Journey to Excellence

This will be our first ever Science Sunday post linking up with Adventures in Mommydom . I am very excited to be officially venturing into the world of science with Brynne. We will do unit studies on Thursdays, using lots of library books and doing hands-on activities. We are starting with The Human Body . This idea was launched when I received a bunch of free money from CSN. I decided to purchase as many homeschooling tools as I could. One of the things I purchased was The Magic School Bus: A Journey into the Human Body kit by Young Scientists. It has a Teacher's Guide and lots of items for hands-on experiments. Then I decided to copy an idea I've seen on the web multiple times: Making a life-size body on a large poster and adding parts of the human body to it as we learn them. We are going to make ours 3D! This week was just an introduction into what we will be learning, so we only did a couple of things: We watched The Magic School Bus: Human Body dvd. And t...

We started our first lessons in our American History study. It's going to be an exciting year!! First we watched Episode 1 of America: The Story of Us entitled "Rebels". This video covered the journey to the new world by the earliest settlers, followed by the Puritans . It dug deep into the ensuing conflicts with the British , including the Boston Tea Party , the Boston Massacre , "The Shot Heard Around the World" , and Paul Revere's Ride . We did the Discussion Questions from the Episode 1 Guide (a pdf file that can be downloaded and printed, found on the left hand side of the link) and Dawson completed the vocabulary words from Episode 1. For Lesson 1 from the Institute for Excellence in Writing: U.S. History Based Writing Lessons, Vol. 1 (IEW) , Dawson used adjectives and alliteration to write a poem entitled "America". Here is his poignant masterpiece: We only had two days of school this week, and the majority of it was spent watch...

We started school yesterday, along with our public school kiddos. To put our first day in a word: Frazzled . We were all a bit off-kilter. We were completely prepared: had our day planned, our schedule set, our copies made, our videos and books lined up. But, with taking First Day photos , and having introductions to new materials, we got a little behind. We ended on time, though, so all was good. All-in-all it was a successful first day. Some highlights from our short first week: Dawson worked steady all day and didn't complain or attempt to delay even once! He wrote a beautiful poem about America. Brynne LOVED her MEP math curriculum . We ended the day with it and it was certainly a highlight. Getting back to Co-op activities was so exciting! Choir and Zumbatonic were fun! Everybody got started reading this week. Teaching Textbooks Algebra I arrived and has been installed and is ready for Monday. Here are a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment. Work...

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination." ~ Don Williams, Jr. We believe very strongly in allowing our children to be educated in the environment that best suits their individual needs, and that will best help them reach their own level of Excellence . That is why we currently have two children in public school and two children who are homeschooled. These situations are always subject to change based on circumstances. Journey to Excellence was intended to be a chronicle of our homeschooling experience. But, like the above quote states, we all have different paths to take. Because of that, I will include all schooling experiences of our children on this site. So I'd like to formally introduce you to the Travelers on this Journey to Excellence . Kyndal Kyndal is a junior at our local high school. She is just a "public school kid". She loves the social aspect...

The last minute preparations are happening! School starts tomorrow!!! Yippeee!!! (that's me squealing, not the kids)

Gotta kick it into high gear now ... school starts on Thursday. With Brynne's skating birthday party completed, I can concentrate on the final preparations. In my life this week ... It's a bittersweet week as the summer comes to a close. Although I am so very ready to get back to our "normal" schedule, I am sad to see the kids' carefree days end. I would say that I am going to miss seeing Kyndal once she goes back to school, but in reality I will probably see her more. I will, though, miss having Eli at home every day. I am teary thinking about it. In our homeschool this week… The binders are organized, the books are on the shelf, the supplies for the first week are gathered. We are ready to launch on Thursday. Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… Kyndal will be soaking up every moment with her friends. Eli will get to meet his teacher this week. Brynne will start back to Co-op. And Dawson has his Xbox back, so he is "seeing" his comrades....

We start school on Thursday (with our public school schedule). On Sundays I write out our weekly lesson plans on individual lesson plan pages. Last year it would take me well over an hour or so to get it all together, searching through each subject and searching for additional activities. Today I planned both kids' lessons for the two days in minutes! Why? Because I have spent a good part of the summer planning each subject, writing out a general schedule, and putting all required worksheets and instructions (with books lists, dvd lists, activities, etc.) in individual subject binders. So all I did today is grab each binder as I got to that subject, flipped it open, wrote down on the planner what I had pre-planned for that day, and put it away. Oh, I am so glad I am prepared this year! I don't know what I would do if I had to prepare from scratch. It's going to be a great one! A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best...