Springtime....Planning time!!!

This is officially my favorite time of the school year... Springtime! Even though we're all looking forward to the current school year to be finished, I can't help getting into the planning-for-next- year mood! I love to plan the upcoming school year. I love looking through the curriculum catalogs and websites and trying to imagine what would be best for us to use in the coming year. I keep a few tried-and-true basics... Saxon Math, Bob Jones Writing and Grammer, but the rest usually changes from year to year.

I had been considering a local co-op for next year, but after a lot of praying and talking to a few friends, decided against it. My kids are doing amazingly well with what we're doing here at home, and I don't need to add anything more structured to it right now.

I'm planning on doing a Geography study this year, in place of history, and I'll use the same text for both kids. I found what appears to be a great book, Trail Guide to World Geography, which looks really interesting. I think it will be a fun study for all of us (especially me, as I am terribly geographically challenged!). I'm looking forward to studying not only the geographic location of different parts of this world God created, but the people, culture, history, etc. of the world. I hope my excitement is matched by my children's in this area!

For science, since I feel I've been a little lax as a teacher in that subject, I'm going to use The Complete Book of Science for each of the kids, in their grade level. I hope this will give them a well rounded year's worth of science, so that next year, I can begin the Apologia Science series with them. That series teaches a specific type of science in each book, so I'll feel better if they get a little of all areas of science this coming year, before honing in on specific branches in the following years.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to use for spelling for my youngest. Right now, he's using a 2nd grade workbook from Scholastic and he's doing great with it. I don't know if I'll just purchase the 3rd grade book in that series, or if I'll switch to something else. I haven't found anything that I love the looks of yet, so I'm still looking.

I think I'm going to have my oldest start Rosetta Stone's Spanish this coming year. I'd like to commit to studying it with her, but we'll see! LOL!!! I feel like one of those old dogs that just can't learn any new tricks!

We're studying the Civil War this week, and going to see the re-enacters at a local battle site this Friday. Unfortunately, we'll miss the re-enactment of the battle, but we will get to tour the grounds, and learn all about how the soldiers and their families lived during that period of history. We will be leaving for a week's vacation to North Carolina on Saturday, and will be visiting some great historical areas of the Civil War, which will add a little more hands-on learning to our studies. We're looking forward to the trip. Especially because we're getting to visit some wonderful friends who recently moved up there, that we miss very much!

I hope you all have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool,