Saturday, August 17, 2013

2013-2014 Classroom and Curriculum

 

I've been enjoying my "Babymoon" with the birth of our sweet Cupcake #5 almost 3 weeks ago, but I decided to ease into school mode starting this Monday, August 19th.  Before the birth of our baby, my kids were working during the summer on math, reading, and a geography through literature program from Beautiful Feet.  So we will continue with these subjects and like each year, will gradually work other subjects into our school day and at the same time juggle the "schedule" of a nursing newborn :)

Before I list our 2013-2014 curriculum, I thought I would share some pictures of our classroom space.  We are blessed with a room in our home that is the designated classroom and not much has changed through the years with the looks of the room, including many of the same art projects/decorations are still displayed from several years ago :)
 
This is our classroom as you walk into the door.

Behind the door in the corner are the history/science/miscellaneous picture books

Along this wall is another bookshelf where we keep our library books and you can read HERE about the system I set up to never have to pay a library fine again!  To the right of the brown bookshelf is our calendar. 

This is where we try to keep most of our religious books

In the top left corner is the basket system I use for each of my cupcakes' textbooks and workbooks.
Each child has their own basket.  The baskets sit on top of a white shelf and cubbies that my husband designed and made for the space. 

As shown in the top right corner, I have their books separated by subjects using white foam board and then I listed each subject on each board.  So my cupcakes always know where to find their textbooks and workbooks and they also use the white foam boards to keep their baskets organized.
 When I first started homeschooling in 2005, I tried using bookshelves, but things didn't stay organized then I moved into a basket system, but my cupcake's books were thrown into the baskets.  That's when I decided to organize the baskets with the subject foam boards to make books easier to find and this system was quick to set up and has been used efficiently for several years now.  

In the bottom left corner is a photo of the red basket where I keep all my teacher manuals for my cupcake's subjects. 

Then in the bottom right corner is the photo of how I organize my "Teacher Manual" red basket.  All my teacher manuals are divided by my cupcakes' names using the white foam boards and blue post it notes to label each child's manuals.  So this will help me find answer keys I need quickly and my cupcakes can also go quickly to the foam board divider with their name on it to find any manuals if I ask them to get them for me vs. looking all over for a teacher manual that may be hidden in a shelf somewhere. 

We use our desks, table, and dry erase board daily in or out of school :) The tall bookshelf on the left side of photo is where I keep alot of my resource books/idea books/catalogs/books and curriculum  I've used in the past.

In this corner of our classroom is our art area with a closet full of craft supplies, games, math manipulatives.  The art table is used daily in or out of school time and I won this table several years ago!

You can see how others organize their classroom space(s) by going to Micaela's Organization and Scheduling 2013-2014 Link Up HERE where I've also linked up this post of mine. 
This classroom post was featured at Four Little Thiiiings "Learning Space Collection"
See other learning spaces also HERE at Four Little Thiiiings  

So what have I filled my cupcakes' baskets with behind their foam board subject dividers?  Our 2013-2014 curriculum looks like this:

Cupcake #1 (daughter, age 13, 8th grade)

Religion: beginning of a 2 year Confirmation preparation program with other homeschoolers using various resources including Understanding The Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Study by Scott Hahn and T3: The Teen Timeline (Catholic Teen Bible Study)

Daily Oral Language: Easy Grammar Plus

MathTeaching Textbooks, continuing with Pre-Algebra

Writing/Literature/Spelling:  our daughter is registered with a 10 week course where she will go once a week with other homeschoolers and be taught by a lady who once homeschooled her now grown children.  They will read, analyze and write after reading some popular literature books.

ScienceApologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science with a homeschool co-op group



Piano Lessons once a week
American Heritage Girls Troop

Cupcake #2 (son, age 11, 6th grade)

Religion: Christian Studies I from Memoria Press with his younger sister.  With his older sister, he will also begin a 2 year Confirmation preparation program with other homeschoolers using various resources including Understanding The Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Study by Scott Hahn and T3: The Teen Timeline (Catholic Teen Bible Study)

Daily Oral Language: continue Daily Grams

MathTeaching Textbooks, 5th/6th grade level



ScienceApologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology with younger sister and another homeschool family



Piano Lessons once a week
Recreation Soccer League and Flag Football League 

Cupcake #3 (daughter, age 9, 4th grade)

Religion: Christian Studies I from Memoria Press with her older brother. 

Daily Oral Language/Math/Writing/Spelling/Literature/Latin: using Memoria Press Curriculum

Science:   Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology with older brother and another homeschool family


American Heritage Girls Troop
Recreation Soccer League 

Cupcake #4 (daughter, age 5, Grade K)

Memoria Press Kindergarten Lesson Plans
American Heritage Girls Troop

Have a blessed school year! 
 


7 comments:

Lisa Boyle said...

Your room is amazing and so completely organized. Can you PLEASE come to my house and help our room look like yours? I'll cook you a nice Italian meal in exchange, lol. :-) God bless, Lisa

Chris said...

This is an awesome post...grat ideaas abt organizing your HSmaterials and such....I pinned your entire post and will be coming back to double check your math, Latin and history..
Have you used the Timeline program with Memoria press too? That is on the same page as the Christian studies in their online catalogue. I feel I am in good shape with their Faith materials, but this looks like something I can't resist! ( again) As you know, my kev is the same age/gr as your daughter and so her curr is something I need to look at again too, for ideas.
Thanks Tra!
Hope you have a lovely Sunday with the whole family -- I'll bet that little sweetie is fitting right in with all the activity!

Mary said...

Nice! I love the curriculum line up too :)

Tiffany said...

Beautiful school room, full of your loving and faith-filled touches! Have a blessed year enjoying all of your precious ones. Leah is a dollL:)

Tracy, this is lovely! Thank you so much for linking up. I especially love the foam board dividers. I must figure a way to incorporate that into our homeschool.

Have a great year!

Anonymous said...

Found you on California to Korea--this is such a great schoolroom! Blessings on schooling with a newborn--that was our journey last year. :)

Unknown said...

I love your space and would like to invite you to share it on Four Little Thiiiings here: http://www.fourlittlethiiiings.com/about/share-space

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