A little update

I didn't mean to stay silent for a week!  The only books I've finished have been re-reads of mysteries by favorite British authors.  I have some serious reading going on too, but let's face it--it's really hot, there's a lot going on, and I'm trying to get ready for the start of school, and my brain has not been quite up to facing the Great Depression or Kafka.  Even though they are really interesting.  I haven't even touched the EBB/RB love letters since Monday!  Oh no!

What I have been doing is prepping for the start of school in a few weeks, and in case you care, I'll tell you about it.  This is your cue to skip this post if you don't care!   We are due to start in about 3 weeks, and I have done very little over the summer, because by June I always need at least a month where I do not have to think about homeschooling at all.  I do have most of my materials, because I do the bulk of my purchasing in the spring before the old school year ends, but that doesn't mean they're ready to go.  Ha ha.  (I do have some things squared away: grammar, spelling/vocabulary, math, and logic are ready to go.)

My most pressing job has been preparing for a year of physics.  I have a Great Courses DVD set, several boxes of experiment supplies, and a textbook for my 10-year-old, but I spent a good deal of the summer trying to figure out what text to use for my 13-year-old.  Once I chose that, I had to match all these disparate things together.  I am expecting to have several kids using these things and participating in labs, so I have to be ready.  I've prepared a syllabus that correlates lectures, textbook chapters, and labs so that everyone can be on the same page; it still needs a little work but I feel very accomplished about it.  There is also the small problem that we have a physics nerd right here in the house....but he's the one with the full-time job.  So I get to teach it, with him for backup.

My youngest, all ready for Kindergarten 5 (!) years ago

History is another subject that takes heavy preparation.  We are going to be doing modern world history, 1850-present.  Luckily, when my older daughter was younger, I spent summers preparing reading lists for each year that match up with the history book and what books are available in the library, so my 10-year-old is pretty much taken care of.  I looked at several different lists of recommended literature for the middle grades, and put together a list of things for the 13-year-old to read this year; some of them are required by her history text, and others are things I chose to go along with it.

I've been thinking a lot about what to do with the 13-year-old's writing, too.  She has done well with the curriculum we've used, but I think this year we need a change.  She and I would both like to try the online course from BYU Independent Study, so we'll see how that goes.

Oldest girl, with her 3rd grade books long ago. 

 I want to do a year of government, so I've been preparing that.  I'm excited about this one.  We'll be studying American governmental structure, the Constitution, and major cases, and once we have a reasonable understanding of that I have one of those "You Decide" kind of books about Bill of Rights cases and questions.

I'm still thinking about languages.  What to do, what to do...the older one thinks she would like to continue with Spanish and pick Latin back up again.  We'll see how that goes.  10-year-old should pick one of those.  (Unless she wants to do something really neat, like Koine Greek or Russian!)

There is lots more to do.  I haven't stocked up on supplies yet, or gotten the school areas straightened out, or all sorts of things. So you can see why I've been going very slowly with my reading lately...