another good reason to homeschool

Okay, I have lots of reasons to homeschool --- the one on one, no busy work, more hands on, flexibility, spending more time with my kids are just a few of the reasons. However, this week I have learned a new reason. Sleep!! Apparently, getting up early and then go, go, go all day is too much for my 5 year old. This past week he went to day camp which lasted from 7:30am - 5:30pm. It was TaeKwonDo Day Camp so there was quite a bit more physical activity than there would be at school but every evening he came home grumpy and he's normally not grumpy. So, he did this every evening and fell asleep around 7pm. In the mornings I tried to wake him up and he groaned at me and rolled over. I couldn't get him to eat because he was so tired. In the van, I always handed him his breakfast and he just held it with a dazed expression and never ate it. The poor guys was so tired. I was just grateful it was only a week.

So, today is Saturday. He slept until 7:30am and woke up my normal, cheerful boy. YAY!! Well, until about 4pm and the grumpy little boy returned. So, now it isn't even 6pm yet and he's been asleep since 5pm. haha!! I can't wait until he finally catches up on his sleep so my happy boy will be back.

What has this week taught me? It has taught me that my son isn't ready to spend all day in a classroom if I want him happy when he gets home. LOL!

The books for the new school year are in...

We are doing K12 so I am super excited this year. I won't be posting as many lessons as I normally do but I'll try. Of course, I didn't do so well at posting last year either... hehe! oops!! I'm just a slacker. Anyways.... here's a picture of all of our books.

Isn't that exciting? So here's what we have to work with this year:

1. Math
1. K12 Math+ Blue Book -- activity pages and the lesson guide
2. 2-D Shapes, 3-D Shapes and Snap Cubes
2. Music
1. Preparatory Music Student Pages (there are stories and worksheets that go with songs, up and down practice with music, beat practice pages, all kinds of things I never would have thought to use in music)
2. Let's Sing Vol K CD (A bunch of kid and folk songs)
3. Let's Listen Vol K CD (Classical music)
4. Let's Learn Music Vol K DVD (I haven't watched this one so I still don't know what it is. The back said that it's to teach kids how to move and feel the music)
3. Phonics
1. K12 Phonics K Student Pages and Teacher Guide
2. PhonicsWorks (the big box on the bottom shelf in picture above)
1. White boards, dry erase markers, flash cards for site words, magnetic book (incredible!) with letters and letter combinations to make different sounds -- awesome!)
4. Language Arts
1. Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten Teacher's Guide and Workbook
2. K12 Language Arts K Student Pages
1. Poetry, following direction activities and stuff like that
3. Junior Great Books Sailing Ship Series (These Jr Great books are neat b/c they have discussions to bring up at certain points in the story and lines for the child to read a-loud with you. Both sets of these series are for me to read aloud to my children.)
1. The Shoemaker and the Elves by Brothers Grimm
2. The Frog Went A-Traveling - Russian Folktale
3. Night into Dawn by Robert Hillyer and John Ciardi
4. The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter
5. Bouki Cuts Wood - Haitian folktale
6. Fantasy - by Silvia Path, Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll
7. Lion at School by Philippa Pearce
8. Coyote Rides the Sun - Native American folktale
9. Seasons by Nikki Giovanni, Robert Louis Stevenson and Langston Hughes
4. Junior Great Books Dragon Series
1. The Frog Prince by the Brothers Grimm
2. Guinea Fowl and Rabbit Get Justice - African folktale
3. Nature Speaks by Carl Sandburg, James eeves and Federico Garcia Lorea
4. Feraj and the Magic Lute - Arabian Folktale
5. The Tale of Johnny Town - Mouse by Beatrix Potter
6. Companions by A.A. Milne, Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Louis Stevenson
7. Buya Marries the Tortoise - African folktale
8. The Huckabuck Family and How They Raised PopCorn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back by Carl Sandburg
9. Magical Places by Byrd Baylor, William Shakespeare and Martin Brennan
5. The Random House Book of Fairy Tales
6. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
7. Tom Thumb retold by Richard Jesse Watson
8. Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel
9. A Story A Story retold by Gail E Haley
10. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
11. The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
12. The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
13. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
14. Rhyme Time by Tomie dePaola
15. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
16. Millions of Cats by Wanda Ga'g
17. A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
18. Mik Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
19. The Rooster Crows A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles by Maud and Miska Persham
20. Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
5. Art
1. K12 Art K Student Pages (It's directions for me and instructions for activities to do along with a few worksheets on different drawing methods)
2. Come Look With Me - Animals in Art by Gladys S. Blizzard
3. Come Look With Me - Enjoying Art with Children by Gladys S. Blizzard
4. 12 different art prints to look at -- there's Monet, Van Gough and many others in the list
6. Science
1. K12 Science K Student Pages(These are the worksheets that go with the lessons)
2. The Big Dipper by Franklyn M Branley
3. Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft and Richard G. Van Gelder
4. My Five Senses by Aliki
5. What's Alive? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
7. History
1. K12 History K Student Pages (again, just worksheets to go with each lesson-- mostly geography)
2. Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
3. Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
4. The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
5. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
6. When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor
7. Possum Magic by Mem Fox
8. The Great Kapok Tree by  Lynne Cherry
9. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

And.... that's it!! :) Most of the books are available at your local library and the K12 books can be bought through K12 w/o enrolling in the virtual school. My son is incredibly excited. We will start school on August 15th so until then I will be working on activity bags for the 3 yo that will be self-checked learning so she can play with those with minimal guidance from me while I work with my 5 yo in Kindergarten. *sigh* I can't believe he's old enough to be in Kindergarten.