No Summer Break

I'm still finishing up Collin's school year. We have two weeks of curriculum left to do, but it is so light that I'm sure we'll finish it in one week. I was planning to wait until late July to order Collin's curriculum for next year and start in August when Alana goes back to school. However, Collin started POUTING when he found out that we had finished all of the history lessons for the year. He also loves literature, reading and science. I planned to just continue math over the summer so that we can get completely caught up by the end of the school year. However, I spent the weekend researching curriculum and went ahead and ordered everything for next year. Now, Collin and I anxiously wait for the boxes to arrive!

We are sticking with Sonlight for History, Reading and Literature. We will keep our same Handwriting and Math curriculum as well. We are trying something new for Science, Grammar, Writing, Spelling, and Geography. I'm so excited! I always thought that if we won the lottery I would go back to school full-time studying foreign languages and whatever else struck my fancy and traveling. Since we are studying American History this year, I'm looking forward to checking out local and regional resources for field trips (plus I'm hoping to take a family vacation to D.C. next summer). So, I realized today that homeschooling has been like winning the lottery for me in a way. I get to learn new things right along with Collin and travel to fun locations (we went to the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence -- actually a lot of fun -- especially the covered wagon ride pulled by two mules). When I realized this, it reminded me of the movie Under the Tuscon Sun -- when Diane Lane's character realizes that all her dreams had come true -- just not in the way she had initially thought they would. Such a fun thing to discover!