Thinking about Curriculum

The annual MACHE conference is this weekend in Rochester Minnesota. I am not attending, I was uninspired when looking through the offerings and felt like much of it is the same as the previous several years.

Plus I have little self control when it comes to purchasing good books which are available to the excess there. Not curriculum mind you, I have a lot of self-control and selectivity when it comes to that but just good old used books, great literautre, non-fiction finds and all those treasure troves of books that I would come home with a car full of. So I decided to stay home this time.

Still everyone in my support group has been talking about next year and offering to purchase things for me so I can save on shipping and get some things a bit cheaper. Last year I was organized and sent a dear friend with a list and cheapest prices I could get online with shipping. If she could find it for less in her travels she would pick it up, she found about half cheaper and half I ended up purchasing online anyway.

This year I did not send a list - I am just not motivated to think about next year yet and I know I can get reasonable prices online, if even simply through Rainbow Resources who almost always has what I need at the cheapest price. Though they sometimes take forever to ship and have strict return policies and don't run specials. Between RR and Amazon I usually get everything I need. I have not wanted to buckle down and think ahead.

Some things of course are already decided for next year. Ciaran will follow the same basic things we did with Rhiannon for first grade modified to fit his learning style and with the exception of a workbook or two I have everything already. Rhia will continue with Story of the World Vol 3 which is really the backbone of our studies. I love teaching history as a chronological story with the activites and maps they provide and supplementing with books from the library. It fits our family well. We will continue with some combination of Singapore and Miquon math. We have our science textbooks here. She loves old style classroom textbooks like I used growing up that I supplement with non-fiction more in depth books from the library. I may consider the Astronomy Creation Science book to go side by side with that. We like teaching science from both the creation and the evolution perspective side by side and discussing them which typically requires using two very different texts. We will do Spelling Power, continue Handwriting Without Tears and begin Latin. So I guess I have thought about it - just need to decide on Language Arts beyond Explode the Code which we will continue and some more to supplement in Geography and then the usual stuff we add in as the year goes.

I love pulling things together and taking the parts I like and leaving the rest behind. So far I have not found a "box" I like.