5th Grade Calvert has arrived

 Eagle's school year starts in January.  This is because I made him repeat the third grade...when he was in third grade.  With only two months to go to complete his third grade year, I just didn't feel he had learned or retained enough to progress at that time.  The beauty of homeschooling is, he has repeated a year...but so far, has never failed a grade.  I still do not regret my decision, as I feel it was by far one of the best homeschooling decisions I have ever made.  He has come so far since switching to Calvert!  We have worked very hard to try and recover from the half of the year we fell behind when repeating that third grade year and we've advanced a few months.  He has a complete 12 months to complete his curriculum but we do hope to finish "early" to get him more "caught up" to his peers.  

Nothing is more exciting than starting a new year and today Eagle's boxes arrived!  

We are seasoned Calvert users so unpacking and getting things organized is a very quick process for us!  Here's what was in his box.

Everybody has their own shelf to keep all of their curriculum.  This is our shelf.

This is Eagle's shelf

Basically, all of the worksheets and manuals are stored in a crate.  All of his textbooks and workbooks are to the right on the shelf.  All of his novels and other materials are kept up out of reach because of the little ones.

The older kids are able to do a lot of things independently so we are moving back to the workbox system.  Eagle will use his system independently and Macaw will be training for the second semester of this year so that next year she will be able to work more independently as well. This system always worked well for Eagle, but we have not always had the space to do it so we haven't used this system for a while. We got a nice rolling cart for Eagle's workstation.  All of his assignments will be loaded into his boxes.  Each box will contain the things he needs to complete each assignment.  Any work that needs to be completed with me will be marked with a * and he will know that is a teacher led assignment.  He will complete his independent work (I answer questions and help as needed when I am available).  Teacher led lessons will be taught at our scheduled times.  At the end of the day I will grade his work and fill his boxes for the next day.  Any work that needs to be corrected will be worked on the next day.  He is responsible for filing away any graded work and keeping his notebook neat and orderly.  

Here are his workboxes

I immediately set up his boxes and he quickly got to work! Here is his first day of boxes...

Math

Close up of Math box

Close up of Grammar Box

Close up of Spelling Box

 Close up of Science Box

 Close up of History Box

Close up of Reading Box

Close up of Art History Box

Hope this helps those who are always asking how we set things up.  Hopefully soon I can give a more detailed look at how our classroom is set up now since we have moved.  

Ready for our new school year!

We always get excited this time of year!  There is nothing like getting new folders, pencils, notebooks, etc. and of course the new school books!  I love to watch the excitement as my kids get all their new things for a new school year and I love their eagerness to get started once everything is organized.

Our classroom changes a lot, but I always try and make it a bright and inviting place to be, afterall, we do spend most of our time in there!  All of my friends are always envious of our classroom and often call on me to help them organzie their stuff for them.  I always try and make the most of our space.  My family thrives on routine and structure and while we do some work away from our desks, it works best for us to have a structured "classroom" environment.  Unfortunatly, we seem to move a lot and we've always been lucky enough to have the space to have a classroom, but currently, we've had to give up our dining room in order to have our classroom but no one seems to mind eating meals in the family room in front of the tv.

This year, Macaw officially starts Kindergarten.  She is actually less than excited, as she knows that it's time for some serious work around here!  I hoped to find a loophole to get Emu "officially" registered for K, but he just doesn't make the birthday cut.  He will still work with Macaw in her K lessons and he will just start on an advanced level next year.  So, we will have an 8th grader, 6th grader, 3rd grader, 2 K'ers and 1 preschooler this year.  It's gonna be a busy year, so it's time for us to get started!

See pics of our classroom here

We are looking forward to a great year :)