Getting organised!!

Now that we are going to still be home schooling I have been busy getting organised!! I had a fabulous phone conversation with Lusi (from fruitful vine blog) last week and was really encouraged by her in many ways, one of which was praying about every curriculum choice, every therapy possibility for Jaden, every group we could join etc, and asking God to give me peace about which ones to take up and which ones to let go. Seems so simple but I never prayed that specifically about it all before and I have found such a peace in handing the direction over to God. So what will be doing?

Maths- we are going to start using math-u-see. Jaden will be doing alpha because he still finger counts and is lacking a lot of the strategies he needs. I have heard really good reports about MUS and was very impressed by the demo DVD, it helped me understand division which I have always struggled with so that's a good start. :-)

Science- I have ordered a book called 'Christian Kids explore Earth and space' and am very excited about it. I didn't use any science program or book last year, we just did bits and pieces from resources we already had, butI felt we needed some direction, especially as it's Jaden's favourite subject and I wanted to devote more time to it. The book covers a lot of areas in a year, looking at the earth from the core out, then loooking at water, the atmosphere, out to space etc. It covers the things that fascinate Jaden most like volcanos, the weather, earthquakes etc and has info, work pages, plus instructions for hands on stuff and experiments.

English & social studies- I have combined these. We are going to be using the Australian book traveller from Downunder literature, including the history book, our sunburnt country. This 'program' uses living books as a major resource and I have compiled quite a list of the books they recommend and some extras for Jaden's age group as well and have found most of them in the local library catalogue and a few that aren't I have found for sale (fabulous excuse to buy books, oh what joy!!!). Reading, writing, etc will be combined with history, geography etc, but we will still be doing handwriting and spelling too much to Jaden's dismay I'm sure. We may also be doing a unit study on ancient Egypt at some point this year. Jaden has expressed an interest in it and I have plenty of resources in this area since I studied it up to university level, it will just depend on whether we have the time, although I am pondering doing it as a link in when we get to looking at Moses in the Bible.

Socially- we are going to ditch the ice skating as it was too much for Jaden's sensory issues and wasn't very helpful socially, but we have found other social avenues. Jaden is booked into 'the hub' up the Blue Mountains which runs courses for home schoolers as well as social events. In March he will be doing a course in Aboriginal culture for 2 hours each Tuesday. They are doing story telling, arts and crafts and Aboriginal dance, and he is also attending a craft, treasure hunt, egg dying day the week after. I have also joined the tourettes association and there are social events as part of that as well so he can meet other kids who have tics like him.

Creative and practical arts- I am eyeing off a book called 'a child's book of art' to look at with Jaden. Art is really not my thing but I think we could both do with getting some culture in that area. My older sister is actually an art teacher so I can pick her brain too. Jaden has asked to learn guitar so I will be looking into that this year as well. Plus of course lots of arts and crafts at home to do with our subject areas, the messier the better as far as Jaden is concerned.

PDHPE- we will be looking at the human body with the help of the magic school bus in term 1, haven't decided the plans after that yet. We probably wont do soccer this year as it's a bit much to spend saturdays dragging 2 babies around, but Jaden wants to go back to swimming so that is another option for some sport.

Bible study- God has really impressed on me that I need to spend more time actually teaching Jaden about God and using God's word. So we will be starting each day with prayer and devotions and learning some memory verses (with the help of Colin Buchanan) and finding ways to apply them practically. As well as teaching other subjects from a Biblical perspective and we're going to be doing some Bible lessons looking through the Bible chronologically as well.

So that's the plan and I am really excited. I have found the enthusiasm that Jeanne (from a peaceful day blog) had when she posted about her plans a couple of weeks ago, I just had to get myself in the right place with God first so he could pass on His energy and His good plans for my boy! I am feeling really peaceful that this is God's path for us and look forward to getting started in a couple fo weeks.

I have also been getting organised for everything else going on in our lives. We have bought a bassinet and rearranged our room to fit it in, plus we have laybed a pram that has a toddler seat and a car seat. I also posted invitations yesterday for Bethany's 1st birthday party because that is coming up in Feb. Plus I am still in 'organising' mode for the ladies camp and have plans for my birthday in April hatching in my head too, I think it's getting rather full in there, but I like to be organised :-)