Made some decisions... Finally!

Over the past 3-4 months, I have been struggling with choosing a curriculum for our home schooling journey. There are just so many already-put-together-just-add-your-family-here type curricula. Then there are those curricula that you basically put together yourself... Mathematics from this place, Language Arts from that place, Science and Nature from yet another place.

Argh... just so mind boggling, I tell you! Well, after many sleepless nights and too many headaches, my hubby and I finally found a solution that we think will work very well for our family. Whew, that was exhausting!

My little M, who seems to be pure genius when it comes to Math (!!) is 5, will turn 6 in October. If he were in our local public school, he would be going into Kindergarten this year because he misses the deadline to attend first grade by 6 measly days. However, since we are choosing to ruin his education at home home school, we are able to use first grade curriculum with him -- which we feel he is thoroughly ready for.

For him, we will be ordering:

• Oak Meadow grade 1
• Enki Kindergarten -- Learning through Movement
• Enki grade 1 -- Learning through Movement
• Enki grade 1 -- Folk/Fairy tales
• Miquon Math

I figured I better order both the Kindergarten and grade 1 Learning through Movement since M is a sensory kiddo and these materials cover Sensory Integration in depth.

Our little princess, A will be 9 in November and we have chosen 4th grade curriculum for her:

• Oak Meadow grade 4
• Singapore Math

For us parents, we have also chosen to supplement ourselves with:

• Oak Meadow -- Heart of Learning
• Enki Foundation Guides
• Enki Community and Festival Songs

As you may have noticed, we are taking the Waldorf approach with a little bit of Montessori mixed in. Which, I'm sure may be strange to some who actually know me -- to them I'm a bit more mainstreamed. But I tend not to listen to other people's opinions where my children are concerned, so that's OK with me. I suppose I've always been a little bit strange anyhow. They will just have to learn to get over it. Right? Right.

Now then... my dear hubby has decided to work 4 ten hour days, instead of 5 eight hour days. He worked this schedule when we still lived in Cali and it worked great for us with a family. A three day weekend every week is an absolute dream when it comes to family time. I mean... who would want to work 5 days when your employer would willingly give you a 4 day work schedule? Hello!! No brainer.

Starting on our home schooling journey...

My kiddos are visiting family in California right now -- and boy oh boy, do I miss them something terrible!! Every morning I wake up and I long to hear them running through the house with their voices turned up to the hilt. Every morning I wake up and I want to make pancakes with sausage and fruit... my M's favorite! Every morning I wake up and crave a good morning kiss and hug from 4 little arms. My heart aches and I can hardly wait for them to be home again. Only 13 more days! When they return, they will have been gone for 5 complete weeks.

While they've been gone, I've been taking this time to prepare for our home schooling journey. A has been in schools (public, private, and Montessori) from the beginning of her educational career. M has been to 2 years of preschool (private and Montessori).

Some events happened this last school year that pushed us into making the decision to home school. Since this will be our first year, I feel that I have a lot of decisions to make and a lot to do in terms of preparations.

• I still haven't fully decided if I'm going to buy a curriculum or put my own together. Whether I buy curriculum or not, we are going to need a separate math, science, and history program (either to supplement our put-together-curriculum or as a curriculum in and of itself).
• We have decided that we are going to learn Italian as a family in hopes of one day traveling to the speaking country.
  
• We also need to find a flute instructor for A (who discovered the flute and chose this over the violin -- much to my disappointment). Although having A practice the violin could shatter glass, and the flute, I'm sure, will be much more soothing.
  
• We have to take M to the music store so he can pick out an instrument to play, and I am truly hoping that he doesn't choose the drums because I don't know if I could stand the racket of him learning! Only half-kidding.
  
• Buy our yearly passes to museums, the zoo, and online resources.
  
• So much more....

On another note, I don't have my daycare kiddos until next week (Thursday, I think). The poor little things had to go visit their mother in MD, so I am completely kidless for a little while.

Scrapbooking was first on my list to do since I would actually have the time to do it! However, I didn't get much of that done due to my research on the above topic. ;o) I do have TONS in mind, though, as to my next creation! I can't wait to get started, and I may even do that tonight. Tomorrow... knowing me.

Being alone these past couple of weeks, I've rented a lot of movies to help fill my night time. I joined Blockbuster Total Access, and so far I love it! I've rented:

Premonition (Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon) ~ Excellent movie! I usually have the ability (I call it a curse) of predicting the ends of movies or the plot twists. Not so with this one!

Notes on a Scandal (Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett) ~ I had high hopes for this one. The synopsis sounded great and the lady at Blockbuster said it was "freaky". I was in the mood for a "freaky" movie! This movie, in my opinion, didn't even have the undertones of being freaky. A little psychotic, but not freaky.

The Holiday (Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Jude Law) ~ From the previews this movie looked like a comedy. And I think it even falls under that genre in the Blockbuster listing. I think that it was a comedy-drama and I give it 3.5 stars. A little bored with it but it was a really cute chic film.

The Fountain (Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz) ~ I did not 'get' this movie at all. The best I can guess that this movie is supposed to be about is a man dealing with the illness of his wife.

Pan's Labyrinth ~ Pretty cool for a sci-fi movie -- more on the fantasy side. Pretty cool characters. I thought that I wouldn't like it so much because of the Spanish subtitles, but it wasn't so bad. During the important parts, where you really wanted to be watching what was going on, the characters didn't speak -- so it worked out great! Teehehe

I have Freedom Writers and The Black Dahlia that I need to watch. I'm thinking I'll watch The Black Dahlia tonight. I'm in the mood for a dark, dreary film -- maybe a little bit haunting too. Let's hope!