A New School Year Approacheth

Just a note, this was written on Saturday, but I couldn't add the pics so I didn't publish it. We did start yesterday and updates will come.

I am probably getting the latest start of school of anyone out there, but there was a definite method to our madness! And it was totally blessed because our last two weeks of "summer vacation" have been a gorgeous Indian Summer! Jewel has had opportunities to really learn how to ride her new bike, we have taken lots of walks and just enjoyed being outside. This week the forecast is for rain...so what better time than to start school?

Actually, I am very ready to start. We have not received the ordered math curriculum or Flower's handwriting program (since I ordered the wrong one the first time around) but we can start without those subjects.


Box day arrived here two days before we left for Romania.

The girls had such a good time going through the box, seeing what we would be studying


and even getting a jumpstart on the reading.


Then, being the mean mom that I am, I put the books up on our shelves and had them help me organize the toy room. They thought I was horrible, but my main goal was to make room for more craft stuff, so they should be pleased in the coming weeks.

Then we headed off for two weeks in Romania (the posts are coming, I promise!) While in Romania, I was left three messages that the LEA reviewer would be coming to check out our school efforts...four days after we returned! ACK!! I spent two days franctically trying to make sure that everything they would need to see was organized enough to tell the story of our educative process. I needn't have worried, the reviewer was quite impressed with how well Jewel presented herself and the work she had been doing. Even math, which I was fretting about so much, was no problem. She felt that we were "way ahead" of what was expected in school. She should know, she was a retired maths teacher. Of course the thing one always worries about is that "s-word" (you know, socialization). That, too, was a piece of cake. The first thing she said was "I see you are involved in church, she will get plenty of socialization opportunities there so we can move on." YAY!! She went on to talk about what they did in their church (so not the norm in England) and then asked where we went. When Jewel told her, she said "my niece goes there!" In fact her niece has been a part of my Ladies Bible Study. God was definitely going ahead of us in this review. AND we do not have to worry about another review until next Autumn, so it is good.

As far as Monday, the plan is to start everything but math and Flower's handwriting. Our curriculum will be:
Jewel will be doing Sonlight Core 1 World History, Geography with Level 2 readers and language arts, MathUSee, Reason for Handwriting and Rosetta Stone German.
Flower will be doing Sonilight P4/5 (a mix of what they have updated and what Jewel did because they have eliminated a couple of our favorite things), Handwriting Without Tears pre-school, and Rosetta Stone German.
They will both continue with swim lessons and Jewel will continue with SPARKS at church. I am still working on finding a piano teacher for them both. A friend will teach Jewel if I don't find anyone, but she is moving in January and we are not sure that it is best to start and then change approaches that quickly.

I plan to do weekly re-caps on Mondays and hopefully will be able to participate in some homeschool memes on Fridays. We'll see how well I do.