I finally got all of our curriculum ordered, and now I am waiting for it to arrive. I think our postman must think I have a crush on him because everyday he comes I run to the window looking for our boxes.
Our big order from Winter Promise has been sitting in a Fed Ex warehouse since Friday. Winter Promise was awesome enough to send me a tracking number and I faithfully tracked it all the way from Vermont to Ohio where it is now sitting. Fed Ex doesn't ship on Saturday, or Sunday, or even Monday.
But it should be here tomorrow in all its new book-y goodness!!
After much prayer and number crunching we have made decisions in our homeschool curriculum. I am really excited to start getting our books.
I really am bent towards the Charlotte Mason philosophy but I have hesitated diving in for language arts and math. I was an education major in college and sometimes that training creeps out. However, this year, I'm throwing all caution to the wind and fully embracing CM.
For Math we are switching to Math U See. I have read countless reviews that this is a good program and have had several friends sing its praise. We had been doing Abeka Math but it just didn't jive with my teaching style. I believe Math U See will work better.
Science this year is going to be a little different. Previously, we have used many living books to study Science. This year, I am switching to Apologia's Astronomy which is supposed to be written with a CM flavor. We will still be doing delight directed studies in Science because my two boys are, by nature, into Science and we do a lot of Science related things in our normal family day-to-day. We will have nature study and notebooking as well.
For our language arts, I am switching from Abeka to products produced by Queen Homeschool. This will be the biggest change for us and the one I have most prayed about. My oldest son is a good, strong reader but my youngest son hasn't had it click yet. I'm hoping Charlotte's laid back approach will fit him better.
Winter Promise will be the source of our history this year. We are studying American History which I love. We used Winter Promise last year (Animals and their World) and loved it. This is a rather new company that reminds me of Sonlight, in that it is literature based, but it is written following CM.
I have also contemplated using the work box system that seems to have become a phenomenon. I will have to overcome space and budget limitations. I like that the entire school day is prepped beforehand and time will not be wasted during school searching for a paint brush or a math manipulative.
That is the backbone of our school this year.
Tell me if you have used any of the above products and systems and how they have worked out for you?
Saturday night I had the opportunity to catch up with my good friend Sarah. It was a wonderful conversation where we talked about middle school teacher crushes, to our lives now, and plans to, hopefully, get to see each other on the 12th of this month. We have performed together in various theatre productions and took many classes together. Times with Sarah was always marked with laughter and joy! It was great how easily we picked up our friendship.
Sarah is an amazing woman. She has always had a huge heart and a beautiful smile. She has always been someone special in my book.
She was adopted as an infant by a white family in my hometown. She is biracial, her mother a native of WV and her father from Africa. She had always known this about her bio parents. In her early adulthood she sought out her birthmother and discovered she had died of cancer. After overcoming her fear of finding her bio father she sought him out, and what she discovered changed her life. She was related to African royalty, a ruling Mende family in Sierra Leone and she is considered a mahaloi, the child of a Paramount Chief, with the status like a princess.
Yes, she is a real life princess.
You can read more of Sarah's amazing story HERE, HERE, and you can buy her book HERE. She is also in August's issue of Glamour and Essence Magazines.
Words cannot express how proud I am of her!! She has handled this with such grace and responsibility and tremendous respect for the people of the Sierra Leone.
Grab something to drink and sit back and "meet" my friend Sarah, gather your kids around and introduce them to her story, but most of all would you please pray for my precious friend?
We finally got our minivan repaired from the wreck I was in at the end of June. We have uninsured driver insurance on our policy. After paying the deductable, our insurance paid for the rest of the repairs. We had a rental for a little over a week. The van looks great!
Since the wreck I have been having terrible migraines. I had never had a migraine before this wreck and since I have had three. I went to the doctor early Monday because I could not get the migraine to break. She has ordered me to have a CT Scan next Friday. Thankfully, the car insurance is picking up that tab as well.
I have been looking at, praying about, and calculating curriculum for the upcoming school year. I love this time of year! I have a third-grader this year and it seems like homeschool becomes a completely new ball game. I will share later when I make a decision.
Today, I am hosting a baby shower and my boys have a birthday party to attend.
What's new with you? What curricuclum are you excited about this year?
