Homeschool...Another Year Begins

On Monday we officially start our 8th year of homeschooling. You would think that after 8 years I would have it all together. Well, here's a big news flash--I don't. Never have, and never will but we still manage somehow. We are trying something brand new this year and I'm excited about it but also a little anxious. Our school days will be very full and I'm wondering how in the world it's all going to get done each day. For a while now I've wanted to be better about school coming first and letting other things fall by the wayside instead of often rushing through school in order to do or get to something. I am thinking that our curriculum will force that priority this year. The kids are going to be doing a co-op for the first time ever. Hannah will be taking Sonlight Core 100--American History, Joe and Grace will be taking Sonlight Core 3+4--American History. They will each be responsible for reading about 30 books this year. Of course some will be read alouds but still, it's a lot of reading each day. They will go to class on Mondays from 9 to 11:30 and while they are in class I'll be teaching a younger class. We will be doing My Father's World, "Adventures in American History." I did this curriculum with Hannah about 5 years ago and really liked it. I have a great class with 7 sweet little girls. I'm planning for lots of coloring, crafts, and glitter with a side of American History as well as some Bible and Science. After co-op on Mondays Hannah will go to a Science class and Grace, Joe, and I will come home and do more school. Then the rest of the week we will do each day's assignments for the History as well as our other subjects. Here's what everyone is doing, starting with Hannah.

Hannah--

• Sonlight Core 100 American History
• Teaching Textbooks 7 for Math
• Daily Language Review 7
• Wordly Wise 7
• Apologia General Science
• IEW for writing
• Spanish (just a workbook--not conversational yet, she'll retake FLVS Spanish starting next year)

Grace--

• Sonlight Core 3+4 American History
• Math Mammoth--Multiplication/Divison 2, fractions, decimals, place value--we'll make our way through every worktext we can in hopes of getting her ready for TT 6 for next school year.
• Daily Language Review 5
• Wordly Wise 5
• IEW for writing
• Lesson Pathways for Science
• French

Joe--

• Sonlight Core 3+4 American History
• Math Mammoth--every 3rd grade worktext
• Daily Language Review 3
• Wordly Wise 3
• Lesson Pathways for Science
• Evan Moor Spelling 3rd grade

Those are our plans for now. I have never found a language arts program I was happy with so I am trying something new. Each child will be doing Evan Moor's Daily Language Review and I will teach things as they come up. If this isn't working well then I will look into a different curriculum but I think between Daily Lang. Review, Wordly Wise, IEW, and Spelling we should be fine.
I wish I could say that I was all set and ready for school but there is still much to do in order for Monday morning to run smoothly. I spent no less than 3 hours at Office Depot this past week photocopying stuff and all those copies need to be filed. Binders need to be put together for each kid, supplies organized to take to co-op, my plan book to organize, etc. I have been struggling with the motivation to get all this organized but I am definitely at the point that motivated or not, it has to be done! So, that's why I'm blogging. Y'know, because I've got time to waste. :0)
I forgot to mention a few other things we'll be doing--we read for an hour every morning and we will be reading through the Bible either using the New Living Translation or a story Bible--still trying to decide along with Victor's Journey Through the Bible. Victor's is kind of like a commentary, it provides background historical and cultural info and other stuff. I'm not sure how this is going to go and I might replace it with a life application sort of devotional, who knows but for now this is what we are doing. We will also be continuing reading through William Bennett's Book of Virtues. We are about 2/3 of the way through that so I am assuming we'll finish that this year. And, finally, we are reading a chapter a day in Story of the World's Early Modern Times. I love SOTW and reading a chapter a day will give the kids some of the world history going on at the same time as the American History they are really focusing on.
I can't wait to get started on Monday, I need some structure in my life--goodbye summer!!