Prepping for a New Year

Well, friends, it's that time of year again - our school books for the new year have arrived, and I am in a planning frenzy! Actually, the frenzy has died down a bit, and I am in the process of re-organizing our school room to make room for the new books. We have been in dire need of bookshelves for a couple of years, and, thankfully, my mom recently gave us some cedar lumber that belonged to my dear Dad. So hubby and the boys are planning on making new cedar bookshelves as a fall/ winter handicraft project.  I can't wait to see how they turn out!  :) 



But back to the books. Our children will be in yr10, yr8, yr7, yr6, and yr3 this year.  Here is a peek at some (not all) of their books, in no particular order. As I mentioned above, we in the organizing stage, so the books are here, there, everywhere! But here are the ones I could track down.  ;)

 We have Kindle books, too, and some online readings, as well. But I really want the children to have hard copies of the books. So I make sure that they each have hard copies of some of their books.

Now for scheduling...for the past 3 years, I have printed the AO weekly schedules. But this year, I decided to try the pdf versions of the schedules. They are smaller and use less paper and ink!  :) And I have the entire term on one page. I like that. If I need to look ahead for some reason, I can easily find the info on the chart. Now, will the children like them as much as the other schedules? That remains to be seen. Hope so.

I also print the Composer study, Hymn, Folksong, Shakespeare, and Plutarch schedules so that I don't have to keep going back to the AO website to look them up.

For Artist study, I print a copy of the painting and place it under our clear vinyl  tablecloth. 
It's always in view so the children become very familiar with it.   I also have a way of Keeping our Artist study, for those who may interested, but more on that in another post.

Now for the binders..we have previously used these folders (one for each child), which contains their schedules, maps, calligraphy paper, etc.

But the folders became worn, as you can see, and by the end of the 2nd term, they were overflowing with papers.

So I decided to buy each child a binder this year...

 Now, there is plenty of room for all their AO stuff!   And they had such fun decorating their cover pages.

Each child gets a new Nature journal this year. (There is nothing quite like a fresh, new Nature journal, is there?) I got these from Wal-Mart. They are smaller than the ones we have previously used. But the children picked them out, so I went with their suggestion.

Of course, my children aren't the only ones who get all the goodies at the beginning of the new school year. I get a treat, too. And this year it's a hard copy of the Charlotte Mason homeschooling series! All six volumes! No more highlighting on the Kindle! No more endless note-taking!

Happy homeschooling! :)

"All your children shall be taught by the Lord, 
And great shall be the peace of your children."" ~ Isaiah 54:13