New Plan

If there's one thing I'm learning about homeschooling, it's that there are so many available resources.  I'm learning to see all the adjustment-making as an adventure instead of a frustrating chore.  At first I thought I'd just choose some sort of curriculum and stick with it until I send my kids off to college.  Ha ha!  Maybe some parents are able to do it thiat way, but I have a very specific idea of how I want my children educated and I don't think I'll ever find a curriculum out there that fits my ideas completely. 

So the new plan?  Well, I was given an LDS curriculum along with many other used homeschool books when a homeschooling mom I know put her kids in public school (at their choice).  It's written by Ken and Teri Ebert, and it's called The Four Year Plan (the first book called Going in Circles).  I finally got around to reading it (I put the whole box of books on the shelf while I had morning sickness).  It's a revolving curriculum of four years, based on history and the scriptures (with science and English also).  What I like is that it's cheap (I got it for free, but the books are all under $30 I believe), it involves all ages (I want to be able to do school with all my kids at once as well as the individualized lessons--I think it would be so much more unifying to have all of us learning the same things, even if we're all at different levels), and it's simple (basically an outline with comments, a reading list, and suggested field trips, and recommended books),  based on the scriptures.  I looked into a couple other curricula that use scriptures as a base and involve all ages, but they aren't cheap and they're not LDS, so they don't include the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants or Pearl of Great Price.  Call me lazy, but I don't want to be constantly saying to my kids, "That's what this religion believes, but we believe X." (Of course I DO want my kids to know what other religions believe, but I don't want to have to put a discaimer on everything I teach.)  And I don't want to have to figure out a way to incorporate the Book of Mormon and D&C on my own (yet). 

What I don't like (or what doesn't fit for our family) is that it doesn't include all the subjects I'd want to teach (like math) and it has a heavy emphasis on co-ops (which is great, but I've only tried preschool co-ops and I don't yet know if I could organize one for older kids, though of course I'd be interested in trying).  Also, the whole time I was reading it, I just had a strong feeling that this is what is right for their family.  It's great, and the Eberts did a wonderful job, but I wuld be lying to myself if I said it was already perfect for us. 

So ultimately I realized I can't use The Four Year Plan exclusively, but there is so much I do like about it, that I'm still going to use it as a rough outline.  I am gaining confidence in myself very quickly as I learn to ignore negative influences and listen only to the Spirit tell me what is right for us.  I thought at first that I would want a "canned" curriculum for the first year at least, so I could get my feet under me, but that isn't how I really want to do things so why start that way?  And we really can't afford to buy an expensive curriculum and have me skip half of it because I decide it isn't 100% perfect for us. 

Summary and Final Plan:

After speaking to a homeschool mom with similar views and finding out what she is planning for her family, I was given some very good, wise suggestions for starting out.  She recommended that I do a daily devotional (of course), use Five in a Row (and Before Five in a Row for Conrad), and buy a phonics curriculum and math curriculum separately.  And for Conrad, I would make lots of inexpensive Montessori activities (I'm falling in love with Montessori, esp. for toddlers).  Inexpensive, easy, and much more to my liking.  And this other mom isn't so keen on The Four Year Plan, but there's so much I like about it that I'm planning on using it for our devotional to incorporate history (I just can't leave out history, it's one of my favorites!) and science (definitely Trevor's favorite).  I'm really excited about this plan, moreso than any other I've come up with.  It feels so right for us and will be so much cheaper!  I haven't felt this good about a plan through all my researching.  I know I might end up tweaking it a lot (and I still have to choose a math and phonics curriculum), but even if I didn't change it a bit I would be okay with that.  It will be cheap enough that if I decide to change something I will still have wiggle room, instead of using all our allotted money on one curriculum, hating it, and being stuck with it. 

I still have to post about our first week of the preschool co-op!  I'll get to that another time. but that's exciting too!