Ready to Start our 2012-2013 Year!!

It has been one busy summer around here!!  We have vacationed, done VBS, got Alyssa potty trained (FINALLY!!), I got LASIK and can see now without glasses, and we have played with friends!!  I have also been involved with the planning of our upcoming semester of co-op classes!!  I am teaching 2 classes this semester and am on the planning committee! We have been super busy!!

I am so glad though that it is finally time for school to start!!  I am ready to get the kids back into a structured routine.  They are excited about starting a new school year too!

I think I have a schedule mapped out that will work for us!  I am so ready to give it a try!!

Monday morning we are going to do our first of the year school pictures and we are going to talk through our schedule.  Then we are headed out to a fun "unfirst day of school" gathering with friends at a splash pad!!  The kids know that we are going somewhere...they just don't know where :-)

Then on Tuesday morning we will go into the classroom and get down to business!!

I thought today I would share some pictures of the schoolroom.  I have done a lot of rearranging this Summer so it's almost like having a new schoolroom!  :-)

Here is the view from looking in the front door.  You can see that the desks are in a u-shape sort of set up.  We will see if this works well for us.

 This is at the front looking to the left.  This is our art and game table.  On the shelf behind the table are all our art supplies and flashcards, dice, etc...  On the wall next to the flag I will have a Pledge of Allegiance poster (it just hasn't arrived  yet)!  I am SO EXCITED about teaching Seth early American History this year!  

Here you can see the new bench I made (from an idea on Pinterest).  And you can see Aaron and Alyssa's letter of the week chart.  They will sit on that bench for their Letter of the Week and Little Hands to Heaven time.  During reading corner and bible time all kids will sit on the bench facing the back wall.  I also have a puppet stage that I will set up in that corner as I need it and they can all sit on the bench to watch the puppet shows!

Here is a close up of the bench.  Each side of the bench has 3 cubby boxes.  I have them labeled with what the boxes contain.  (They contain stuff for Little Hands to Heaven/Letter of the Week, Alyssa's busy box and toy box, Seth's busy box, Aaron's busy box, and our literature books that we will be reading during reading corner.)

 Here is our United States Map that I found on pinterest and printed it out.  As we learn each state we will color it in.  Seth is super excited about this!  (sorry the lighting in the room did not let me get a good picture of it)

 Here is a view of my desk area.  You can see at the right edge of the picture my "pouch" to hold my dry erase markers and erasers (close-up below).

Here is a close up of the pouch for my dry erase supplies.  I am so excited about this!!  (yeah I know it doesn't much to thrill me!)  You can also see above it a few of the pieces of our American History timeline.  I changed it up a bit from the MFW one.  Instead of Seth coloring these and adding them as we go I went ahead and found colored clip art to work for each piece and printed and laminated them and put up the entire timeline above the white board.  We will refer to it as we are doing our lessons!

Here is another view on my desk.  I still have a major project I want to do...you see what my laptop is sitting on...an empty diaper box!!  It really helps to put the laptop at eye level...but I need something besides a diaper box.  I am hoping that either my hubby, father or father-in-law can build me something since they are all master woodworkers :-)  Just waiting to see who will volunteer first!

Here is the view on the other side of the doors.  You can see our bookcase that holds our books and games.  I made a Browie Points board (from Pinterest of course).  Every time I receive a compliment from someone in public on my children's good behavior they will earn a "brownie".  When the pan is full with the 8 "brownies" I will bake a REAL pan of brownies for them to enjoy!   Oh and those are Seth and Aaron's "nap work" bags hanging on the hooks.  We are going to use our bags we got from Homeschool Day at the zoo to keep their 'nap work' books in.

Oh and I found these pics on the camera and had to share.  I took these the other day and wanted to do a blog post...but didn't get around to it.  We now have an IPAD designated for the school room.  I got a super duty case for it to hopefully keep it safe.  Alyssa tested it out for me the other day while I was working on stuff.

 I think she likes it!!! (love that face!!!!)

Well!  Pray for us as we start next week!!  I am hoping and praying for a FABULOUS first week back to school!!

Until Next time,
Kellie