Back to...home?

We officially began our new school year on Monday, insanely early when compared with the mid-September date I always went back to school, but that's how they do it around here so we go along. I can still remember mornings waiting for the bus, September air at 6 am was downright frosty in the near-dark, my breath already misting up through the air...or was that just a ribbon of smoke curling from my belligerent teenaged mouth? Difficult to know for sure. Could have been both.
My smoking days lie long behind me, and thankfully so do those years of busy work and angst, but its that time of year again. Back to school. Sure we "school" through the summer, and weekends pretty nearly meet unschooling criteria, even as babies we were a "learning all the time" family, but it is totally relaxed (as in "we are already ahead so I don't have to worry, we can do whatever we want, so lets sleep in and watch educational movies all day in our pajamas") but now it's the *real* thing. We only did about 5 months last year, so this will be our first full school year. I also know we are in for a major upheaval when we move to Lousiana in November, so I want to get a good start before we have to be packing and whatnot.
Sunday I posted our new "schedule" which more aptly would be called a book, since each page shows an overview of one subject for the week, I found this was easier to follow than trying to shove everything onto one page.

Here she is:

Math

Monday: Textbook work + Mental Math Kids can't resist
Tuesday: Problem Solving (Primarily Math gifted problem solving unit, then when we finish that book we start No Problem! more advanced problem solving strategies.
Wednesday: Text + Mental Math
Thursday: math games
Friday: Enrichment math (Primary Grade Challenge Math)

Scote's K-1
Tuesday: workbook
wednesday: games
Friday: Enrichment Math (G&T series for 1st grade)

Language Arts (reading first thing everyday but that isn't on here, its understood and happens before and while I make breakfast, when we are still in PJs, plus I read aloud 45min each night)

Monday: Spelltime, Writing Strands 3(I think she's made her peace with it, she especially liked her first new assignment since the beginning of the summer, which had to be about a person playing tricks and getting caught.)
Tuesday: Grammar (Rod and Staff 3)
Wednesday: Word Roots, analogies ( once we get something new since she says "Analogies for Beginners" is "Lame enough for UghaBug" and does them in five seconds while rolling her eyes), or Wordly Wise
Thursday: Grammar from Rod &Staff 3+ dictation
Friday:Spelling Test, Writing Strands

Scote
Phonics (mostly planned by me but some OPGTTR) Mondays and Fridays
Grammar from First Language Lessons For the Well-Trained Mind Wednesdays
Guided Reading Tues/Thurs
Between the Lions 1/2 hour daily

Social Studies
Monday: History (classical, see The Well-Trained Mind)
Tuesday:Geography
Wednesday: History
Thursday: History
Friday: Yep, more history. She really loves it, she bugged me all summer to do more history.

Scote
Tuesdays: America Journal
Thursdays: Maps and Geography
Sometimes he listens and participates in reg History Lessons too, if he wants

Sciences
Monday: Lentil Science
Tuesday:Biology
Wednesday:Lentil Science
Thursaday: Biology Video or DVD
Friday: Observations, experiments, or Journals

Scote
same

Computers

Monday: Free choice (of my preselected software)
Tuesday: Rosetta Stone Latin
Wednesday:Free choice
Thursday: Rosetta Stone Latin
Friday: Logical Journey of the Zoombinis

Scote
Free choice M,T,W
Between the Lions PBS kids website games on Thursaday
and Zoombinis with Dodo on Fridays

Handwriting
Monday:Free day (since we do writing strands)
Tuesday: HWT Cursive (about 5 pages left in the first book, then onto "cursive success"
Wednesday: Draw Write Now
Thursday: HWT cursive
Friday: free day (see above)

Scote
Monday: writing his full name (our last is a doozy) worksheets
Wednesday: Draw Write Now with Dodo
Friday: HWT print

Logic, critical thinking, and other enrichment

Monday: Mindbenders (finish last 1/4 of warm up and move onto A1)
Tuesday:CPS for Kids
Wednesday: Creativity (Mind in Motion, Primarily Creativity, or Scamper)
Thursday: Puzzles and games
Friday:Zoombinis

Scote
Puzzles and games
Friday: Zoombinis

Fine Arts

Monday:Music Appreciation:classical
Tuesday:Music Appreciation:fun
Wednesday: Drawing
Thursday: Music Appreciation :classical
Friday: Art Project

Seems like so much, but she seems to thrive on it. We do alot of enrichment-esque stuff because she swallows the regular curriculm whole and I have no desire to see her in college at 12. Twice a week on math skills and she's still three years ahead, not to mention reading. So we're doing deeper, more fun math. I tried to keep Scote's light. No matter how bright he is, he is still only 4 (until the 31st at least). He also makes up his own stuff to do and has appointed himself as Ugha's PreK teacher.

Dodo ran right over when I hung up the schedule on Sunday, read through it and exclaimed "Horray, a real schedule! I was wondering when we could do that again. Can we wake up early too so we'll have more time or are you going to waste the whole morning drinking coffee and reading email? Oh and can we go through the pages in order and make check marks?"
I hadn't even thought of that. I wanted to pretend to be "winging it", going through however we wanted as if the thought of doing those subjects had just miraculously occurred to us. Drat. Now she is all hyped about a different color check for each subject and is devising a sticker chart for her brother. I wouldn't be suprised if she wants to sleep with the thing tonight.
It must have been that 1/2 a year in pulic school that ruined her. Oh well, at least I didn't put page numbersor actual assignments on there or I'd have to accept the darned thing as my future son-in-law.


Viva la schedule, (sigh).
I warned you we were a family of freaks.
~EH