so after much debate and research and quibbling in my own mind about the financial stresses of buying curriculums, i have done it! ordered them...and they are on their way.
i think getting some work of my own made me feel more comfortable with the cost factor. last winter was hard on us financially and the idea of overburdening us with expensive materials that we might not need felt idiotic.
but, i found the best products for what we wanted as a family and luckily for us they both offer payment plans. Calvert Homeschool for 4th and 2nd grade both without math (because we already have a wonderful math system from our school district.) and also Rosetta Stone Japanese for homeschoolers.
So, we will add to our math, herbology and all the art and writing and reading we are doing with some serious structure. i feel this is most important in learning a language. i had pieced together several books and dvd-r for learning japanese, but it is very disjointed. having a full, well organized system for learning to speak and read and write a language is by far a better idea. the other materials we have will still come in hand for enrichment, too.
and the academic curriculum is welcome. it is J's idea. a piece he needs to feel comfortable in the boys' schooling. a piece he feels people benefit from, routine. i can't really argue that point either. i had looked for a more progressive curriculum, however, along with progressive comes more work in organizing the materials and finding them, etc... with the new work project i have going on i am going to need all that time for making money... thus the ultimate decision to go with Calvert. we'll see how it turns out.
it's so exciting. the materials should be arriving any day. i can hardly wait to chat with my father-in-law in japanese!
Showing posts with label japanese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label japanese. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
we chose our path...and have begun whacking the weeds on it down!!!
so...we have made our decision to go ahead with our homeschooling plan. it is done. we have settled it in our hearts.
the final thread hanging to the normalcy of school as most people know it was cut when Big J. and i, in a discussion about life, basically came to the conclusion that life is short, and that there is nothing more important to us than our children. we want to spend as much healthy time and energy with them as possible and give them all we can. our two chosen occupations allow us to do this, so why not take advantage of that and live the way we want to??? neither he nor i have ever taken the worn down path in life. living by our guts, our instincts, works for our family...and i believe teaching our children that they don't have to be like everyone else, that they don't need to squish themselves into some box, is going to benefit them and help them keep their unique sparkle in the long run.
so we have begun the configuring of our school room...refinished an old desk and painted the top with chalkboard paint for endless figuring out of stuff. we still need to find one more desk to do this to!!!
we bought all of the basic school supplies we'll need, like pencils, chalk, pens, paper, notebooks, rulers, etc...the acquisition of these materials was way too much fun. we felt like supply addicts. Little J, who generally shies away from writing has already filled pages in one of the journals we bought him. :) handwriting can be fun when it isn't work. his teachers at school found getting him to write to be like trying to get a pig to fly...
the kids are almost finished completing the placement tests for the Calvert School...once that is done and the kids' grade levels and math levels are determined we will order their curriculums. i think we have found our japanese program which is the language we have chosen to learn as a family. we are all so excited about this and hope to travel to japan when baby D is a little older. it makes sense as a perfect excursion and foreign language choice since we have family that speaks mostly japanese...and we have family and friends we can visit in japan.
on the arts fronts we have designed our program which will combine all of the arts into a giant project for the first half of the year. the program is basically a puppet show production that will involve the design and creation of puppets, a set, a play with musical accompaniment and then the actual performance. we are hoping to get other folks involved in this because we imagine it to be way better way bigger. :)
we got our piano tuned. still trying to figure out if we will continue on with our regular piano lessons or venture out into something new. R is showing a strong interest in the guitar and he will attend music class at the public school. we have sent the old saxophone in to get restored for Little J to take sax and band at the middle school, too.
i found a really cool robotics workshop at the local library for each of the boys in november. they screamed with joy when i told them about it. R has mentioned that when he grows up he wants to design robots, specifically for the purpose of helping moms. :) i'll help foster that dream!
we have two september adventures planned...both the blue hill fair (which is the fair charlotte's web was written about...big sis K will actually be singing there this year!) and MOFGA's common ground country fair. hoping to camp out for each! nothing like overnight field trips!
and lastly we have outlined our physical extracurriculars. Little J chose archery and R chose flag football to start the year. they will both play their beloved soccer as well. they both will take karate as a constant throughout the year and we are joining the YMCA as a family so we can all swim together (and so i can undeniably have a chance to shake my groove thing as well).
so we sit in the middle of august, poised and ready for this coming challenging adventure! so thrilled for all that lies ahead.
the final thread hanging to the normalcy of school as most people know it was cut when Big J. and i, in a discussion about life, basically came to the conclusion that life is short, and that there is nothing more important to us than our children. we want to spend as much healthy time and energy with them as possible and give them all we can. our two chosen occupations allow us to do this, so why not take advantage of that and live the way we want to??? neither he nor i have ever taken the worn down path in life. living by our guts, our instincts, works for our family...and i believe teaching our children that they don't have to be like everyone else, that they don't need to squish themselves into some box, is going to benefit them and help them keep their unique sparkle in the long run.
so we have begun the configuring of our school room...refinished an old desk and painted the top with chalkboard paint for endless figuring out of stuff. we still need to find one more desk to do this to!!!
we bought all of the basic school supplies we'll need, like pencils, chalk, pens, paper, notebooks, rulers, etc...the acquisition of these materials was way too much fun. we felt like supply addicts. Little J, who generally shies away from writing has already filled pages in one of the journals we bought him. :) handwriting can be fun when it isn't work. his teachers at school found getting him to write to be like trying to get a pig to fly...
the kids are almost finished completing the placement tests for the Calvert School...once that is done and the kids' grade levels and math levels are determined we will order their curriculums. i think we have found our japanese program which is the language we have chosen to learn as a family. we are all so excited about this and hope to travel to japan when baby D is a little older. it makes sense as a perfect excursion and foreign language choice since we have family that speaks mostly japanese...and we have family and friends we can visit in japan.
on the arts fronts we have designed our program which will combine all of the arts into a giant project for the first half of the year. the program is basically a puppet show production that will involve the design and creation of puppets, a set, a play with musical accompaniment and then the actual performance. we are hoping to get other folks involved in this because we imagine it to be way better way bigger. :)
we got our piano tuned. still trying to figure out if we will continue on with our regular piano lessons or venture out into something new. R is showing a strong interest in the guitar and he will attend music class at the public school. we have sent the old saxophone in to get restored for Little J to take sax and band at the middle school, too.
i found a really cool robotics workshop at the local library for each of the boys in november. they screamed with joy when i told them about it. R has mentioned that when he grows up he wants to design robots, specifically for the purpose of helping moms. :) i'll help foster that dream!
we have two september adventures planned...both the blue hill fair (which is the fair charlotte's web was written about...big sis K will actually be singing there this year!) and MOFGA's common ground country fair. hoping to camp out for each! nothing like overnight field trips!
and lastly we have outlined our physical extracurriculars. Little J chose archery and R chose flag football to start the year. they will both play their beloved soccer as well. they both will take karate as a constant throughout the year and we are joining the YMCA as a family so we can all swim together (and so i can undeniably have a chance to shake my groove thing as well).
so we sit in the middle of august, poised and ready for this coming challenging adventure! so thrilled for all that lies ahead.
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