Call me crazy, but homeschool planning is one of my favorite parts of being a hsing mom.  (Don't tell, but I think I'm actually better at the planning part than the TEACHING part).   If I had an unlimited amount of money I would probably single handedly keep most curriculum companies in business and could easily become a curriculum junkie.  I love looking through catalogs and trying to find the best fit each year.  But, God has a different plan than philanthropic spending.  He wants me to learn to be content with what I have and try to make the least amount of purchases possible as we try to finish seminary before our savings runs out completely. 

We have had a wonderful year using Five in a Row and have really enjoyed our journey through literature, but think we are ready to dive into another level of unit studies.  We will be starting Konos in the Fall.  When we started hsing, I thought that I would always need a pre-packaged curriculum, but as we are going into our 4th year of our homeschooling journey, I am feeling more confident in my own ability to lesson plan and pick/choose activities that my kids need and will enjoy. 

I have looked at Konos on and off in the past couple years and here's a brief summary of why we are choosing it now:

• I love that Konos designs its units around character traits rather than around any other subject.  I think it will help me to stay focused and remember that the goal in our homeschool will always be character before academics.  It doesn't matter if my kids are the brightest minds in the world, if they do not have a fear of the Lord and a desire to love and express that love to people I will have failed as their teacher and mother.
• I love that the whole family will be learning together.  That has been one of the major blessings of Five in a Row and I really want it to continue.  I have been amazed at how much my almost 4yo has picked up just by being around during the lessons of the older kids in the areas of Bible, geography, social studies, science and art.
• It teaches the way that BW had always wanted to teach in public school, but wasn't able to.  Our kids are(hopefully) going to be learning by doing and using all their senses, as well as really develop their critical thinking skills rather than just being receivers of information and spitting it back out.  Kids will remember the parts of the ear better when they have made an ear to crawl through out of the kitchen table or dramatizing historical events than just reading about it in a book.
• Cost - One volume has 2.5 years of curriculum and costs $100.  There are a few extras I could add, but we will use the library a lot.
• What finally sent me over the fence I'd been on, is the new on-line co-op they have formed over at Homeschoolmentor.com.  The co-creator of Konos,  Jessica Hulcy,  will be leading a group of moms from all over the country during the school year as we teach our kids together.  We will get to watch videos online each week that explains what we are to do for that week, how we can better teach our kids the topics covered that week, how to make the hands on activities work better, hold each other accountable(something I really need!) and just support one another as we homeschool our children.  I am really looking forward to my online teacher's lounge(though I will have to discipline myself with how much I am online) and gaining insight from someone who has successfully homeschooled her 4 boys all the way through high school.  I also love that she has taken care of my Konos lesson planning for me so that is one less thing I have to think about as we are heading into a pretty hectic year. 

So, Konos will take care of Bible, History/Social Studies, Science, Literature and Art.  We are going to be sticking with Making Math Meaningful for both Girl7 and Boy6.  Girl7 is actually well into the 2nd grade level at this point and Boy6 is close to finishing K and will start Level1 soon. 

Girl7 has finished about a quarter of Learning Language Arts thru Literature Red Book(2nd Grade).  I like that the lessons are short and she is learning, but she has been grumbling about doing it lately.  The reading is too easy for her, but the grammar is about right so I'm sticking with it because I already have it and don't have extra money to buy anything else.  I use their spelling lists and then will add some extra words from our vocabulary in our unit studies.  She is also dying to learn cursive so I am planning to continue with Handwriting without Tears for that.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to use Sonlight's 1st Grade Language Arts with Boy6, mostly because I own it already and continue the Explode the Code series for phonics. 

And then there is Girlalmost4.  She is wanting to much to learn to read.  She has already learned her letters and sounds thanks to the leapfrog videos and tries to sound out words all the time.  So, I think I am going to do Sonlight's K Language Arts with her, because I already own it and maybe the Get Ready, Get Set and Go for the Code and/or any other preschool workbooks that I find on sale. 

 We are praying that God will bless this coming school year.  The homeschool group we belong to comes up with a theme verse each year and I am now praying about one for our family for the coming year.  Any suggestions would be welcome... 

-J