7 Changes Happening to Our Homeschool

Another Tuesday has rolled around and that means it's time for List It {Tuesday} hosted by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers , which of course I'm linking up to again because they're awesome!

This week there were many different things that I could list and most of them of course have some part to do with our homeschool or advice on homeschooling. I've chosen to list here this week what we're doing this month and what will be changing after the first of the year around here.

What we're doing "new" in our homeschool this month:

1. With the return of the Advent season I've chosen to make sure that we make a concentrated effort to celebrate it. This means that each day, all seven days of the week, we are spending anywhere from ten to forty-five minutes each day studying Advent. We were able to get some wonderful information and "ornaments" for our Jesse tree from Confessions of a Homeschooler that both satisfied my need to have it all laid out for me and appealed to the children (they liked these ornaments best). We're also using Holy Heroes each day. They provide a decade a day of the rosary, including the joyful mysteries, a quick blurb on the Jesse tree, and much much more. That satisfied a very important audio and visual stimulation for this adventure for Peanut. The two programs don't perfectly match up, however with a bit of extra Bible reading from Mom (while they color their sheet I print from Holy Heroes) and the fact that there's only a one day difference in the stories of Advent between the two, it is working perfectly for us.
   
2. Also, I've decided to add in a bit of Confession of a Homeschooler's Christmas Around the World curriculum to broaden how we look at Christmas, traditions, cultures, and more. We're only doing the nine that she was giving out free, doing three a week, and finishing the week before Christmas (which we're taking off this year). It's been decided by the campers that these wonderful ornaments (included with what she was giving free) should be hung on our "porch tree" to help decorate it.
3. Another thing we added to our curriculum, which will only be around for this month, is Homegrown Learners' 5 Days of Christmas Carols music curriculum. The children have enjoyed listening to these wonderful carols while they are working, coloring, or crafting. I've split it up so that the first two are being listened to this week, two next week, and one the following week. I want these wonderful carols to really sink into the campers cores. Not to mention her choices are impeccable and I absolutely love listening to the links she provided.
4. This year Younger Cracker Jack has decided to make everyone homemade gifts for Christmas and she's working very hard at it. Her goals are very large (something for every family member and friend) and her self esteem is down a bit. I've told her not to worry about crocheting something for everyone, many people such as Noni and Grandma would love a picture she'd drawn or a card she'd made. I guess she's following in her Mommy's foot steps, and there's not too much wrong about that.
   

Does this mean we've scaled back on everything else? Nope. Just found a way to make time for some new things. Music can be listened to during just about any subject in this home, our Advent activities took the place of Bible studies for just this month (plus the children only have 1 "real" catechism class this month and a children's mass {mandatory} at our church to attend), as for the Christmas Around the world study we've kept it simple and it is literally taking us only a few moments each day to listen to the information provided and hang the ornament(s). That might change when we do a few of the crafts suggested, but probably not as crafting is something we dearly love to do.

Things changing around here after the new year:

1. Peanut will be receiving a large magnifier to help her see some things better while she's reading, because she'll be working on that after the new year. While this is not super important just now to have because PreK/K both have beautiful bright pictures that are rather large and the lettering is pretty bold as well, first grade is closer than we think and it's better to be prepared. Who knows she may just take off in flight when it comes to reading (it certainly looks preliminarily that she may).
2. Speaking of Peanut we'll also be ordering her first book with braille. It's a learn the ABC's book. This will help teach her AND Mommy how to read braille. There is a definite need for her to be a duel reader with her eyesight continually degrading. This book alone is pretty expensive for just one book, and the children's readers are at their low end $20 each.
   
3. Elder Cracker Jack and Younger Cracker Jack's health curriculum has been purchased and will be started the first week in January. Right now we're focusing on personal hygiene and the importance of properly brushing teeth, washing our hair, and getting all of the soap off. To quote YCJ, "Why do we need to wash behind our ears? Who's going to look there?" ((I could use some better answers for this one than "Because I told you to."))

That's the only changes that I know of (so far) that are happening in our homeschool (that I know of right now, I reserve the right to change my mind lol). None of these changes are being made because there's anything wrong with what we're doing now, as a matter of fact what we're doing now is working for us. Health is a needed subject for us to cover due to several reasons; so while we have a break from swimming classes it's the perfect time to focus a bit on it. 

YCJ is using a new typing curriculum but it was needed because what worked for her brother did not work for her and may not work for Peanut. I'll be doing a full review of it after the new year.