First day of school!

I'm back! Today was out official first day of school for the 2012-2013 school year and I have to say, we were both pretty pleased with it. We took a 6 week break for summer...we don't take off the entire summer since we break for a month during the spring to travel and several other longer breaks throughout the year. It works well for us.

Dh was sick with a horrible flu that is raging though our community last week, but thankfully all of us were healthy for the start of our school year. We woke up about 8:30, had breakfast, showered, dressed, and started our school day about 9:30. While my mom was here we reorganized and rearranged the school room and built a desk for A. Here are a few pics of where we spend our school hours.

 A couldn't wait to start. She loves the routine and after a few weeks off she starts itching to do more.

 I start everyday off with giving A her written schedual for the day. 

 I am trying something new this year. We are having a tea/snack break during our morning. A loves it and says it is definitely something she wants to keep doing.

 After tea, we headed back to do our math and history work.

 We always try to wrap up around 12:30 for lunch and today I served cheese tortillini, a tomato and cucumber Greek salad I whipped up the night before and fresh cherries that I splurged for at the store last week. And trust me, at $8.99 a lb here on the island they are a rare treat even though A and I both love them.

I have been blessed with my mom working at an elementary/middle school. It has served as a wealth of curriculum for us and has helped keep the cost of homeschooling down as we decided not to go with the state program I blogged about before for several reasons that I'll go into on another blog post one day.

Anyway.... here is our current curriculum for this semester.

Math- Harcourt Math- grade 4

Vocabulary- Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop- Level Green and Orange (grade 3&4)

History- The Complete Book of United States History- grade 3-5

Grammar- McGraw Hill Grammar Practice- Grade 4

Science- Evan-Moor Daily Science and Science Explore:Earth's Changing Surface

Spelling- 3rd grade spelling list

Writing- Brave Writer Curriculum

Literature- Ambleside online grade 3 and 4

Now I am off to bed, ready for another great day of home education :)