Christmas Devotionals

Haven't posted in a while - my real life has taken over!  Ah, the life of a SAHM homeschooling mama.  I just love it!  Anyways,  quick post today to share a PDF document I created for Christmas time.  A few years ago, my mom gave me a packet of Christmas stories with accompanying scriptures and carols.  We do these for our devotionals at the beginning of each day December 1-24.  I copied the packet my mom gave me into the pc to make it easier to share with family and friends.  It's stored in my Google drive because it's over 100 pages long.  Just follow this link to preview and/or download.  All the songs used are from the LDS Hymnal or the LDS Children's Songbook, except for "We Three Kings of Orient Are."  I have no idea where that one came from, actually, it's just the version I had on hand.  All scriptures are from the LDS standard works. Enjoy!  And have a Merry Christmas!

Summer School

We do school year round in our house.  But our summer schedule is much more relaxed then during the colder months of the year.  In the summer, we have a basic schedule that we are free to disregard if we decide to spend a day outside in the sun instead.  We sleep in a little longer, stay up a little later, etc.  The only thing set in stone during the summer is morning devotional.

The day starts when everyone is up.  At the latest, I let the girls sleep until 10AM, but we're usually up around 8AM.  We get breakfast and wake-up enough to do our summer devotional routine.

Summer devotional starts with prayer and a hymn.  Then I read from the scriptures to the girls for 10 minutes.  Next we do our memorization boxes.  Finally, we read from our movie book we're currently working on.  That is the only part set in stone.  From our movie book, depending on how we're feeling, we'll typically read anywhere from 10-45 minutes.

The rest of the schedule changes depending on the day, but follows this general format.

The older girls that can read do personal scripture study and from literature I have assigned them for about an hour, while the younger ones spend time reading scripture stories and picture books with me.  If we already have our math curriculum for the next year, the girls do three lessons a week so they don't lose what they've already learned and have to relearn it in the fall.

We also like to do unit studies during the summer that coincide with fieldtrips we're planning or subjects the girls want to study.  We've already done a Japan unit study this summer (I'll post about that later) and plan on an art one next.

When we decide we're done with school for the day, we work together to get chores done quickly and have lunch around noon.  Then we have the rest of the day to pursue whatever perks our interest that day.  Swimming, walks, water parks, arts & crafts, etc. 

After getting the idea from another homeschooling mom in the community, we plan to also try to let the girls have more say in our daily activities this summer.  At the beginning of devotional each day, after prayer, we want to let the girls each pick something they really want to do.  We will try our best to work it in that day or week.

2013-2014 Curriculum and Schedule Plan

It seems that a LOT of people are considering the jump into homeschool lately.  So I've been

getting a lot of questions about what we're planning for the next school year.  I figured, instead of typing from scratch the answer everytime, I should save it somewhere.  And why not here, where I can just refer people and others that may not know me can get ideas as well!  Our school year is much more structured then the summer, though we do school year round.  I'll post about summer school later.  In our family, we have put in order of importance - spiritual growth, worldly knowledge, and housework.

Each day we start with devotional, all of the children participate regardless of age. We start with prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Then I read aloud from the scriptures for 15 minutes. We rotate through the books (Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of GreatPrice, Old Testament, and New Testament). Then we work on their memorizationboxes. To finish out our group part of devotional, I read for 10 minutes from whatever novel we're reading as a family.  Finally, the kids that can read do personal scripture study and record their thoughts in their scripture journal. 

 

Rachel is now five and so excited to officially start school.  The state considers her a Kindergartener. Currently, we're finishing up her alphabet - recognizing the letters and knowing their sounds. We just use flash cards and StarFall.com. Once she has that down, we're going to start using Learning to Read Using the Book ofMormon, Vol. 1 and The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. The BoM teaches by memorizing sight words and Ordinary teaches phonics. BoM will count as her personal scripture time each day at the end of devotional. She'll also be starting Saxon math (grade K).

Rose is ten and considered a 5th grader. This fall she'll be starting Saxon math (6/5) and Learning Language Arts Through Literature (PurpleBook). I like LLATL because it rolls all the L.A. lessons into one course. She's also supposed to take an online tech class called Mobile Apps forBeginners. But she'll only be able to take that if we stay in Utah through an online charter school called My Tech High. If we move to Kansas (waiting to hear back on Dad's application), she won't be able to take that.

Rebekah will be 13 and considered to be in the 7th grade. She will be taking Saxon math ( 8/7 w/ PreAlgebra), LLATL (Green Book), and BYU-Independent Study (US History Part 1 & 2). If we stay in Utah, she'll also be taking a Robotics LEGO course through My Tech High.

All of our school age kids do science and history together.  Science is done 3x a week and history is daily.  We're using Real Science-4-Kids(Astronomy) and Story of the World (Vol. 1, Ancient Times) next year. I really would like to try the Latter Day School's Family School program. But it's a bit spendy ($500 per year) and you still have to purchase Story of the World, math and language arts. But the idea of teaching all of my children together is very appealing. Not to mention it was put together by an LDS group that runs a private school based on gospel principles in the Provo area. And everyone that has used it raves about it.

They also study Mandarin through Rosetta Stone, are learning to play piano with the LDS church's keyboard course, and we have a family pass to the local pool that we frequent several times a week. We have an hour and 15 minutes of reading time each day. Forty-five minutes is spent reading literature that I assign (I use lists from Simply Charlotte Mason, The Well Trained Mind, and Thomas Jefferson Ed). Thirty minutes is free reading.  The girls can do their individual lessons in any order they like.  We typically do the group lessons right before or after lunch.  After lunch and group lessons, we work together to get the house in order.  We also do another quick pick-up right before bed so that everything is ready for the next day.

UPDATE:  Doesn't look like Dad got the job in Kansas, so we'll be sticking with MTH for the school year.  Yay!  We changed Rebekah's history, though.  Instead of using BYU Independent Study for American History, we're going to use a combination of two programs.  We're going to do history through literature with Beautiful Feet's Early American and World History Jr. High Pack in conjunction with lapbooks from Homeschool in the Woods' Time Travelers New World Explorers bundle.

Memorization Boxes

To memorize, we use memorization boxes.  I got the idea from Simply CharlotteMason.com's Scripture Memory System.  The main difference is that we do ours daily (not just Monday-Friday) and we use it for things other than scriptures.  So far, Rebekah & Rose have used it to memorize all thirteen of the Articlesof Faith.  Rebekah also memorized the Young Women's Theme using it.  While I plan to use it for scriptures like the Articles of Faith and Scripture Mastery, I also hope to use it in the future with things like the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, poetry, great literary passages, etc.

 

To put together the memory box, you need index cards, a box for the cards, and something to use as tab dividers.  I've used stick on file folder tabs before.  In this picture, I was using sticky tabs that you can find in the post it section of Wal-mart.  You're going to have four sets of tabs.  The first set is just one tab labeled "Daily."  Then you have a set of two labeled "Even" and "Odd."  The third set is the days of the week that you plan on working on memorization (Monday - Friday for most people).  And the final set is labeled 1-31.

 

Choose the first item you wish to have your child memorize and write it on a card (or have them write it on the card).  Place it in "daily."  Read the card out loud to your student every day.  As they memorize it, have them say it along with you.  Once you feel they are comfortable with it, move it back to the next set.  So, starting out, you'll only have one thing to say at a time.  As you fill it up, you will have more things to go over each day up to a total of four.

Each day, you will read four cards.  One card under daily.  A second card from even or odd, dependent on what day of the month it is.  For example, the 13th of July is an odd day and May 2nd is an even day.  The third card is the day of week and the fourth card is the day of the month (pretty self explanatory).

We do our memorization boxes each morning during devotional.