Planning, planning, planning....

Lots of new things in this casa.
We left our old home. The real estate market is completely upside down and we were completely underwater in home that needed a *lot* of work. After a year of serious decision-making we decided the best decision for our family would be to get out while we could. We are temporarily relocated in MUCH smaller home a town away. Big things in store for us and another move though!

Kids are dying to jump right back into activities and I hope that is on the short-term horizon.

Planning. OK here we go.

Ferb (9, 4th grade):
LA: MCT series & Megawords with Mosdos for lit
History: SOTW did not cut the mustard from 3 on out. 1 was awesome however. So we're all moving to Sonlight History (core 1/2 World History beefed up for him OR 3/4. On the fence).
Reading: Mosdos as mentioned and bedtime and free reads from the Great Books academy
Geography: since we have played down history I may amp UP Geography, currently undecided between 3 curricula.
Math: Switching to Math U See for all 3 for a bit. May supplement...
Writing: BIG switch here. We're all going to IEW. $$$ I only see $$$ when I say IEW
Art: Sister Wendy DVDs, Child-sized masterpieces. May outsource lessons.
Music: R&S music theory, plus a new composer CD a month and outsource lessons (he.wants.drums.OY.)
Science: We're all moving inot Apologia and we're starting off with Human Body.

Candace (7, 2nd grade):
LA: New here as well R&S English 2 and English worksheets. Delightful Dictation and Spelling.
History: same as Ferb
Reading: If the Wolf were an Octopus for lit with reading books from Great Books Academy
Writing, Art, Music, Geography, Science....Same as Ferb

Phineas (a month shy of 5, Kindergarten!)
Reading: yikes, $$$, Phonics Road 1
Math: Math U See Primer
Science: Storybook of Science
History: Stories of Great Americans
Writing: HWT
Art, Music, Geography with Candace and Ferb.

Phew.

Gotta go plant that money tree now........

The Forgotten Blog

... though it has been in the back of my brain to post. A lot. But life keeps getting in the way, along with one move, a really bad economic period in our lives, and a wanky computer (oh and the 3 little bodies who try to overtake it.. Ferb 9, Candace 7, and Phineas 4). But with the move we did sign up for cable TV. We have been without cable for almost a year now. I'm ready to toss the cable again NOW after just a few weeks though. We are not TV people. Computer people, yes. Tv, no. For us the cost is prohibitive for the amount that we watch it. And Ferb cannot handle TV, way too overstimulating for him.

In terms of academics, we have made a lot of headway recently. Ferb is a visual kid so for him Khan Academy Math videos on youtube have been wonderful. Because his is SO visual he is not digging SOTW3 as much as I had hoped. I'm afraid it's only so-so for him. His sister meanwhile is loving SOTW1. Both kids are into anything Mythology-related (and oh what timing with the release of the Percy Jackson MOVIE). Ferb thinks he *is* Percy. Seriously. This child is so at home in the water and if we weren't in the shark bite capital of the WORLD I'd be more comfortable with that fact.