Let me just start by saying that last week I got a phone call from a lady who also lives in our town and homeschools. I had never met her but she got my name from a mutual friend and asked if we wanted to be apart of a homeschooling group. YES! Of course. The best part is she has a 5 year old boy, a 6 year old boy, another lady has a 6 year old boy, and then there is a 5 year old girl; children his age and there are even boys. We just met this last Wed. and it was fun. I hope it continues to work out well. This is a blessing.
On another note. I spoke with another lady I know whose children are all much older now. She told me about some books she uses. She let me borrow them to look over and I got so excited. I really feel like this is what I have been looking for. In one of my first posts I talked about how I had this vision of what I wanted to accomplish by homeschooling and in my mind how I thought it should be. I have been looking for ways to achieve this and, like I said, K12 was not the answer but it was a good learning experience. It is called The Four Year Plan by Ken and Teri Ebert.
The Four Year Plan is four separate books which can be purchased for around $25 each. It is a well thought out outline to help you accomplish a wide range of topics from LDS scriptures, History, Science, and English. Like I said, it is mostly an outline. There are some great ideas for science experiments, crafts, field trips, and text recommendations (that go along with the subject) that all tie into the scriptures to help you cover each subject that would possibly be required in a formal school setting and more, so you would supplement their plan with additional readings that you would either purchase or get from the library. Each year there are 3 levels: young children, middle aged children, and older children. You repeat each book every 4 years but when you repeat it you go further in depth on the subject. I also love this idea because when you have another child joining your homeschool setting they can just jump right in no matter the year so, as a family you are studying subjects together. So for example:
Year 1 in History you would study the Ancient World;
English, Foundations;
Science, chemistry;
Scriptures, Old Testament.
They even include life skills and a family focus. So with the Ancient World you would also have, depending on the age, the foundations of the English language, the creation as part of chemistry, and the Old Testament as the beginning of time. I am so excited to use this plan. I hope to be able to incorporate it with TJ Ed and Charlotte Mason. Many of the books that "The Plan" recommends are text books. I would prefer to supplement them with the Classics and Living Books. I have some time though and I guess I'll worry about it when I get there. Book also has great tips for organizing and just great gospel insight.
P.S. I am still looking for a good math program. I would like to learn more about some the abacus programs out there, they are very appealing to me. If anyone has any good recommendations I would be interested, though, for now we really need to stay away from worksheets.
