Day in the LIfe 2013

Well, I will post my schedule here for those of you who are interested to know what I do all day with five kids and how I fit in education, therapy and fun!  You can see my curriculum choices listed HERE from last week's blog hop!

6:15 Mom Showers - If I don't do this first thing, too bad... so sad stinky!

7:00 Devotions - It has always been a struggle to get into a morning routine for me, but I won't give up trying!  But, this often gets pushed to the late evening time, especially if I decide to sleep in.

7:20 Make Breakfast

• Sid the Science Kid (10) collects the laundry before he comes downstairs.
• Princess Pea (8) cleans the upstairs bathroom.  
• Angelica Pickles (7) and Boo Boo (5) are supposed to tidy their rooms.  
• Hopefully Miracle (3) is still sleeping at this point!

7:30 Kids up/Eat/Morning Bible together - This consists of reciting our Family Rules with Bible verses, reading a daily Proverbs and discussing, pulling up a worship song on YouTube and worshiping together and our Answers for Kids AIG curriculum. 

8:00 Helping Habits (chores for the kids), Mom's chores (laundry started)

• Sid the Science Kid puts his dishes away, cleans the bathroom and brushes his teeth.
• Princess Pea hand washes the dishes and brushes her teeth and hair.
• Angelica Pickles puts her dishes away, brushes her teeth, wipes down the table and starts on copywork, Explode the Code and math flash cards.
• Boo Boo feeds the cats, empties the trash cans all over the house and brushes his teeth.

8:15-9:30 Angelica Pickles' School (2nd)

• Memory Verses
• Princess Bible
• Explain Math lesson (do new stuff together, leave review stuff for independent work later)
• Review old memorized poems and read new poem 3x together 
• Review All About Spelling Word Bank/Cards and do All About Spelling 3 lesson
• First Language Lessons
• I read aloud to her

 

At this point Angelica gets a 15min break and then finishes her math independently and does XtraMath on the computer. 

While I'm doing school with Angelica Pickles...

• Sid (6th) is working through his school work independently with scheduled breaks.

• Princess Pea (4th) is working through all her independent work and starting subjects, setting things aside as she needs my help.

• Boo Boo (1st) is reading or playing on his own.  He does well with this in the morning.  He desires more attention and entertainment as the day goes on.

• Miracle's nurse arrives at 9:00 and wakes her and starts her day.  I'll steal kisses and cuddles throughout my day, but the nurse will do her exercises, medicine, brush her teeth, etc.  This has been amazing for me to get done what I need to get done, but I will miss my long summer cuddles on the couch with her every morning.  The nurses often had to find things to do the first hour they came because I wouldn't give her up.  :)

Before I move onto working with Boo Boo, I change the laundry.

9:30-10:15 Boo Boo's School 

• Sight Word flash cards
• Handwriting
• Leading Little Ones to God (I'll grab Angelica Pickles for this)
• Character book like Help Me Be Good books by Joy Berry
• Math lesson
• Reading with Bob books, All About Reading lessons or just an early reader

While I'm working with Boo Boo...

• Kyler is still working independently in the office behind a door.  Because at this point the cat and little brother are more appealing than the next thing on his list.  :)

• Princess Pea is finishing up all she can do on her own and will likely get a few minutes to play with Angelica Pickles upstairs once Angelica finishes math and XtraMath.  They usually get along because they have such little time together.

10:15-11:15 Princess Pea's School

• Math Lesson - I will check her work that's done and teach anything new or that needs reviewed.
• Wordly Wise or Vocabulary from Classic Roots- These are always done different weeks.  I will be teaching VFCR but WW will mostly be done independently.  I'll just check her work.
• Character Quality Language Arts - Depending on the day this is either independent or I teach.
• Easy Grammar - This will likely complement her CQLA grammar for the week, so I should just be checking her work here.
• Progeny Press - We will likely only do a book quarterly.  But I'd like to do this with her, even if it's mostly oral.  Or with Sid if they do the same book.

While I'm working with Princess Pea...

• Sid is still working.  Poor guy.  He's a good worker, though.  And I promise, he has lots of breaks built into his schedule!

• Angelica Pickles can work on Starfall.com or educational games on the iPad IF she did well during her school time. Meaning, finished it all in a reasonable amount of time, threw no tantrums and had a good attitude.  I guarantee this will be hard for her to earn.  School is challenging for her and her attitude makes everything more difficult.  

• Boo Boo has the same opportunity for 15 minutes of fun.  Then he and Angelica will play together.

11:15-12:00 Angelica's School Again

• Reading - This will be All About Reading lessons, Progeny Press, readers...PRACTICE!
• JBQ - I will pull Boo Boo into this most likely.  At least at the beginning of the year.
• Explain Language Smarts lessons - She will finish this first thing after lunch if we don't complete it together.

While I'm working with Angelica again...

• Hopefully Sid will have a big break and be done with his work.  If he did well working all morning, he will get iPad time.

• Princess Pea will complete any lessons we didn't finish together so all her individual school is done.  She will get 15 min of iPad or computer time, also.

• Boo Boo can play with his Tag or play with Sid when he's done with school.

**Last year we tried this iPad/computer time throughout the day when you earned it and it didn't go well.  I'm going to try again, but I won't hesitate to take it away until after dinner like last year.**

12:00-12:45 It's lunch! The kids have Helping Habits before and after lunch.

• Sid and Princess Pea tidy the two main rooms and help prepare lunch.
• Angelica has to tidy the kitchen and wipe down the table.
• Boo Boo has to get vitamins and silverware for everyone.

We eat!  This is our "Character Hour" and we read a picture book, novel or Bible story centered on character.  In the past we've read through Storytime with the Millers, A Hive of Busy Bees, In Grandma's Attic, Hero Tales and other such books.  I'm planning to use Our 24 Family Ways as a guide and fill in books that complement character qualities we are studying.

Then we all put our dishes away and...

• I fold laundry.
• Sid washes the dishes by hand.
• Princess Pea wipes down the stove and counters.
• Angelia wipes down the table and Boo Boo helps me fold and then sits down with me.

Our afternoons don't always look alike because of Miracle's therapy schedule, swim lessons, co-op and dance class, but here is our general afternoon...

12:45-1:30 Boo Boo's School again

• Explode the Code
• All About Spelling1
• Five in a Row books and activities
• Language Smarts
• JBQ- If he didn't already do this with Angelica earlier.

While I'm schooling Boo Boo the other kids are finishing up any work not completed in the morning, playing outside or maybe watching a video that goes along with our science lessons.

1:30-2:30 Tapestry of Grace Year 2 with the whole crew.  This is our read aloud time.  The older kids have additional reading lessons scheduled into their independent work, also.  We do mapping, crafts, cooking, etc.  It's hard to keep this to an hour!

2:30-3:15 God’s Design for Heaven and Earth with the whole crew.  We not only read the lessons, but watch videos, read picture books and do notebooking pages.

3:15-4:00 All About Spelling 5 with Sid and Princess Pea

Changes to our schedule:

• Monday we leave early for dance so we don't do AAS.

• Wednesdays we have ART DAY and spend the hour before dinner reading about artist and listening to composers, doing art projects and just having FUN!

• Thursday we leave early for swim lessons most of the year, so we don't do God's Design or AAS and do Tapestry at Miracle's therapy session that afternoon.

• Friday we have co-op 1/3 of the year, so we have a shortened schedule for everyone, skipping all extras and just finishing core subjects.  I keep this shortened schedule year-round so we can do things like Nature Walks, field trips, extra art lessons and visit Grandma.  On weeks we don't have co-op, our ART DAY will be on Fridays so we have more time.

And then, our day is done!  Well, school day.  The nurse leaves at 2 or 3, so sometimes the afternoon drags out if Miracle is cranky or wants a nap in my lap.  Such is life.  But, last year we stayed on schedule pretty well!  Grading work was my downfall.  I kept up the first semester, but by second semester I found other things to do instead of grading.  I'll need to just focus better this year so I don't get behind again.  Ideally I can grade if any child doesn't use their entire allotted time or during therapy, swim class and dance.

I have also scheduled in six 'make-up' weeks into my school year.  These are extra weeks besides the 36 I have scheduled to simply have a break from school. But, if lessons weren't completed the weeks before, those are caught up. Christmas week is our only scheduled non-make up week.  This worked great for us!  Even if the kids had two things to make up each day from the last 5 or 6 weeks, it was still a break from their regular schedule and they got to play a lot more, we went to the library, played outside, visited Grandma, etc.  Then, I wasn't constantly behind on multiple subjects.  How I accomplish this is, at the end of each week of school, I take all four kids' school check lists and highlight what wasn't completed.  The following weeks we just keep moving forward in all lessons.  The week of break, I take all those highlighted lessons from the last 5 or 6 weeks and divide them out over the week.  And, we are caught up!

I love homeschooling and can't think of anything better I would rather be doing with my time!

Check out other homeschool schedules at the Not Back to School Blog Hop!

Managing a NICU Baby with Children at Home AND Life as a Special Needs Mom

The hospital where Myra was born is putting together an informational and encouraging book for parents who find themselves in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with a medically fragile newborn.  I have been asked to write a few excerpts in my experiences with Myra, specifically managing a child in the NICU with other children at home and having a child with special needs.  I thought the Blog World might enjoy these excerpts, also.

Life with a medically fragile newborn and four children at home:

                When our daughter Myra was born under traumatic circumstances, my husband and I had four other children under the age of five at home.  We had generous family to help watch them for the first week as I recovered from my C-section, but after about 10 days everyone else’s life had to go on, so we were left to manage our five children between the two of us.  Because of my attachment parenting style, I never wanted to leave my daughter’s side.   And I didn’t for the first week.  My children came to the hospital to visit Myra and me.  Then, the H1N1 virus caused the hospital to not allow children under the age of 18 in the hospital at all, and we had to come up with a new plan.  I had a very needy newborn in the hospital that wasn’t promised to make it through her difficult circumstances, and four very needy children at home that didn’t understand why their Mommy wasn’t around and why their baby sister was hooked up to all these machines and not snuggled in their arms at home.

                 We created a schedule that allowed both of us to visit Myra and spend time with our other kids, trying to make life as normal as possible.  And thankfully my husband was able to take off work all 30 days she was in the hospital.  I would stay the night at the hospital and come home early in the morning.  My husband and I would switch and he would visit Myra for about two hours while I visited with the other four kids.  Mid-morning we would switch again and I would spend the day at the hospital.  At dinner time I would go home and eat with my family, all six of us together at the table.  After dinner my husband would visit Myra for another few hours, and in the evening we would switch again and I would stay the night.  My kids always had a parent home and knew we would all be together every evening.  They seemed to do great through the whole process.  We had an amazing church family that provided meals for us for many nights that made our life a little easier.

                In these 30 days we read books to our kids about sick siblings, discussed Myra’s condition and prayed with them.  A friend put together a brag book of photos of Myra and we looked at them often with our kids.  We explained all the tubes and wires and how they helped her get better.  When they visited her the first time at two days old I think they still were shocked, as anyone would be, but they were able to see through all the ‘stuff’ and smile and love on their baby sister.  We put the pulse oximeter on them and let them touch her and ask more questions.  And I’ll never forget their faces when they saw Myra again the day she came home, weeks since the last time they had seen her.  There have never been four more proud siblings in the whole world!

Mommy and Myra bonding

Kangaroo Care

Day 2, swollen

MommyK and Mr. Prince

Day 14, surgery for g-tube and Nissen Fundoplication

We both cried on and off for 15 hours while did a poor job of managing her pain

Day 11, First Family Photo

Day 30, Homecoming! 

Princess Pea (5), Angelica Pickles (3), Sid the Science Kid (6)

 

Boo Boo (18 months)

 

 Angelica Pickles (3)

 

Princess Pea (5)

Sid the Science Kid (6)

Adapting to being a parent of a child with special needs:

                Perfect.  That’s what we all want as we rush to the hospital in joyous expectancy of our newborn.  I had experienced four of these types of births.  I couldn’t wait to delivery our fifth.  But, our daughter Myra was born via C-section after broken waters, with significant amounts of meconium, and when her heart rate rapidly declined during early labor.  Myra suffered ‘severe global brain damage’ from lack of oxygen.  The doctors painted a grave picture while we were in the hospital with scary words like ‘cerebral palsy’, ‘mental retardation’ and ‘developmental delays’.  As any parent, I just wanted the best for my child and the expectancy of having a ‘healthy’ or ‘perfect’ baby seemed to be buried in the sand somewhere.  We clung to our faith, praying that God would do a miracle in Myra’s life.  We had a difficult 30 days in the hospital and brought home a tiny little newborn with only questions for her future.  She had many doctor appointments in the first few months, sometimes as many as 12 in one week.  I had five children ages five and under that I dragged around with me to every one.  She seemed to be developing ‘normally’ for the first weeks and we thought all would be well.

                Then, I started to questions whether she was hearing okay.  And she didn’t seem to look at me like my other babies did.  It was hard to change her diaper because she wasn’t as limber as my other children.  And at a few months old, she still wasn’t trying to play with toys or hold up her head.  All those words the doctors had mentioned started to repeat in my head.  I think my heart broke over and over in that first year as the milestone charts were thrown away and we realized that raising this child would not be like our other four children.

                Our first year was filled with therapies multiple times a week, numerous doctor appointments, hospital stays due to seizures, disorders that required me to give her shots for 4 months and other medical emergencies no child should ever have to endure.  Through it all, we were able to snuggle with our little girl and watch our other children love on her, and were so thankful she had made it through those first 30 days.  It was hard with so many sleepless nights and trying not to worry constantly, but we persevered and started a ‘new normal’ for our family.

                Over the next few years the diagnoses came.  Many of those scary words the doctors had mentioned after she was born, but not all.  ‘Microcephaly’ (small head), ‘epilepsy’, ‘cortical visual impairment’, ‘hearing impairment’, ‘developmental delay’, ‘oral feeding dysfunction’ …the labels stacked up.  The kicker: ‘Cerebral palsy’.  I eventually came to accept this as a diagnosis of her body, not a diagnosis of her being.  This is just a description of how her brain is communicating with her muscles, it’s not who she is.  What gives a child real quality of life amongst all these labels?  I’m still learning the answer to this question, but I’m on a path to find out. 

                At around 20 months our therapist suggested we get a wheelchair since Myra was growing out of our stroller and high chair.  I felt like if I ordered it, I was giving up on her.  It took me a number of months before I realized that this was just a tool.  Something to help her right now in her current circumstances, but didn’t define her future abilities.  This pattern repeated as we added hearing aids, hand splints, adaptive stroller, Ankle Foot Orthodics, a stander and a gait trainer to her list of assistive devices and ‘tools’.

                No matter what, Myra will always be our miracle.  God has proven his love to us over and over and we have seen so many miracles as Myra has defied her circumstances and done much more than the doctors ever thought she could.  And they need to keep watching, because I know there are more miracles coming!

                Having a child with special needs isn’t a cake walk.  But, it is the greatest adventure as you learn the true value of a person, learn that service is more rewarding than receiving and learn that life is more than milestones, achievement tests and labels.  And the byproduct of having four other children watch Myra grow is amazingly compassionate children, un-phased by physical or mental disabilities.  Children who see value and potential in all persons.   And I personally have a new definition for life, happiness, contentment and unconditional love.  I can look back and see how positive this experience has been for not only our family, but friends and acquaintances, and I know Myra’s complete story is not yet written.  So, we continue to press on…proud of our daughter and all the more better because of her existence, exactly as she is.   

Perfect.

 Therapy

Seizures :(

Sisters

 

Joyful!

Cuddly

 Daddy time

Sisters playing

Stander

Bike at therapy

 Cousins

 Gait Trainer with Ankle Foot Orthodics

Unconditional Love

 Sibling Fun

 Therapy Cat, Oreo and Miracle

Our School Year 2013

It's back...the NOT Back to School Blog Hop!

As you can see, I haven't posted since LAST fall.  Once school starts and life is full-speed, it's pretty much impossible for me to blog.  I'm going to try to do more this year, but you'll more likely hear from me again NEXT year. :)

We are currently homeschooling our five children...
Sid the Science Kid is 10 and doing 6th grade work.
Princess Pea is 8 and doing 4th grade work.
Angelica Pickles is 7 and doing 2nd grade work. 
Boo Boo is 5 and doing K/1st grade work.
Miracle is almost 4 and has her own 'school' with daily therapies, feeding trials and so on.  If you don't know her story, she had a traumatic birth in 2009 that has resulted in cerebral palsy, hearing and vision impairments, developmental delays and a seizure disorder.  But, she is the LIGHT of our lives and we see God's glory and grace through her every day.  You can read more about Miracle HERE,  HERE and HERE if you care to read more, and her progress is summarized in the right blog panel below the photos of our family.

We completed last school year in early June with success!  As a family, we enjoyed learning ancient and bible history in Tapestry of Grace Year 1, learning about Animals, Plants and the Human Body with God's Design for Life and the Magic School Bus videos and the 7 Cs of History with the Answers for Kids bible curriculum.  Major highlight of our days!  I do as many subjects combined as I can - so history, science, bible study, character and fine arts we all do together in the afternoons. 

This year we will be covering Medieval Times through Early American History with Tapestry of Grace Year 2 (I'm adding in notebooking activities from Story of the World 2 this year because my kids don't care for the Tapestry Lapbooks and I don't like having nothing to show for all we learned last year!), learning about the Earth, Solar System and Weather with God's Design for Heaven and Earth and finishing up Answers for Kids as a family. We also always read lots of character training books over lunch for our "Character Hour." This year I'll be using Our 24 Family Ways devotional as part of our main character study, adding in books and activities to complement the virtues we will be studying.  I love this resource!  I also plan to add in an art day using Harmony Fine Arts at Home Grade 2 Medieval Renaissance, which goes along with our Tapestry history. SO excited to find this study already put together for me.   I've been putting off art for years due to intimidation but I think these plans will make it fun and easy for all of us!  And save me hours of planning myself!

This year Sid the Science Kid will be in 6th grade.  I'm already researching HIGH SCHOOL stuff for this boy!  He's so far ahead in math and reading that I can't keep up.  Trying to keep him young, yet challenge him is always my goal.  Here is his curriculum for this year:

Bible:

• Studying God's Word F - He's been through D and E and EFGH cover the OT, gospels and Acts.
• Personal Devotions - I have lots of short, random devotions I've collected.
• Junior Bible Quiz - This is his 6th year and he only has two years left.  This is a great catechisms-like program of memorizing bible facts and scripture.
• Answers for Kids - The whole family does this together.
• Scripture Memorization
• Our 24 Family Ways 

Language Arts:

• Character Quality Language Arts (CQLA) - This is his core LA but I always add extras. :)
• Easy Grammar 6 - This is only to supplement CQLA since the grammar in CQLA was not challenging for him this past year.
• Inference Jones Level 1 - This is just for fun once a week to work on critical thinking skills.
• Vocabulary from Classic Roots 6 - He learned a TON from VFCR 4/5 last year so we are sticking with this.  He loved finding new words to go with the roots he was learning about.
• Wordly Wise 6 - Sid loves dictionaries and thesauruses, so these kinds of activities are fun for him and I think they are preparing him well for college level reading.  His word skills at the end of his 4th grade year were post-high school and I attribute that to such curriculum as this.
• Progeny Press - This is his core reading curriculum.  This year we will work through Bridge to Terabithia, Tuck Everlasting, Johnny Tremain and Sign of the Beaver.  Though Sid's reading level is late high school, I have saved some of my favorite books until he was old enough to appreciate them.  He read my favorite book last year for his first PP guide, Where the Red Fern Grows.  He adored that book.  I can't wait for him to read Tuck Everlasting and Bridge to Terabithia and have that same love for those books! The other two correlate with our history studies.

 Math:

• Horizons 6 - I will be picking through this book quizzing him and  making sure he understands everything, but this is just a review year.  He already got As on the first 5 tests last year without doing any of the book work and we just put it away to slow him down. Mostly because I needed to research because I had no idea where to go next!  
• Life of Fred Fractions/Decimals and Percents - I've heard great things about this and I think it will be fun for Sid and keep his interest in math as things get more difficult.  I'm debating my high school math choices, so in the mean time, he'll be working through the "pre-Algebra" books with Life of Fred this year until I figure it out.

Extras:

• Choir
• Poetry Memorization - I use IEW's poetry set.  Last year they memorized 20, so we will just keep moving forward with more!
• Swim Lessons
• Soccer 
• Piano/Recorder - We can't afford lessons again this year but I want to encourage him to keep his skills and be working with music. He has figured out songs from the radio on the piano before.  He's got some talent.
• Harmony Fine Arts Lessons

Princess Pea will be entering 4th grade this year.  She is doing great!  I push her like I do Sid because she handles it well.  She still likes school and is my most focused student. 

Bible:

• Studying God's Word D - Princess Pea isn't a big busy-work girl, so I won't continue this if she doesn't care for it.  But, she's supposed to be reading through the gospels for her MPact Girls church class, so I thought it went well with that.
• Personal Devotions - Again, I have lots of short, random devotions I've collected.
• Junior Bible Quiz - This is her 5th year.
• Answers for Kids - With the whole family.
• Scripture Memorization
• MPact Stars- This is a program at church that teaches the bible and to memorizes scripture.  Princess Pea doesn't attend class all year because JBQ interferes, but she works hard to catch up every spring and loves it. 
• Our 24 Family Ways

Language Arts: 

• Character Quality Language Arts (CQLA) - This is her core LA but I added extras!
• Easy Grammar 4 - Just like Sid the Science Kid, this is only to supplement CQLA.  I think she will need more repetition than CQLA provides.
• Inference Jones Beginning - This is just for fun once a week to work on critical thinking skills.
• Vocabulary from Classic Roots 4 - I will do this with Princess Pea.  I'm not sure how she will do with this.  I guess I'm just not sure how much she will remember, though she will likely do find with all the oral activities.
• Wordly Wise 6 - Princess Pea began to not like WW the end of last year.  I honestly think it was because it was one of the only things truly challenging her.  So, she won't get off that easy!  I ended up writing her answers to the story myself, and that seemed to help.  She didn't like the writing.  This year I will wean her from that.  But I won't push too hard. 
• Progeny Press - This is her core reading curriculum, but I haven't decided what books I will have her read.  Now that I know her reading level is higher than I thought, I feel better about challenging her.  She may do Bridge to Terabithia and Tuck Everlasting with Sid.  Just not sure yet...

Math:

• Horizons 4 - Princess Pea does great with Math and since this book has the teaching part in it, she will do great with self-study this year.  
• XtraMath - This is a great online mastery program for math facts. She is currently working on multiplication, but has passed addition and subtraction.  You have to answer all the facts in less than 3 seconds to pass.  I probably couldn't pass it! 
• Life of Fred Elementary series - I'm still tossing this idea around, but I love these books.  They are fun, they use math in every day situations and I really think our whole family would love them.  The question is, can I fit it in?  I'm thinking I'll start at the beginning and just read them aloud, asking the questions to the younger two kids primarily.  That way Princess Pea can get the story line and maybe hop into their Intermediate series next year or the year after?  They would definitely be a supplement.  Still debating this...

Extras:

• Choir
• Poetry Memorization 
• Swim Lessons
• Dance - Restored to Glory dance ministry is an awesome worship dance program!
• Harmony Fine Arts Lessons

Sid the Science Kid and Princess Pea are also working through All About Spelling together.  They just finished AAS 4 last year and will be starting AAS 5 this fall.  Sid is a natural speller but Princess Pea is doing great, too, though it is more challenging for her.

Angelica Pickles will be doing 2nd grade work this year.  My year will be mostly focused on her.  Princess Pea will need me for a few things, but since Angelica isn't reading independently, I will be doing almost everything with her.  She is probably reading at a beginning 2nd grade level, but that still isn't good enough to read instructions and follow her lessons independently like my other two were at this age.  This is her schedule for the year:

Bible: 

• Junior Bible Quiz - Angelica did great this last year, but I'm excited to teach her more about the bible this year as we memorize questions and scripture.
• God's Little Princess Devotional Bible - I bought her this for her Baptism this spring and I'll be reading through it with her.
• Scripture Memorization - Many of these will come from her MPact Prims class at church.
• MPact Prims - Girls class at church for 1st/2nd grade girls.
• Answers for Kids
• 24 Family Ways

Language Arts:

• First Language Lessons - We will be finishing the 100 2nd grade lessons this year.
• Language Smarts C - Big, colorful Critical Thinking book that helps us review concepts from FLL and cover extra grammar topics it doesn't cover.  A favorite of my kids!
• Explode the Code 5 - She is flying through these books and ahead for her grade level.  They are nice short lessons she can do to foster independence in schooling and practice her reading.
• All About Spelling 3 - Brynnan is doing great with this program and looks forward to writing on the dry erase board.  This year we will work slowly because I know this book is pretty full.
• All About Reading 2/3 - I'm not overly impressed with this curriculum for my kids but I'm still using it as a base and using it's rules so AAS goes smoothly.  We don't do the hands on activities, but will use the lessons, fluency charts and stories for practicing.  At this point Angelica Pickles just needs practice and to start loving reading and she will take off!
• Copywork - Angelica Pickles actually does great with print and cursive, but Princess Pea got lazy around this age, so I'm going to keep it going with Angelica. Princess Pea still does copywork in her CQLA.

Math:

• Horizons 2 - Angelica Pickles does great with math but my two older kids found this first book difficult because they hadn't memorized all the math facts needed to allow them to quickly work through long problems.  I hope I have remedied this by using flash cards and XtraMath with Angelica Pickles last year.
• XtraMath
• Life of Fred Elementary series - Still debating this supplement...

Extras:

• Choir
• Poetry Memorization 
• Swim Lessons
• Dance
• Harmony Fine Arts Lessons

Boo Boo will be doing K/1st grade work this year.  He's technically completed all he's needed to for K, but I'm not sure he's ready for a full 1st grade curriculum. He turned 5 in April.  He's reading pretty good already.  This is his line up:

Bible:

• Leading Little Ones to God - We will read this with Angelica Pickles since she was little when I went through it the first time with the older two.
• Answer for Kids
• Junior Bible Quiz - I didn't have a lot of time last year for this, but I'm going to do as much teaching as I can.
• Bible Memorization - This will be his first year to memorize his own scriptures outside of JBQ and our Family Rules verses!
• 24 Family Ways

Langauge Arts:

• Handwriting 
• Bob Books - Boo Boo is on the 3rd set of books and I plan to finish 3 & 4 this year.
• All About Reading 2 - Again, I'm not super fond of this but it's my base to work through.
• All About Spelling 1 - I think he's ready for this.  Put it off last year.
• Explode the Code 2/3 - He loved ETC 1, so I'm sure he will fly through these.  Sometimes the writing was too much, but I didn't mind writing for him on occasion.
• First Language Lessons - I'm not completely sure he's ready for this, so I'm going to put if off until January.  It's only 100 lessons for 1st and 100 for 2nd.
• Language Smarts B - I'll be jumping around in this and we will only work on things he's ready for.
• Five in a Row - I'm still not sold on this package but I'm going to start with their book selections and go from there.  So far I've already thrown out at least three selections from Vol.1.  I have all three Volumes to choose from, though.  Many of the suggestions are conversation based, so it should work for me.  I just need something to MAKE me read to him.  If it's not scheduled, it won't happen!  Sad, but true.  Last year we started with Before Five in a Row and I didn't care for the books.  We just read whatever.  This year I want more structure and better selections.

Math:

• Horizons K/1 - Boo Boo didn't finish his K book but not one of my other kids did either!  So much repetition at the end.  So, I'll look at it, but we may just jump into the 1st grade book and not go back to the K book.  He's pretty quick with math.
• Life of Fred Elementary series

Extras:

• Choir - His first year!
• Swim Lessons
• Poetry Memorization
• Soccer
• Harmony Fine Arts Lessons

I also have lots of book lists for read alouds, for each child and for Character studies that I'm still working on.

It's gonna be a full year, for sure!  My schedule is packed full until 4pm every day.  Thankfully each kid gets plenty of breaks in there, I'M the one schooling all day!  I wish I didn't have to rely so much on curriculum, but I need the guidance for four kids schooling!  I hardly ever following curriculum word-for-word and alter and change things to my liking.  So far my kids still love school, and if I've maintained that, then I'm doing my job well! 

Check out other homeschool curriculum choices at the Not Back to School Blog Hop!