Plans for next school year...

I don't know if this is the case with most home schoolers, or if I am just really peculiar. One of my favorite things about homeschooling is daydreaming about what we might do next! As I think about and evaluate what is going on this year, I feel very happy and blessed. Rachel is thriving at Veritas, Matthew is catching up on much needed skills in areas where he had fallen behind (a grateful shout-out to Mrs Harman!) , and Irene & Abbie are happily learning mostly through our everyday activities and "living books". Irene is coming slow and steady on her reading, and getting through her math just fine. I am happy this year, which allows me to daydream all the more about next year! I had already decided that it will look different from this year, because unless the Lord directs me differently, I do not think Matthew will be at Veritas next year. It has been such a wonderful year of progress for him so far, but I am really am feeling the "calling" so to speak to cut back and simplify, for reasons like finances, time, and emotional energy. I would like to refocus our direction toward home again, and put my greatest efforts in there. I have decided on doing a year of "traveling" around the world via an extended unit study on geography. Irene is unusually interested in the Holy Land (for a six year old!) so we will incorporate that into the mix, along with studies of a few countries on each continent. I will springboard as many subjects as I can off of that...I hope to read many missionary biographies, folktales and the like. I will incorporate our science into the geography by studying earth science, weather and habitats along with the corresponding lands. It isn't all firm in my mind yet, but we are getting there. Now, whether or not my aspirations will come to fruition is another matter. Usually my daydreams look so much prettier than real life in the trenches! But these are books I hope to use next year. I was able to get them for a song in a scratch & dent sale, yippee!