One of the most fun parts of homeschooling is thinking about the possibilities and the many different ways to approach it. After the busy month of July, I looked forward to spending some time looking through my catalogs, taking an inventory of what I already own and deciding on my goals for the coming school year. Setting goals is the most important part of the process. I once read that if one has no goals, they will certainly be achieved every time. I have to figure out where I want to go in order to decide how I plan to get there.
What I want to work on this year is the development of great saints, readers, writers, "players" ( kids who know how to and enjoy playing), and who have great manners and behavior. Of course I will have to beg God for help for myself first in this latter category.
For a number of years we have been taking a workbook approach with a heavy emphasis on English and Book Analysis.I am now ready to analyze less but actually read a whole lot more.This includes Read-Alouds that we never seem to make time for. I love the Sonlight reading list because of the combination of living history and Newberry Award novels but I already own all the books from Our Mother of Divine Grace's Living History curriculum so I will go with that. I will add the fun and memorable Newberry Award novels as read-Alouds and plan to read one per month.Finding the time of day that allows me to read -aloud without falling asleep will be the key. In addition to reading historical novels, we will do some hands on projects that are creative and fun.
We will continue to study Latin which we attend a class for on Mondays that assigns work for each day of the week at home.John will begin the first class, Miss J. will sit through it with us and then we will stay for Sam's class that is the third part of Latin 1.This requires one hour per day at home and will provide the Language Arts part of their studies.
I believe that I will switch to Abeka math for the boys and continue using MCP for Miss J.. When I first started homeschooling, Saxon Math was considered the best.The tide seems to be turning on this and I have seen my sister's family achieve great competency using Abeka. I will order this soon.
For Religion, I plan to attend Daily Mass with the kids two or three times per week. A close personal relationship with Jesus Christ is my goal for each of my children. This will be accomplished better by receiving the bounteous Grace of God available at each Holy Mass and by hearing the readings and the sermon and the Holy Eucharist, than by sitting at home reading the catechism for this year. It is also great to get dressed and groomed to leave the house and be in public to help with my socialization goals.
Along the same line of interacting with others, we will be very active in our Catholic homeschooling group.We have a wonderful bunch of families and I enjoy the Moms as much as the kids enjoy each other.We have an ambitious year planned for bi-monthly get-togethers. I am in charge of planning field trips and spent a few hours yesterday researching fun and educational places to visit. We hope to do one trip a month, so there are 9 to plan.
We really need to study Geography this year. A running joke in this family is the oxymoron of " Homeschool Geography". There just never seems to be enough time in the day, but we will chuck something else to make this a priority. We will also study "Typing" with a computer program that Jeff gave me for Christmas. I never took typing in High School. Back in those days only the girls studying " Secretarial" took that. I was busy studying physics and the basics of Calculus. I can assure you that typing would have done me a lot more good! I used to have to pay people to type and format my papers in college.That is a handicap that no student can be left with in this computer age!
In order for us all to practice better manners and more polite behavior which is probably the most important thing in life if following the Golden rule is our measure, we must eliminate extra stress!!!!!! For too many years I have been too busy to be nice. Not good. Not at All. Not surprisingly, I have reaped what I have sown. Yet it is never too late to make a change with the help of God who is in the Redemption Business.I will have to ask God to help us with this frequently.That being said, it is now time to tend to my duties peacefully and joyfully!
