The 2nd Cup of Coffee Teachers Lounge 8-12-2019

[scrapbookbuzz]

Hello, and welcome to the Teachers Lounge! A place to kick back, relax, sleep or chat. And possibly nosh while sipping your coffee or tea.
TEACHERS ONLY! 😉

Today's theme stems from the fact that some of us may desperately need that second cuppa and some of us...well, might be drinking something
else or wondering when we'll have time to take a sip of anything!

Who here has started school already? Here: We started a light schedule about a week and a half ago. Mainly math review, continuing in health studies
where we left off (brings up interesting discussions on new schools of thought regarding health), and Bible and prayer before anything. We'll go to full(ish)
schedule after Labor Day.

Anyone using a new-to-them curriculum this year? Here: decided to go with AmblesideOnline this year. I've known about it for several years but when I first looked
into it (way back when), I really didn't "get it". This year as I struggled to decide what to use for my 15yo ds, I wound up looking through all the curriculum I already have 
but nothing really resonated until I wound up back at Ambleside. It seems like a good fit for us.

Who has all the supplies they need and then some? Here: We really don't need anymore pens! I think we have enough pencils (we ❤️❤️❤️ the Papermate triangular 1.3mm 
mechanical pencils!). We have plenty notebooks (spiral and composition). I'm really not sure we need any more of anything at this point!

Talk to me! 👂

[Jean in Newcastle]

Hiya Scrap!  Happy new school year!

No school here until after Labor Day. 

No school prep for me until after camp (which starts next Sunday). I do know what I am doing in most classes though. 

[HomeAgain]

Hey, all!
We start next week.  I am *almost* ready.  I've loosely twined reading with history this year using themes instead of historical fiction, and memorization piece will be intertwined as well.  I'm just tried to decide on one poem, which coincidentally will be the first to memorize.  Our first historical theme is survival: starting with the opening of the West, Manifest Destiny, and the Oregon Trail.  First lit book is survival/nature based, and so I'm thinking Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, but then I wonder if I should because it's cheeky and makes a great study later, but then familiarization would be a good thing, but...LOL  Any other ideas for me?

We're also using a new-to-us curriculum: Latin For Children.  It will be an interesting year, I'll give it that.  I'm not sure if I like it.  I'm quite sure ds will freak out over the dvd portion.  I think he'll like the easier pace of the workbooks. 

I need a small handful of supplies, colored pencils being top of that list and maybe another set of markers.

[BooksandBoys]

This teacher needs a lounge well stocked with decaf! 

Today was our first full day back. We did a couple trial days last week with just a few minutes of work for the little guys. First full day went surprisingly well. Few tantrums, minimal whining. DS2, now 8, did keep asking, “WHEN are we gonna be DONE??” I considered telling him we’d be finished when he said, “going to.”  I refrained. 

New to me curriculum is IEW for my oldest (age 11), and Keyboarding Without Tears, Muzzy Spanish, and CodeMonkey for all of them. I haven’t added this much new curriculum in, well, since my first’s 1st grade year. My Charlotte Mason style of education includes books pulled from Ambleside’s lists, Bookshark’s lists, and Build Your Library’s lists. I just can’t follow and of them perfectly. 🙂 I’m super excited that my 8 year-old is suddenly an independent reader now so he can be assigned supplemental fun reading in science and history that I wouldn’t have time to read aloud to him because I’m already reading lots of other things aloud.

We definitely don’t have all our supplies, but I’m not organized yet to know what we need.  Which is annoying. 🙂 

[kbutton]

We are finishing up a few things from last year my kids have been whining about and avoiding. New stuff starts next week, but the first week may be getting used to a routine, looking at new materials to see what days to do what assignments, etc. My older son needs buy-in on how we distribute the workload. Band starts after Labor Day.

Yes, new stuff. Biology is new to everyone, as in just published--I am expecting to find errors and some leaps in intuition in the text, but we'll see. 🙂 Younger kiddo's science is new to us also (Rainbow Science). Trying Memoria Press literature for my older one. If the book that follows Getting Started with Latin isn't published on time, we'll start a new Latin curriculum. My younger son is starting a new co-op twice a month. 

I think we're mostly drowning in supplies, but we are waiting on an order of science lab equipment, one book, and a few random re-supplies for the other science curriculum (those we're coming up with ourselves).

[Arcadia]

 Who here has started school already? Kids started last Monday for their first outsourced class. Their last outsourced class will start near end of September.

 Anyone using a new-to-them curriculum this year? New outsourced class provider and DS14 is starting dual enrollment in September.

Who has all the supplies they need and then some? Surplus of lots of stationary. Now only looking out for sales of thick sheet protectors and nice index dividers. 

[mmasc]

We’ve only started math review. Thursday will be our official first day back. And my first high schooler. Eek! So yeah, lots and lots of new to us curriculum and it’s scary. 

We have loads of supplies, but still went to Walmart today to get some ‘just for fun’ stuff. Each child picked out pens, we got some highlighters, post-its and sticky tabs, and mechanical pencils. I have a few surprise things to give them on their first day back...new whiteboard eraser for each, scented markers, and chocolate. 😊