Dream World vs Reality

So, I decided this year to change absolutely everything about the way I homeschool. For one, I'll have ALL of the kids home. Xman and Bean have been home for a few years now, but this is Puppy's first year home. Miss PG is now noticing that she can do Preschool on my computer and VERY much wants to be involved. I've felt very strongly that the set-up for Power of an Hour is what I wanted, but I didn't particularly want to do Old Testament right now, so I was kind of at a loss. One of my friends shared that she uses a similar set up, but makes her own curriculum. I thought- ok.... I can try this. So I set up three days of curriculum that would start with us all as a family, break for chores & lunch prep, give me individual time with each kid, give each kid alone time, and encourage siblings playing together, then leave me finished in time for dinner prep. So today, I present to you, my PLAN and what actually happened.

Here is the syllabus I used for today.

Devotional- 3 Ne 14:21 & Matthew 7:12 (the devotionals I got from Momentity. It's called Armor Your Children)

Animaniacs State Capitals Video

Pledge of Allegiance

Diligence lesson

     D&C 103:36 (copywork)

    Dictionary Look Up

    Spelling

    Quotes

    Friend Story- A Faithful Finish

    Discussion

    Related Books

        Duck on a Bike

        The Ant & The Grasshopper (fablefreebie)(reading rainbow)

   Game- Fetch the Bean

Individual Time

1. X&Mommy (HP7), Bean (easy peasy), Puppy& Miss PG (http://www.ducksnarow.com/2013/11/preschool-ant-hill-game.html)
2. Bean&Mommy   (Little House on the Prairie), Puppy (easy peasy), X&Miss PG
3. Puppy &Mommy, Miss PG (preschool), X&Bean (grasshopper/ant study)
4. Miss PG &Mommy  (preschool packet), X&Bean&Puppy
5. Mommy & Bean & Puppy (HP1), X(easy peasy),  Miss PG (SuperWhy Grasshopper/Ant on Netflix)

Lunch- Ant & Grasshopper Bento

1. Sandwich Ant Hill (bread, tuna, mayo)
2. Olive Ants carrying Corn (olives, corn)
3. Hummus and Carrot Sun (lemon, chickpeas, sesame seeds, olive oil, cumin, salt, carrots)
4. Dirty Rice under a Pea Grasshopper (rice, cinnamon, sugar, sugar snap peas)

Here's how it really went down.....

  I got up before the kids (this RARELY happens, bordering on never). Puppy was up within 10 minutes and helped me clear the table. I made a big 'ol pot of Cream of Wheat and some fresh syrup. We set the table and I even found some strawberries and powdered sugar to put on top. We only had to wake up Bean. The rest got up on their own. We ate together as a family

I hung out my fun new sign to let the world know that we were not to be bothered

We cleared the table and got out notebooks and scriptures.  Devotional went fine, as did the video and pledge. Then things strayed from the plan. Late the night before, my cute niece that lives with me gave me an idea to take the quotes I had and print them out so the kids could put them in their scriptures if they'd like. I LOVED the idea and did so. Here is a copy of that. *disclaimer- I did not MAKE the little pieces of artwork. They are literally all from Pinterest, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules or anything here. If so, I'll definitely take them down.

I cut them out while the kids read the scriptures. Then I let them each pick one to put in their scripture and one to glue in their notebook. For the older 3, I had them write down the verse in their notebooks. For Miss PG, I just did tracing letters for the word "diligence" and had her trace it.

We skipped spelling for the time being.

We also skipped Duck on a Bike. It was funny, but I didn't feel like it fit my theme all that well.

Then we watched the Reading Rainbow version of Ant and Grasshopper, even though I checked 3 different versions out from the library.

Then we cleaned up for a little bit, did a couple chores and decided to start individual time. Xman and I hid upstairs in my room reading Harry Potter 7. We didn't want to accidentally spoil anything for the other kids. Bean worked on her laptop doing a day of Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool. I had wanted to the game linked in the syllabus for Puppy and Miss PG, but that didn't happen, so I had them work on their fine motor skills. I had a big, deep tupperware-ish container that I dumped a bag of dry black beans in. I was hoping for little plastic ants, but didn't have the money right off the bat. I did find a couple of really BIG ants at the dollar store that I put in with the black beans. Then I covered them with a layer of shredded brown paper (it's for gift bags) to act as the dirt. Then I had the littles taking turns using ice tongs to pick the "ants" up and put them into an empty egg carton.

After 30 min, it was time to switch. Bean was wise enough to pick up a second copy of Little House last time she went to an outdoor library. It was a great idea because while we were reading, I was trying fruitlessly to get the Captain to take a nap. Turns out he was poopy. Good job, mama. Xman spent his time with Miss  PG reading the other versions of the Ant and the Grasshopper. Puppy LOVES his time on the computer doing school. Bean and I got through a whole chapter, so we decided to color  for the rest of our time.

Once this block of time was done, we handed out lunch. Lunch was spectacular in my head! Tuna fish sandwich shaped into an ant hill- that worked fine. Ants made of olives on toothpicks- that turned out fine. Then there was my hummus and carrot sun idea. The hummus was supposed to be the center of the sun and the carrots were supposed to be the rays. I even bought yellow carrots! Yeah, that part was not as pretty. THEN, I was going to have a grasshopper like THIS (though my kids pointed out that that's a praying mantis) on a bed of dirty rice. My dirty rice was still crunchy and no way did I have enough room to do fancy pea art. SO they just got dirty rice and peas.

Ok, so the last block of time is where we REALLY strayed from the schedule. During my 1 on 1 time with Puppy, he wanted to put together this paper grasshopper, so while he was cutting and gluing, I did spelling with the oldest two. Only words I knew they were having struggles with anyway. It was only 6 words.

Miss PG loved that she had all that time alone to do her Preschool. Xman and Bean, after spelling, read all the ant and grasshopper books I'd checked out from the library and learned a thing or two. 

Then it was time to switch again. Here's where it gets kind of fun. By this time, I was SO tired. Luckily, Xman agreed to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone with Bean and Puppy. I had very mixed emotions about this. One- I LOVE HP and love seeing people experience it for the first time. Two- I was just SO SO tired that I was more relieved than anything.

I had prepared (way too much) stuff for Miss PG. Aside from everything I printed out (coloring pages, mazes, dot marker projects, etc), I also made a few things

(again with the upside down?!?!) 

I made you a version you could take to the Silhouette machine. Save you some cutting time.

 They aren't as cute, but it might be worth not having to cut them all out yourself.
Next we have pre-writing exercises.

 These were the most fun to make. They are little strips with ants on them (I used an eraser and an ink pad). Then your preschooler cuts on the lines dividing the ants.

We also had time for some coloring pages and a couple of easy mazes.

After this part, I was completely exhausted, so all the kids joined in to watch the Super Why version of Ant and the Grasshopper while Xman did his alone time on the computer with Easy Peasy. 

All in all, it was a good day. We were just accepted to My Tech High, so we'll still have some adjusting to do, but I think this school year will be a blast!