Intentional Planning

We've eased into homeschooling this week doing just Math and Science. Next week, we will add the rest of our studies and do our full workload.

This week, I've looked at our schedule more closely to see what areas may need worked on and it basically boils down to me. I have to be more proactive in my planning!

I LOVE to plan, but I don't always make a set time for me to plan, and so it gets pushed aside for other activities (Facebook, anyone?)

That's my goal for this week to intentionally set a time just for me to be alone with the Lord and plan for our homeschool and our lives too.

I found great inspiration in the following sermon:



How about you? What are you going to be more intentioal about in the upcoming school year?

Anticipation

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!!

Our Homeschool Curriculum

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.

Scripture Memory will come from the Simply Charlotte Mason website as will our picture and music study. I hope to incorporate some lapbooking for these topics.

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?