Life on Planet Caddick

We have mostly drifted away from our regular curriculum and now are doing unit studies. At least for the time being - everything is subject to change around this house! Math is still Teaching Textbooks. Although it's starting to annoy Zach (he hates the reviewing stuff in every lesson), I told him when he can get 100 every time on every single thing he's reviewing I'll switch his math. Yep - holding on to TT still. Also, unless we are doing a science unit, we work out of our science every day. We worked on a Veterans Day unit study. It took us until just past Veterans Day, but that's ok. I got it from Amanda Bennett many many moons ago. With our limited library (and short notice) I did have some trouble finding books about the people in the unit, but we managed to substitute some other interesting Veterans in their place. When all was said and done he decided he liked learning about Theodore Roosevelt and Arlington the best. And even though it's been discussed plent...

It's that time of year, when all the homeschool parents are looking at next year. Everybody has probably made some changes during the year ~ I know we have! ~ and are now spending hours upon hours hunting down the steals and deals on curriculum for next year. I've done all my ordering and have started receiving our books for next year. That always makes it harder to stay focused on this year and finish strong (at least for me!). Now that my items have arrived, I feel I can now share what we've decided to do for next year (7th grade folks - it's a biggie!). History, Geography, and Language Arts: We opted for Winter Promise American Crossing for history and geography. I chose this particular program for a variety of reasons. First, it includes a state study (yes, my son recently asked if Connecticut was a state or a country - it's time for a state study!), it was easy to remove the Bible portion and still have solid reading and other activities, and most importantly...

Goodness, I can't believe it's almost Christmas! Our year has been going pretty good though. Some things we're having problems with though: Getting my boy to remember anything about history. I don't know if we need something more hands on, more heavily invested in writing, or just some books to reinforce. Granted, the Middle Ages is sooo long ago for an 11 year old. To him, the 1980's is more like the middle ages. No computers? No video games? *gasp* how did we even survive he often wonders! One day he asked if we even had cars. Um yeah, no sweetie, we rode dinosaurs everywhere. Or Fred Flinstone cars. pshh We are backtracking through some missed, or not learned, math concepts from grade 5. He's still struggling with some of them, so I think that is right where we need to be. The middle of the year also starts the look to the next year. What's working for us? What isn't? What are we willing to change for the next year. After all, he will be in 7th grade ...