Changing "THE PLAN"

Don't you just love it when you think you have things all planned out and then once you put it into action, it doesn't work????

That is what is happening here with American History. You probably read my entry below about Winter Promise. Sweet Pea 1 just isn't getting into Story of the 13 Colonies and neither am I. I feel lost and like I'm just wandering around without a plan. I really DON'T have a plan for Am. History (except to read from SO13C) and some books in the Truthquest Plan. That sounds good, right? A little craft thrown in here and there...sounds fun, huh? I think procrastination got the better of me in writing the plan DOWN....or using my handy-dandy Homeschool Tracker.

So, until I get my Winter Promise catalog in the mail (hopefully this week), American History will be put on hold.

Then comes our Christian Studies program from Memoria Press. It is really good. But we studied Creation, the Patriarchs and the Exodus (plus a lot more) last year using Bible Study Guide for All Ages. Hmmm....what to do. I do still have the Bible Study Guide because we didn't finish it. I think I'm going to look through the next levels of Christian Studies and the rest of Bible Study Guide and see how it compares as far as subject matter covered. I think whichever we do, the boys will like. I know they liked BSG but it took quite some time to do for devotions each day. Oh, and speaking of devotions, I'm revving up to start Sword Fighting. That sounds fun! LOL We've been doing Leading Little Ones to God and while it is fine for teaching all about God, I feel that we can actually put to practical use the Scriptures in character training and learn to really USE the Word of God in our daily lives.

Science.....I don't like teaching science. It bores me. I don't know why exactly, but it does. I do find it fascinating how God can put all this together like He did. I think I'm going to try approaching our science in a different manner. Until I get more books for Sweet Pea 1 to read during assigned reading time, I'm going to have him read the chapter from Real Science 4 Kids PreChemistry and write a few things that he remembers from the chapter. I'll have him do this tomorrow and since we won't be working on American History, we can do the experiment in the afternoon. I will probably only have him do this about once a week, maybe twice. Then when we get started back with American History, I'll have to adjust that plan. Originally, I was going to have us do science over the summer on our break. That didn't work too well. When we had a break, I wanted a BREAK! I didn't want to THINK about school (except for the buying and planning parts of it). In the Spring we are going to be doing Apologia's Elementary Botany course. I may enjoy that one. I think I will be able to have SP1 read and write narrations and then I can help him set up the experiments. Hense, giving him some responsibility without turning the whole science area over to him.

And then there is art....and music. I was reading on Well-trained Mind the other day and someone asked if anyone had a list of artists that would follow the timeline of Story of the World, Volume 2. I started thinking about art. Fine arts rather and then I guess you could throw in drawing and art techniques.

I never particularly cared for art. I can't draw and don't really care that I can't. I don't doodle (rarely) and never saw a real REASON to include art in our studies. When I questioned those on WTM about why they feel it is important, I got quite a bit of feedback. When I talked with Popeye about it, he said it really is just to make a well-rounded person. Then I started looking at some prints online from different artists. There are some that I really like! I had purchased Artistic Pursuits to use for this year, but I haven't gotten around to doing it. I bought it originally because it included picture study and had a project you can make using the topic (shapes, lines, color, etc). I still do like it, but for some reason it isn't calling my name, if you know what I mean. I'm thinking of selling it, but I'm still not sure.

I asked about a book called Discovering Great Artists and received several very positive replies. Someone on WTM even told me about a yahoo group that uses this book as the basis for art study once a week. The group gets an email that gives a short bio of an artist, links to sites online to see some the artist's work, and then a project that is similar to the technique and uses materials similar to the artist. THIS is what I'm looking for! It will really pull it together for us. AND I think I'll start a timeline (to include our history studies) and I'll be able to put a picture of the artist on there!

Music has been something we've casually done anyway.....besides Suzuki piano lessons. We get a small magazine each month called Piano Explorer. It highlights one piano composer, one orchestra instrument and has pieces composed by children of all ages. It also has some music theory thrown in too. I'm going to use that as the basis of our music study.

Latin is going great, Math is going great, Classical Studies is going well too! I just think a little tweaking is in order to have it all JUST right. I'm excited!!!