Planning School

After VBS is over and before all the gardening takes over our lives, I plan school for the next year. I love doing this!! Not as in I love giving my kids more work to do, but I love looking over books and planning what will teach what the best. Today I enjoyed spending time on this fun project.

First I buy lesson planners. Over the years we've had all kinds but we always come back to the Rod and Staff lesson planners because not only do the covers survive the whole year, but their cheap! We put their names on them and yes, Silas' is written in Greek. He loves signing his name in Greek so I thought he'd enjoy that!

Second I number the days of the year. Then I write in the plans for the whole year and each day they do school they just do the next day in the lesson planner. Simple but it works and they finish their books.. We have a calendar that shows where they should be so it's easy to see at a glance if anyone is getting behind. Since Minnesota has no required schedule, we do take birthday's off, hunting season, etc.

This year for books I am doing things really different. I decided that this year we'd use all different materials rather than the same ones we use every year. I did stick with the same math for a couple of them. Anyway, I am having so much fun planning out the year! There are so many curriculum suppliers out there it's almost overwhelming. There are math books and there are MATH books. I want the MATH books! I want the books that will teach the best way, the easiest to understand, from a christian perspective, and the most "fun" way to learn. I also try to keep in mind how each of the children learn a little different and tailor some of their school to that. I love CBD (www.christianbook.com) because they not only give great descriptions they let you look at quite a few pages of the book, tell you the size of the book and page numbers.

I think every mom I've ever talked to that homeschools thinks of this as one of the highlights of the school year. Specifically this year I plan to do a lot of writing and art with all four of my "students". That's something we've been a little weak on for a couple of years. Maybe I'll even get them to write some blog entries!! Now, if only my children will enjoy the year we'll have a great time!