A New Year

This week we begin a new year.... not only the calendar year, but for us, a “new school year”. I determined earlier in the fall that I would quit worrying about making our schedule fit the August to May model. Several years ago we got started on a January through December model and it just works for us. We finished up our loose ends just before Christmas, so this week we will be starting My Father’s World - Exploring Countries and Cultures.

The boys and I are excited to begin. Actually, Jackson and I did most of this curriculum several years ago, so he will be revisiting it - this time adding in the upper level work. For Jonathan, it will be his first time through. I can truly say that our previous year with ECC is what got us really fired up about homeschooling. For one thing, that was the year we first discovered lapbooks! Hopefully, we can create several more lapbooks this time around. For another, author Marie Hazell has created a thorough, missions based, teacher friendly curriculum that is interesting to both students and teacher. I appreciate all the thought behind the lesson plans - they are so well laid out that I can, with a small amount of weekly prep, simply open the teacher’s manual and teach! What a blessing!

I hope to use this blog as a journal of our studies this year - including resources we use, projects we complete, and any extras we discover along the way. I hope you will join us and let me know about what you are using this year - what your favorite curriculum or resource is - or what special projects you and your kids are working on.