Planning, planning, and more planning…
31 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Curriculum, Our Progress, Schooling, Start Up Tags: co-op, curriculum, Field trips, History, Living History, planning, real science 4 kids, Science
It has been a very busy two weeks!! I’ve been buzzing around like a little worker bee, trying to get my hive all ready for the school year. It is amazing how much time and energy it takes to get this all together. But, it is SO worth it!! I am incredibly excited to get started with everything!
Ok, so we’ve gotten all of our curriculum now. Hooray for that!! Now, it’s lesson planning time! I was super happy to pick up a great lesson planning book at Target. It was just what I was looking for, and there it was for only one dollar!! So, the plan is to have all my lesson plans done, at least until we take our December break, before we start our school year in two weeks. Ideally, I’d like to get the whole year planned out, but we’ll just take one step at a time.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before or not, but we are doing a little history and science co-op with another family. Kelly, the other mom, and I worked hard to select just the right program for science. After much research, deliberation, and prayer, we settled on Real Science 4 Kids. I was so excited when all the books came and I was not at all let down by the program! We will be starting with astronomy this year, which everyone is excited about. We’ve already got some great field trips planned. It really helps to have a planetarium close by! We also have an amazing resource with the Las Vegas Astronomical Society. My goal is to get the kids as much hands-on learning as possible. For history, Kelly found this amazing history program called Living History. I am blown away by the amount of good information contained in these books! Why did I not learn a lot of this information in school?? The answer, I’m afraid, is because history has been rewritten to fit the progressive agenda. I’m finding that as I am preparing to teach all this material, I am reading through these textbooks any time I can. I find it funny that I spent so much of my school time trying to avoid reading textbooks (mostly because they were totally dry and boring), and now I am looking forward, with great excitement, to reading these books! We are going to be doing US History this year, and next. We’ve got some super fun things planned already for the kids! I’m anxious to get started!
Now, I’ve just got to get our math and reading lessons planned out, and we’ll be all good to go!
It’s almost time for us to start our school year and I’m just giddy with excitement. I’m sure the kids don’t feel the same abundance of jubilation, but that’s alright. I know they are going to get a great education this year — and a ton of amazing experiences!! What an adventure we are about to embark on!!
Ask and ye shall receive…
08 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Curriculum, Our Progress, Resources Tags: curriculum, decisions, God, Heavenly Father, Overwhelmed, prayer, the Lord
Wow, what a week! I’ve been driving myself nuts trying to choose the different curriculum programs I want to use. There is just SO much out there to pick from. Trying to weed out what I feel is good has been literally exhausting! After looking and looking I was beginning to wonder if I was fighting a loosing battle! Then it occurred to me: Ask Heavenly Father to help. Hello! Duh! What the heck have I been doing? Sure, seek His input as to whether or not to go the traditional homeschool route, but then don’t ask Him concerning the curriculum to use. Gee whiz and good grief! I should have done that at the beginning of this search process! I could have saved myself many headaches, much time, and many nights of fitful sleep! (Yeah, you know you need help when you are literally having nightmares and dreams about curriculum!)
So, anyway, once I asked Heavenly Father to help me discern what would be right for our family, the answers came immediately! I just love that!! When the Lord says to ask, He means it! (If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5)) I tell you, the Lord blessed me with some wisdom and I am so very grateful for that! After all, He sees the end from the beginning and He can direct our lives so much better than we can! Once again, my testimony that we must trust God and His will for us is strengthened. How amazing that the Lord will bless us each, individually, because He truly loves and cares for us!
So, I found (or rather, I was guided) to a great reading and a wonderful science program! I’m SO excited!! The more I find and get settled the more excited I get. It’s a little ridiculous how overjoyed I am about things. I feel like a little kid at Christmastime again. Now, if I can just get some of my enthusiasm to rub off on the kids…..
