I'll tell you a little secret...THIS is the best part of homeschooling.

I'm asked about homeschooling fairly often. And when asked what I like about it I give all sorts of standard answers about how I love spending time together, or how he is learning more at home, or even that they are getting lots of time together to form sibling bonds. All pretty much the same answers you see in articles on homeschooling, blog posts, etc. But the truth is the BEST part of homeschooling isn't any of that. In fact, the best part really has nothing to do with the kids at all. The dirty little secret, that no one tells you, is that the absolute best part of the homeschool experience is that tiny sliver of time between ending one year and starting a new one. The sweet spot when all possibilities seem open, and nothing stands between you and an amazing school year except your credit card. You flip through catalogs, oohing and ahing over 3D maps and CDs of historical radio broadcasts. You search websites for that one science kit that will transform your child from sullen teenager to world reonowned physicist. Shiny ads and convention speakers promise happy days cuddled with books and test scores beyond your wildest imagination. And in that magical between time you believe it all.

So yeah, I love this time. It will end all too soon. In fact, as soon as you make the first purchase the magic starts to fade. You find the flaws, you realize how long it will take to plan, the binder doesn't look quite as sparkly and vivid as it did on the website. I know all that. I know that soon I'll be wrestling with my planning software and way too many books, trying to make them all fit. Trying to find that balance between learning "enough" and not overdoing it. But right now I'm ignoring all that. I'm going to drool over latin roots and picture study and dissection kits and enjoy the fun part. Cause really..it's the best part.

My name is Katie, and I'm a curriculum addict.

I know we are doing American History next year. I know the basic resources we will use. I know what programs don't fit into that schedule. I know we are not doing Ancient history. I know he doesn't want to do a Great Books study. And yet...man do I drool over the new Omnibus self paced lessons!  History, great books, religion, all in one. College class meets travel documentary. I can't help it. I want it. And will drool over it. so yeah...I'm a curriculum addict. I admit it. If you want to see what has me all doe eyed you can check out some free sample lessons.

"Integrated" geography

I made up that title all by myself. It's a nicer way of saying "throw things at the subject and hopes some of it sticks." We've tried multiple things for geography. We used the maps from The Story of the World, Activity Book  our first year, and Map Trek  our second year. I LOVE the Map Trek maps!  This year we are using Sonlight and it takes a different approach. Rather than doing detail work on a small, regional map it has him label places he reads about on a large world map. He enjoys none of this. To try to make it a bit more interesting I have taken to adding in some "fun" games. He does enjoy the phone app "Stack the Countries", and last night he played geography games at FreeRice.com. (If you haven't been to freerice you need to try it. You play educational quiz games and right answers earn food for hungry people.) And just for good measure he watched a segment of a Rick Steves' travel show on Venice. So there you go: "Integrated" Geography.

"breaking" news....

In very unexpected news my oldest, the 13 year old, managed to break two of his vertebrae in his back this weekend. He was only hospitalized one night, and is home in a brace for 3 months. This was a very good outcome considering. However, the brace makes it very hard for him to sit at a desk for more than about 15 minutes or so. And even if he could he is under orders from the doctor to avoid sitting in one position for more than 20 minutes without getting up and moving around. I can't imagine how he would manage if he was in a traditional school setting. I'm so glad he is homeschooling and we are able to be flexible and work around his limitations. That means he does half of his math lesson and then lays down for a bit before finishing up. It means acknowledging that along with the physical pain there will be mental stress and exhaustion and planning accordingly. I'm lightening his load a bit and plugging in some documentaries and movies that he can watch on the tablet in bed. We are finding time to laugh and be silly. Time to go to the bookstore in the middle of the day to avoid traffic. Time to be very very very grateful that in the end he will be ok.

Big week!

More flannel board (aka felt board) fun for Molly! I loved them as a kid so I can't help but want to use it with her. This week we are working on the letter A, so I made both upper and lower case letters, an alligator, and an ant. Then realized that the beginning sound of ant is not exactly like the beginning sound of alligator. Phonics are (is?) confusing. Either way, she liked my little ant and happily marched around the house while I sang "The Ants Go Marching." We just marched "one by one" this week as we are also covering the number 1. Not a lot of fun to be had with the number one, but we managed. Best activity was placing one raisin in each heart section of a heart shaped candy mold. I also had her glue rice to contstruction paper to make the letter A, and had her circle upper and lower case A's on a homemade worksheet. 

Also this week was a local talk by the amazing Susan Wise Bauer! She spoke on what classical education is, and how it works. I didn't find out she was going to be speaking until that morning, but my husband arranged his schedule so I could go. I got to meet her, ask her some questions about Michael's progress in his writing program, and of course get an autograph. I thought about going back up in line so I could get a picture with her, but thought that might be crossing the line from fan to stalker. Either way,  I'm finding myself much more motivated and that feeling seems to be carrying over into Michael's attitude as well.  

Ok, I'm going to try to actually remember to update this thing from time to time. Remind me if I don't! I think if I look at it as an excuse to avoid housework I should do just fine :)

Right now my oldest is 13 and more into minecraft servers than schoolwork. We are using Sonlight Core H for history and literature and a subscription to Bible Mesh, through them, for an overview of the New Testament. For the most part he likes these programs, or at least doesn't complain, which is really all I can ask of a 13 year old boy. We've also used a few of the What's in the Bible? DVD series  , which he does complain about but has also secretly finds humorous in parts. I'm really impressed with how much information they present without stepping on denominational toes.

The almost 3 year old is ready for more "school" involvement so I'm working on getting our local preschool co-op back on track. Our first lesson of the semester will be based on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? My First Reader. I love the simple cadence of this book and find that the rhythem helps little ones pay attention. I spent yesterday making felt board pieces and will have hubby make up the flannel board this weekend. I read about using stiff interfacing, from the fabric section, for the pieces and it seems to have worked really well. I was able to see through it just well enough to trace the images and then I colored them in. I used sharpie markers but crayons work well too. The rough fabric just wears down the crayon fast and I was feeling guilty for dulling my daughter's crayons. I'm also planning on a color sorting activity for this lesson and a song - probably "Five Bears in the Bed".  Watch for an update next week to see if it all works out as planned!

I'll also update soon on our adventures in math and spanish curriculum hopping, and share where we ended up and why. In the meantime it is currently 80 degrees out there, and I still have errands to run and cleaning to do.

Chinese New Year

We recently attended the local Chinese New Year festivities  downtown. We had a great time watching the Lion Dance, also called Dragon Dance. We learned that dragons are vegetarian and are attracted to the local shops by the cabbage (and envelopes of money) the shopkeepers hang in front of the store. We saw kung fu demonstrations and were totally overwhelmed by the firecrackers. Michael had fun filming everything and the baby thought the Kung Fu was fascinating.