Solorio Academy, Week 1

There isn't much I enjoy about fall. I see everyone else getting excited about crisp air, sweatshirts, pumpkins and bonfires. Not me. Fall is the death of summer, and that is nothing to celebrate. However, I do enjoy football season and the beginning of a new school year, so I try to focus on those things.

RIP, Summer. I won't forget the good times we had.

I've had several people contact me in the last few weeks wanting advice on how to get started with homeschooling. I kind of cringe when they ask me, because I still feel like such an amateur. I think a lot of people who have a genuine interest in homeschooling their kids are intimidated because they just don't know what to expect. The thought can be very overwhelming.

As we are starting a new school year, I decided to blog about what our home school looks like. This isn't going to show a perfect home school, this is going to describe our home school. We have lots of ups and downs but still manage to have some fun and learn a few things along the way.

For history and science I put together unit studies that we do as a group (I'll be explaining this a little better in the coming weeks). We also will be studying Bible, greek/latin, and literature as a group.

Abby's workbooks for 4th grade:
-Daily Grams
Daily practice in capitalization, punctuation, sentence combining, etc.
-Horizons Penmanship
I love this, she copies historical documents and speeches for practice.
-Sequential Spelling, phase 1
The only spelling program I have used with her that actually works.
-Explode the Code (phonics)
She is finishing the last book in this series. It's actually too easy for her, but she still enjoys it.
-Teaching textbooks (math software)
She doesn't enjoy math, but she doesn't complain about this one. I like it for the step-by-step video tutoring (that I don't have to do!).

Beckham's workbooks for 1st grade:
-Horizons math
This is great for Beckham. It's spiral based, so there is a lot of variety in each lesson.
-Horizons penmanship
-All about reading, Level 1
This is new to me. I know it sounds silly, but I never taught Abby how to read. When I started school with her, it's like she just knew how. That hasn't been the case with Beckham.

Jonas' workbooks for kindergarten(-ish)
-Handwriting without tears
-All about reading, Level 1
Jonas is very, very motivated to learn. He is always asking me "how do you write an H?" or  "How do you spell Thank you?" so he will be using the same reading program as his brother. I didn't buy him any math this year, because he just hasn't shown much interest in numbers or math concepts yet.

We started our school year on Tuesday, September 8. I was still recovering from an upper respiratory infection, double ear infection, and tonsillitis. The very next day, Jonas fell and broke both bones in his right (dominant!) arm. On Thursday Jonas had to see an Orthopedic specialist, and Friday was a trip to the outpatient surgery center to have his arm set, and a heavy plaster cast put in place. Amazingly, we managed to get some school done each day in spite of our setbacks.

Join us in the following weeks to see what's happening here at Solorio Academy, it's a thrill a minute!

What about you? Do you have a homeschool blog? I would love to follow your adventures during this school year! Comment with a link below!