3. Establishing Identity

To say I have been reading A LOT of homeschool blogs is an understatement. But in doing so, many of them are titled with an identity. I wondered, "Should we also have a name for our homeschool? What reasons would we need a school name?"

To name a few;

1. An official name is often requested when signing up for reading incentives, such as Pizza Hut's Book It!, Six Flags Read to Succeed or for education discounts.
2. A school name will be required for the children's high school transcripts that we prepare for upon their graduation.
3. Creating t-shirts to wear as a group when attending field trips sounded awesome to the kids.
4. Having a name may also help the kids have a sense of identity with their schooling.

That all being said, we took a week to come up with a name. It took much of our daily thought therefore it became tiresome. So, we decided to keep it simple. 

We are the Sage Harbor Homeschoolers. We attend Sage Harbor Homeschool.

Why Sage Harbor?

Last night (3/12/13) I was putting the key-chain back on my bag. The chain's logo was Sag Harbor. I thought, "Hey, that is a GREAT name!!" Add an E to Sag, making it SAGE. Sage means wise, or prudent which is marked by wisdom. Harbor is the first word of the neighborhood we live in, Harbor Point. I chose to keep "homeschool" in the name because Academy and University seemed like I was trying too hard, and Private School implies we charge a tuition. So simple it is, and it sounds GREAT.

Now that our school name is established, we needed a classroom. We placed our school in the home office. For the time being this will do just fine. We plan to add on, in the garage, another room (half is already converted) which is much bigger. As we continue on we will vamp it up to our liking. We really needed to get things organized before March 11th. Also, we are planning to make our own desks for the kids. The card table will do for now. Updates will come.

Here are pictures of our new "classroom". 

My 4th grader won her class Guinea Pig by submitting an essay. So we decided
to put him where he belongs. "Caden" is now our class GP. The three drawer organizer holds (top) coloring books, construction paper, drawing paper and sticker books. (Middle) Pencil boxes loaded with extra supplies. (Bottom) Education games such as Apples to Apples and Upwords. A wall shelf will be very necessary as we accumulate more educational aides.

We'll need to add wall shelves to hold all books and binders soon. This shelf is beginning to fill up quick.

We started a Field Trip Fund. N & H's Dad already donated $20 bucks. 
Got this globe at a yard sale for $2.

Each child has their own personal binder. One of my fifth graders said, "This binder is more organized than our public school binders!" To the right is reserved for our library books. Don't need those misplaced.

All of these reference books/material came from a second hand shop or yard sale. The globe book-end  was donated by my Father, M.W. 

Each subject has a journal to document notes & the like. These here could not fit in their binders. During the course of our homeschooling journey we will be reading two of the three books you see here. One of which, The Secret Garden, I read as a fifth grader. Found it at the second hand shop for $1.50.

Upside down pic, but that's OK. This is our inventory. Not all are present. We recently visited a very lovely 13 year old young lady who decided to clean out her room. She invited me over for first dibs on her pre-yard sale items. I took off with ALL of the school gear. This picture DOES NOT do what is actually under it all (and in other places) justice. There is enough supplies here to last the kids at least 2 years, if not more.

In the magazine section at Wal*Mart you can find maps, atlases and the like. I bought this world map and Texas map as a combo for less than $4. I plan on laminating the Texas map. The world map is up for quick reference to the continents & oceans as a visual during their studies.

OCD Anyone?

This pic was taken right after the room was "completed". We have added to it already. The T.V will come out, as this use to be a child's room/office. The closet there is packed full of writing paper, copy paper, binders, folders, glue. Everything my homeschoolers need. 

March 7th was the fifth graders Open House night at their current school. When mentioning to a teacher we were homeschooling she gave us this sign. Our last name is Slack. PERFECT.