Seperation Anxiety

The beginning of the year always brings changes. In our home, that means I start researching curriculum for our next school year. I try to think about what we like about our current curriculum, what we don't, what needs to be changed or tweaked. This year, the big girl has changed math twice. That is rare for us. But, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I was given a ton of curriculum. I kept quite a bit and gave the rest away. Some of it, I'm missing a couple of pieces. Some of it is usable as it is. Love that. When taxes come in, I order what we need. This year, it really wasn't much. But as I was planning, I realized something. And I wasn't happy about it.

We have three subjects that we learn together: bible, history, and science. Next school year, it will only be bible. The big girl will be a freshman in high school. How that happened, I have no idea. It feels like we just started homeschooling and now she's in high school. Crazy!! Because she is, though, she'll have to do high school level history and science. That's a little over the boy's head and way over the baby's. Oh, but it gets better.

Now, my kids are pretty good at doing math and language arts on their own. I review with them and make sure they understand what they're learning. The boy will have a different math than he's ever had. The baby's will take more time than before as well. And the big girl will be starting Algebra. Great.

The boy and the baby will be sharing history. We are going back to Story of the World for them. The big girl will have a history course that heavily incorporates geography. That will be new for her. It will also be new for me. Science will be different, too. Once again, the younger two will share science. The big girl will have her own high school level science. I'm not nervous about upper level math or science. I did very well in both subjects and like them both, as well. But science twice in one day. I'm not sure I'm down for that no matter how much I like it.

The boy will be using literature guides this year. That is way out of his comfort zone. He'll get over it. I did try to get studies for books I think he'll like. He'll be reading Mr. Popper's Penguins and The Whipping Boy. I'm pretty sure he'll like the stories, but the work load is something different. Lots of stuff at one time for him. The baby will be doing spelling and poetry with some grammar workbooks thrown in. That's a big work load for her, too. We'll see how they do. We'll see how I do! The big girl will be starting literature. I have two textbooks. One for her, and one for me. That way I can read what she's reading and neither one of us has to wait for the other. Talk about a big workload.

I could go on and on, but I think I'm getting hives. On top of all that we still have all of our extras. So how is that going to play out? I don't know!!!! We have one subject together, the rest apart, and lots of other stuff, too. The craziest part: I'm looking forward to it. Good grief, I'm insane. And I kinda like it.

Have a great day.