Our 2nd 1st Day of School and Andrew's schedule

It's funny to see that one of my last posts was why I am leaving GCA. I have said that every year and then somehow I manage to justify another year. So we are doing it another year but I swear it's the last because I don't want to do CRCT but the good news is that next year Peter will be in GCA. It has its flaws but I really do like GCA.

So tomorrow is our 2nd 1st day of School because it's the 1st day of school for GCA. But we as a family started last Monday and despite being really sick all week, we did pretty well.

Decided to organize a little bit different thanks to tips from my friend Victoria. I have a hanging file folder for all boys and for the older boys, I have 5 folders labeled Monday - Friday. For half the night, I have been printing and copying the worksheets that they need for each day.

So that Andrew knows what he needs to do each day, I printed him out a daily schedule. This will work well for him because sometimes he needs to do things with me before he can do a worksheet.  For Peter, he mostly just sits and does worksheets all day long. My challenge with him is to convince him to not do the whole week in one day.

So here is Andrew's schedule for tomorrow. I hope we get it all done and smoothly. It's 10 PM and I am going to bed. Alarm clock (for me) is going off at 6:45 AM. Kids roll out of bed around 7:30 AM.

Today's date: Monday August 13^th

Today is the first day of school of GCA!!!

Here is what ANDREW is going to do today:

Bible Story – Simeon and Anna

• Read Luke 2: 25-38 in your Bible
• Do Bible worksheets in your file
• Memorize verse -Luke 2: 26 - And it has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ

Story of the World

• With Mommy, read story from ch 40 Rome begins to weaken – The British Rebellion
• Mommy to copy down narration for the story (narration page in school file)

Handwriting – pg 14 (Capital Partners) and pg 15 ( T and t)

Math

• Work with Mommy on 4s flash cards
• Unit 4 Lesson 8 – Log onto K12 for online portion
• Skills Update – xGerms Subtraction
• Online – Get Ready Multilpication review & Recall 4s Facts
• Offline – pg 78 Practice Multiplication worksheet (in school file)

Science

• Color My Science Notebook worksheet. With M & P, make Science Notebook
• Participate in Peter's Science lesson
• Usborne's Our World – pg 4 -5 Our Planet, Narration & Pictures
• Experiment – Hot n Cold – worksheet in school file
• Memorize Vocab – Space – the region beyond the atmosphere of Earth

Language Arts

• Spelling – Go over new spelling words with Mommy. Then write heart words on index cards and practice.
• Grammar – Review subjects and predicates. Complete Subjects and Predicates worksheet in file.

Independent Reading – Continue reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle. If finished, choose a new book! 

Coconut Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal

If you have never been over to Lynn's Kitchen Adventures, you gotta check it out. She has a lot of great recipes over there including all the baked oatmeals I love to make- Peanut Butter, Pumpkin and now Coconut.

I made adjustments to her recipe and came up with the following. I make a lot of changes because I don't want it to taste like straight oatmeal but I still am guessing it's better for you than Cookie Crisp cereal. :)

Coconut Baked Oatmeal

3 cups quick oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
2 TB melted butter (Lynn's recipe calls for coconut oil which I couldn't find)
2 eggs
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup yogurt - plain or vanilla - I used vanilla Greek yogurt
3/4 cup coconut (I used sweetened)
3/4 cups to 1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi sweet)
1/2 cup brown sugar (optional topping - gives it a crispier top)

Combine all ingredients from oatmeal to coconut. Then mix in chocolate chips. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake in 350 oven for 20-25 minutes.

My kids and I will eat through a 9x13 pan of this and any of the other baked oatmeals in no time flat and I even have one kid who won't touch traditional oatmeal but likes this.

Next year's school decisions

I know that people will continue to ask me why I am leaving Georgia Cyber Academy which we have done for 2 years so I figured I would write a blog post. Now in Kindergarten, I wrote a similar blog post and then we ended up doing it in 1st Grade. I feel more confident that my decision is going to stick this time but don't hold me to it. :)

Pros of GCA - I like their Math and their Language Arts (sort of). And their History tied into what we were doing with Story of the World. Andrew really likes all of it. He likes the online math lessons, the reading room with audios. He didn't like phonics or grammar but he wouldn't like that with any curriculum. It's free.

Cons of GCA - teacher conferences, quarterly portfolios, remembering to enter attendance, health and PE hours, dealing with public school stuff, phonics. And for us, we were doing 2 curriculums since we were also doing classical education stuff and we also did Timothy Ministry on Fridays. So it was a lot for us.

What we are moving to..

Language Arts - Sonlight Grade 3 reading schedule and companion guide. Going to get most of the books from the library. Shurley Grammar - I like grammar but this is going to be a lot of work! No more phonics. Haven't decided on a Spelling program or whether or not to do Worldly Wise. Continue to read independently and suggested literature from Well Trained Mind. This by far is the MOST overwhelming subject because there are so many parts of it!

Science - Elemental Science - will be studying Earth Science and Astronomy. Excited about family membership to the Tellus Museum! This fits into the Well Trained Mind classical schedule.

History - Story of the World - Book 2 - Rome and Medieval times - Part of WTM classical schedule.

Math - Going to compare Saxon 3 with Horizons Math 3 and see which one I like better. Looked at online curriculums and not sure I liked anything except my kids are in love with Dreambox.com so we might use that as supplemental. Thought about k12.com since Andrew likes GCA math but it's not the same as what we are doing and repeats entire units in 3rd grade that we already did this year. Plus I don't want to spend $300 on a curriculum each year that I can't use on the next kid. So it's out.

Andrew will continue in Timothy Ministry and Peter will join him in the pre-K program. If there are any more curriculum decisions that I have to make, it's going to have to wait because my head is spinning right now!!