Planning

This is what awaited me this evening.

Piles of books. School books.

I've been putting off working on the lesson plans. Because that would mean that school is starting soon. And I so don't want summer to end!

With just a week and a half between now and the first day of school I decided I needed to buckle down and get to planning. Once I was immersed in the books I had fun and the first week's plans went well. I try not to plan more than a week in advance, that way if we fall behind or work ahead I don't have to rewrite the next week's plans. This has been very helpful when we've had sick days, a last minute field trip, or just an "off" day. That's the great thing about homeschooling - it's flexible! We always have weekends to catch up, or snow days, or the summer. That "rush to finish" isn't there like in a typical school setting.

I'm most excited about The Prairie Primer by Margie Gray. While this is meant to cover a year of academic studies (except for math and spelling) we will be using it more as a supplement.  

This primer is based on the 9 books from "The Little House" series. It's goal is one book a month for nine months and each day has it's own subjects based on what you would have read that day. It teaches U.S. History in the 1800's, U.S. geography, science, language, practical living, health and safety, nutrition, music, and art. As well as Biblical. Since this will be our supplement, and not our sole textbook for those subjects, I feel we will probably do three book studies a year...so this course will work for our family over three years. 

I see that there is also a literature based unit study utilizing C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia". If we enjoy this study as much as I think we will I'll have to try that one next!

When does school start in your area? Are you ready?