Upside Down and Inside Out!

My schoolroom is topsy turvy today but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The girls now have their classroom library set up and that is what I am most excited about! I am a book nut! You can throw away just about anything; but never, ever, never throw away books! So, as a result, I have them coming out of my ears!

I am so pleased with how the room is coming together. I still need to finish organizing the paperwork, OH MY! I also need to get all of the cutesy western decorations up but I think it is going to look awesome! I hope to have the room completed by this evening. I would love to have it all up so that I can link with iHomeschool for their classroom pictures... ummmm... that is my goal anyway.

Another goal that I have is to create the girls' lesson plans. Because I am going by a completely different schedule, it will take a bit of thought. I am really excited about the semester scheduling rather than yearly scheduling. But, it still needs to be put into practice successfully. This is what our year will look like:

The first question you may ask is: "Why aren't you doing reading all year?" My answer would be that while they are completing their Language and Writing program as well as their electives, they will be doing plenty of reading. The girls will also be using reading programs to earn points. They will just not have a "reading textbook." For the Spring semester, they will get the opportunity to use what they have learned in Language Arts and Writing from the Fall to complete research papers, book reports, and other projects correlated with their reading.  

Math will be all year long as well as Spelling and Vocabulary which will be built off of their Science or History for that semester. By splitting Science and History into two semesters, I am hoping to streamline their learning and make it a much deeper learning experience. 

Have you ever used a semester schedule? What did you feel were the perks or downsides of it? Share your thoughts below!

BTW, for all of you who read my post from yesterday which you can read here, The CHAIR won! I have it cut shorter than I planned and the cutest highlights. What can I say? I was no match for the power of the CHAIR! :)
Happy Blogging!