Planning Ahead

I am so excited about the coming school year.  Since the co-op that we were going to join, closed; I have been doing some research on a Science and History curriculum. Along with those, I've been "planning ahead". I can't believe that within 2 years my son will be in the ninth grade. I'm  a little lot floored! I'm  also looking across the board at what he is going to need to graduate. Talk about butterflies in the tummy!  We've even talked about trying to double up and finish a year early. This is still a possibility, but he is going to have to REALLY want to do this for it to work and it is going to have to be started this coming school year. Another thing we've talked about is doing some classes (foreign language) online through the  Georgia Virtual School; definitely something that we are thinking about.

We are making some changes in our Science curriculum after doing a little nosing around. I highly recommend a Christian family to do a thorough research on the Biblical stance that a company/author/publisher gives. Once you find their statement be a little more aggressive in researching everything you can about them. We try to not support groups, businesses, etc. that don't believe the same way we do, nor do we support businesses in our community that fund organizations that do everything they can to tear the Bible and the church down. This is something that has really bothered me over the last couple of years. I began my research after reading this ARTICLE on homeschool curriculum. (We don't necessarily agree with everything this man teaches, but the article is something that we do agree with.) One of the "companies" that he has listed, we bought from for several years because they offered another company's curriculum items that we used at a cheaper rate. Once I began thinking how my money was helping support their beliefs, we stopped buying from them.

In our home, we teach our son he is not to back down on his beliefs, nor should he allow others to "push" him around.  He is also taught to not be wishy washy in his thinking and speaking. If he is willing to believe one way, then he needs to take a stand for it ~ no matter what. This way of thinking and teaching had to do with a lot of the curriculum that we chose for Science for this coming school year.

For the past couple of years, I wanted to buy from Answers In Genesis, but I was always afraid of the cost. Yeah, I'm one of those moms who try to spend as little as possible on curriculum. But, within the last year or so, I have seen how the money has been supplied for us to move away from other curricula, so we can have a curriculum that is written for our beliefs, without going with a "big box" curriculum.

As for our history, I'm still looking at a couple. I am leaning more towards one, since they have a two year American History that can be taught this year and next, but they don't have the history courses that are needed for our high school requirements. I just want to find something, that we will be able to stick with and not have to bounce around again.  ~ A never ending story, I tell ya!

There is more to tell about how I chose the God's Design for Life set of books. Once I send Jamie off to his day of Farm touring and Fishing Rodeo with 4H tomorrow, I'll be able to explain it.

I'd like to learn mor about how others choose their curriculum, so please leave me a comment and let me know.