Looking Forward...

I had scheduled us to start afresh August 29th. However, since I am on vacation from work the week before (and starting back to college), Cassia asked if they could start the same week I do, and so we have a new start date of August 22! Our books are starting to pour in... math over the last couple of weeks, Cyrus's writing and spelling/vocabulary programs yesterday, and all the rest over the next week. I've been looking through everything as it comes in, and I am delighted with it all! Of course, there is always that tiny seed of doubt in the back of my mind... should be using something else? Studying something else?

Still, I am excited about and looking forward to being in Ancient Egypt -- and the surrounding areas -- for a while. I looked, and looked, and looked a bit more, for a suitable text for this. Something I could read aloud, that both children would enjoy, that would be thorough without being overwhelming. Neither child likes Story of the World (they find it a bit condescending truthfully), and I wanted something a little more challenging. I thought of Gombrich's A Little History of the World, which is a truly delightful narrative, but though I love it, it is too brief. Finally, I found a book from I think the 1920's: Dorothy Mills' Book of the Ancient World. I read aloud a section from Google books. The kids were enthralled! M and I were impressed! I plan to follow it with the Ancient Greeks book by the same author. I ordered my copy from Memoria Press, which supposedly added in additional maps and illustrations. I did not order the student text or any of that, just the main book.

The Well Trained Mind recommends outlining, timeline-keeping, and more for a student Cyrus's age. I already have the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, and so am considering this. I may also have both kids keep some sort of a Book of Centuries. And I know Cyrus would love Horrible Histories: Awful Egyptians for a little bit of additional education.

Overall, I didn't end up buying that much this year, since I went through everything we owned and found that I already had a lot of things we could use this year. And what I did buy I can reuse (or sell) in the future. Teaching Textbooks 5 will eventually be handed down to Cassia. I am thrilled to think that after next year, I will only have to buy one math text a year! By the way, I love what I have seen in Teaching Textbooks so far. I love the grade book, the clarity of the lectures, the student help, everything! and the kids have looked at the workbooks and are happy too. The first portion of the year will be review, but I am a firm believer that more review in math, not less, is a good thing.

Now there is only one part of our plan that is up in the air... additional science for Cyrus. As a family, we'll be doing nature studies, which I think is plenty for Cassia, but Cyrus has specifically requested more science for himself. I bought the History of Science from Beautiful Feet some time back (just the guide and some materials, not the books which I can get at the library), and have since then purchased Aristotle Leads the Way and the Student Quest Guide. I plan to have him look at both programs, and I will continue to look at both. Side note: if he did BF's History of Science, he would do only the section on ancients this year to go with history. Any opinions? This is a child who will sit and read voraciously from the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, so I am thinking the Hakim book may be very suitable.

After an awesome lab trip yesterday, in which the kids actually got to feed stem cells, I have decided on a science program for both... Elemental Science Biology (Logic Stage.) I love the samples, and it will be a very solid program. The author even gives a full layout of how to add in a child not yet old enough for the full program (Cassia) so I am very excited! We'll blend Aristotle Leads the Way into our history readings, and we'll still try for some nature studies, but this biology program will be our scientific backbone.

In the meantime, we are watching the rest of America: The Story of US, to give everyone a sense of the flow of American history. We finished The Search for Delicious (great book!) and now are reading the original Winnie-the-Pooh, my old and battered childhood copy. Cyrus got ahead of his reading list for the year already, and is a third of the way through The Egypt Game. And we're playing lots of games, the kids swim a lot, we're eating loads of fresh tomatoes from the garden, and just enjoying life!