homeschooling

Well, it's official. I will be home schooling the boys next year. So excited. I guess I've always wanted to be a teacher. My library sure reflects an educational bent! And I am looking forward to this time with my sons and knowing them more.

I have no intention of blogging my home school experience, but this particular blog may turn into some resources for schooling at home.There are too many out there already and I do not intend to have time to do anything but school and keep up with the house and family.

I will put our plan out there though, because it helps me organize my thoughts. Since we have been at a Classical model school, we will maintain that as I like it best. I am a well ordered person and plan to order our days as much as possible with a good solid routine. I don't do well with chaos, so if we want to succeed we will have to minimize that. Ha! Good luck you say. Well, thanks, I'm pretty sure I am going to need a great deal of that along with grace, mercy, understanding and a fair measure of providence which holds it all together.

I plan to use a linear timeline approach to all subjects and relating back to history as much as possible. I think I now have 5 or 6 book timelines for history, science, engineering, art, etc. We can reference them when making our own and doing our studies to see who fits in where! I love the notebooking idea. It is a lot like what the kids are used to with copy books and other writing and projects they do at school. Just much expanded. It seems very natural to me and not too crafty or complicated for the boys. It is also very cross subject and I like that as tying things together makes for longer lasting learning.

History will be our main class that ties subjects together. Story of the World book, activity books and other great books to go along with the subjects. Usborne and DK, and the library!!!  I got the REAL History Odyssey time line to go along with it. I liked how it looked and I like that it has a PRE History section available, and STICKERS no glue or cutting out. Living books and other good literature will compliment our learning in every subject.

Unlike most curriculum's we are going to start our history with Pre History. While this gets lumped in with Science a lot of the time, I find that it is really both. It is our history as people and our ancestors. So, we will start there. I myself am completely fascinated with it.

Ancient history studies will include a LARGE study of African history, the cradle of humanity. I am really excited about that and digging into the boys heritage. I hope they enjoy it as much as I think I will.

I hope to acquire The Story of US by Joy Hakim, the entire set, for reading along the timeline when American History is highlighted.  Still looking for a bargain as it is pricy.

While I plan to mostly do things in a linear fashion following a timeline across the globe, we will necessarily do units as well. For example, we are planning a trip to Washington DC this summer. So, we will do some units on government,  Presidents, national symbols, etc.

At every possible place I am plugging in as a natural part of our studies as much on African influence and African American history as possible.

Science will tie in for the Ancients with a few books I picked up called Science in Ancient Egypt/ China/ Greece. 3 books. There is a great series of books that are __________ for kids. These have great scientists and their discoveries as well as history, etc.  We will use them along our timeline for supplemental work and science discovery. Our main Science curriculum will be REAL Science Odyssey. It is a notebooking based science curriculum which looks completely fabulous! I am so excited to dig in. Starting with Life Science and will follow with Chemistry. Because of the bent of one of my sons I will be doing some engineering too, using a book called Hands On Engineering. Looks great.

We will incorporate our writing with History, Literature and Science using Institute for Excellence in Writing. (keeping with what the school we are coming from is doing and I like it very much). Easy Grammar will form a base for writing. Word Roots will give me a way to teach spelling and vocabulary with a format that makes sense. I will take words from our studies as well.

We will also use Discovering Great Artists for art history and projects and lots of art example books and an art timeline to fit it into history.

Meet the Great Composers book and cd along with Piano lessons will form our music class.

Math using Singapore. A change for us, but I think a good one. Dave is our Math and Science person so he is directing the curriculum for these mainly. He is also our principle and with a Teacher's licence and soon a PhD in education he can also keep our records and give progress tests or evaluations. BIG bonus.

We will also work on responsibility and character with these books: Lessons in Responsibility for Boys and a kids Bible study called Choosing Obedience and another called Choosing Self Control. There are many in this series. 

The boys will get to play a sport in fall and spring and get lots of running and playing in our big backyard all year round.

We have been accepted into the D20 Homeschool Acadmy for the TRACKS program at School in the Woods. It's in our neighborhood! Not much is. They will do local forest ecology, history, etc. it sounds really neat, maybe I can sneak into a few classes and learn something too! It is mostly experiential and hands on, so less classroom.

We are needing to UN classroom for a year, so no co-op classes for us right now. I am not sure I want to hand over main subjects as we are combining everything into a big pot of learning anyway. Maybe someday.

Ok, so how many times did I say, I am so excited?! Too many. I guess I am "so excited" to do this. Why didn't I keep doing it after pre K and Kinder? Who knows, but we are going to be back together after this semester.

I joined some groups to get ideas and support. So glad for those who are experienced. I am so amazed at the number of places to buy used curriculum and books, etc!!! I am thankful as this is not a cheap endeavor.

Wish me luck.............. and patience and grace and mercy and providence.