A couple of weeks ago, our pastor gave a sermon on soul-winning.  He gave an analogy of a group who had formed a fishing club.  They met and talked about fishing constantly.  They talked about the best fishing holes, their preferences for lures and lines. They organized committees to send others out to fish, they read books about fishing, etc.  But they never fished.  (The analogy was much longer and more memorable!)

I could see this happening in home education also.  There is so much information available.  Wanting only the best for our children, whether in curriculum, methodology, philosphy or whatever, we can continually seek additional information.  I am on a couple of yahoo groups and the number of emails I get for these two groups is amazing - almost to the point of frustration.  But I hate to not look at the emails, because what if there's a new idea, a different way to present a troublesome topic, a cool website I knew nothing about.  So I gather and I glean and I file away ideas and I try to weigh which of these ideas to use in the future and which to forego.  But at some point, I must stop looking at ideas and fish.  Or teach, as my case may be. 

I've begun the planning process for next year, trying to figure out how many days a week we need to do the various subjects, which ones are once/week, which require everyday increments.  I'm trying to list out all the things I want us to cover this year, then figure out how to schedule it all appropriately.  I'm having a bit of a mental block, because our Fridays are going to be so hit and miss.  Between co-op, Keepers/Contenders and my agreeing to work two Fridays a month, we'll pretty much only do our structured time 4 days per week.  I know lots of people do this, but I'm having a hard time adjusting my ideas to a 4 day week.  There's so much good stuff I want us to cover.  Do I try to cram 5 days of stuff into 4?  Do I plan on us taking more than the typical 36 weeks for school, just to get it all in?  Should I skip stuff to get finished in the 36 weeks?  If so, what do I skip?  Don't worry, these are all rhetorical questions.  I'm just thinking through my fingertips.  And praying for wisdom.

K will be a third grader.  Seems like it's time to get serious about his education.  It's easy to think of the areas where we might not be as far along as we should be, or about the things he doesn't know yet, or opportunities we've missed - where I didn't present the information as well as or, as in depth as, I could have.  I don't want to get to the end of our homeschool career and think "I wish I'd have......"  Then with C, it's too easy to let her fall through the cracks, to not be as intentional about her studies as about K's.  With K, I see his strengths and weaknesses more easily, so I can figure out how to deal with them.  C's are less visible, or I am more blind!  I want to find what she loves and emphasize that with her.  Probably artsy type stuff, possibly domestic skills, and hopefully writing.  We'll test these waters with our toes this year and see how it goes.

Are you doing your planning yet?

Robin