Well, we Elliotts start our new school year this next week, and while the kids are a little sad to see the freedom of summer end, I’m pretty excited about this year. (I always did like school… so I guess nothing’s changed.)
We’re starting a little early this year because “New Baby” is due to arrive in December, and I’ll be looking forward to an extended break from school. We also take a break in the fall for the Feast of Tabernacles and another in the spring for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. With all those breaks, I guess we better get our work done now! 🙂
We’re going to start on Tuesday, so on Monday evening, we’re planning a simple BBQ with some friends and neighbors. The kids are inviting the friends they play with, and we adults are making sure their parents are coming, too.
Each year, I post all our curriculum choices at my website, Anne’s School Place, and this year is no exception. Click on over there to take a peek, then come back here to tell me what you think!
Honestly, it’s really no fun to plan a school year all by myself. The Internet is such a treasure, because now I have all of you to chat with.
I know you understand how much work goes into the planning and choices, and I know you understand the excitement of seeing the UPS driver pull up in front of the house with more school books.
I also know you understand the nervousness of a new year, that maybe things won’t go as planned.
Other non-homeschooling friends might think I’m a little crazy when I talk about all this lesson planning, but I know you understand!
Feel free to post a link to your blog, too, so we can see your plans for this year!
Informative post, I bookmarked a few of your homeschooling links. Thank you. 🙂
Isn’t choosing curriculum fun! It’s a job that starts early into the summer as we weigh our choices. This year we are basing our lessons around Character Qualities, fitting into each category the matching lessons. (Attentiveness will bring lessons on the senses, trapping/hunting, famous hunters/trappers, listening and the ear, scheduling and calendars, and famous composers and famous deaf people, for example.) Now that things are arriving and we, too, start school next week, we need the lesson plans nailed down! Some things haven’t arrived yet, so we have to start with Birds instead. This means downloading the bird notebooking pages and finding library books on birds rather than starting with the senses. Well, a person can go dizzy with it all! But my non-homeschooling friends have no idea what goes into it before hand so that our days can run smoothly once we’ve begun. A few days of planning last for most of the year! We’re also budgeting very carefully and living on a menu plan, so this all means a lot of pre-planning.
So what a source of inspiration you are here! Please tell us more about the Feasts and how you celebrate them.
I don’t have time to say too much about the feasts tonight, but we do use a book that I LOVE, called Celebrate the Feasts, by Zimmerman. http://tinyurl.com/ohntlh
It’s very kid-friendly (and mom-prep friendly, too, LOL!). I’m planning to do a series on this after Ephesians. (Ahh, the suspense…)
All of your plans sounds wonderful, by the way! “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” LOL…