Third Grade - Seriously

This is our first day of school this year. Cullen is a big third-grader now.

No more baby-stuff. Time to get serious.

Don't let that photo fool you for a minute! There is still more than enough goofiness around here!

This year, however, I am feeling a little more - no, a LOT more pressure as far as academics are concerned. I'm a bit of a perfectionist in recovery. (If I'm fighting the worry now, can you imagine what middle grades will be like!?!) Over and over, I keep reminding myself that this should and can be fun. Forgetting that will never be a problem, really, because I am quite certain that Cullen will be quick to remind me!

Today was an easy first day for us, with only about half of what will be a full day's workload. Fun hands-on math, silly drill for facts, a little handwriting, a little... you get the idea.

Alhough Cullen loudly announced several times this morning his great displeasure at having to do any schoolwork, my husband and I both noted that he seemed awfully happy to be so miserable!

8th Birthday

Cullen is now 8 years old! I'm still a little puzzled at how the years have flown.  Here's the birthday boy with two of his buddies:

This afternoon, his party was at a nearby place with the usual giant jumpy things and also an indoor playground in a huge sand play area. We had a beach playground with air-conditioning!

This is our last big hurrah for summer break. We begin school on Monday - whether I'm ready or not!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a little work to do!

Curriculum for 2010-2011

It's Curriculum Week for the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter. Of course, I am posting my entry on the last day possible! Here is our plan for the year:

Bible/Devotional - Explorer's Bible series, 365 Days to Knowing God for Guys

Memory work - scripture and poems

Handwriting - D'Nealian Cursive, copywork

Spelling - All About Spelling levels 2-3

Math - Singapore 3A-3B with selections from Horizons Math (because Cullen likes it!) Hands-On Equations and plenty of games

Latin - Latin for Children A

Language Arts - MCT Grammar Island, Sentence Island, Music Hemispheres (poetry) with additional poems, Practice Island, Building Language (vocabulary,) IEW Writing incorporated throughout LA, science & history, reading from Junior Great Books and selected novels with some read-alouds from me, as well

Geography - Geography Songs, mapwork

History - Tapestry of Grace Year 2 (second half) Beginning American History (We may or may not get into Yr 3 this year.)

Science - Lego Simple Machines classes, Real Science 4 Kids level 1, space and ocean units, plenty of time in nature

Art & Music - various projects from Artistic Pursuits, artist & composer studies via Harmony Fine Arts, piano, boys choir, 

Other - Critical Thinking and Logic with Critical Thinking Press software, keyboarding skills, Etiquette, Chess, gymnastics, acting & improvisation class

Mix in a generous helping of field trips, fun outings and pajama days for an exciting year!

I've been asked more than once if I've finished the big clean-up project! Every time I think I'm close, I end up pulling another stack of things out for planning. You know how that is! Photos coming very soon!

Wordless Wednesday Warrior

100% boy...

Even George isn't safe.

Guess who stayed VERY close to me while all of this was going on?

Oooops! I wasn't supposed to use any words. ;o)

Life Happens

No, I am not finished with my big clean-up project yet. Though I've definitely made some headway, I am too much the perfectionist to just shove things in the cabinets. Every single item just really needs me to handle it, to think about it and to find a home for it. (Sometimes that home is the trash bag!)

My uncle passed away yesterday, and there is no way we would not drive back to my hometown to be with family to celebrate his life together. We are packing now to leave in the morning and won't be back here again until late Sunday. Though it will be wonderful to see some of my favorite relatives, I so wish my uncle could be part of the fun, cutting jokes left and right, as usual. I am certain, though, that we'll hear him in our hearts through the whole weekend.

The unfinished project will still be here when we get home, and it really doesn't seem as important anymore. Though I kinda wish I had waited to show you all those photos, so I could post the "after" pics within a day or so and you could just think I tackled it all in a whirlwind of efficiency. ;o)

Keepin' it Real - The Big Clean-up

Our school year begins in just a couple of weeks. The school room IS NOT ready!!! So instead of diving in to tackle the mess, I took the time to record the chaos in photos and write this post, sharing the ugly truth with you. Keepin' it real, yes, but I am also quite aware that this is just another clever method of procrastination! 

Most of my planning was done last May. Most, maybe all, curriculum had already been purchased. I left stacks of books out in the school room because I still need to do the detailed plans for the first six weeks or so. Then summer happened. Everything just sat contentedly waiting for me to get back to it. I wish! 

 

Cullen also uses this room as a hang-out/play room. My neatly ordered stacks were shoved aside to make room for comic books, Legos and assorted and sundry action figures. You can see that our body boy on the door no longer sports any lower legs. I'm fairly certain that the puppy ate them at some point.

The play table has been piled high with just about everything to make way for a fort, for which Cookie obviously does not have the necessary password.

Culling through books for the "give away or save for the grandbaby" box has been only half finished for several weeks now, and though it really shouldn't surprise me, I'm wondering where all of this stuff came from!.

The closet actually isn't as bad as I expected as I opened the door, but still ...

The old entertainment center with art supplies and the tv/dvd setup (which we use for educational purposes) as well as the video game system (which Cullen wishes could be justified as an educational use of time) shouldn't take too much to make neat.  Look at the oddball things up top, though. Why have I kept that dancing chicken?

Okay. I'm off to the kitchen for a fortifying snack, (I know, more procrastinating.) then we'll tackle the mess. Now that you've seen the "before" pics, my personal sense of pride will require "after" photos as soon as possible. Thanks for the motivation!

Wordless Wednesday - in which Cullen tries to appear really, really smart

Chess Camp Hocus Pocus

When I picked up Cullen this afternoon from day 2 of chess camp, I had to wait a few minutes for him to finish up a game with his friend Scarlett. They were playing on the coveted giant floor set, so there was no chance of stopping the game.

Apparently Cullen is trying some new tactics these days. This looked a great deal like the air bending moves from Avatar! Not sure how effective that actually was for him, but he did win the match. There is something to be said for distracting your opponent!

Blue Angels at the Beach

What a whirlwind the past few days have been! We just returned from a quick trip to Pensacola Beach to visit with a few family members and to see the air show. Cullen and I drove down with my mom and my youngest sister, Tia.

These two are big buddies.

Though we didn't find an intact one, there were plenty of sand dollar chunks to discover in the seaweed.

My Dad, my brother and his family and one of my cousins and his new family came over on Saturday to watch the air show. We were a bit away from the center of the action, so the beach wasn't too crowded for us to play. My Dad spent some time showing Cullen and his cousin, Alec, how to properly bury someone in the sand.

I wish I were a better photographer or that I had a video camera handy to better capture the planes flying for the show. Here are a couple of quick shots of the Blue Angels. They flew so fast, it was hard to catch up with them!

I think my Mom enjoyed the air show more than the kids!

Though the water was pretty much clear to the eye, except for the usual seaweed, Cullen did bring me a small tar ball from the waves at one point. I found a shell with a coating of oil inside, and there were a few times that we could clearly smell it on the wind. I love the ocean so much that it hurts to even think about damage from the oil spill. Knowing it is out there made this time enjoying the waves and sand even more precious.