The Big Buy

Every year around this time we get a tax refund, and it's time once again to make our big homeschool purchase.  The project of deciding what books and supplies we need for the coming school year has been consuming all of my spare time for the past week and more.  It was a little more work than usual; in the past I've mostly just ordered the next book in each of the series that I've liked over the years.  This year, though, I felt a need to make things more challenging and comprehensive for Primo, as he goes into 7th grade.  And after six years of trying to put together something on my own for science that I can be happy with, I'm going to cave and try a textbook-based curriculum for Primo.  I think I've almost settled on what we're getting (for all the boys and all the subjects) after *many, many hours* researching various curricula, previewing books through interlibrary loan, reading reviews, and taking stock of what we already have (and what sorts of things I buy and then find we never use-- that's right, I'm talking about you, art supplies).  This may change a bit, there's no hurry to order since we won't start our new school year until May 1st.  Here it is then, for anyone who is curious:

Math:
Singapore 5A/5B workbooks (Radish, he won't need them until early 2015 but I like to have everything I'll need for the next 12 months when I place my order)
Life of Fred Beginning Algebra Expanded Edition
Life of Fred Beginning Algebra: Zillions of Practice Problems (both of these for Primo)
Learning Wrap-Ups: Multiplication (Radish)

History and Geography:
History Odyssey- Early Modern (Level 2) (for Primo, but some of the literature units I'll use for Radish as well)
Yo, Millard Fillmore!
Yo, Sacramento!
The Little Man in the Map (these last three mostly for Radish, to work on memorization)

Science:
Holt Science And Technology, Life Science, Homeschool Package (Primo)
Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia (both)
Microscope Adventure! Unit Study (both)
World of the Microscope (both)
ScienceWiz DNA (kit, for both)
Bridges! (mostly Radish, although I think Primo won't be able to resist 'helping' with some of the projects and experiments)
spring scale (Radish, needs for Steck-Vaughn Science by the Grade, which we already own)

English:
Daily Grams 4th Grade (Radish)
Daily Grams 7th Grade (Primo)

Practical Arts:
Life Skills for Kids (Primo)

Art:
1-2-3 Draw People (Radish)

Philosophy:
Thank You For Arguing, Revised and Updated Edition (both)

Planning for High School and Beyond:
Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook (me)
College Without High School (Primo, very unschool-y but I want him to be exposed to these ideas)
Setting the Records Straight: How to Craft Homeschool Transcripts and Course Descriptions for College Admission and Scholarships (me)
Homeschooling the Teen Years (me, on the fence about this one because it's the same author as the Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook above, might be repetitive)

Snorzy, toddling at home:
water table
My Fairy Princess Palace (because I want it, and he'll want me to play with him, and this is the compromise we're going to come to-- I'll play with him, if we can play things that I like and am usually deprived of in my boy-centric world)

So there you have it, and that's what's been eating all my time lately.  (don't ask about the craft challenge, I had to let it slide this past week or go crazy! hoping to continue the sweater project as this week's 'craft')

Schedules

We’re on day three of our month-long ‘December Break’.  After more than three months straight of 'lessons’ nearly every weekday morning, there is a holiday atmosphere around taking our mornings off.  I still insist that we all get dressed, make beds, and brush our teeth first thing.  And we always make ‘December Goals’ before this break, outlining some plans so that the month doesn’t fly by with nothing to show for it (in the past, the boys’ goals have mostly had a lot to do with hot chocolate and sledding, this year I asked them to include at least one thing they want to learn more about, and one thing they want to learn how to do or in which they want to improve their skills).  It’s not suddenly anarchy around here.  But we watch an episode of Doctor Who in the middle of the morning.  The boys open one of the twenty-four ‘literary advent calendar’ books.  Hours of drawing, playing and reading ensue.
Schedules and timing are one of the things about our homeschool that I’m always looking to refine and perfect.  Our yearly schedule is: the school year starts May 1st for the two boys (although Radish started lessons the January after he turned 4, so his ‘school year’ as far as moving up to the next level of writing and math is off from our school year as a family), we go three months and then take a month off—theoretically, although things get complicated around summer camp starting in July which is supposed to be an ‘on’ month for us, and sometimes I give them their standardized tests in the first week of April, although it is one of our three vacation months (April, August, December).  Our daily schedule is more fluid, although paper-and-pencil lessons mostly fall between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.  Lots of things that ‘count’ fall outside of these hours (reading, music lessons, physical education), but I try to hold our mornings free from outside activities because I found in our first years of homeschooling that if I’m not strict about this, we don’t have time to do much of anything academically.  This has meant, over the past few years, that we’ve missed out on a lot of things that are going on in the homeschool community, and which begin either in the morning or too early in the afternoon for us to manage to get there.
Being way off from the public school in our yearly schedule doesn’t bother me a bit, and the kids don’t mind except when someone asks them what grade they’re in and they have to think about it for a second.  The daily schedule is different-- every once in a while something very cool is happening in the morning or early afternoon in our homeschool community, and I have to stop and think about whether to make an exception to my rule about ‘morning is for us at home, doing lessons’.  Sometimes I bend a little, for a one-time thing like a field trip or for an academic co-op that meets often.  Right now we’re doing ‘Friday lessons’ with some good friends, as a kind of a mini co-op (just our two families).  It seems worthwhile to make an exception for this, because I want my guys to have the experience of doing academic and project work with other really bright kids.