School Year 2013-14

Hello blog land!

We are finally into a routine for our school year, and it's going pretty well. The biggest change this year is we are doing a year-round schedule. I spent a lot of time researching year-round school and there are many schedules that are used. We settled on a modified three weeks on, one week off schedule. Our first break is the last week of October, which works nicely because my and Della's birthdays are that week (plus Halloween). It's kind of working out that our birthday weeks we don't have school. We are taking several weeks off in January/February though because we are expecting another baby! Hooray! This baby boy is due January 25. I'm thinking he will arrive around January 20th based on previous deliveries.

I am noticing that Amelia is very mathematically inclined, much in the same way Caley is reading-inclined. It's so neat to see their preferences and talents come out, and how God has made them so uniquely.

We are studying "Inquisitiveness" this year. It's a lot of science and history. So far we have studied the scientific method (very basic) and some of the big scientists and philosophers such as Galileo and Copernicus. Later this fall we will get into astronomy and geology and will be studying things like earthquakes and volcanoes. Today we did a little learning about Isaac Newton!

This year has been more difficult so far than others. One reason is because the kids are older and demanding more difficult projects, and also because Della and Wes are not reliably napping like last year. Della will nap in the early afternoon, but sometimes she just screams. Wes doesn't really nap but will do quiet time. There are just a lot of bumps in starting out this year. It has crossed my mind more than once--why are we doing this? The local school is great and a 10 minute walk away. And if I sent Amelia and Caley to the public elementary school they'd both be gone the majority of the day and it'd be "easier." Also it feels like Caley being in 3rd grade is "real." Not that it wasn't real before, but it just feels like we have both feet in the pool and the pool is just getting deeper.

It's days, or seasons, such as these that I have to remind myself we are homeschooling because Jesus told us to, not because it makes the most (or any) sense. And, I like it, despite the hard days. It's the right choice for our family right now.