Researching and Planning

Planning and Researching for the 2011-2012 year.

My oldest will be in 3rd grade.
The twins are 4 years old, so they are...
well,...
they are 4 years old and everything that comes
with that, smiles.

This is our first year planning
without really knowing what we want.
We just knew that changes needed to be made.

So...
Off to a home school conference we go.
We went with an open mind and a blank canvas.
We had researched lots and now was the time to
question and put our hands on curriculum, lots of curriculum.
Just can not do that over the Internet,smiles.
An expo can be overwhelming, but for
some reason, this year was not.
We took the first day to soak it all in
and look, just look.
No buying.
This can be hard because there is soooo much
out there, soooo much that looks good.
But, we resisted.
If there is one thing we have learned in the 3 years
we have home schooled,
less is more, less is more.
On day two, we made choices that we feel
will fit our family.

This is what we decided on:

Language arts: Rod and Staff- Building English Series
Spelling: All About Spelling level 2
Math: Math-U-See
American history: Truth Quest- Exploration-1800
Science: Real Science 4 Kids- Chemistry and Physics I

We are excited.
Of course, there is Bible, nature studies, hymns,
composer/artist studies, geography, and
reading of books, lots of books.
We love our read aloud
and reading time.

We do not do all of these daily.
Oh no, have learned that lesson the hard way.
And we will not be trying to fit all
of these in our schedule at the beginning of our school year.
Another lesson learned.
Instead, we will ease into our year,
adding things as we go.
With 3 years under our belt,
we have learned to take a slow pace.
There is no rush, this is not a race.
We are not trying to keep up with the Jones.

Bible, reading of books, language arts, spelling, and math
will be our focus at first.
Four days a week.
One day each week will be saved for
field trips, art, nature studies, science experiments,
or anything we fancy.

For the 4 year old twins, we are going to use
Little Hands to Heaven as a guide
with other resources added.
It will be a very relaxed approach.
The twins see big brother doing things
and they want to join in.
This is an answer to that.
It will be fun too.

How will our daily rhythm look when
our home school starts back up?
Not sure.
We are still enjoying the our summer rhythm.
Soaking it all in.