The kids are BEGGING to start school. That's one of my homeschool goals...kids who love to learn and read.

Finished reading Black Beauty today!

2009 -2010 Year's Curriculum Winner

Drumroll.....Here's the curriculum I chose for this next year!

If I could design and develop my own program and pull all my favorite philosophies and methods of teaching together it is this! I am SO excited to dive into this I can't wait! Well worth checking it out!

1. Have you ever done a unit study? Say...dinosaurs....language, math, history, science, every topic relates to dinosaurs - it provides a very in depth knowledge about topics and allows for stickability in the kids mind! and It is the most fun too but it's a lot of WoRk to pull it all together. 2. Classical education is taught in most (or lots anyway) or schools: they follow a chronological pattern for teaching history and have a big emphasis on classic literature and language__ narrating/dictating stories. They break up school in 4 year sections based on their theory that kids learn differently in those segments; the first being 1st - 4th -the fact acquiring stage. But after talking to lots of people and researching it--it's quite a lot to get through each year when they are so young; and at that age everything you tell them they take as absolute truth and in my opinion without God we have nothing; "in all your ways acknowledge him" He should be their foundation not a bunch of facts about Greek & Egyptian gods/myths. 'The story of the world' -their history book- is also has no association to any biblical worldview perspective and that's essential in my goals of educating my children. 3. So, last but not least they use a lot of Charlotte Mason's philosophies which are gentle and wonderful! Similar to the classical method but she also emphasizes "real books"...so instead of reading a text from a compilation of lots of different authors - read ben franklin's diary, the constitution, the bible, you get the idea...nature walks which the curriculum has what I call a fun friday.

The curriculum is an all inclusive package with music and art too! 1st and 2nd are separate curriculums if you have an oldest child then 3rd grade begins their 5 year program beginning with geography and countries year, 4th - 8th follow a chronological order studying history from a biblical worldview. The history, science, that stuff are unit studies. After 3rd you have to add math and language ( they suggest Singapore -we're using math u see- but I really like the emphasis on problem solving method of singapore) = So when the little ones get big enough they jump right in doing whatever yearly topic you happen to be on...great help when your homeschooling more than one. I just briefly touched on this curriculum, I could go on and on ...

ooo...one last thing is I have found that to give a child heroes at a young age -say 1st and 2nd- is so important. You hear these amazingly influential people and they all had heroes. The second grade curriculum is all about american history and specifically people who influenced and founded our country...which much of those foundations are being abandoned in our gov. as we speak. God is no longer what stakes this country firmly, no praying in schools, no referencing the bible for any papers, but they can reference any other religion, mandatory incorporation of homosexual lifestyles (even in math) and the teaching that the big bang and evolution are law not theories but this is truly how everything on this earth functions and yet they refuse to ever mention the possibility of a creator; they have taken in God we trust off some monies already, argued over 'what to do' with all the references on the supreme court buildings; really sad. Clearly I'm passionate about the public school system, I pray for it and the kids who don't know any better. But these are just some of the reasons I refuse to support an education system that denies truth and embraces...everything else of this world. I won't sign up for any publicly funded education programs (homeschool.charter schools) because of these things and more. Controversial, yes I know-seems to be that way anyhow; but that's the beauty of freedom right?

The author's are incredible you'd have to read about them...but they are husband and wife, masters in education, speech and language therapist; they spent 8 years abroad translating the bible. I had already purchased Sing, Spell, Read and Write Preschool and Level one (on ebay for a bargain price) so I'll check out her phonics program but will probably do SSRW.

http://thecurriculumchoice.com/2009/04/my-fathers-world/

http://www.mfwbooks.com/

I've looked up lots and lots of reviews and I have not found anything negative -except one lady said she would have like more intensive science lessons- everything else I've researched has lots of good and bad comments. So we'll see --