Welcome to the New School Year ...

We do things a bit different around here (snort)!  We begin a new school year in May.  April is our preferred month for outdoor activities, such as they are.  Being homebodies, the kids will ride their bikes or run around a bit, but they really prefer the comfort of a good chair and the solitude of a great book.  They can while away the hours in such repose, needing gentle reminders to come up for air now and again. 

April also marks a natural transition in growth, both emotional as well as physical, in my children.  They always appear to shed the last year's level of learning as naturally as a snake sheds its skin, somehow morphing before my eyes into a new level of maturity.  It is magical to witness this growth each spring, as though they too have lain dormant beneath the earth, fed by the books they have hungrily devoured over the long days' of winter. 

We have a new classroom, with a set of long-coveted Ikea bookshelves to hold (some of) our numerous tomes.  We are actually already in Week 4, having begun the first Monday in May.  Our year is divided into three terms, with approximately a three-week break scheduled in between each. 

This year's studies will include:

Sarah, grade 9
My Father's World Ancient History and Literature
BJU Literature 9 with DVDs
Science will focus on evolution and creation perspectives
MUS Geometry
Teaching Textbooks Algebra II
Henle Latin
German
Art
Piano

Jacob, grade 7
Sonlight Core 100 American History - History, Literature, Bible
Supplementary Geography
Saxon Algebra 1/2
Sonlight Science G
Piano

Hannah, grade 5
Sonlight Science F
American Presidents
Beautiful Feet Geography
American History from 1815 to Present
Rod & Staff Grammar 6
Harp & Laurel Wreath for Poetry and Dictation Selections
Rod & Staff Math 6
Literature from Ambleside Online, SL Cores D & E, whatever else I can find
Latin
Art
Knitting
German

Elijah, age 8
Still trying to find the right fit.  I made a very expensive error by purchasing the Memoria Press 3rd grade program, thinking somehow that would work.  The amount of writing was just too much.  We are using Story of the World, Volume 2, the Middle Ages with success right now.  Hopefully that will continue to work with him.  MP has a nice program, but, Sonlight has been my go-to for so long, it was hard to read a single book over the course of an entire term. 

Emma is really showing an interest in learning.  She climbs up on a chair, announcing it is time for her to do math.  It will be interesting to see where she is in her development at the end of this school year.  I guess that is why I take this time to make these notes.  I can look back in April of 2013 and see how far we have come, what changes I needed to make, what worked the first time.  I have already moved the school room to the other side of the family room.  Who knows what this year will bring.