Planning and Accountability

  I hope to make this blog about my accountability to my daughters as we go through our homeschooling journey this year. I guess I should make that my accountability to God; I have to answer to Him for what I do or do not teach them.  We are going to start on September 3rd for the 2012-2013 school year.
  Starting tonight, I am having Rachel get into bed at nine o'clock.  According to her body, she needs twelve hours of sleep, and I want the girls up absolutely no later than nine in the morning on school days.
  As far as curriculum goes, I looked over the Saxon Grammar and Writing I had purchased for Meghan, and decided to purchase the same for Rachel for her learning level.  There are schedules printed near the front of the Teacher Manual for each day's work, which makes it so much easier for Teacher Mom!  So, that means I can scrap three of the books I was going to use for Rachel for Language Arts--less "busy work" for both of us!  The girls will also both be using Saxon Math and Sequential Spelling.  We will start our History/Science with "Life in the Great Ice Age", a somewhat Biblical account of  "cavemen" (gotta start printing off those study guides!).
  I am excited about the new school year because I believe God has given me a new perspective on what I need to teach and how I need to go about it.  God is awesome!  The main focus (I hope) will be my time with them, learning along with them what God wants for our lives.
  I almost wish that I hadn't allowed them to sign up for acting and dance classes, because now I sense the impending doom of feeling rushed to get to classes on school days.  But if we start early, I think we will be okay and I can avoid the guilt of not having done at least the majority of what I had planned for us to do each school day.
  Oh!  And reading!  I have printed from the internet a list of what I think is a pretty good compilation of  literature to read through the school year.
  Since Meghan is off in Florida with my sister right now, my big plans for tomorrow are to go through her piles of craft supplies, scrap papers, things that should have been thrown out months ago, etc, and organize or throw out each item.
  My thoughts should be of going to bed right now, especially with sinus troubles, so here I shall leave you until my next post.