Alice and Animals

We finished Alice in Wonderland tonight! It was such a quick read. This is my third time with the book. I read it as a child and then read the sequel. I can't remember how old my now 18yob was when I read it to him but probably around 3rd grade. He did enjoy it but I only remember him yelling "stop crying" at Alice, as she does tend to cry quite a bit in the beginning. Ds6 really enjoyed the book, though I must say the first half is much better than the second. This is one of those books that mums may think is too "girly" to read to their sons but I encourage you to give it a try. Other than the main character being a girl it has a lot of appeal to boys.

Some days ago I read Barn Owl to ds6. It is a quick read being an old oop science I-Can-Read book and such a wonderful, sweet, touching story. He just loved the story so much, it was delightful to watch the light his eyes as he listened. He truly has a heart for animals and nature.

And this brings me to another decision. One would think that with 15 years (one way or another) of homeschooling experience I would have got over the curriculum anxiety I am experiencing this year. I have made major changes to the curriculum plan for next year! Again! This time though I am 100% sure of my decision. I will not be using History Odyssey or Apologia Science, instead I am going to use Winter Promise Animals and Their Worlds. This is a science-based program, so for history I will read CHOW. Even though I would have liked to start a 4-year history rotation with him this year, I know that he will enjoy WP-AW much more than anything else and I finally feel at peace with this curriculum decision.

So, to recap, here is the curriculum I will be using for my 7yob:

**Reading/Phonics - Stairway to Reading and easy readers ( Bob books, Dr. Maggie's, Now I'm Reading books)

**Read-Alouds - Living Books from our home library plus the RA's from AW

**Language Arts - First Language Lessons 1

**Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears and copywork

Spelling - Spelling Workout A, possibly move onto B

History - Child's History of the World

Science/Geography - Winter Promise Animals and Their World

**Math - Right Start Level B

**Thinking Skills - Easy Sudoku Puzzles

**Art & Music - no curriculum, implement into real life fostering appreciation and enjoyment

Those marked ** we have already started and we'll start the rest sometime in Aug or Sept. We school year-round. The only time we didn't school year-round was the year my ds18 was in 7th grade. He asked, that year, if he could have the summer off like his friends, so we did. That September when we started back to school he said to me "Let's not ever do that again!" Needless to say, he didn't enjoy it and we went straight back to year round. It's so much nicer to have the freedom to take a day (or week) off whenever we want.