Homeschool Convention

I'm on a homeschool high as Tim and I spent last week at the FPEA (Florida Parent-Educators Association) Annual Homeschool Convention. We had a great time attending vendor workshops and perusing the vendor hall full of different curriculum and resources. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to keep our children at home and have control over what they're learning. Even with the difficult days, I wouldn't trade spending this time with them for anything.

We're taking a different approach next year and I believe it will help in making our difficult days fewer and farther between. Less texbook/workbook stuff and more hands-on and literature based learning. I'm excited that we have settled on a few of our curriculum choices. For Joshua we will be sticking with Abeka for phonics, language arts and cursive writing. His books came this week and he actually seemed excited while looking through them. For both boys we'll be trying a new math curriculum called Math on the Level. Like it's name, you teach math on the child's level rather than grade level. This will allow Jacob to move as fast as he wants with less repetitive workbook pages to slow him down. I think it will also be a good fit for Joshua if he needs to move at a slower pace. And the great thing is that it's set-up for preK through pre-algebra so I'll be able to start some of the activites with Leanna! Jacob will be starting Spelling Power for spelling, a book that goes from 3rd grade level all the way through high school. I also got him Barron's Painless Grammar (for only $5.88 at Sam's Club!) that covers 3rd-4th grade grammar. We'll be combining that with at least two unit studies from Total Language Plus. I ordered the unit study books for Pippi Longstocking and The Sign of the Beaver and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. Using literature as the teaching tool, the study will combine vocabulary, grammar, creative writing, etc. to cover all his language arts. The only things we haven't quite settled on are history and science. We both feel that this is the time to start something more formal, but I do not want to do a textbook approach. We're looking at a few options from Simply Charlotte Mason that look promising. The best part is that with the literature studies and whatever we choose for history and science, I'll be able to incorporate activities for all 3 children. Jacob will also be taking PE once a week at the YMCA with our homeschool group.