A new year = a new schedule

We started our schooling back up yesterday. It was a little rough, but today has been better.

In contemplating the new year, I have made some changes in our school schedule. Every year I want to get some "elective" type classes included in our schooling, but I have discovered that the fall semester is not a good time to do that. Every fall I try to work those things in and every fall I get discouraged that they are not getting done. A couple main reasons - 1) it's still nice outside, therefore, our garden is still producing, 2) after the weather turns, the holidays are upon us. So, I have decided that the beginning of the spring semester will be the time to add in these types of things because there is not as much going on and it's too cold and windy to be out (most days.)

So, for this semester this will be our schedule (at least until it gets warmer outside.)
- Bible Reading aloud - we are all taking turns reading aloud through a chapter a day. We are beginning in John. It's a little different reading aloud from the Bible than a novel or fiction book. And I have discovered that my boys aren't reading aloud very often at all.

- Along with our devotions, I have purchased the Seeds Family Worship CDs for the boys for Christmas. We are listening to 2 per week and memorizing those verses to song.

- Math, Grammar, History, Science (Apologia's Zoology 2), Writing, Reading, Read aloud (The standards that we have to keep.)

- Along with reading, Alex will be reading aloud to me on Tuesdays and Nicolas on Wednesday. Otherwise, they may read to themselves.

- 30 minutes of fitness each day. I needed to add fitness into my schedule, so what better way to make it happen than to add it into their's as well. We have Wii Fit Plus, Leslie Sansone's Walk DVDs and Just Dance 2 for the Wii. These all get us moving. When it's nice, we can go for a walk outside and on Mondays, after co-op, I plan to stop at our local university (where my husband works) to walk their indoor track.

- Also on Mondays after co-op, we will have a daily library day. We did this last year, but since we sold our house in town, we have not been able to use the public library for free. I got a library card there for Christmas, so we can now go back. The boys are super excited to be able to use the library again. (I should mention that we were not without any library access. We are able to use the local university library for free, but it's children's section is not near what the public library has.)

- Electives - Tuesdays are computer time (typing, power point, etc.), Wednesdays are music (music theory, practicing instruments, etc) and Thursdays are nature study (not necessarily outside observing something as we've done in the past and I will not turn them loose like I've done in the past. There will be an actual assignment and it might be researching something in a nature book.)

- Unit Studies - Of course I can't these out. They are so fun and get us studying topics we might not normally do. Right now we're doing snow, next week we'll do the Pizza Download and Go which goes in depth with Italy also. And I'm sure we'll make a pizza or two next week!

- Fridays will be creative writing day. I have downloaded some neat writing prompts books from Scholastic (one of which is Comic Writing prompts. It has a comic strip at the top and then some questions about the topic to get them thinking. Garfield is one of the comic strips they use - and both boys LOVE Garfield!) We will not do grammar or our other writing on those days. They will each start a spelling notebook to add words they are misspelling on these writing days. Also on Fridays, we will do English from the Roots up - which introduces Latin and Greek words that are common in our English language which helps to boost vocabulary.

I'm looking forward to the next 2 - 2 1/2 months. By the middle to end of March, the weather will be turning and it will be time to get out into the garden. The a lot of these things will pass to leave more room for outdoor time!