School plans for 2011-2012 year

As we continue this home school journey it is clear that in order for the kids to learn something, and me not to lose my mind, I need to be honest about my own strengths and weaknesses. The simple truth is that I am not the kind of person who enjoys creating my own curriculum or cobbling our curriculum together from all kinds of sources. I get impatient and easily frustrated. The last thing I want to do is transfer that impatience and frustration into our learning. Especially when the number one reason we are schooling at home for these early years is that we want to encourage a love of learning. Somehow I am pretty sure that my impatience and frustration would not accomplish that goal.

So, I knew that I needed a complete curriculum program that has everything I need to teach my kids. I was willing to pay money for it.

Sonlight Curriculum has been recommended to me by various home schooling families since Jeremiah was 3 years old and reading. I have seen friends use it. I have read about it on various blogs. The more I learned about Sonlight, the more it just seemed to be a good fit for our family. Reading about the books and curriculum excited me, and I figure if I am excited by something my kids will catch that excitement too. Last month I took the plunge and ordered everything I needed from Sonlight for our 2011-2012, 1st grade, school year.

We will be doing:
Core B: Intro to World History (creation through the fall of Rome)
The Core program provides History, Geography, Literature and more.
Language Arts with Grade 2 Readers
Technically Jeremiah is reading on a 6th grade level, but since his grammar, spelling etc. are on target this seemed like the best level to start with. We can always supplement his reading material with things that interest him.
Reason for Handwriting
Science B: Animals, Astronomy and Physics
Horizons 1 Math

We haven't added any formal electives. Jeremiah plays soccer in the fall and we like to go to plays and do other fun things through out the school year.

I haven't ordered any special curriculum for Nathaniel. He loves listening to books and enjoys being part of our History and Science lessons. My goal for him next year is that he learn to recognize his letters and numbers. And I will admit, I have not been working with him very much. I will probably do some kind of "Letter of the Week" program with him.

We will coordinate our school schedule with Aaron's schedule. That makes it easy for us to keep track of.

Our boxes arrived a few weeks ago and as you can see the boys were very excited. We have everything stored away on our school shelves and already the boys like to take out the new books and look at them. Now we can enjoy our summer knowing that everything we need is ready and waiting for us to get started on another fun year of learning.