it's tuesday, two days after we returned home from the state convention. and i'm still reeling with excitement for next year. it feels like we've stepped into a new realm of homeschooling...because i think adam will be more involved, as will kenny. 

we actually attended more of the talks this year and are excited about some of the information we got. kenny did a lot of the sciencey talks, and i did a lot of the "homeschool support" type talks - for homeschool support group leaders and for mothers. i return home ready to run, to teach, to lead, to parent with energy. :)

what our year will look like next year (with rowan and sawyer. i'm still working on pulling together learning resources for adam, which will largely be homemade):

Spelling and Grammar: Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sunseri this came highly recommended by four families within a month's time - none of them know each other, but all recommended it highly. i love what i'm reading about it, and it looks like it will be good for all leveslof grammar and reading for a few years.

Math: Right Start Mathematics - another recommendation and we loved the private demonstration we had at their CHAP booth.

Bible: Children's Story bible and family devotions. We might even do more memorization of the Westminster Catechism (although I wonder if we should start with the children' version first? Dad, your thought?) along side of more bible memory verses.

Science:  various nature studies. nothing structured - just fun facts about nature and the world around us. the boys like journaling, so we'll be keeping a nature journal. currently they're still studying insects.

Latin: Songbook Latin (it's never too early to start memorizing latin words!) I think we'll use the cd as a fun music cd to listen to in the car, during breakfast/lunch/ and art time, but we won't do structured latin lessons until the following year.

Art (and music?): Sawyer has been asking me to show him how to draw certain things lately, so we found a great resource for his age called Draw Write Now. (each word in the title links to a different book - i got the first three in the series). they have lessons along with drawing and writing fun! we'll work with these as well as the Ed Emberly books my mom got for Sawyer. he's certainly our little artist.

the year will be a bit more structured than this past year, but we plan on keeping a lot of play time around the learning time. i can tell that both boys love to sit and do lessons, but they NEED time to run and play and be imaginative on their own. and i whole-heartedly believe that is part of the learning process any way. they won't be sitting for long periods of time. :)