Renewed Excitement for our Homeschool!

I am SO excited!!

I have been in planning mode for next year. I am really trying to take each year as it comes, but I do have a rough plan for where this homeschool journey will take us in the future. Not only have I done this for financial planning (so we can know when we really need to put homeschool supplies into our Dave Ramsey budget), but also as an assignment from Simply Charlotte Mason. They suggest, and I agree, that it will help to know when I plan to teach what subjects from K-12.... not what supplier I will use, but the basic subjects so that I can see the vision and can better make my choices for those years as they come up.

I knew that I was going to be using FIAR next year (our school year runs from January-December, so next year starts January 2009). The girls might be on the younger ages of this curriculum, but they are ready for it and we will take it slow. My only concern was ways to make it fun. FIAR is a very fun curriculum, but a lot of people supplement with arts and crafts, which as much as I would love to say we do, we just don't. I was never into them, but I have really tried to do them with my girls, but so far no interest there either. I will continue to try as they get older, as it would be fun for me to recapture this part of my childhood, but I also know that they might never be interested in them. So, what could I do?

I had heard about Galloping the Globe a few times before and had even looked at it briefly. I saw that it was for K-4th, so I just put it off as a possibility for the future. Recently there was a discussion about it on the FIAR boards and I learned that it was written by a FIAR mom! They said that it was very compatible, so I decided to look into it a bit more. In doing so, I learned that many moms use it with 4 year olds and have a blast. During this same time, I received two emails from some lovely women who read this blog (I love to get these emails!!) and they were asking about how I homeschool and my plans, etc; While writing back and forth with these women, I realized the things that do work really well with my girls (instead of focusing on what doesn't, like the crafts), and I realized that they LOVE to look at the globe and see where the characters live that we are reading about. They LOVE to bake and cook, especially when the recipe ties into what we are reading. They LOVE to see pictures of children, especially from other countries and learning how they are different. They LOVE to learn about the world (almost every story Jordan writes or narrates to me begins with "Dear Jordan, Got to see the world!") This is what Galloping the Globe is all about!!!!

I joined the wonderful ladies at the yahoo group and have gotten so much positive reinforcement from other moms who use it with young children or who have in the past. I wouldn't use all of the resources that they recommend, but I can always come back and use them again! I plan on doing this right alongside FIAR and HSS, and there are other moms on the yahoo group who also will be doing the exact same thing!

While driving to Dallas this weekend with my husband for our last Discovery weekend, I further discovered "what kind of homeschool" we are! Some say that they are a history driven homeschool, others are science driven and others are language arts focused. We definitely have a passion for history and for creative writing, but both my husband and I love learning about different cultures and traveling! Apparently we have either instilled this in our girls or it is a trait you are born with, but they have this passion as well. So, we are a homeschool that is driven to learn about different cultures as they really are (not just the sugar coated version you get in some schools today), to learn about the bigger world out there, the history and heritage of our own wonderful country, and one that is passionate about expressing our thoughts and opinions through the written word!

I know that how we implement this vision can be altered through the years, as their own unique interests and talents are discovered, but I also don't think that our overall goals will. These are the types of things that we want our girls to learn about, to discover about themselves and the wonderfully big world that God created around them. It is also a nice way to cultivate family memories and teach skills like cooking and baking, map skills, research skills and critical thinking. I am excited to have a new vision for our school and to realize some unique strengths and interests that my girls have!

What type of homeschool are you?