Planning 2013-2014 & IEW

Now on to planning next year. LOL Is there ever a break for the homeschooling mom?

Choosing Alexis' curriculum will be easy for this upcoming school year as she finishes out her homeschooling journey at the local junior college. She will dual enroll her senior year. Her senior year!!!!  Eeks, I can't believe we are here already. It seems like just yesterday that I was taking her to Pre-K. I am so proud of all that she has accomplished thus far. This past year has been a juggle of a full school schedule, part-time job and an internship. She has done exceedingly well at all of them. Zach and I will definitely miss having her around the house next year. Watching them grow up is bittersweet. 

I already have most on Zach's curriculum purchased for next year. I thought I was completely set, but have since changed our mind about science. Why is it that this is the subject I always have issues with? LOL So back to the drawing board for that. You can find everything else we will be using for 2013-2014 in my side bar. I think I am most excited about beginning IEW SWI-A. 

I actually tried using IEW with Alexis quite some time ago. I don't believe we ever made it past Unit 2 or was it 3? Anyway, she couldn't seem to stand the program. So, we stopped it, used their wonderful 100% satisfaction guarantee and got our money back. We then bounced from writing curriculum to writing curriculum, never really finding that "perfect fit." Thankfully, she has always done well with writing, so the bouncing didn't hurt her. I am confident (and so is she) that she will do well in college. Ugh.....there's that word again.

Fast forward to this year...... I had been again searching for the "perfect" writing curriculum. Several people tried selling me on IEW and how wonderful it worked for their kids, but I still had my wall up. I always thought, "No, tried that. It was a failure for us. Don't want to go back down that road again." But then one day it hit me. Just because it didn't work well for Alexis, doesn't mean that it wouldn't work well for Zach. I started reading more about IEW again and I began to really think that the structure and clearly laid out steps would be good for Zach. So I asked a friend of mine if I could borrow her Teaching Writing Structure and Style set. I sat down with pen and notebook in hand and began to take notes like a mad woman. By the end of Unit 2 I was sold!! Oh why oh why had I not watched this before when using it with Alexis. It made their method of teaching writing make so much sense. (And hearing Andrew talk to the parents, I had discovered he was really quite funny. LOL) I watched the entire set of TWSS and then shared some of what I learned with Alexis. The light bulb clicked for her too. I also shared some of Andrew's tips about writing for college and she was thrilled. "That's brilliant," were her words.  For the most part, she does use the IEW methods for writing reports and such. It just took us the long way around to get there. I am happy to have the knowledge of later units under my belt now so I can help her if needed next year while dual enrolling.

So I am excited to begin Zach's journey with writing next year. Oh we have done writing all along, but I feel like we have been floundering. Even floundering he does well. I can't wait to see the results after we dive into IEW!!!

I'll update my findings with Science as soon as I get that figured out. LOL

Ending the Year

Our 2012-2013 school year has officially come to a close. Portfolio reviews are done and turned in. Now time for a much needed break!!

I recently attended the FPEA homeschool convention. It was a great time of refreshing and fellowship with friends. The message I heard over and over again, no matter what lecture I attended, was take the time to have fun and enjoy your kids. So in light of that, we will be taking some much need time off this summer. I might try to sneak in some math games here and there though as Z could definitely use some practice there. LOL


 

 

Batty Fieldtrip

Today we took a trip to the Lubee Bat Conservatory in Gainesville with our co-op class that is using Apologia Flying Creatures. The tour started with an educational slide show. The kids thought it was great that everything they were seeing they had already learned from Flying Creatures. Thank you Jeannie Fulbright for being so thorough in your books!