Oak Tree in an Acorn: The Banister School of Excellence

Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Banister School of Excellence

We were brainstorming names for our new homeschool, and Brian came up with "The Banister School of Excellence". Olivia picked our mascot, "The Mighty Oaks" and Genevieve is working on a school song, although she keeps calling us "The Mighty Princesses" which Olivia is NOT going to agree to by any means. :)

We had such a great first week! We are using Sue Patrick's Workbox System to keep us (me!) organized and on track. (I'll take pictures of our workboxes this week and post them.) We start the morning with the Pledge of Allegiance and a morning prayer. Then, we sing a little song, the girls ring a bell and they check-in for the morning. We do calendar activities first, mostly for Genevieve's benefit, but it also helps Olivia keep track of the day, and I let her teach this so she gets a chance to take on a leadership roll.

Olivia has 8 to 10 workboxes a day to complete which seems to be taking about 4 hours a day. Genevieve has 5 -6 workboxes a day which takes a couple of hours. We start our school day about 8:30AM, have a mid-day snack, break for lunch, and when Genevieve takes her nap, Olivia and I catch up on some workboxes that require me to give her more attention. We squeeze in P.E. (a walk to the neighborhood park, an obstacle course in the backyard, a trip to the YMCA, or an indoor dance party) as well as watering the plants and feeding the hermit crabs (The hermit crabs are stunned to be getting fresh food daily; this is soooo not what they are used to.).

Genevieve's curriculum comes from Little Saints Preschool Program and the letter activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler. She's learned how to read 10 - 12 one syllable words and is so proud. :)

Olivia is using Singapore Math, Geography Songs, Sequential Spelling, Sonlight for reading and language arts, Noeo Science, Learn Spanish with Grace, Story of the World for history, A Reason for Handwriting, Discovering Great Artists, and playing her guitar for music. She has a full school load and is really enjoying the new reading books outside. She also likes to take a break and do a project here or there with Genevieve.

Our plan is to get everything done Monday - Thursday so that we can save Fridays for field trips, educational games, and some downtime. Last Friday, we met Uncle Brad, and cousins Celeste and Charlotte at the Brushy Creek Lake Park sprinkler park. The girls ran and played their hearts out. What a great way to spend a super first week of school! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why the title, "Oak Tree in an Acorn"?

Well, really it's all about perspective when raising the girls. It helps me to think about the grand scheme of parenting and remember that what we do now affects how our little acorns will grow. Like an oak tree, we want them to be strong in their words and deeds, be able to withstand life's storms, set and reach their goals, and be people that others can lean on and trust.

We have an oak tree planted in our yard that came from an acorn my dad planted in a pot. This acorn came from a huge oak tree that was planted in the backyard of my dad's childhood home. My dad's father also planted this tree from an acorn he found on his hunting lease in the early 1960's. Our tree is thus a family heirloom, a "family tree".

It was the year of Olivia's birth when we planted our little sapling. It looked so very sad that winter with no leaves; it was, basically, like a stick rooted in the ground. Five years later, though, it stands 9 feet tall, and we continue to nurture it and watch it grow. We hope one year it will produce acorns of its own, and we can continue to pass on this family heirloom. We hope to remember it's example of how each acorn has the potential to be an oak tree, and how our acorns, Olivia and Genevieve, will one day, with help from God, become mighty oak trees themselves.