Dun dun ta dun... Darth Vader's theme song!

The long awaited (for Elizabeth) list of what is on the table for this year's homeschooling extravaganza!

We'll start with the easy stuff that we've used for years now:

• Seton Handwriting
• Math U See
• CHC (Grammar) Language for Little Folks
• MCP Phonics (3rd Grade)
• Seton Phonics (4th, 5th)
• Seton Reading Comprehension (3, 4, 5)
• Seton History: The Catholic Faith Comes to the New World
• Wordly Wise (A, B, C workbooks for 3rd, Level 1 for 4th)
• Seton Vocabulary 5 (when ever they actually send it to me... silly back orders messin' everything up)

New stuff:

• Apologia Science: Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day
• IEW: Institute for Excellence in Writing (Student edition A)
• Prima Latina
• Seton Art 5 (A lovely book on art appreciation covering the mysteries of the Rosary)
  

For additional materials (mostly used for the memorization exercises):

• Lingua Mater: Intermediate
• The Harp & Laurel Wreath

This will be the first year that all three boys will be covering all subjects... which is new this year. Last year Snooker didn't have vocabulary or reading comprehension... and then we've added Latin, Art Appreciation, and Writing (form and structure) to the list of subjects. Plus the history and science are much more involved than in years past... with work every day instead of just a once a week subject!

Every day that I sit down to work on polishing up my plans for the semester I'm slightly overwhelmed with the volume. This year really stepped up a notch... not only in their work, but in my involvement with more guided work and more reading for me to do out loud for all three of them (specifically history and science). It is definitely a turning point in our homeschooling journey, one that I'm anxiously looking forward to!

Also this summer started to be a turning point in my own thinking of our homeschooling and its future. Until this summer I really only took the mindset of just the up coming year, not over burdening myself with the future... a mantra of homeschoolers everywhere is take it one year at a time... and there is definitely wisdom in that... but it occurred to me that Bobcat is going into the fifth grade. Oh how close he is to those middle school years... even high school... and so a lot of my thoughts and planning took on a longer view and how the things we would be using this year would serve his intellect in years to come.

Any great epiphanies in regards to those years coming? No, just that they came so suddenly...

We still have many challenges ahead of us (MATH), but all in all I'm very pleased with how my research and the purchases panned out! I enjoyed the conference in July immensely, and it was just the kind of pep talk a homeschooling family needs before they once again begin the new school year.

Now for that all important question that is floating off of every mother's lips these days.... when are you starting (sometimes with anguish behind the eyes :-)? Next week... slowly... by the 30th we will be humming along full speed ahead! For a month that is, then we will get to spend a week in Florida... something to look forward to :-).