothly. It's always a bit of a juggling act balancing what I want to do with the kids individually, together, and then all the things that need to be done around the house, but I don't imagine that will ever change! Hopefully I will be able to continually grow and adapt with the kids, and learn more strategies as we go along.

Karla