Homeschooling...This & That

Our "regular" school year has ended. This month the kids are working on their vacation notebooks/scrapbooks. Today was spent writing about Texas and the things we saw and did there. Its taken a while, but they are getting it done. They all got a postcard or cards from places we went in all the states and we also got 3 of each brochure so they each had one.

I've been researching notebooking to use next year with Amy and Will & have found some neat sites with freebie pages (I love free). I am really tired of the "read the passage and answer questions" style, so we are going to spice it up. I think they learn and retain more knowledge when its more hands-on anyway. We did this with Biology a couple of years ago and they still remember stuff, plus they have really neat notebooks full of their work. So we are going to expand the concept next year.

My friend 'Rie and I are forming our own co-op next year. She is going to do American History- up to the Civil War and I am going to do Biology. It will be fun to join with another family and trade off lessons. We've planned the days to meet and when to start. We are trying to do this a little more informally than the co-op classes the kids have participated in before. It'll be fun.

Vision Forum has a new curriculum out that is about Great Composers. The set includes books about each composer, a workbook for each and CD's for each. We are going to include this in our curriculum next year. Maybe one composer a week, or every two weeks would be good.

We are zeroing in on the math for next year and will have to order that. Having Amy and Will study the same math did good last year and we are doing it again next year. They are only one grade apart, so this works well for us.

We are also going to work on "life skills". Pumping gas, maintaining a checking account, checking the oil and tire pressure, menu planning, budgeting, etc. There are lots of skill needed to get along in life, and they aren't taught in a formal curriculum. The list will be added to as we think of new things.

Our garden is thriving. We've got pea pods on our plants now. The green beans have filled the bed. The squash is growing and Greg is looking forward to squash casserole. The corn is knee high already! The peach tree is loaded with peaches about the size of a ping pong ball. I will plant the cucumbers this week, so we can make loads of relish again. Tomatoes will get planted after we get back from GA next week. We are picking strawberries next week, so jam is on the to do list.