I really need to blog here!

I've promised a bunch of posts, and then in other exciting news, we are homeschooling year round! It has been FUN! We are pretty relaxed about it - First a read aloud while we are eating breakfast, then 5-10 minutes on spelling, and 20 minutes or so on Math followed by a break. Then we have lunch with a read aloud (out of a different book), Science (I think this is the kids favorite subject so far! Flower is doing Weather, Jelly Bean is doing things out of The Ben Franklin Book of Easy and Incredible Experiments, and Super and our daycare friend from last year are doing Bugs right now.), Art/Music (Jelly Bean is doing recorder, Flower is doing Keyboard and Guitar, and the little kids are listening to music CDs), and then Individual Reading. We generally do a couple hours of "school" although sometimes it takes longer because they are really into art or music.

Anyway, I want to blog more about it, and I promise that I will soon! And I'll get those past post finished up too. Keep watching here - when I get behind, then I usually do a post every day for a couple of weeks to get caught up! LOL

Thinking about my Learning Areas

I have an area for learning materials in my dining room and two learning rooms (one homeschool room, and one preschool area) downstairs. I feel blessed to have the space.

But

there are two things on my mind right now, and it would impact my learning areas.

1st - I am really trying to cut down on the amount of STUFF that I have in my home. I am not really someone who holds on to things much, but yet, we still have so much stuff. I have a closet full of fabric and craft materials. I have a closet full of preschool items that are not currently out on the shelves. I have two file cabinets. I have 5 bookcases in the homeschool room alone, and 12 in the house. Every drawer in my dresser is full. I probably have 20 pairs of shoes (wish may not seem like a lot to some people, but really, shouldn't 3 or 4 pairs be enough?)

and

2nd - I will probably only have one homeschooler and 2 or 3 preschoolers next year. The next year after that, I may have 3 homeschoolers, and 3 preschoolers, but I just don't know for sure.

Based on wanting/needing to cut down the amount of things in my home, does it really make sense to have a whole room for homeschooling? Based on the fact that I will only have one homeschooler, do I really need to have a whole room for homeschooling?

I think I know the answer.

BIG changes around here at Montgomery Academy

This year was busy, busy, busy, and lots of children - 4 preschoolers, 4 homeschoolers, 2 toddlers, and an infant. It took a lot of planning, and a lot of help from my sister/assistant. But as we get to the end of the year, I'm feeling like we did well. The homeschoolers had fun and learned about many things (I'll have a wind-up post soon for both the homeschoolers and the preschoolers) and so did the preschoolers. And the toddlers and the infant just grew and changed so much, so quickly.

But as the school year nears a close, it is with quite a bit of sadness that I think about next year. My sister and her family will be moving. FAR away. States and States away. She is likely going to continue homeschooling, but we won't be doing it together. So I'm sad about that. I'll miss teaching my nephews in the afternoon, and I'll miss my sister's help in the morning, but mostly I'll miss her company.

And after a lot of consideration, Flower's dad and I have decided to have Flower return to public school in the fall. She wants to return and way back when we started homeschooling, it was the plan to have her return for 5th grade. It wouldn't take much to sway ME to continue homeschooling her, but it feels like we made the right decision. I will miss her SO much. And Super will likely be going to Kindergarten at the public school too. I'm strongly considering just doing half days (mornings) but at the very least, he will be at the public school for at least a few hours a day. He will back to homeschool in first grade, but still, I'll miss him TONS. Since we started homeschooling, we always said that we would take homeschooling on a year by year basis, and that we would choose what we felt was best for the child. It may not be the same for each child. And right now, we have decided that Flower and Super at the public school next year. Jelly Bean will still be at home. (Oh, we are both VERY excited, and we already have some great plans for next year!)

Princess will be going to Kindergarten in the fall. Sweetie is going to a different preschool. Spunky may or may not be back.

So Montgomery Academy will be going from 4 preschoolers, 4 homeschoolers, 2 toddlers, and an infant TO 1 preschooler, 1 homeschooler, 1 toddler moving up to a preschooler, and an infant moving up to a toddler. From 11 to 4.

Times and Seasons. I know. And I've learned so much from this season. I'll miss so much from this time. But there will be different experiences I'm sure that I'll gain from teaching at Montgomery Academy this fall too.

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PS Any locals, by the way, I would consider taking one 2 or 3 year old for preschool only, or full or part-time daycare for this fall.

Knobless Cylinders . . .

(picture from the Nienhaus website)

I was on the fence for the longest time about buying these - and I even tried selling them once because they didn't get used much back then. But this year - WOW. In the last month, the knobless cylinders have been out so often in the Preschool Area. And they have learned so much from using them.

In fact, this year has been an interesting year for me, Montessori-wise. This is the only year in the past 7 years that I have had more than one child that is doing lots of work in Period 5 (and in Period 4 too) I'm also often seeing one or two children using the knobless cylinders, another using the brown stairs, and another using the block tower, and then they talk about how they each have ten, and how they can all stack up, etc. The Montessori materials never cease to amaze me - I don't even have to open my mouth and they learn the concepts, just from using the materials.

Upcoming Posts . . .

I have got a few posts almost complete -

• Geography for the Homeschoolers
• Geography for Preschoolers
• Language for Preschoolers
• Poetry for Homeschoolers
• Science for Homeschoolers
• Geometry for Preschoolers

Sometimes it is just hard to teach and blog and I'm a mother first, teacher second, and blogger third (or so LOL)

Preschool: A few more what we were up to from Late March . . .

Sweetie working on the Bead Matching Activity.

Wiggles working on the dry erase letter Ss. Sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Wiggles doing a turtle counting activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Wiggles doing another turtle activiy - this time it is the turtle color matching activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Sweetie working on the block tower alone

Sweetie and Super working on the brown stair and the block tower

A trapezoid - our shape of the month

Preschool: What We Were Up To in March

Making a rainbow book - cover is from

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Back Cover by Super

Wiggles working on the Shape Puzzles

Working with Pink Cards with

Moveable Alphabet - Super and

Princess are really enjoying the

Pink Level works that are out right now

Wiggles working on the Rainbow

Color Matching cards - cards from

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Making a small book -

the children like to take a few sheets

of inset paper and staple them together

to make a book.

Spunky working with the Sensory Tub.

Green peas and gold coins were

in the Sensory tub for March