Good to know I'm not alone

Sometimes I think I'm the only one so unsure about what we're doing on this homeschooling journey.  I look 4 years into the future and I tremble.  I look at what my goals are for my sons, and I feel almost sick.  I wonder if we did the right thing, if we'll be ready for missions and college at the right time.  Somehow four years seems like forever when children are 6, but they disappear in a flash at 14.

Yesterday, though, had a lengthy conversation with my sister over the phone.  She is a veteran homeschooler, meaning that her oldest three sons survived and are in college.  Two of them finished high school at the local public school though and her third hasn't started yet.  He is serving a full-time mission for our church for the next two years.  He was her first to be solely homeschooled.  Her younger children are all enrolled in K-12 in Utah which has some gorgeous opportunities.  Even so, she is equally nervous.  I took comfort in knowing I wasn't alone.

Previously I have also had similar conversations with other homeschooling moms in my co-op and realized they are as jittery as I am too.  High school options are out there, but there are fewer options than in the elementary grades.  Many of the students I know are taking at least some of their classes at the local college here.  It caters to high school and college students although the homeschoolers roll their eyes at how the class physically divides according to which high school the students originate from.

Spring is here!

Hello! Spring is here, and the temperatures are rising very quickly! We have a long-haired dog that needs to shed! Our kids are looking forward to summer and the freedom it brings to run and play without regard to coats and bundling.

Co-op is wrapping up as well. My daughter is dancing in the elementary grades' musical. She is very happy to stop listening to Parablelooza soon. My sons are still working on papers and worksheets for their classes. I think one forgot about a paper for Speech. Oops! Hopefully next week won't be too late.

I am busily studying Teaching a Generation of Leaders, A Thomas Jefferson Education for the Twenty-First Century, by Oliver Van DeMille. That will be my model for high school, I think. I have really been struggling with how to finish off with a bang that will prepare my sons for college and life, and I was led to picking that up again on Sunday. I have some work to do in preparation for it though!

I'm also going to be busy preparing for an American Government class I will be teaching this fall in co-op. Unfortunately, my sons aren't old enough for the class, but they will be studying with me here at home. I plan to use many of the TJEd principles in this class so it will be a natural fit, I think.

Now I must hurry and get lunch before we leave for co-op. Love you all!

Oops!

I so oopsed! I planned out our year's curriculum and forgot to take into account what the kids would be doing at co-op.

For example, we were going to study U.S. History and Western Hemisphere Geography. I just bought some of the workbooks I was missing.

Steven is taking World War I and Medieval History at co-op for the first semester, and World War II and Medieval History for the second semester. James is only taking World Geography (for which I do not have the book and just helped another co-op member check out the last copy from the lending library last week.) Don't look for the logic in courses; there isn't any. The boys are totally responsible for their selections for all but writing. The only bright spot is that all of them will count for high school credit while my original history plan would not.

I knew writing would be handled with or without me so I was going to let it be without me. I knew that because I signed Steven up for Creative Writing with some persuasion from his dad, and James, Excellence in Writing. However, we need to scamper on grammar in the next few weeks since neither one is very strong in that!

Thankfully Photography and Health & Fitness don't require much preparation from home.

So now? Home schoolwork, beyond assignments from co-op, wil include grammar, science (why oh why didn't I insist on that as a co-op topic?), and math. Easy Grammar, Apologia General Science (next year we'll do the co-ops), and Teaching Textbooks Math.

Immediate plans finalized

As of 1:00 a.m., I know what I am going to be doing curriculum-wise for the next month. I will be using the Classic Character Curriculum from Konos on Orderliness. It is a unit study covering everything but math for grades K-8 so all three of my children are included. It teaches plants, animals and rocks, planets, and the solar system.

Since this is the book that the co-op we are joining will be using, we are going to get a start on it now. They will be starting at the animal classification, skipping the solar system. While my boys have studied the solar system intensely, my daughter has not. The literature selections and grammar lessons work for all three as well. Ah, the advantage of unit studies!

Once we have begun studying with the co-op, we will hopefully begin our history unit study. I need to buy 2 more copies of The World of Captain John Smith so each child has their own before I can do that the way I want to. The more I look at the Konos curriculum, the more I am okay with pursuing that for now though. It is an impressive, well-rounded course of study, and it will prepare my children for what they will learn to do studying the history text.

We are also evaluating whether we have time to pursue another co-op that we are currently associated with. I need to get the reading list for it before we decide.