Ebay is My Friend

After much deliberation on my part, I have decided my curriculum for the Fall. Believe me this is half the battle. Knowing what I want to teach my kids. You see I have these thoughts in my head of what I want our home school to be like. Things like what subjects, how much seat work, how much hands-on, field trips and reading real books. I also have ideas about what I want their heart towards learning to look like. I want them to love learning, seek out interesting things in their world, taking pride and ownership in their education. Developing Godly character. I want them to be observant of their world not tuning it out. So many of these factors I weighed and reweighed as I selected what was going to be best for MY kids. For MY second grader. For MY little girl entering Kindergarten.
Here is what I have decided-
Phonics and English- I am not against seat work for Language Arts. I feel some repetition is necessary. I feel sitting down to get key concepts of language is acceptable. For that reason I have chose BJU.
K- BJU Beginnings K5 Phonics and Reading.
2- BJU English 2
The BJU Beginnings K5 I found on Ebay as a lot and I WON! Granted I had to set my alarm and get out of bed as it closed in the wee hours of the morning. I got it for a third of the price. Woohoo!
Reading- For the boy we will be choosing together age appropriate books and literature that he will read. I am not using a formal reading for him. This approach is working fabulously for us. He has come alive in his reading, asking to read before bed and also first thing in the morning. He excitedly picks up a book and reads it. Gone the days of hating to read. Woohoo!
Science, History, Music and Social- I think it was here that I debated the most. No curriculum at all, notebooking, Mystery of History, Science Readers, experiments... My thoughts on these subjects, well, I think young learners want to get their hands dirty and naturally gravitate towards learning these subjects. I feel that strict (often boring) curriculum killed that natural curiosity. So I decided early on I was NOT going to do a set textbook. I debated about what to do. Random subjects of interest. Simple Science Readers(we are going to use these as readers for reading. ) Nature Hikes. Notebooking. I have to say until the end of this school year, Notebooking was a foreign concept to me. Yet at the core of it I feel it can be a huge blessing to ones schooling. I know we will use this in the Fall, not yet sure to what degree, but it will be included. Also, Narration. Narration is also a new concept for me but I love the reinforcement it produces. It too struck a cord of YES! This too will be used. But as for the overall package I finally found that when my friend placed in my hands a Konos Character book- Volume One. It is exactly what I was looking for.
Science, History, Music, Social, Arts, Bible, Character Development, Living Books and Field Trips mesh together for a hands-on, exciting and interesting learning experience. Another bonus, a couple of other families will be joining us on our learning adventures. As there are co-op activities, we will do some of these together. Building life-long relationships and memories. I found all three Konos volumes along with helps on Ebay as a lot. I'm telling you Ebay is my friend. I got a really great deal. Another great bonus, the seller of the Konos Lot has taken me under her wing. Answering my questions and encouraging me to boot.
Math- We will use Saxon 2 for the boy. We used K and 1 previously and Saxon works for him. I have Saxon on my Ebay watch list, I'm waiting for a deal. Little girl will be using BJU Math K5. She completed Saxon K this past year and I do not want to move her ahead to Saxon 1. I know how intense it can be so we will wait until next year to use Saxon 1 with her. I feel the BJU K5 will engage her and challenge her without going overboard.

Needless to say, I am excited about the upcoming school year. Now I just need to be patient as I await the arrival of my Ebay steals. They are on their way....Woohoo!

Oh yeah, lastly, I will be going through Educating the Whole Hearted Child, as a study with other moms over the Summer.