Rethinking Some Choices

So, I thought I had my year all mapped out for both my kids for this upcoming year. I was feeling very prepared and quite pleased and settled. I was going over my chosen curriculum (if you will) with each child: Isabel said, "Ok," but Logan's response was a little less enthusiastic. He told me that he would prefer a different approach to both history and science. I was shocked! Since it was my idea to go over our "goals" and plans for the year, this was not the response I expected. Logan went on to tell me that the history we have been doing (Bob Jones) is great, but he really knew most of what we were covering (he is a history fanatic) and that he would prefer a more auditory method of learning history.


For his US History this year, we are doing something TOTALLY different and I feel very insecure with it! He knows the basics of US History already, so I should really calm down. Logan is going to be watching documentaries, movies, and reading historical fiction (stories and journal style). No preplanned lesson for me to follow...scary! I think he will get so much out of it. He loves going in depth into most things history.


Now that we had history taken care of, I was free to focus on science. Since I have no real science background, I had no clue where to begin. I was on the lookout for something at the Homeschool Convention I attended a few weeks ago. I am sure that I looked through every single science textbook that was there. I looked at lapbook type programs (he really does not like that sort of thing). I looked at science from different homeschool philosophies. Then I looked at online and software science courses. I finally decided on using the K12 Advanced Life Science.


Logan was an early reader, but did not like chapter books at his comprehensive level, as they seemed too overwhelming. He loved DK Eyewitness books because they were filled with bite sized pieces of great information, wonderful photographs and advanced vocabulary. The K12 Advanced Life Science seems to be a similar approach. There is a small amount of text on each 'page' accompanied by visually appealing graphics and photos. *sigh* I am so happy to get that figured out.


While I was on K12 previewing the Advanced Life Science, I decided to have a look at the 5th Grade Science for Isabel. I loved it too. Similar set up and lots of labs and experiments (which is what Isabel loves). I am really excited about getting this year started.


One of the biggest advantages of homeschool is the ability to change your curriculum or method if something isn't working or if something could work better. Even though I am very aware of this benefit, I have a very difficult time making changes like this. What if the change I am making is the wrong choice? What if it would have been better if I had stuck with what we were doing before? What if I spend the money to try something new and it fails? We will see how it goes!