I haven't posted here in quite a while; frankly, I only refer back to this blog when there's something I know I've written about but I can't seem to find. But a friendly reminder hit my inbox this a.m., letting me know that my account would be deleted if I didn't log in. So I came here ... ostensibly to begin the process I should have completed ages ago: moving these entries over to the new home of Books and Bairns. I started moving them, only to be sucked in. I ended up reading so many old posts, and delighting in the path my life has taken since I began this blog two years ago. There have been losses, there have been gains, there have been good days and oh, yes--there have been bad. But it has been a blessed path. How wonderful to be reminded.
For the newest with me, visit Books and Bairns.
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I've heard in various circles that HSB has "gotten better"; the issues that forced me to open another blog have been resolved. I thought I'd check in and see if that's the case. Anyone want to chime in with their thoughts?
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Due to the fact that I can never seem to log in to homeschoolblogger, I am moving my blog. I am very sorry to be abandoning this community, because I have really enjoyed all the people here. But ... honestly, I don't have so much screen time on my hands that I can keep messing around with this burdensome and cumbersome system. So, Books and Bairns is now located here. Please come by and see me from time to time!
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School is most certainly not on the front of my mind right now. Actually, I think it's ranking somewhere around ... ten? Maybe nine--but only on days when I don't have a headache.
I've had a terrible, awful headache for two days now. It's not completely unexpected (I'm taking a medication that can cause headaches), but it's unwelcome nonethless. This has made being me a lot more bothersome than usual. Last night, for instance, as I played storyteller for my beloved Cubbies for the last time ever as Director, I was fighting off a headache. My joy was not, shall we say, complete. Actually, dear friend J. used the term "shadow" to describe the crippling migraines she used to experience. All of a sudden, I know exactly what she means. This constant pain in my head is hovering on the bottom of the priority list, but it's there.
What else is ranking above school right now? Adoption.
We are awaiting placement. Our homestudy is in circulation among social workers and our placement director is actively looking for our kids. Wow. I am anxious and excited and scared all at the same time. This one is ranking very high right now.
We are a part of the leadership team for a church plant
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I am extremely hormonal right now. There. I've said it. I am extremely hormonal right now.
I am so hormonal that I sat sobbing at my computer reading a myspace page for a full twenty minutes this afternoon.
I am so hormonal that I wrote my baby brother an epic email cataloging with excruciating detail exactly how much I love him, how much I miss him and how much I want a better, happier life for him.
I am so hormonal that I sobbed yet again while recounting to best friend J. exactly why I had spent twenty minutes sobbing at the myspace page.
I am so hormonal that tonight I cried while reading "Poppy" to my boys. The reason? My great-grandfather was called "Poppy." And I loved him desperately. The sheer act of standing in his shadow was enough to make me feel safe and loved as a child.
Which makes the crying seem a little less bizarre ... until you learn ....
that my great-grandfather was not a mouse.
Next week will be better, right?!?!
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I'm an east coast girl living on the west coast, so a lot of things are a little strange to me. The size of the trees, for one. The number of days of consecutive rainfall. The architectural styles. The pronunciation of the word "onion" (which I have trained my Washingtonian kiddos to call "ung-yuns" just like I do).
There are lots of things that I miss about the east coast. Most of the things I miss are more specifically Southern in nature; the sweet smell of magnolias, the sight of fireflies dancing in the backyard, tea so sweet it makes your teeth hurt and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss are among the tops things on my list.
But I also miss the history.
As we've been studying American history this year, I've been painfully aware of all the things my children know about only through books. Only Jo has been to D.C.--we took her along for the ride when we went to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the National Gallery in 1998. The wealth of historical treasures stored there are mysteries to my children. They've never been able to wait in line to see the Declaration of Independence through a plate of glass, or seen samples of Revere's silver or any of the myriad other historical knick-knacks that the galleries there offer. My children do not live within driving distance of any colonial re-enactment camps, or near any Revolution battlegrounds. These things are a five hour plane ride away. On our budget, they may as well be on the moon.
I've mooned my way through the early period of history this year, keeping a running tab on all the great field trips we could have been taking, as well as all the neat little side trails that we could have been off on if we still lived in either of the states my children were born in. Stuck out here on the west coast, away from all the action, I whined. What a waste!
And then, at long last, we came to the Corps of Discovery. God bless 'em. No really, I mean it! I feel like finally hitting this particular era of American history was a godsend to our homeschooling this spring because ... it happened out here! That natty little band of explorers hauled themselves plumb out here to the edge of the world--and back again--way back before the Civil War.
This place--the land of the funky cookie cutter homes, the place with a precious handful of buildings left standing from any time prior to WWII, the place with no musical genre to call its own--has history. Turns out it's just that I didn't know the history very well. Who knew? I guess my public education failed me again, huh? The only mention of Lewis and Clark I remember from my own school days was that they mapped out the area of the Louisiana Purchase. All these years, I never really realized what a huge job that was, or what the implications are to this day. Whoa. Someone really should come and snag my college credentials before I hurt someone, I tell you.
As you can imagine, I am frantically pulling up potential field trips and vacation spots. There are forts and reenactments and camps and museums all over the place tracing the Corps voyage. And the Oregon Trail. And the trains. And the gold rush. And ... well, it's a lot. It's history. And it's here.
I am thrilled.
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Thought I'd post a link to gamehouse for anyone looking for some educational games online. While I am not fully endorsing this site (there seems to be some allusion to mock casinos on the site), I did find a Pyramid Solitaire game that Jo enjoyed, as well as one called Bookworm that kept Atticus stringing together words for thirty minutes.
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Jo has never had a full battery, comprehensive-type assessment. Each winter, I have her complete a STAR assessment, available through our co-op. It's one of those computer tests that generates questions of increasing difficulty, halting the test when the child gets X number incorrect. At the end of the quiz, it spits out your typical school system-type results: percentile, grade level, etc.
Personally, I find that whole genre of tests very misleading, so I place very limited faith in them. Why? Because I myself was exceptionally good at standardized testing. I flew through reading and writing tests--rightly so, as that kind of thing comes easy to me. But I also flew through--and generally scored quite well on--the math portions of our annual tests. If our school system had cared enough to test logic as an area of learning, they would have discovered why--when confronted with four possible answers to a given math problem, I quickly learned that two would be completely ludicrous. The two remaining would be very, very similar. All I had to do was plug the two numbers back into the problem to get the right answer. In effect, I just solved for X from the time I was in second grade. Bingo! The odds of my doing well were vastly improved.
This usually served me well. My SAT score was much higher than it should have rightfully been, which was a pleasant bonus when college shopping. But in the fifth grade, it caused a near-disaster. Our Iowa Basic scores were used to place us in math classes that year. When I was assigned to my group, I knew I was in trouble. Three of the math "smartiest" kids in the class came over to our cluster. Uh-oh. Sure enough, I was out-mathed at every turn. My teacher got wise by about the fourth week and reassigned me, but not before I it had been deeply imprinted on me that I was not the sharpest tack in the box when it came to numbers.
I tell you this to explain where dh and I were in our thought process concerning testing for our always-been-homeschooled kids. While our state requires that public school students take an entire week out of their schedules to take standardized test, we are exempt from such as homeschoolers. That leaves the old stand-bys, of course. CAT, Iowa, etc. None of them generate the kind of feedback that we thought would actually be useful to our homeschool: what does she understand? What is she missing? What are her greatest strengths? What areas does she need reinforcement in? Are we hitting her learning style in general? What curriculum would best fit her needs for this subject or that one? Those answers don't fall into the range of "She's doing better than 98% of the fourth graders in WA." While that would be a nice pat on the back for me, I guess, it wouldn't help her one bit. After all, if she's does better than 98% of kids, but she's only using 58% of her talent in that area, I'm not really serving her very well, am I?
Enter the non-test assessment.
(If you're not sure about what a non-test assessment, click here to see what our state homeschool organization has to say about it.)
Jo had her first major assessment last Thursday. Can I just say "WOW"? The lady who performed Jo's assessment was far more thorough than I ever expected. Her skill at fettering out the big picture was almost flawless. And her commitment to the real education of children is inspiring.
By her account, Jo's reading level is 8th grade + ... she says she only tests four grades up because anything more than that becomes very difficult to pinpoint accurately. Remember my diatribe on Language Arts materials? Well, apparently it worked, because she recommended ending formal grammar instruction at this point and moving on to composition and writing style. She also recommended a formal etymology program, said that spelling was purely a fun pastime that should be optional for Jo and said that my daughter was extremely well-read for a nine year old. Cloud nine for a homechoolin' momma!
On the math end of things, Jo didn't shine quite so brightly. The consultant felt that her skills were "at chronological level" but were in danger of falling well behind due to my textbook based (and boring, I admit) math instruction. Jo is strongly auditory and visual. She recommended lots and lots of math games that go well beyond our current library. She also coaxed me to give Math-U-See another try. I'll let you know how that goes!
At the end of it all, I felt amazingly blessed to have been given such insight and clear direction in to the fruits of our homeschooling. Jo is clearly learning, growing and blossoming in ways that she never could in an institutionalized school environment. This non-test assessment was something like a weight check on your healthy, happy six-month old. You know that they're doing well, but you want to see what the doctor thinks. Thursday, I got to see what the doctor thought. And it was very, very good!
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Almost-seven yo Atticus and almost-five yo Logan have a Thomas the Tank Engine bedroom. This is more than mildly laughable for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that neither boy has ever been truly infatuated with Thomas. I expected them to be when we moved in here, though; Atticus (age 2.5) was showing all the signs of being really into trains and Thomas. He watched the videos. He lugged his cheerful blue engine with him to the doctor's office. His favorite book had buttons to push that said things like "You're a really useful engine!" Logan, who was only 10 months old at the time, was just along for the caboose ride. So Thomas it was!
I worked hard on that room. The bottom half of the walls in their room are green, rolling hills topped with wallie stickers of the various Thomas engines and vehicles. The top half of the walls are blue sky dotted with puffy clouds. Their bedspreads are coordinating red and blue solids. And, of course, a huge train table takes up a big part of the floor area. When I unveiled the room to my boys, their eyes were wide in wonder. The work had paid off--they were more than wowed.
Over the years, the luster on this once too-cute-for-words set up has most certainly faded. The trains that used to have prime real estate on the table top have been boxed up for quite some time. A Playmobile castle now claims the honor, along with an assortment of plastic cowboys and indians. The back of the bedroom door has an Ichiro poster on it. You're more likely to find Atticus reading "Clabbernappers" than anything to do with trains. And, of course, the cheeky little train stickers look a little tired.
It's time (gulp) to move on.
I've known this was coming for the past year and a half. For a while, I toyed with doing another mural on the walls. Maybe a castle? Maybe space? In time, though, I realized that the amount of effort I'd expend was too great for the relatively small amount of time that the theme would hold their interest. Something relatively neutral, I decided. Something both boys are into. Something easily adapted.
With dh's expert consultation, we settled on a camping theme. We're a camping family, and the woods hold vast interest to my boys. They love wildlife, daddy's canoe and the idea of reeling in big fish. A little bit of contrasting paint in shades of tan and beige, and we're in business, right?
Thanks to my cousin, we're more than in business. Her no-longer-little boy recently outgrew his bear motifed room, and they passed on a huge collection of items. Blankets. Rugs. Lamps. The works. My boys, tired of Thomas and thrilled at having something that belonged to their beloved J., almost did backflips when they saw the booty.
So we're in the redecorating business here. This weekend I guess I'll go and look for that paint. My husband has a few signs he wants to order.
I've found a few other accessories, too. A fly rod. Lures. Maybe I can garage sale a paddle or two.
So it's time for a "big boy room" at the Books and Bairns household. Pray for me, o.k.?
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The pulling of Jo's teeth was awful. Awful. As a matter of fact, it was so awful that I am not going to blog about it. Because it I blog about it, I will cry. Again. And really, why would I do that to myself?
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Logan has tested negative for strep! There aren't enough happy dance emoticons in the world to convey how thrilled I am that we won't be playing antibiotic bingo with my not-quite-5yo boy.
Now on to the next "big thing"--Jo is having five baby teeth pulled Thursday a.m. to make room for those massive adult teeth pushing their way through her gums at all sorts of angles. Prayer most certainly coveted!
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A handful of people asked through comments and email about what LA program we use. I had really hoped to dodge that one. Why? Because I have never found the single one-size-fits-all approach to LA that has made me happy. I used to think it was just me--that my own background in writing and English has made me entirely too jaded and just impossible to please. Then I discovered a soul-mate in my cousin, who laments every year at about this time that she, too, can not find the perfect LA curriculum. Since she is not a former English major (she's the family artist 
), I've come to the following conclusion: either it is just in my genes to be dissatisfied with LA curriculum, or it has very little to do with my own personal background; LA curriculum are dizzyingly inconsistent and hopelessly complicated.
As an aforementioned English snob, I want my kids to have a solid grounding in grammar. Yes, grammar--boring, awful, stodgy stuff that it is. My favorite English teacher told me once as I was lamenting the entire concept of a future author (humble, wasn't I?) diagramming sentences: "You have to know the rules before you break them, dear." And he was right. I break the rules all the time in my writing--fiction and nonfiction. But the fact of the matter is that I know the rules. Breaking them (or bending them), I like to think, is style ... not ignorance.
Another component I look for is ease of understanding. Frankly, I think a lot of LA programs over explain things to the point of boredom. Who wants that? I also look for a variety of genres to be touched upon. The field of LA is so vast that you really have a lot of territory to cover to give your children exposure to the full gamut.
There are, of course, other things I look for. But the most important element, by far, is the ability to actually write creatively. And I'm sorry to say, but this is where a good 90% of LA curriculum fall far short. The practice is just not there for kids (homeschooled or not).
That being said, what, exactly, do we use?
I have found it best to mix and match a variety of resources specific to each child. Here's a list of what I'm currently piecing together.. Some are resources available for purchase, others are homemade. Try to follow me here ...
A Beka Language Arts workbooks
I use these as a "spine" around which I build the other components of our program. I don't buy the Teacher's Guides, and chances are that I am not using them in the way A Beka intended. These give solid practice. I am not a slave to their protocol, however. It's pretty rigid.
Simply Grammar
I love the way that this book explains grammar concepts. I also love the way that the exercises can be worked orally. If there was a bit more practice included in this book, I might drop the A Beka altogether.
Spelling Power
Don't tell Beverly Adams-Gordon, but I use the book in my own way. My kids are very good spellers, so for us, the book is really just a compilation of lists that I present orally each week. Works for us. I would quit spelling with Jo at this point, but she's loves competing in spelling bees, so ...
Vocabulary
I don't do a formal vocabulary program; we read enough that vocabulary is introduced naturally on a constant basis. I would like to do a more formal etymology program, though. Let me know if you've got one you love.
Portraits of American Girlhood Unit Study
I was blessed with elements of this resource when my cousin passed it on. While it says "American Girlhood" (and is actually based on the American Girl books), Atticus has been happy to do it. There are so many LA activities in here. It's been a joy to use in shaking up the LA schedule.
Readers from Sonlight and WinterPromise
Journaling
I like to include journal activities about twice a week. Since both of my writers become paralyzed when faced with a blank page, I tend to give them topics. Being a sentimental slob of a mommy, I like to ask them personal questions and have them reply. These journals have become absolute gems to me. How else would I remember Jo's favorite dinner when she was six or Atticus' impression of falling leaves when he was five?
Story Starters
We have a rotating game that involves all family members (even Dad) adding a line or two to an ongoing story. This has been a fabulous way to keep creative juices flowing. I also pull an idea out of my hat every once and a while and have a particular child work on it. They love that!
Family Newspaper
My husband works for a newspaper, so being a reporter is a big deal in our house. Jo, Atticus and Logan started their own family newspaper about a year ago, and it has been probably the best LA experience they will have in all their years of education. Not only is it self-directed, it's also peer-edited. They work on it together and take great pride in the finished product they manage to produce each month or so. This summer, I plan on giving them some training on how to use the computer to craft a printed product.
Please keep in mind that we do not do everything every day. These are just the pieces I fit together on an as-needed basis.
See why I didn't want to post about LA? Now you all think I'm nuts ...
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More replies to comments on combining:
Posted by LotusBlossom
I'm interested in doing the same thing with my kids ages 8 and 6. Can you post a sample of what your schedule looks like please.
Samples of my schedule are really, really misleading. This is the conclusion I've come to after nearly a week of trying to pin down a single day to post about. So, in lieu of naming actual titles and whatnot, I'll give you a glimpse at what I shoot for every day, how's that?
Morning
Everyone: Rosetta Stone Spanish, AWANA verses, "Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek!"
Jo & Atticus: Math, LA, Spelling, history activities (SL , WP or my own add-ins)
Logan: 100EZ lesson & math activity
During lunch
Everyone: "Field Guide to Bible Promises" devotional
SL History reading
WP AS1 Adventure reading
Rest time
Everyone: readers (for Logan, that's actually a book on CD
)Early afternoon (for the days when we do it)
Everyone: Science activities, hands-on stuff
Bedtime
Jo: SL read-aloud with Dad
Atticus & Logan: WP AW Adventure reading with mom
Posted by Jimmie
Give us reviews of the books you chose. :-)
I'll try to do this as we use them. Right now, a book still fresh in my mind (especially since Logan insisted on taking it to rest time to leaf through again) is this one, a selection from AS1:
This one book did more to help Atticus grasp the concepts of the American Revolution than any other. It was also really popular with Logan, who adores books with beautiful illustrations. I highly recommend using this one if you're gearing American history to your early elementary kids.
I'm also really excited about this WP book:
We'll be heading into this one in the next few weeks, and I've been previewing it with anticipation! Lots of neat hands-on activities, as well as a sweet storyline. I'll let you know if the kiddos like it as much as I do!
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I don't have much time tonight, but I wanted to start answering a few of the questions that have been posted about combining SL and WP. I'll get to more as time permits.
Posted by mompotter
Next year I have 7 and 5 yr old tagging along behind the 9 yr old. I had planned to combine wp and sl but following the wp schedule. Mainly having the sl books as filler for my big reader (9 yr old). If I was to follow the wp schedule do you think it would be a little lighter year than following the sl schedule? The thought of doing sl core 3 seems overwhelming to me. We have struggled a bit to get things done this year with core 2(have a new baby too). You also mentioned that most of the crafts were just paper crafts. That discouraged me because the whole reason I planned to combine wp is for the activities and lower level of reading for my younger two. Do you think it is worth it?
If you are interested in keeping the reading at a slightly lower level, I think WP is the way to go. The books in American Story I cover the same topics and time period as SL Core 3, but at a lower intensity. The themes are not as mature as those in the SL books, and the ease of comprehension is definitely geared toward a younger audience.
If you have more kids toward the younger end, I would go with ASI and add in SL books as you choose. The schedule is going to be lighter, too. Keep in mind that WP schedules read-alouds in much smaller increments than SL does. If you are used to a SL schedule, WP is going to seem very light.
As for the crafts ... I really can't say what your opinion of them will be. I think it depends on what your expectations are. I assumed we would be sewing and cooking and building earth lodges every week or so. The truth is that WP relies heavily on mini-books to color and cut and on books like "Little Hands Celebrate America!" --a really cute book that has a hand full of neat hands-on activities sandwiched in with your typical "here's how you draw an American flag" stuff. I have heard that buying the Native American Focus set opens the doors to better crafts ... but it is not part of the core set, and comes with an additional price tag. For us, coloring activities aren't really that big of a draw--my kids do that on their own. We have been much happier with Hands and Hearts kits.
Posted by MotherJoy
Sounds like you weren't too impressed with the WP activities. I don't have to combine two students, but I liked WP for its hands-on activities. My biggest complaint with SL was that the IGs were harder to use that I expected and I didn't like the LA. Thank goodness they are changing the LA.
Anyway....I really don't want to buy a WP guidebook if it isn't necessary. Would it be better to just add in activities? Which of the WP resources did you find invaluable?
MJ
The SL IG and WP Guidebook are almost identical. Clearly they used the exact same program for layout, because they have the same format. The major difference is that WP does not include any of the notes on the books that you're using that SL does. If you're used to a SL IG, that means that the entire back section--the Read-Aloud Guide, History Study Guide, etc.--are all missing. I have heard quite a few people say that they never really use those notes or the questions anyhow, so it's no great loss to them. I personally do use them, so it's something worth us paying for.
I haven't used WP LA beyond the readers ... but I don't use SL LA, either. I find SL LA confusing, to be honest. I'm interested to see the revamped product, but am probably not going to change my current homemade curriculum.
As to whether or not you absolutely need to buy both the SL IG and the WP Guidebook --to be honest, probably not. Whichever road you choose to take (basing mostly on SL or mostly on WP), I think you could get by with just one set of plans and the book list of the other. Having said that, I do personally think it's very important to support the companies that put so much effort into developing the curriculum we use and enjoy. I won't get on a soapbox, but I will say that I believe the vote we cast with our dollars is more powerful than the one we drop in the box on Election Day.
Could you just add activities to SL? Yes. I know that a lot of people add notebooking resources or History Pockets to SL. Many people use the Hands and Hearts kits like we did. That option is definitely out there--but it doesn't address the maturity level or complexity of some of the SL books. Depending on what Core you were looking at, you may find that some of the work is just beyond your kids. For example, I have completely dropped Landmark History of the American People because it needed so much modification that it was more trouble than it was worth for me, personally. With all the great (lower level) books out there, why slog through something that is constantly flying just over your kids' heads?
For our family, the resources from WP (so far) that have made this year so successful have been:Liberty! Story of the American Revolution
Ben and Me
George Washington (a picture book)
Who Was Thomas Jefferson? (biography for younger readers)
The Birchbark House
Pedro's Journal (also in SL)
The Sign of the Beaver (also in SL)
Make-Your-Own History Book
Each one of these, in particular, took an area of study that we were looking at through SL and filtered it in a way that Atticus and Logan were able to grasp the concepts and get excited about what they were hearing.
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Once the decision was made as to what pieces we would be fitting together, all that was left was actually doing the work of combining. That, of course, fell on me. Since I am by nature a curriculum junkie, I actually enjoyed the process quite a bit.
Combining--the actual process
Since I knew that SL was going to be the main spine of our curriculum, I used it as a starting point. I placed my order and waited for that lovely box to arrive in the mail. I also ordered the Guidebook for WP ASI. When my SL order came, my first step was to put my IG in order and acquaint myself with it in far greater depth than I had any previous years'. Using the weekly plans, I was able to craft a timeline of all the topics that would be covered. Then I took the ASI Guidebook and did the same.
The first thing I noticed was that though the two programs do not line up perfectly. SL begins with Incans, Aztecs and Mayans--as you'd expect, it's more of a North American history program than a United States of America history program. WP spends more time on Native American tribes. WP delves a bit deeper into the personalities of explorers and other figures. SL focuses more on causes and effects of events and decisions.
Taking these things into account meant that I had to shave a bit off here and pad a bit there. Using my timelines as a guide, I transferred the helpful websites & other info from the WP Guidebook into my SL Core 3 IG. Then I went about picking and choosing which books from the WP program made the cut and needed to be scheduled. I transferred those into my IG, too. In a few instances, I used WP books to replace SL books that I knew wouldn't be as big of a hit with my gang. In the end, my own discretion won out over either of the two purchased schedules I had in my lap. Our own interests determined what went in to the final product, not what SL or WP said we ought to be learning.
Then I went through the craft ideas and began adding them in. To be honest, many of them were paper-and-cutting based, and weren't what I had expected. Others were "busy work" type projects that I knew my kids would see right through. A few crafts did make it into our schedule, though. The rest have been supplied by Hands and Hearts.
Finally, I scheduled in the WP ASI readers that Atticus would be using, as well as the Make Your Own History notebook pages that he would be working on in place of the Story of the US workbooks Jo is doing for Core 3.
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As promised, here's a rundown of how our family combines two wonderful curriculum into one cohesive program that touches on the multiple learning styles represented in our house. I'll try to hit the basics in this post, but please feel free to ask any questions through the comment section.
The first step: How we decided what to combine
We have been happy SL users for four years. The quick pace of the reading schedules fits Jo's voracious appetite for books, and the content--mature issues balanced by thorough discussion with mom or dad--is perfect for her. Also, as a family deeply committed to a missions-based world-view, the many biographies and stories about missionaries and the non-Anglo-centered approach to history is a perfect fit for us. I have also found that SL is very flexible, and has allowed us to very easily trim here and add there to make a program that works great for us.
Things went along great through Core K, Core 1 and even Core 2. The thing we found ourselves faced with was the fact that Jo and Atticus are just slightly too far apart age-wise, as well as having quite different approaches to learning in general. Factor in Logan, who isn't happy unless he's tagging along, and SL was starting to look pretty daunting at the more intense levels (Core 3 & up).
This is the point at which many people simply split their children into two separate Cores. While that had been my original plan, I knew that no one would be happy with that. Atticus was chomping at the bit to get to American history, and Logan wasn't quite ready for Core K. Plus, I just didn't see how I was going to do two cores, handle an adoption in-progress and perform various ministry tasks.
Not wanting to abandon a curriculum that we truly love, I began searching around for ways to complement it. I did not want to replace SL. I just wanted to make it work more for our family. After some research and careful observation of my kiddos, here was the list of things I decided we needed in our curriculum package as a whole:
1. Like SL, anything I added in had to be literature-based. We are a family of writers and readers. The most important aspect of our homeschooling is the ability to curl up together with a good book. Workbook based programs have their place, but they are not the heart of what our homeschool is about.
2. The new program had to "fill the gap" of Sl by providing crafts or hands-on activities. I've been pulling these together myself for years, and I decided that if I was adding anything in to SL, it may as well be something I was already doing on my own.
3. The new program had to correspond in time period to what we were doing in our next SL Core. Had to be American history--because I am too disorganized at this time to handle more than one era of history in depth.
4. New readers had to be available at approximately a first grade level. I knew Jo would be doing SL Core 3 Advanced readers, and I also knew that Atticus couldn't handle the regular Core 3 readers. I wanted something that was historically based, but was at a low enough level that he could read successfully on his own.
I really recommend putting together a list like this if you are considering combining two programs. So often I think we slap two things together because we like them both and can't decide which one to "do." That's a recipe for frustration--on your behalf, and your children's. Take the time to plan ahead and make sure tht your needs and the needs of your children will be met. It will save you so much time and money!
Anyhow, after going over this list, DH and I settled hands-down on WinterPromise. It is very, very close to Sonlight in its overall goals and style. It also corresponds perfectly--at a slightly lower level--to SL. With a bit of plotting, we decided that our curriculum for the 2006-2007 school year would be built around a hybrid of SL Core 3 and WP American Story I.
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Logan is now on an antibiotic for strep. Since he's had major issues with this before, the dr. went straight to the big guns of the antibiotic world and is trying to nip this thing before it gets started. He's perked up quite a bit, so we're praying this is the light at the end of his tunnel.
Jo is being treated for "reactive airways" thanks to her severe bout with the flu. Poor kiddo. You should hear her cough. No, I take that back; no one should have to hear a cough like that.
Atticus, who got this whole thing started, seems to be fever-free. He's still worn down, but he's starting to be his goofy old self.
I'm battling a terrible cold, but at least it's not the flu anymore.
We haven't done school in a week in a half. Oh, well. We're alive. And healing. That's all I care about.
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... we are still sick. Atticus had a couple of not-so-badly-off days, and then bottomed out again this a.m. Logan looked like he was improving, and is back on the couch. Poor Jo hasn't had a moment's peace between her fever and the coughing, not to mention the chip she put in her front (grown up!) tooth when she was throwing up in the toilet. 
I will return. I mean, spring has to come eventually, right?
Oh, and MJ--I'll post on WP and SL here when I get back.
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Three children.
Three frighteningly high fevers.
Three hacking, bone-rattling coughs.
Three sleeping bags.
Three movie preferences.
Three story preferences.
Three bathrooms (praise God!).
Three differing doses of meds.
One coughing, fevery mommy.
One lap.
One raspy voice.
One set of hands.
One television.
One very long day.
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Atticus has the yicky that's been in rotation here for the past few weeks. His fever hit 104.9º this morning. Prayers for a short illness and healthy siblings appreciated.