homeschooling decisions.

This fall, I will start homeschooling Kaine, Halle and Layla!  And Daisy, if you count preschool :)

How do I feel about this?  Well, I have a couple of different feelings:

1. Excited!  
Ever since I became a mom, I have wanted to homeschool my kids. Nathan and I are excited about it, and our kids are too!  (Lol...we hope that will last!)

2. Anxious.  The main reason for this is the year that we have ahead of us.  Here it is, in a nutshell:

•  Right now, we are finishing out our Ling semester here in MO.  Moving back to IN for the summer on Memorial Day Weekend!

• Our summer will be pretty full!  We will be getting together with lots of friends and believers to share about what we are doing.  Spending about 3-4 weeks of our summer traveling for vacations, etc...

• In August, we will go to Oklahoma for a Linguistics practicum, among the Cherokee.  More on that later, but it will be a busy 10 weeks!  I will begin to homeschool the kids while we are in OK.

• End of October, it's back to IN to finish up stuff for Papua New Guinea, spend time with family and friends, and pack up.  Plus, we have the holiday season in there which is ALWAYS so busy.

• January 2016--Lord willing, we will be on a plane to Papua New Guinea!  (still pinching myself about that one!)

• Once we get to PNG, with the culture shock and beginning to learn the national language/culture--I don't know but just guessing that life will be a bit crazy :)

So...that's why I feel a little bit anxious.  Just wondering how I will balance it all.  But the good thing about having times of "anxiousness"--is that I am constantly reminded that, of course this will be hard!  And of course I won't be able to do it--so I am reminded--again--that I. am. NEEDY.  I need Christ.  And so my times of feeling anxious drive me to Jesus.  Which is a very good thing.

That being said, I/we have made homeschooling decisions for the coming year!  Yay!  It feels good to have a plan of action :) 

I went to the Kansas City homeschool conference with some ladies from training this past weekend. My good friend Asmara went, along with two staff ladies--who just so happen to be homeschool consultants for missionaries.  So that was very helpful!  They have both been overseas, and one of them even served as a homeschool consultant in Papua New Guinea--she was such a help to me.  Thanks, Mel!!

 Here we are, hanging out at Olive Garden :)

My good friend Erika gave me some very invaluable advice this past week, as I was preparing for the conference and feeling slightly very overwhelmed :)

So, what she told me is, since our upcoming year is so full of transitions and craziness, to just focus on the basics.  Which would be:  math, reading, and writing/language arts.  And not to worry about science and history curriculums at this point.  

That advice was really what I needed to hear.  I had been thinking of doing My Father's World (still might do that in the future!), but at this point, it seems like it is best to just focus on the basics.  So that's what we decided to do.  

That being said, here is what our kids will do this next school year:

Kaine and Halle:

-Math (Math U See)

-Spelling (All About Spelling)

-Grammar (First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise)

-Handwriting (something basic)

-Reading--they will just read lots of books.  I also picked up a few used Abeka readers.  And I will read aloud to them, of course!

Layla (Kindergarten):

-Math (Math U See)

-Reading--Explode the Code, may supplement with some other stuff--and again, reading aloud to her!

And that's about it!  So, we will see how it all goes.  Most of all, since I've made those decisions, I'm just feeling excited about teaching my kids.  Thank you Jesus!