A New School Year!

I am sooo excited about this next school year. We are switching over to My Father's World curriculum and I love the Charlotte Mason approach of classical education. This by far outweighs everything we have tried up to this point. I have been weighing this curriculum out for over 2 yrs now and finally feel ready to take on this incredible and fun way of schooling. It requires more than I have put in before but I love what they will be learning....what I will be learning with them. I have put together the extras to help aid the learning and then I finally decided on a Language Arts, Math, Handwriting and Spelling to round out their year. They will also be continuing on in the typing and Rosetta Stone Spanish program we started last school year. We'll be using Abeka Language for both of them, Scholastic spelling which we are all already in love with, A Reason for Handwriting which I am highly impressed with based on last year's results with both of them and then for Grayson we will be using Abeka math and for Evye we're trying Miquon math this year since it explains principles in a more tangible way, something Grayson just naturally has the ability to do in his head without ever having to really give much thought to. I"ve already begun teaching Aubrey, Garrison and Grant how to read with Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I snagged it off of Ebay for less than 1/2 price and am in love with its teaching method and quick results. I am already amazed by the results we are seeing. It was originally bought with just Aubrey in mind but when the boys showed a great amount of interest I started to include them too and they are doing just as well as she is. A year ago I would've thought someone was crazy to tell me I would ever be teaching 3 year olds to read. If I can get them all taught at the same time I think I will also do Garrett and Gavin together too when it is their turn. I have never been one to push reading by any stretch of the imagination. I think schools in general rush early education way too much and take away the little discoveries they naturally pick up when that little. Schools are now so heavily focused on educational placement scores on standardized tests where children are concerned. I just figure they'll read when they are ready. After having lived what we lived through with Grayson I will never do that to another child we have. When we found his pattern of learning and how he learned he took off in ways that 3 years of tears and frustration never taught him and made up for it all in less than a year. Since we have just started the book with Aubrey, Garrison and Grant I can hardly wait to see where it ends up and how much progress they make. We'll be going to the Plano homeschool bookfair that NTHEN puts on every summer. We missed the massive Arlington bookfair this past May but I am still hoping to make next year's. The keynote speaker this year will be the president of Vision Forum Ministries. I love their catalog and the resources they offer. We still need to make a trip to Sam's and get Aubrey, and probably even Garrison and Grant, little kindergarten and pre-k workbooks that'll keep them busy and include them in the "schooling" part of the day. Garrett just goes to town with tons of stickers, stamps and water paints in the highchair. Beans that he can put in cups and beads and stuff to mess with. So, hopefully that'll continue keeping him occupied and out of messes. Between their intense love of the farming video series and the busy work that I have been able to come up with I am hoping that it'll get us through the morning routine and then we can break for lunch and put them down for naps to finish whatever is left.

Now just to get my time management issues down a little better and I think I'd be feeling pretty confident. I'm excited though. Most all of their curriculum can be purchased at the bookfair heavily discounted so I plan on doing most of the shopping there. What they do not have I will order and we will start on Sept 8th. I love doing this! I love this part of the year and I always love the excitement and joy everybody feels going into a new year and a new grade. It's a huge celebration that Aubrey will be joining the school table this year and so far that is all Aubrey has been talking about. And the annual Wal Mart trip of collecting all of the new year's needed supplies gets all of us excited again. Aubrey has already made her "school" list of new crayons, stickers, kitty pencils, glue, pink scissors and markers....washable in every way, of course! This year Grayson has requested more pencil grippers and map pencils, which was a fun new twist we haven't needed before. Due to the extensive geography studies and maps that My Father's World focuses on the 1st year he and Evye will both be needing map pencils this year.

I am so grateful to have them all home with me. I am so glad we are not losing yet another child of our's to an all day school schedule but that we are gaining her right here at our kitchen table in the warmth of our home, welcomed by an excited loving brother and sister eager to help her learn in every way. On those cold rainy winter days we'll all be gathered up cuddled under blankets reading a good book with little ones all tucked warmly in for naps with full warm tummies of hot soup or chili. I love that my days will not be filled with tears missing the older 3 and mourning the sending off of Garrison and Grant in just a mere 12 more months from now. I love that they will not be sent to a cold school room and cafeteria each and every morning and bringing home every sickness in the book that has been known to exist. They are here with me discovering life, learning what it takes to live in the world around us, making it work with siblings of all ages, responsible for daily chores, not burdened by 2 and 3 hours of homework after already having spent 9 hrs at school. They are here being taught Biblically sound principles that they were never free to learn in the public school system. I love that they already have a love of geography and world and US history and have not come to dread it based on the drudgery of having to have assignments turned in at a certain time to a teacher that merely grades and cannot expand due to too many other responsibilities and class children on her plate. I love that I love my children unlike any teacher ever could and that I have the desire to teach them and expound on their interest because they are mine and God's gift to me to raise. I am ever grateful for our freedom to homeschool but at this time each and every year I am once again taken and amazed and in love with our life and what we have been given the freedom to do and how we can teach. We are blessed.

For those of you just starting out and wanting some great resources and catalogs to peruse through these are some of my absolute favorites. You can sign up for all of these free catalogs by going to each of the websites. I spend hours looking through these at night....especially the closer it gets to the new school year. And most of them have many many early starter activities for toddlers and pre-k'ers.

The Learning Parent

Love to Learn

Learning Things

Rainbow Resource

Timberdoodle

Frank Schaffer

Museum Tour