Our {new} Classical Christian Hybrid School

If you've read this blog for more than my worksheets, you know its been a really crazy year.

 A massive ear surgery for my #3.
A move to a much bigger city.
A high risk pregnancy.
A preemie NICU baby.
A surgery for this mama with a slow recovery.

We did have a heads up for most of this, but getting settled here has taken time.
We still have boxes to unpack.

Wait.....Did I say we??  What I really meant to say is I still have boxes to unpack.

In anticipation of our move, I quickly started to look for a Classical Conversations group for my family.  This is a really big city with LOTS of choices, so I thought it would be easy.  The problem....no one (within a reasonable driving distance) had room for 4 kids.  There were some start up groups close by, but in our past CC experience new groups hadn't really provided much of a class for my oldest one or two.  Part of why we do CC is for the community aspect.  I want that for all my babies, not just the younger ones.

As I started expanding my options of what to do, I found something else.
I feel like I'm "cheating" on Classical Conversations.
Its not that I don't love CC....because I do.  I am still going to have my kids listen to the CD and memorize all the wonderful facts for Cycle 3, but we aren't part of a community this year.

Instead....we are trying a hybrid or blended model school.
This is Classical Christian school.  My babies will be there 2 days a week (without me) and home 3 days.  We were able to secure spots the last 8 weeks of the spring 2014 school year and I fell in love with this place.  I loved the wonderful teachers and staff.  The kids.  The families.  The curriculum.  I even loved the break this mama got those two days.  I was able to go to Doctors appointments, unpack, cook, clean and still homeschool my kids.  It was perfect.  So perfect, we are back again this year.

I did struggle with this decision, but I know for right now...for this time in our lives...this is right.  This is what we need.  I feel good that when I leave my kids those two days, I don't worry.  It is very evident that these wonderful teachers love the Lord and love my kids and that makes my heart so happy.
Even better, my kids love it!

Homeschooling, for us, is something we take on a year-by-year, kid-by-kid basis.  This might not work forever and it might not work for all my kids....but for now it works for our family

Our Curriculum {2014-2015}

Its already August, and I know some states start school in August and some in September.  We are more of a year-round-school family, so our curriculum is ongoing and can sometimes change mid year. This year, we are trying a Hybrid school (kids in school 2 days a week).  Some curriculum is school (KCA) required and the rest we are doing here on our own.

This list might scare some, but know that we don't do everything every. single. day.  

Some things are once or twice a week.  Somethings are once a month. Some things are 5 mns a day, some are 15 mns a day. So.....while it might look like a lot its manageable....most days.  If/when it get to be too much, some of the extras slide.  I'm ok with that.  After all, I'm the teacher, right? 

6th Grader

Bible - *Big Truths for Young Hearts

Math - *Saxon *8/7

Latin - First Form Latin from Memoria Press

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 6 and Classical Conversations Essentials

Writing - *IEW Middle Ages

Spelling - Spelling Power

Vocabulary - *Vocabulary from Classical Roots 6

Literature Units - *Tapestry of Grace (through the hybrid)

Classical Studies - Famous Men of the Middle Ages from Memoria Press

History - *Tapestry of Grace (through the hybrid)

Science -*Chemistry (through the hybrid)

Geography - Road Trip USA by Confessions of a Homeschooler

Fine Arts - through KCA

Classical Conversations Foundations Cycle 3 CDs

P.E. - USA Girls Gymnastics Team

4th Grader

Bible - through the hybrid

Handwriting - A Reason For Handwriting

Math - *Horizons 4

Latin - Latina Christiana I from Memoria Press and *Song School Latin

Grammar - Rod and Staff English 4  and Classical Conversations Essentials

Writing - *IEW Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales

Spelling - Spelling Power

Literature Units -  5th grade from Memoria Press and *Tapestry of Grace (through the hybrid)

Classical Studies - Famous Men of the Middle Ages from Memoria Press

History - Story of the World: The Middle Ages

Science - *Chemistry through KCA

Geography -  Road Trip USA by Confessions of a Homeschooler

Fine Arts - through the hybrid

Classical Conversations Foundations Cycle 3 CDs

P.E. - USA Girls Gymnastics Team

2nd Grader

Bible - through the hybrid

Handwriting - A Reason For Handwriting

Math - *Horizons

Latin - Prima Latina from Memoria Press and *Song School Latin

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 2

Writing - Writing With Ease Level 2 and *IEW Bible Heros

Spelling - Spelling Power

History - Story of the World: The Middle Ages

Science - *Chemistry through KCA

Geography - Road Trip USA by Confessions of a Homeschooler

Fine Arts - through the hybrid

Classical Conversations Foundations Cycle 3 CDs

P.E. - Gymnastics

Preschooler/Early Kindergarten

Bible - ABC Bible Verses and Big Thoughts for Little People

Handwriting - A Reason For Handwriting

Math - Abeka Arithmetic K and Numbers 1 and 2 from Memoria Press

Latin - *Song School Latin

Alphabet - Letter of the Week (simplified) from COAH  and Alphabet 1 and 2 from Memoria Press

Phonics - Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

Reading - First Start Reading from Memoria Press

Classical Conversations Foundations Cycle 3 CDs

P.E. - Gymnastics

The items marked with the * are the books that are required from our Hybrid school.  There are more books within the history, literature and bible classes there, but those are course and time period (Middle Ages) specific.

Our world has been rocked.....

It might seem as if I had abandoned this blog for a bit, but really....I haven't.  December was a bit of a rough month for us and we are still recovering.  

In addition to the holiday's and weeks away from home visiting family in Washington and Alaska, a few thing happened.

1.  My 6yo son had to have what we thought was a routine Cholesteatoma removal surgery on his ear.  (There is a more technical name for that and all of the other minor surgeries that ended up happening. Neither can I remember half of them, nor can I spell them.)  After what was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour surgery turned into 6 hours, we found out how much damage had actually been done.  He was such a trooper and is recovering wonderfully.  In a few weeks we will find out the extent of his hearing loss in that that eat but expecting it to be moderate to severe.

2. We found out we are moving from out comfy small town where we have been for the last 6 1/2 years to the #4 biggest city in the US....Houston.  This is a wonderful job opportunity for the hubs, so we are now on the search for a house and preparing to sell ours.

3.  We found out we are (big surprise) expecting baby #5.

So....as you can see in the midst of the exhaustion and nausea from pregnancy, preparing to move to another state and trying to keep my children educated....everything else in life has been put on pause.

Oh yes....and #4 decided she really wants to start school.  So we've finally and officially begun Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week.  We've dabbled in it this past fall, but now we are digging our fingers in and going for it!

I will catch up on posting review sheets and curriculum info.  I promise!  I will also post about our curriculum changes in addition to my links between Classical Conversations Foundations Grammar memory work and the Essentials Charts.  

Hope your year has been a little more boring that ours!

Curriculum Series....

I posted awhile back on {How I Choose Curriculum}.

I also posted what our {Curriculum 2013-2014} will be.

I thought maybe I should post why I chose what I chose and how I move through the different levels.....so far.  

So I'm going to make it a little more in-depth. I'll try to highlight each subject, tell you what I use, how I use it, why I use it, if I've used something else, and anything else I think might help.  I'll start with what I call our "Core" curriculum, then move onto everything else.

In our house, Core curriculum means:

Bible
Math

Grammar

Writing

History

Science

2nd tier of my Core:

Latin
Vocabulary

Spelling

Literature

Classical Conversations
Handwriting

The Extras are:

Character

Poetry

Geography

Music

Art

The reason why some of these are "extras" is because they get Vocabulary and Geography in History, Christian Studies, Latin, Classical Literature, and in Classical Conversations.  They also get Art, Music,  and Science at CC.  We take Music Lessons (violin and piano) every week and we read classical literature and me throwing lit units in this year was an afterthought.  I'm not saying the "Extras" aren't important, just that its ok if we don't get to them every day and every week.

For us....I count a day of school if we get in Bible, Math, Grammar, and either History or Science.  I think there has been maybe one or two days that we've done that little of work; usually its those plus handwriting, spelling, bible and vocab etc. for a "basic" day.

Anyway.....hope my little series helps!  

Prepping for another school year...

I know its still only July, but school starts early in these parts!  The public schools here will actually start before the middle of August.  Where I grew up (Pacific NW) we didn't start until after Labor Day (which was always such a lovely Birthday present for me as my Birthday falls in the first week of September.)

I've started pouring over my Well Trained Mind again.  I read through the parts that pertain to our level of education at least twice a year.  Always in the summer to gear up for the coming year, then again in Jan to make sure I'm on track and to add anything if we are able.

This year I will have a 5th grade.  (Yikes!  Where has the time gone???) To all you Classical Homeschoolers, it means that we are entering the Logic stage.  Time to take it to the next level.  (I think I'm more excited about this than she is.)  

As we get further into our homeschooling adventure, I'm getting more and more comfortable with what and how to do things.....and when I get comfy, I tend to take on more curriculum.

This year, I hit the Mardel sale a couple of months ago (with a coupon.)  I bought what I needed for this year....plus a little more.

Then...I received the Memoria Press newsletter in the mail.
(Great articles.  Great curriculum.  If you go to their website you can sign up for FREE.)

And devoured it.
(Why am I just finding out about what they have to offer now?)

And bought more.
(Cross referencing prices with Amazon and Ebay of course!)

And now I need some more bookshelves.

Kidding.....kinda. :)  We are adding in literature studies, poetry studies, Latin for my 3rd/5th graders, MP Greek Myth studies, character building studies and MPs Famous Men of the Middle Ages for my 5th grader.
(I'll be posting our curriculum and links soon.)

These are not all things we will do daily.  Some are once a week.  Some are once a month.  Some are a few minutes a day. This is year three for us, so I'm stepping it up a bit.....and all with a 3 year old in tow.

I'm looking forward to having a "schedule" again.  I love summer, but have felt kind of scattered. Anyone else excited for school to start???

How I Chose Curriculum

One of the most asked questions I get from fellow homeschoolers, people who are thinking about homeschooling and everyone else is....How do you choose your curriculum?

Well...the most asked question by people who don't homeschool is something like, "How do you not go crazy having the kids around all the time?"  Which for those of you that HS will kinda make you sad, right?  I LOVE having my kids with me.  (Ok, let's be honest here...there are those days, but for the most part its true. :) 

But, I'm not getting into that debate here.

How I choose my curriculum???

A lot of researching!

When I made the decision to pull the kids out of school, I spent the next month researching curriculum.  I was obsessed!  I did a few things....

  

1) I called and emailed every single person that I knew who homeschooled.  I asked about what they used and why.  What they've tried, why they like it or why it didn't work.  

2) I read The Well Trained Mind.  What I really mean, is I devoured it!  Its a HUGE book.  But I read all the parts that were pertinent to us.  I took notes.  I combed over it again and took notes again.  (Actually I still do!  I look over it about every 6 months.  Once around Christmas and once in the summer.

3) I cross referenced everything from the previous two sources with Cathy Duffy Reviews.

4) I did check out some HS sites that did curriculum review, but didn't find them as helpful.  I was looking for a place that I could type in "Math" and see all of my options and the reviews, instead of a specific Math program.  (If anyone knows of such a site, please let me know! ;)

What I wish I could have done?  Actually look through the stuff.  I got to a little bit with the friends that were local, but that was a select bit of curriculum.  We have no homeschool resale store here and when we made the decision it was not during the time of a homeschool conference.

One piece of advice that I did receive is that if something doesn't work...don't be afraid to dump it and find something else.

Worksheet Works {Homeschool Helps}

Ahhhh.....I love this website!  And its FREE!

worksheetworks.com

When I am looking for extra worksheets (especially mapping) I go here first.  You can create pretty much any kind of worksheet for multiple difficulty levels, which is great since I have 4 different age levels here.

There is:

Math

English

Alphabets

Writing

Geography

Puzzles of all kinds

Logic

Planners

Hand/Eye Coordination

Oh My...

Right now I mainly use this for extra maps in our Geography curriculum.  We are working on "blob mapping" and learning to map by heart.

Next year I am tutoring Classical Conversations: Essentials B/C, so plan on using it for logic puzzles and Grammar helps.

Snow Day {a.k.a Slush Day}

THE worlds smallest snowman.  What?  Can't see it?  Its on the left in front of the munchkin in pink.  You might have to squint a little.  Its really small.

We've had a few snowy days here this February.  The first time the public schools were closed, we still had school.  The hubs came home during lunch and took them out to play for "recess" while mom stayed inside and prepped the hot chocolate.  

Since our Classical Conversations follows the public school system, when they closed today, so did we.  So...today I called it a real "snow day."  No school.  (Or can I call this In-Service???)  I did take them out this morning, since the slush snow was really wet and melting quickly.

This is what they made...

The hubs is from Alaska and we lived there for 5 year after we were married.  What you see above....is not really snow, but the public schools here were actually closed!

Do you ever take snow days?  Or just make sure recess is outside?

Why I Homeschool {Kelly}

This is why I homeschool!  

Really.

These 4 little people who keep calling me mom! ;)

And I LOVE it.  And I love being around them all the time....well almost all the time.

(Just keeping it real.)

I had this grand explanation of why, but the bottom line is the hubs and I believe this is what He wants us to be doing.  

We are giving each of these little people an education that they could not receive in a school setting.  I want to be the most important influence in their lives and not pass them off to someone else each day.  I want to be the one to see those ah-ha moments when something clicks.  I want to be able to cater to each individual learning style.  Does that all sound selfish?  Believe me, homeschooling is one of the most unselfish acts a mom could perform.  There is nothing easy about this....at least not in my house!  But I don't regret it.  

"The days are long, but the years are short," a friend once told me.

I don't want to miss a single moment!