All set-up

We are all ready for our first day of school, except for a couple of books we are waiting for. I thought it would be interesting for me to post pictures of everything I have done and maybe I'll look back at myself and laugh, saying, "Man, I really didn't know what I was doing." Either, I will think I did way more than necessary (which is usually how things go with me) or I will think I didn't do it right. Either way, this should be interesting.

Here is our School. Since it is basically in a hallway, that is the reason we chose the name "Woodruff Hall". Ha ha.

This is the command center. :-)

Student's desk

Being organized is SO important! I could not function without my new shelves.

History and Geography, and Religious Studies section. Preschool stuff is underneath.

Science and Math section.

Language and Foreign Language section.

Art and Music section. I realize it is quite empty. I ordered a book for art, and music is not that important right now, so the studies are very minimal. It will be empty for a while.

Here is our bulletin board. I want to draft up a list of "school rules", but we haven't gone over that yet. I thought that throughout our first year we will learn what we need to put up for rules. 

This is our mission statement.

And of course our flag and globe. :-) 

This is where all my time has gone in the last week and a half. I've been reading up, and organizing the curriculum and schedule and I have been getting a few headaches and sleepless nights. We have chosen to go with the Classical Style of Education and are using A Well-Trained Mind as a guide. It is not as simple as using a curriculum such as K12 or other online schools that have everything laid out for you. You basically have to put together your own curriculum, choose your books, and how you will use them. If it wasn't for A Well-Trained Mind I would be completely lost as to what to do. The Classical Style of Education, basically follows the Trivium theory, which says that there are three stages of learning; The Grammar Stage, The Logic Stage, and the Rhetoric Stage. This style of education is language-focused. The mind must be first supplied with facts and images, then given the logical tools for organization, and finally equipped to express conclusions. This first stage of learning will heavily be focused on language. Other subjects will not be dismissed, certainly. Interrelating the subjects is important. I recommend reading A Well-Trained Mind. The following is the schedule I set up for the year. You can click on the pictures to see them larger.

I created weekly schedule sheets so that I can go through and write down every weekend, what needs to be covered in more specific terms. Will can go off of it and check it off as he goes, which I know he will love to do. My hand started to hurt as I wrote this out so I am thinking about doing it on the computer. I also think that as I get use to it I won't have to write as much, so we will see.

Here is a view of one of the subject binders.

Will still has Chinese Language tutoring every M,W,F from 9 - 12. I am hoping that it won't be too much for him to also do school on those days. We may have to tweak things a little. But I do not want to do more than 4 hours of work a day, I just don't think Will can handle that and neither can I. So moving work from these days into T's and TH's, is just not going to happen. Homeschooling is all about making school relaxing and enjoyable so your mind can learn. Too much time spent doing schoolwork at this age is just the opposite of that, in my opinion.

Wish us luck! I'm feeling really nervous to start. Will is really excited and keeps sitting at his desk to do activity work. I have good vibes about it.