•4:50 PM
This week’s theme is about sharing your 2008-09 homeschool agendas and plans. You’ve been preparing your plans for sometime and you’re ready to go. Or you’re still in the planning-stage and need some inspiration or tips on what to use. Because many use different curriculum and methods there is always something new to be gleaned from other homeschoolers. It’s always fun and interesting to see what other’s are using and the WWWWH as Robin Sampson suggests. So this week I hope you will share what you’re doing this year for your homeschool agenda. Share the different curriculum you’re using. You can also include what age/grade you’re using it for, how long you’ve been using it, and why you like it.
Please share a Bible verse that has encouraged you or inspired you during this planning-process, and how.
Dear bloggy friends, I need to approach this question obliquely in order to prevent this post from being incredibly boring. Because I can answer the curriculum part of the question by saying that we are using the Calvert School curriculum. We are using Kindergarten for Baby Girl, and Third Grade for Little Son. I have written a separate post explaining why Calvert is a good fit for our family, and it is located here.
So instead, I am going to talk about our year 'round schedule and why we like it. We live in a climate that has a long, hot and humid summer. The remaining months are very comfortable for outdoor activities. So we have decided to school year 'round. Over the five years we have been homeschooling, we have settled into a pattern of beginning a new school year in January, and aiming to end the year by Thanksgiving. This leaves our longest break time for the Christmas season, a time when I tend to feel overwhelmed anyway, so it is good to not have h/s duties at that time. In fact, we get much more school done during the summer months than at any other time of the year. Calvert has 160 lesson days for Kindergarten, and 168 lesson days for Third Grade, counting review days. Baby Girl is up to lesson 143 out of 160, so I anticipate finishing up her Kindergarten by the end of September. Little Son is on lesson 123 out of 168, so I think we will finish up 3rd Grade by early November.
Since our family loves to go camping in the cool season, we take about five or six extended weekend camping trips during the time between November and April. Also, we typically take our annual family vacation around September / October. This way we avoid crowds, and the weather is cooler. Plus, the cool season is when we take a day here and there to go on a field trip, or a hike, or just enjoy the outdoors during the loveliest time of the year.
Now, we are out of step with the world; we're even out of step with the other families in our homeschool fellowship, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. When another mom asks me how I do it (the year 'round thing, that is) I laughingly state that if I were to take a full summer break, I might just never start again! How close to the truth that probably is.
If I lived in a more northern climate, I might feel differently, though.
For Bible, we are working through Training Hearts Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. This incorporates the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Other learning activities we plan to continue this year include AWANA Sparks for Baby Girl, AWANA T&T for Little Son, ongoing Suzuki Violin and competitions, and Christian Homeschool Athletic Association "Saints" P.E. program.
The Bible verse that energizes me to homeschool is definitely Colossians 3:23-24 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." This is meaningful to me for the following reason. In my "past life", before children, I was a senior electrical engineer for W*lt D*sney W*rld. It was a job with a lot of responsibility, and I was accountable to numerous people. It was a case where I had to perform at a high level and keep on plugging on, night or day, because if something didn't get done right, you never knew whose office you'd be sitting in the next day explaining why. I was actually directly responsible for a 90 minute power outage of half of D*wntown D*sney W*estside one hot afternoon in February 2000, so I know. So I became driven to perform, because a lot was at stake, and I had many bosses.
But now I am in a different situation. Homeschooling is still my job, and it is a very important, responsible one. One where I really need to keep on plugging on. Except, I don't have a human boss who is closely watching my performance. Sure, my DH asks if lessons are going well most days, but it is not the same. In many ways, I am "my own boss" as if this were my own business, and I often worry that I am not up to the task. So it comforts me, and challenges me at the same time, to consider my homeschool hours as my "work hours", and to remember that I do have a boss to answer to and that is Christ. I may never again be responsible for a costly power outage, but I am accountable for the way I raise and teach my children. This is a responsibility of much greater weight than any other I have ever had. The Boss, my Lord, is always looking over my shoulder, and listening into my heart at every turn. And rightly so, for I now have the most important job in the world!
Please share a Bible verse that has encouraged you or inspired you during this planning-process, and how.
Dear bloggy friends, I need to approach this question obliquely in order to prevent this post from being incredibly boring. Because I can answer the curriculum part of the question by saying that we are using the Calvert School curriculum. We are using Kindergarten for Baby Girl, and Third Grade for Little Son. I have written a separate post explaining why Calvert is a good fit for our family, and it is located here.
So instead, I am going to talk about our year 'round schedule and why we like it. We live in a climate that has a long, hot and humid summer. The remaining months are very comfortable for outdoor activities. So we have decided to school year 'round. Over the five years we have been homeschooling, we have settled into a pattern of beginning a new school year in January, and aiming to end the year by Thanksgiving. This leaves our longest break time for the Christmas season, a time when I tend to feel overwhelmed anyway, so it is good to not have h/s duties at that time. In fact, we get much more school done during the summer months than at any other time of the year. Calvert has 160 lesson days for Kindergarten, and 168 lesson days for Third Grade, counting review days. Baby Girl is up to lesson 143 out of 160, so I anticipate finishing up her Kindergarten by the end of September. Little Son is on lesson 123 out of 168, so I think we will finish up 3rd Grade by early November.
Since our family loves to go camping in the cool season, we take about five or six extended weekend camping trips during the time between November and April. Also, we typically take our annual family vacation around September / October. This way we avoid crowds, and the weather is cooler. Plus, the cool season is when we take a day here and there to go on a field trip, or a hike, or just enjoy the outdoors during the loveliest time of the year.
Now, we are out of step with the world; we're even out of step with the other families in our homeschool fellowship, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. When another mom asks me how I do it (the year 'round thing, that is) I laughingly state that if I were to take a full summer break, I might just never start again! How close to the truth that probably is.
If I lived in a more northern climate, I might feel differently, though.
For Bible, we are working through Training Hearts Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. This incorporates the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Other learning activities we plan to continue this year include AWANA Sparks for Baby Girl, AWANA T&T for Little Son, ongoing Suzuki Violin and competitions, and Christian Homeschool Athletic Association "Saints" P.E. program.
The Bible verse that energizes me to homeschool is definitely Colossians 3:23-24 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." This is meaningful to me for the following reason. In my "past life", before children, I was a senior electrical engineer for W*lt D*sney W*rld. It was a job with a lot of responsibility, and I was accountable to numerous people. It was a case where I had to perform at a high level and keep on plugging on, night or day, because if something didn't get done right, you never knew whose office you'd be sitting in the next day explaining why. I was actually directly responsible for a 90 minute power outage of half of D*wntown D*sney W*estside one hot afternoon in February 2000, so I know. So I became driven to perform, because a lot was at stake, and I had many bosses.
But now I am in a different situation. Homeschooling is still my job, and it is a very important, responsible one. One where I really need to keep on plugging on. Except, I don't have a human boss who is closely watching my performance. Sure, my DH asks if lessons are going well most days, but it is not the same. In many ways, I am "my own boss" as if this were my own business, and I often worry that I am not up to the task. So it comforts me, and challenges me at the same time, to consider my homeschool hours as my "work hours", and to remember that I do have a boss to answer to and that is Christ. I may never again be responsible for a costly power outage, but I am accountable for the way I raise and teach my children. This is a responsibility of much greater weight than any other I have ever had. The Boss, my Lord, is always looking over my shoulder, and listening into my heart at every turn. And rightly so, for I now have the most important job in the world!
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6 comments:
"I don't have a human boss who is closely watching my performance."
Ack, I have accountability issues, too, LOL. I could use a principal myself.
P.S.
Eight members of my extended family have at one time or another studied with Calvert School since the 1980s, in four different countries! :)
I always appreciate how thoughtfully you write things and how thoughtfully you raise your children. Thank you for posting. I always know I will find something sensible here, such as the way you keep a year 'round schedule because it works for you. Good job, Mom.
I loved your post thank you for sharing. :-)
We school year round to. I find it helps a lot and then we can take breaks when we really need it.
Hope you have a good year! :)
~Lynn
It sounds like you've really thought things out well for your family.
I 've just been reading some of your violin posts. I was a Suzuki violin student when I was a kid; I would love to see my children playing as well as yours some day!
You have done great at finding what works for your family. I don't fit in schedule wise and approach wise with most of the people I know either. It just needs to work for our children.
Yours are so precious, by the way. They look like they are very close. I had every intention of schooling through the summer this year, but art classes and out of town trips decided otherwise. That's okay~they were learning!
Thanks for stopping by. We had a great time at the beach.