Homeschool Open House 2007

I am participating in the homeschool open house this year!

My name is Jackie and I am a 30-something year old mom that lives in Florida. I have 3 amazing children, Abby is 9 and in 4th grade, Nathan is 7 and in 2nd grade and Esther Hope is my 5 year old kindergal. We have a school room in our loft. I have an old kitchen table that we work at most of the time although, we have been known to spread out all over the house and even outside.

One of the main curriculum's we use is Five in a Row. It has been such a blessing to me and the kids have had so much fun learning and making lapbooks and going on fieldtrips. I usually try to expand the science subject that our Five in a Row book is doing and we study that in depth together that week or the next. I also use a lot of Magic School Bus for science. Abby is doing Beyond Five in a Row as well and loves it. She is reading the Boxcar Children right now.

We also use Abeka for Math and Language/Phonics/Handwriting. I have also discovered The Mystery of History this year and we are doing that for History and also Bible. It is a chronological study of the Bible and History together. I have found it fascinating.

Our Schedule is different every day, but basically, we wake up and have breakfast and Abby begins her "folder work" (Math and Language that is in her folder for the day) She likes to get an early start, so I allow the two little ones time to play while I do chores and help Abby. We all get together for MOH and Bible and then our FIAR and Science. After that Abby does her chores and I begin working with Nathan and Esther on phonics and math. We break for lunch and then I finish up with the little ones and Abby does her Beyond FIAR or silent reading. We are usually finished by 2:00 unless we get going on a project.

I have a reading list similar to Book It that we do once a month. If each student has read the amount of books required, we have a jar with slips of paper in it. The papers have different restaurants on them and we pull one out and have dinner out wherever the paper says to.It is a end of the month special for all of us (Mommy included)!

We have Fun Fridays every week where we do something special. Sometimes it is a fieldtrip or park, sometime it is baking cookies or cupcakes. We have been known to do a movie afternoon and turn off all the lights and pop popcorn and pile up on the couch or a trip to Dairy Queen to celebrate another week at home learning together!

I feel very blessed to homeschool, but I will never promise to continue for a long term. I take each school year and pray over it and search to make sure this is what The Lord wants me to do and that my motives are pure. I am thankful that He has allowed me to continue so far.

Thanks for taking a peek at our homeschool!