Renewed, excited, babbling

This past weekend Andy and I took the kids all day Friday and Saturday to the Alabama Christian Homeschool conference. I loved the beautiful location, which was at a camp in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. And we were blessed to be with Andy's brother and his family, as they are preparing to homeschool for the first time in the fall. I found that for once, I actually came home with a peace about what I am doing. In years past, I have felt completely overwhelmed, uptight, and even unsure after these types of events. The curriculum fairs are full of hundreds of choices. The speakers can be quite challenging. And the task before me can seem insurmountable. But this year was different. Maybe I am just growing into this role as homeschooling Mom. Or maybe, quite possibly, it was the AMAZING speakers, including Jeanie Fullbright, whom I heard in five different sessions over the course of a day and a half! Or it might be that I basically knew what I wanted to use for next year.

My big area of doubt for next year was our math curriculum. I was determined to make a choice over the course of the weekend because I figured it would be easiest to figure it out with all of the books right there in front of me. I hate trying to pick something based on the one sample from a website! So after a day of bouncing around thoughts, I wrote down the things that I have observed with my reluctant mathematician (J), and determined from that list the 6 MUST-HAVES for our choice. Even though there were some fabulous choices, and one that I personally would have enjoyed more, I was able to choose what will be best for my son.

My list for him included:
Visual worksheets for practice (lots of color, absolutely not in black and white)
Hands-on lesson plans (uses manipulatives)
Short (30 minutes or less) lessons & easy for me to prepare
Drilling of math facts, not just skip counting
Spiral approach (lots of review)
And our pick:
Horizons math We are making several changes next year. But another big one is that we are adding the Institute for Excellence in Writing curriculum for my oldest son. I have always heard that this writing curriculum is top notch. But frankly, it just looked too complicated to learn to teach. The author of the curriculum was at the conference. After hearing him speak and spending a lot of time with the representative at his booth I am confident that it will be much easier than I imagined. And we felt very convicted that it would be a mistake to not buy this set for our oldest son who seems to have a future in writing. We also reasoned that most children, no matter the field, need a strong foundation in at least technical writing, if not creative writing. I hope it was a good investment! I am SO excited about our study of explorers and founding fathers next year through My Father's World. There is SO much to read and do in regards to this time period. And this summer will be fun because our last history time period leaves off before the Renaissance, so we will study the Renaissance and Reformation this summer in order to be ready for explorers in the fall. The Renaissance/Reformation is my favorite time period, so it should be good times. We will kick-off our study by going to the Georgia Renaissance festival in June. Oh, and I am so ready for Botany next year! We are going to be on a farm, for Pete's sake. What subject could be more fun? There will be plenty of time for hands-on experiments! And I think that out of all the areas of science, I am the most ignorant about botany. (And that's pretty bad!) So we should learn a lot together!

Lastly, I am VERY excited about the encouragement I found in pressing forward with our prayer/devotion time together. I heard again and again that the spiritual growth, time together with God learning from His word and praying, the times we stop everything to work on character issues- this is the part of our "lifestyle" that is the most rewarding. I know it has been for me, personally. And towards the end of the school year it is so easy just to press forward and overlook all the real issues with a simple of goal of GETTING DONE! I was so very convicted to take a breath, look around, and enjoy. To stop and put our pursuit of God as our top priority again. I am thanking God for the encouragement I found. It is vital for me in continuing this difficult, busy, but beautiful calling!

"Education is part and parcel of religion and every other enthusiastic teacher knows that he is obeying the precept, -"feed my lambs"-feed with all those things that are good and wholesome for the spirit of man; and before all and including all, with the knowledge of God."

~Charlotte Mason