Getting ready for school

I’ve really been struggling with what to do for school this year. It used to be that I would enjoy buying curriculum around March & planning for the new year. The past few years have been a bit harder & it is now September and we have no school plan. It has been that kind of year.

I think the fact that this is our 16th year of homeschooling – I’m a little burned out (We still LOVE homeschooling and would choose to do it over & over…I just needed a fresh vision)!! I’m excited to have some fresh ideas and learning that every child really needs things tailored individually. Takes more time, but it’s good.

There are a few things I’m excited about, though:

1 – Masterbooks. Where have you been the past 15 years of our homeschooling & why am I now just hearing about it? I’m excited to try some out this year! (More on my choices in another post) It’s amazing to me as I’m browsing their books how many, many products have all 5 star reviews! I will update at a later time what we think after trying them.

2 – 4H projects as school. We loved going around the exhibition buildings at the Fairs this past month & have lots of ideas of topics we want to work on for the next year. I am excited to have the kids each work on a Passport project (Geography) for a country of their choosing & there will be a mix of assigned & chosen projects for next year.

We have Math squared away, so until we get everything “finalized”, we are at least starting on math & assigned reading. I assign a lot of reading that covers History, Science, or topics of interest for the child. We shoot for at least a half hour per child per day of reading.

We will also be focusing a lot on home ec – cooking, sewing, cleaning, organizing, etc – especially the girls.