Welcome to a brief overview of our curriculum picks for 1st and 4th grade! Plus a little look into our overall day and planned schedule for 2013-2014.

After the minor setback of having Kali wake up with a fever this morning, we were off to a decent start. I didn't take any "first day of school" pictures this morning with her feeling so poorly, but I took a few snapshots of our day.

She has crazy hair from the essential oils i smeared on her head.

Monday will normally be our Keeping it Classical day (our local homeschool co-op). We went ahead and started school this week (instead of waiting for KIC next week) because I actually will be traveling with my dear hubby to work Tues-Thurs of next week... not your ideal "first week of school" lol. But duty calls! And it rarely does, so I will happily oblige!

The girls and I talked through how our days will flow, especially once all the extracurriculars kick in. We discussed our workflow and reward systems as well. I thought I'd share those with you just in case they can help you in any way.

For our rewards for diligent work and good behavior, we use 2 different things. I tried them in the Spring and they worked well! The first thing is all about behavior: listening, first time obedience, being honest, putting others before ourselves, etc. It's a little posterboard sign with green, yellow and red. I've written the girls' names on clothespins. They have 6 steps in all: 2 greens, 2 yellows and 2 reds. If they stay on one of the greens all day, they get cookies and milk for dessert. If they make it yellow, no dessert but no punishment. If they make it to the first red, they're in trouble with mommy. If they make it allll the way to the bottom red, they're in trouble with daddy. It says "YIKES!" ;-)

The second system is based on merit and is more academically geared. They receive up to 10 tickets per day for excellent work: listening with a good attitude, trying their best, correct answers, etc. They can earn up to 2 tickets per subject and 10 per day. These are essentially worth $.10 each so they can save them over time like an allowance and do/buy what they'd like with it.

That's how we handle attitude, behavior and reward effort. So, what are our days *planned* to look like this year? BUSY!!!

I created a little day-to-day planner for the girls. It greeted them at the breakfast table this morning right as they rolled out of bed. Isabella received hers today, but Kali didn't feel well enough for me to expect anything from her. It's a pretty self-explanatory little checklist:

She checks off each thing as completed and each part of day has some blanks for adding chores or additional notes (either from me or from themselves).

As I mentioned, Monday will be our KIC day. We will meet with a sweet community of likeminded families and teach our children together. The rest of the week we continue to work on the memory work each morning so that by the end of the week, it is locked in for the long run (hopefully!).

Here is our memory work board. I remade it with these cool little clippy-tabs from Wal-Mart instead of the plastic sheet protector sleeves... I printed my board sheets on cardstock and it works like a charm! Be careful putting them on though... a few of mine aren't straight so the sheets are hanging caddywompous ;-)

Tues-Thursday we are at home each day (until the afternoons).

We started off our morning today with some yoga and stretching about 8:00. We will see if that part sticks but we all really enjoyed it!

Someone else spent their morning in bed watching Neftlix on Mommy's laptop.

8:30- Review the week's memory work

9:00- Bible; Apologia

10:00- Math; Saxon 2 and 5/4

11:00- Logic of English; We are using this for phonics, reading and spelling for Kali as well as touches of grammar. We are using it to re-wire Isabella's brain to help with her spelling plus being a basic groundwork for grammar.

12:00- Lunch

Practicing her math facts on the super-cool (FREE!) website xtramath.org A sweet mom at KIC recommended it and it's wonderful!

The afternoons vary greatly. On Tuesday Kali will be at Homeschool PE, so Isabella and I will use that time to do an "Essentials" type curriculum. We will utilize the Logic of English Essentials, along with Our Mother Tongue and the trivium tables from EEL for memory work. We will also utilize Songschool Latin for a fun, relaxed way of expanding upon our CC Latin memory work.

My random work thrown into the middle of our school day.

During Kali's gymnastics on Tues & Thursday, Isabella and I will utilize IEW's Medieval writing curriculum to reflect Cycle 2. We may also use this time for working out together, but we will likely use this at least once per week.

Had to see if I could get her hair into a ponytail for gymnastics and ballet.

Silly girl was feeling better after her day full of mommy dousing her in essential oils.

On Wed & Fridays, we will do more history and science in the afternoons... mainly via fun educational videos and living books.

I also took a few pictures of my little organizer. I found an adorable 3 ring binder at Target that is 8.5x5.5". I also got the little pack of dividers. When I got home, I hole-punched some plain paper for a note section, printed my daily planner 2 to a page and created my homeschool planner. I simply cut them in half, punched holes and stuck them in. I also included some clear pouches for pens, cd's and timeline cards. I included a section in the back with all the contact information for the KIC members and a section of cycle 2 memory work for on the go.