It's that time of year... Back to School! My little family and I really loved our time off this summer and had lots of fun. BUT I gotta say, I love back to school. Setting up our classroom, picking out what curriculum and projects we'll be doing is something I have a lot of fun planning!
I'm only on year 2 of homeschooling so I have a lot to learn still but I have found youtube channels, fellowship with other homeschool Mom's, podcasts, pinterest, etc SO helpful as I figure out what works best for us. So, I thought it would be helpful (hopefully) for someone else if I shared some of what we are using this year!
Most of what I will be showing is what I'm using with my 1st Grader. I will write another blog in the future about what we use for Pre K.
Quick Tour of the Classroom!
This room is very multi-purpose. It's our classroom, our office, I workout in here and in the winter we use the wood burning fireplace in here to warm up the cabin.
*The Adverbs, Verbs, Coutning and ABC posters are all from the Dollar Tree. Changeable weather/calendar and camping themed wall decorations from amazon. Table and Chairs from Walmat)
*Map of the U.S. from Target $5 bin, Globe, plastic bins are from Dollar Tree. Cubbies we bought from amazon last year and already had the furniture and white board.
*I found a free template for these labels for the cubbies online and typed in what I wanted each to be. Printed and laminated them. Practice clock is from amazon, wooden puzzles we've slowly collected from various stores. Carskey and Lil' both have their own cubby with their pencil box, bible and school workbooks they are using for the year. They take out what they need and put it back at the end of the school day.
*We hang art projects on the clips throughout the year, filing system has a folder for each of them labeled Mon-Fri. Each Sunday I put what work they are doing in each folder for the week and each day that we complete we put to the back of the folder so I can see where we are at.
*My school planner where I keep our course of study, and fill out our curriculum plan for each week. I made each kid a "daily learning notebook" that I had gotten the idea from one of my favorite youtubers A Place to Nest that you can view her version HERE. For my first grader it has his name, address, phone number practice, days of the week/months puzzles, daily calendar, and other activities. For my Preschooler it has her name practice, day of the week wheel, puzzles, and alphabet/number tracing practice. Everything is in a clear plastic insert so they can use dry eraser, erase and begin again the next day.
* Our theme this year is adventure/outdoors so I found a cute little graphic online I printed up, colored and laminated on our class sign. The kids each had one too that they colored and put on the cover of their daily learning notebooks.
Favorite Curriculum/Other Items we are using this year!
* Our main curriculum we are using this year is the Horizons 1st Grade. It comes with Phonics/Reading, Math, Spelling/Vocabulary, Health and Penmanship. Carskey was an early reader and I wanted to find something that would challenge him a bit more in that aspect. After a LOT of research on different types of curriculum this was the one I felt was the right fit for us this year. It also has wonderful penmanship curriculum which is something Carskey could use a slower pace on/patience which was perfect. You can view the curriculum HERE.
*I found these on amazon and thought they were so FUN! My 1st grader is a BIG Minecraft fan and who wouldn't want to do Math or Color in Minecraft form? LOL These are unofficial and were a really good price on Amazon!
*More Math and Science we are using this year. Carskey got the microscop and weather science kit for his birthday and they will both fit in perfect for our school year. Rock crystal kits from dollar tree. Money Counting activity, food group sorting boxes from Oriental Trading, Flash cards are a 1st grade pack by playskool I got on amazon, math cubes from amazon and time puzzle from dollar bin at Target.
* A few of our Geography/Phonics goodies for the year! Word Tiles from amazon, Crinkle world map from Target $5 bin. We have fun with that one. We crinkle it up and toss it back and forth and find contents and oceans on it. Puzzles from dollar bin at Target. Contractions peanuts puzzle and common/proper noun grammar buckets are from Oriental Trading Co. I just found that magnetic U.S.A puzzle at a specialty toy store in Julian this past weekend while camping. I was really excited about that!
Closer look at my recent Oriental Trading Co haul. I got all of this for under $30!
*Our Outdoor/Explore bin is slowly growing! We like to go on nature walks and are starting a nature journal as part of school time this year. They also keep their garden gloves and some of their tools in there for when they help me outside.
*This is one of my all time favorite Dollar Tree finds. I love getting school supplies there. After watching one of my favorite homeschool youtubers last year share about this dry erase foam dice, I've been on the hunt ever since. A few weeks ago I FOUND IT at my local Dollar Tree (insert cheers here).
Today we used it for the first time practicing ordinal vs. cardinal numbers and the kids loved it. Carson got his practice in and Lily had fun rolling the dice and shouting out the answer after Carson would.
Some of the Online/Printable Resources we are using:
From TeachersPayTeachers.com (Links attached)
5 Senses Poster Set - free
Other:
AdventureBible.com - free
(we use this for games and a free yearly reading plan for the Bible my 1st grader has.)
Kids of Intergrity - free
TypingClub.com - free
Confessions of a Homeschooler – some free
(curriculum, schedules, advise. So
much amazing content.)
Public Library -
I utilize
our public Library A LOT. I order specific books from the library online weeks
in advance for upcoming units so I don’t have to buy as many books. Also the
public library will allow you to open up a homeschooling library card separate
from your regular one. The homeschool card lets you check the books out for
double the time as the regular card.
Are you still there? That was a big post! Sorry about that! I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions or just want to say come find me on my facebook page and send me a message!
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