For a blog that started out as a mostly homeschooling blog, I sure do cover a bunch of other topics! Lately this hundred-mile-an-hour adoption ride we're on has been our biggest focus here on my blog and in real life. Of course we still have all the "usual" things going on, too: Ken's day job; miscellaneous household chores and projects; photography work; plus occasional extras like this weekend's birthday party for Brandon, who turned 18 last Sunday!
I've decided to use Winter Promise for Kathryn's third grade year. It is a little more pricey than some other curriculum, but when compared with private school, or even with the fees and such for activities, yearbooks, and so on that we paid for Brandon in public school, it's not so bad. I haven't ordered it yet, but I look forward to doing so now that I've done a bit of organizing to make room for it on our shelves! This year we'll do a themed program called "Children Around the World." I love the focus on geography, which is an area where we've been lacking, and I love all the fun things we can add in, like making dolls from a 1939 book called Homemade Dolls in Foreign Dress that I found at an antique store.
I'm working on a list of the other things I'll be using for our remaining subjects, and once I have it all in hand, I'll write about everything we'll be doing and using.
We are officially taking summer off, partly because Kathryn spends a few weeks with her dad in the summer, and partly because of all the stuff we have going on right now. We'll keep doing some informal things, though, like plenty of reading, as well as some nature study when it's not 97 degrees outside. (Hot, humid Georgia summers!)
Our hope is that we'll get the approval from the state to be able to enroll Anne in the hybrid homeschool program at our church. She's open to the idea, and the director of the school has given the okay, so we just need the state to give an official "yes." Generally, homeschooling is not allowed while the child is still considered a foster child, but because it is an accredited program, everyone we've talked to so far (caseworker, supervisor, director of the DFCS office) feels that we should be able to do it. After the adoption is official, we can choose whatever schooling option we want, but it's that in-between time (usually six months or so) that we're concerned about. If we're able to do that, she'll attend classes two days each week, and do school at home the other days of the week. I am hoping for an affirmative answer soon so we can make more definite plans.
I've decided to use Winter Promise for Kathryn's third grade year. It is a little more pricey than some other curriculum, but when compared with private school, or even with the fees and such for activities, yearbooks, and so on that we paid for Brandon in public school, it's not so bad. I haven't ordered it yet, but I look forward to doing so now that I've done a bit of organizing to make room for it on our shelves! This year we'll do a themed program called "Children Around the World." I love the focus on geography, which is an area where we've been lacking, and I love all the fun things we can add in, like making dolls from a 1939 book called Homemade Dolls in Foreign Dress that I found at an antique store.
I'm working on a list of the other things I'll be using for our remaining subjects, and once I have it all in hand, I'll write about everything we'll be doing and using.
We are officially taking summer off, partly because Kathryn spends a few weeks with her dad in the summer, and partly because of all the stuff we have going on right now. We'll keep doing some informal things, though, like plenty of reading, as well as some nature study when it's not 97 degrees outside. (Hot, humid Georgia summers!)
Our hope is that we'll get the approval from the state to be able to enroll Anne in the hybrid homeschool program at our church. She's open to the idea, and the director of the school has given the okay, so we just need the state to give an official "yes." Generally, homeschooling is not allowed while the child is still considered a foster child, but because it is an accredited program, everyone we've talked to so far (caseworker, supervisor, director of the DFCS office) feels that we should be able to do it. After the adoption is official, we can choose whatever schooling option we want, but it's that in-between time (usually six months or so) that we're concerned about. If we're able to do that, she'll attend classes two days each week, and do school at home the other days of the week. I am hoping for an affirmative answer soon so we can make more definite plans.
