Homeschool Convention

I went to the WHO Homeschool Convention this weekend, and had a great time with my friend Colleen. We had two full days of shopping and seminars and came home tired and overflowing with great ideas.

Happily, I didn't really need to buy much curriculum this year, so I am able to keep the cost down this time around. I was able to find what I hope to be the perfect math curriculum for Ian. We have been using Math U See since the second grade and were ready to try something new. He is struggling in that subject, so I did some research and found Teaching Textbooks. It is a software based program, but also uses a workbook. I am hoping this pulls him out of the "I hate math" slump.

I now have next year planned as far as curriculum goes, and I am working out the daily schedule.

My one last task is to find homeschool planning software. We have outgrown the paper notebook lesson planners, and I enjoyed using the free online planner (http://home-school-inc.com) until the website grew sluggish towards the end of the school year. So, I am going to invest in a good quality software program to do our daily planning. I found that the children really liked having their daily assignments printed out for them each day. It gave them ownership of their assignments and made them a bit more independent in their work. It is also really nice for record keeping.

We are leaving for TN in a few weeks, so I am putting off some of the planning until we get back.