Well – most of us. If you visit my house right now, you will see a pile of the books we used last year still sitting in the corner – and me trying to figure out what in the world I am going to use this year. I am not entirely sure where the entire summer disappeared to! We had some great fun! Camping, hiking, road trips to see family – but making the decisions as to what I was going to use curriculum wise just never was finalized.

I have been researching a few different options. One of the things that I am using right now is Khan Academy. We needed a refresher on our math, so I have been logging the kids into the academy and brushing up on their skills. If you have not used it, then you need to! As a homeschool mom, there are things I am stronger in than others, and math is one of my weaker areas. Being able to gain better insights and help with the math for the boys, is excellent! They are enjoying the studying, and actually asking to do the work! Having the math computer based is really helping, and they are leaping and bounding ahead. I am feeling more confident that this year we will benchmark our goal for math.

But, now I must turn my attention into getting this school year started off right! While I search for the core curriculum that we are going to study, the kids are narrowing down their line of study for their individual projects.

If you have not considered having a unique project during your homeschool year, you should think about it! Kids really enjoy delving into a project that they can build on during the year. They can learn more about one of their favorite topics, and have some fun doing it! Color pages, reports, dioramas – whatever you want to incorporate into their project is fair game!

Share what you are going to be studying this school year!

It is that time of year. The time that all teachers begin to look at the coming year and plan out the curriculum. Home schooling is no different, but in some ways can be a little more difficult. Instead of just one age group and grade to plan for, you are planning for each individual child. I started prepping last week, trying to decide what we were going to focus on, and of course, adding the subjects that my boys are wanting to study.

I don’t know if you remember from some of the last blogs that I have done, but I always get my boys to do an extra project on top of what we are already studying. My oldest has decided that he wants to do Ancient Egypt this year. I am all for that, but we are going to have to narrow down that area a little more. My youngest wants to study the Civil War, so we are going to have the same issue. We will have to narrow down. But this can be done simply. Choose one area of study for the fall and a different for the Spring, so same subject two different areas of study.  But the main courses are the ones that stress me out the most. Making sure that I have the right math, science and other core subjects that are the best ones to use can be daunting. I have found that whatever we choose, we can tweak it to what we want, and what will work best for the boys. I have found that what might work for one does not work for the next. So its been a bit of juggling, but pays off in the end.

Now, with the start of the school year, I have to start thinking of the field trips and everything else that we are going to be undertaking as we go through the year. I am hoping to start off with Gettysburg, and then maybe a few more trips to D.C.. But I want to try and get through a few different areas this year. Obviously, visiting Egypt is out of the question (at least for now), but I want to try and visit the museum in New York City that has a very impressive display of Egyptian artifacts and art.

Now to pull all the books and start prepping our reading lists, and binders for the coming year! Let us know how your planning is going for the upcoming year! Do you have anything fun planned??