Next year

Now that we hit the halfway point of this school year, I'm already thinking about next year.  Isn't everyone?

I've really wanted to stay open to the Lord's leading when it came to Kara's school.  If I had my way, Kara would have gone to private school from the beginning and stayed there.  Instead, I was led to public school for Kara's kindergarten, which was a great experience.  Her teacher was amazing and she met a lot of little friends.  This year, gulp, I was led to home school.  Wait, I always said I'd never do that.  (*psst  I'm not amish or a weirdo, I'm not gonna do that.  Besides, it sounds like too much work.)  BUT, I asked what God's plan was for Kara's education, not "Lord, could you kindly conform to my plan?"  And this is where He led us.  You've read over the last several months what a great experience it's been.  I've been careful to make sure this is not just something to keep me busy, a job, a purpose.  And I've also been careful to make sure it's not me being a control freak and keeping my baby near me because that's what I want.  I really feel like this is where we are supposed to be and while there's pros and cons to everything, this has been so great.  I've had support from my husband, my friends, my parents, Michael's parents, my siblings (my sister's husband is basically my brother - he's been around FOREVER) :-), my siblings-in-law, my community, etc.  I have home school moms who have great advice, and a best friend who was a second grade public school teacher, not to mention the internet and blogs and pinterest - I have so many great resources.  I am so blessed.

I'm really feeling like this may be what we are going to do next year.  It's early yet (and I'm open to God changing the plan, if he needs to), but I'm definitely feeling led that way.  I'm thinking next year I'd like to make my own curriculum.  I'm not sure how that works, but this is what I'm thinking:
  * I'd like to make my own themes for the week - based around a holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, MLK Day, Columbus Day, etc.)
  * I'd like to make a "book of the week."  Whatever book we're reading will either be the theme for the week, or will be the place we find spelling words, vocab words, parts of speech, book reports, etc.

I am meeting with the home school county official next week, so I'll ask him about this.  Also, this is going to be a lot more work for me, but I'm fine with that.  I'm finding so far that lesson plans are one of the things I like most about home school.

Please pray for the whole situation.  I want to walk God's plan for our lives.

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