Starting to Think About Next Year . . .

Isn't it funny how sometimes things come at you from 15 different directions? I just recently got information from our state Christian Homeschool association about this year's homeschool convention, and confirmed with dh that he could watch the girls while I go. And then I read a great blog post about how one homeschooler plans for and organizes things for her homeschool convention, and she mentioned using forms from her TOS Schoolhouse Planner, great idea! So, I've been thinking about the convention, and how I'm going to organize things this year and what I need to figure out ahead of time . . . and was realizing that I want to have at least a general idea of what we're doing for school next year before I go . . . so just as I was thinking this, someone posted on a homeschool forum I'm on, asking about . . . homeschool plans for next year . . . so I decided to figure it out . . . and since I *did* figure it out, at least on a very basic level, I thought I'd post it here too . . .

I'm just starting to think about this . . . starting to get excited about Homeschool Convention (not till May, but time flies . . .) and want to have some idea what I'm doing before then, though I rarely buy curriculum, just get ideas but still . . . 

Bible: I think we're going to roughly follow the approach outlined in the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach. BUT I feel that reading the Bible through in a year is too fast for kids as young as mine, so we'll take it at our own pace, probably start next month and see how long it takes (this will incorporate some of our reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, art requirements as well)

History: I think we'll revisit American History, need to figure out the specifics though . . . might re-visit the curriculum we used a couple years ago . . . need to think about it some more (this will also incorporate reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, geography, PA state history, and probably art, possibly some music too)

Science: While not a typical science curriculum, I think we'll use Character Sketches. This is a great set of, well, character sketches, that take a character trait and then use a nature story to illustrate the trait. So, I think we can use this, and add in some additional research about the animal, and call it science. I'd also like to start up our nature journals again and take regular nature walks, I think Little Bit's old enough to enjoy that now.


Health: I'd like to continue with nutrition in some form. If Little Bit seems interested, we might use Vintage Remedies for Kids. We're currently using  Vintage Remedies for Girls. But the "for Kids" edition just came out (last week, actually) and says it's for ages 2-6, so with Little Bit's love of being like her big sisters, it might work well for her and would be a good review of topics for the big girls while they helped Little Bit. I also want to continue to encourage them in learning to cook and take over some of the on-going "from scratch" cooking. They've fully embraced the role of bread-makers, I want to build on that.  Additionally for health, I think we'll start some formal Purity lessons. I'll probably use the Against the Tide curriculum, the author was at last year's homeschool convention and I enjoyed listening to her seminars. 


Math: We learn math through life. Science, cooking, etc. are great ways of learning math without really trying.
Spanish: We are using a calendar that has a word/phrase each day to equal a sentence per week. The girls are enjoying that, so we'll continue that through the end of 2011 (and because it's not a dated calendar there are extra weeks that will probably carry us through a month or 2 into 2012. Once we finish that we'll re-evaluate, but probably re-visit the curriculum we started this year with.

Music: Right now they're very excited about Kinderbach (a current review item), once we finish the lessons we've received for this, dh and I need to evaluate if we want to continue piano lessons, either through Kinderbach or something else.  And/or we have a couple of the Hymns for a Kid's Heart books, we might use one of them next year. 

And I guess that covers the required subjects (except PE, but nature walks, playing outside, swimming when we're at hotels, etc cover that quite nicely)! Somehow it's less than I was anticipating, that's good, hopefully time for any fun unit studies that strike our fancy and/or review stuff if I am asked to be on the crew again.