School Planning

Life has just swallowed up my time!

One of the things in life that has me occupied

is homeschooling my kids...

staying on top of planning school...

staying on top of keeping things organized

(which isn't my strong point).

I have been encouraged the past couple of weeks

to see the kids apply themselves

and look at their weekly plans independently...

and do a good majority of their school independently.

That is one of the main the goals.

To create independent learners.

Kids who can find the answers for themselves.

Kids who can figure out how to learn on their own.

They're still learning how to do this,

but I saw us take some major steps

toward this goal the past couple of weeks.

I'm seeing progress!

Yes!

As we're coming to the end of our unit study,

Attentiveness...

where we have learned about

ears and hearing,

eyes and sight,

traps and animals,

and birds

(yes, they all have something in common with attentiveness),

I am planning a new unit study.

I am mulling around the idea of doing

a unit study on the 50 states.

Quite an endeavor, no?

This would take a year if you studied one state per week.

And even with this, I'm asking myself,

"Is one week per state enough time?"

Hmmm...

I don't have a whole lot of time to contemplate the idea...

I'm expecting a new baby the beginning of June

and I would like to have a general idea

about the direction for school decided and planned by then.

To keep our momentum going.

To continue making progress

toward independent learning and thinking.

Here's a wonderful site I found with TONS of info...

http://www.squidoo.com/50statesnotebook

almost too much info...

an overwhelming amount of info...

on doing a 50 states unit study.

So much work is already done,

but putting it all together

and taking the pieces you like

and putting them together

with other pieces you like...

it takes a decent amount of organization...

Do I dare try?

It's somewhat daunting,

but I think I will be persuaded to pursue it.

Why?

I'm thinking my kids would have a blast!
I'm thinking they would love to do a unit study like this.

I'm thinking they would learn a lot and enjoy it.

I'm thinking if I start now,
I may be able to pull the whole plan together

just in time for baby #3.

Besides, aren't these kids worth it?

Yes, they are!