And So it Begins... Another School Year!

I can not believe that our school year will begin in just about a week!  It feels like summer just started!  I have not been able to accomplish my lofty summer goals that I had set for myself, which is a little disappointing.  I also feel like my head is still spinning and can't get a grasp on the upcoming school year.

One of those reasons may be that we are beginning about 5 new things this year.  We will be doing Apologia for the first time this year (Astronomy in Co-Op, and Who is God? for Bible), Elijah will begin Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL), and Teaching Textbooks, and Zach will begin the Letter of the Week Curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

That is a lot of new stuff to begin in just one year!!  The past two years we have done My Fathers World, everything was planned out for me, I loved that!  So needless to say that planning for this year has taken its toll!  I am enjoying it though, and I believe this will be an amazing year of growth for all of us.

I mentioned the new curriculum that we will be using for Elijah, and my goals for him this year are to become more independent.  He will be using his own student planner that I created, and he will also be allowed to work through his school work at his own pace.  With the exception of Bible and History because those will be done together as a group, along with Science for Co-Op.

Zach will be doing a more formal school schedule this year.  He will be joining us for Bible and Science, along with doing his own pre-k lessons.  I mentioned that I will be using Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week program for him.  I am so thankful that she includes lesson plans with it!  That helps me out a lot!



My planning this year took me on quite the adventure!  I was searching for the *perfect* lesson planner!  I searched online and in person at our homeschool convention and came up with nothing that I liked!  So I decided to create my own.  I wanted one that would meet my needs homeschooling three children and doing some subjects together as a group.  I prefer a paper version, I tried the online one and could never get my brain wrapped around it!  I like to have things on paper right in front of me.

Along with creating my own planner, I created one for Elijah to use as well.  I decided that for him to become more independent, he needed to be accountable for his work.  I am hoping that using a planner will help him with that.  My plan is to fill in his assignments with a generality of what he needs to accomplish for the week, not necessarily each day.

So with my freshly printed planner, school supplies bought, school room cleaned and organized I think we are ready to begin a fresh new school year!  How about you?