Today is the first day of our school year.
The boys have been working hard and I have been trying to figure out how I missed ordering a spelling book for John and a reading book for Paul.
Most of the books that I am using this year were already on the shelves. I thought I had all the Faith and Freedom readers through the 8th grade, but apparently I was mistaken.
This year John is tackling Saxon 87. We have everything on the materials list except a Scientific calculator. Hmmm.... this may be the year that I get the CDs that go with the lessons.
John is also going to be part of a Science co-op for labs this year. He will go to the home of a very generous mom, who has offered to share her Science time with John and one other boy. They will get together once a week. The book that they are using is a two year program, and I think John will get a lot out of it. I am hoping that working with the other boys will make it more fun.
Brendan and Paul will be doing an introduction to Chemistry, Biology and Physics this year. The program is called Real Science 4 Kids, and I think the two boys will easily be able to go through it together and there is a lab every week. That will be something we will do on Thursday, while John is doing his Science lab. Should work out just about right!
History for John is going to be rather complicated, but I think he will get a lot out of it. He will be going to a co-op on Monday afternoons, and working out of one type of text, and then the rest of the week he will do the book that I have chosen for this year, Catholic World Culture. The co-op will be exploring literature and other elements of world history, and I am hoping that it will merge well with what we do here.
Brendan is joining a First Lego League team. The kids will be planning, building and competing with, some lego creation having to do with transportation. Right up his alley.
Today is going well. It is a day for getting familiar with new books, ironing out the rough spots in the schedule and getting ourselves back into the routine of getting going in the morning, our daily chores, and sticking with the subjects, even with distractions. It's hard to be so pushy. We had such a relaxing summer, and it was NOT long enough.
Getting started this week though, will allow us to finish at the end of May, and that will make NEXT summer much longer! That's OK with me!
