What Should I Do?

*SIGH* Child Thing #2 now refuses to take an afternoon nap. I suspect, he's not really ready to give up his nap because if we happen to be in the car in early afternoon, he konks out for hours at a time. Or if I lay him down on the couch and turn on the TV for him, he will usually fall asleep instantly. But...if I try to put him in his bed...not gonna happen. He'll stay in there (sometimes) for a hour and not fall asleep.

So this has put a kink in my homeschooling schedule. I used to work with Child Thing #2 in the afternoon during naptime. As I see it, I have two options.
#1. This is what we have done for the past couple of weeks. We start working on school around 10 a.m., with little brother attending school with us. This makes for many distractions on the part of both student and teacher. We take a break for an hour or two for lunch and recess, then spend another couple of hours finishing our lessons. Today Child Thing #2 got VERY grouchy in the last half of school, so I laid him down on the couch and let him watch a TV show while we finished up school. Child Thing #1, of course, did not want to miss out on the TV time, so she rushed through her work to get it done.
#2. Attempt to get Child Thing #1 to take a nap in the afternoon (by either method mentioned above), and continue with our old routine of doing school during his nap. The thing is I can never guarantee that he's going to fall asleep. And if I use the TV to induce naptime, my scholar will not be interested the least bit in her schoolwork.

I don't know...what should I do?

It definitely makes me wonder about next year, when there will be 3 child things. Will I be able to keep up the homeschooling then?

If so, I'm not so sure I will use Sonlight again. There are some things I really like about that curriculum, but some things that just don't make much sense to me. Maybe this is how kindergarten is supposed to be, but, it seems like the curriculum does not go in depth to any subject. You get just a little glimpse of everything, but don't do much true exploring and learning of any topic. I also don't know that it is organized that well. The science lesson plans bother me because we'll spend a week learning about, say...sea life, and then do a science activity that is not related to that at all.

But I have to say, I have totally loved the "read alouds" included with the curriculum. Child Thing #1 and I have both enjoyed the books, and sometimes I even try to talk Scott into reading some of our school books because I found them so interesting!

Anyway, lots of questions about the future of our homeschool. I don't even know where we'll be living next fall. We'll just take it as it comes, I suppose. :)

It's Official...Unofficially.

Look what I got in the mail! It's our curriculum for kindergarten, and I'm excited about it! Last year I wrote a lot about our trial period of homeschooling, but until recently I didn't decide for sure what we were going to do about school this year. As you can see, I have now decided. We are going to homeschool, and we are using the Sonlight curriculum. The Child Thing and I have already rummaged through the boxes a little bit, and both of us found items that looked interesting.

It's still not totally official. I haven't registered with the state, but that won't be hard. I'm feeling positive about this and about our new curriculum, too. I think we will have a great school year!

Long Rambing Post About Curriculum

It's only Spring Break, but I'm feeling the need to prepare a homeschool curriculum for next year. Truth be told, I have been considering different curriculums since way before Christmas. This year, we are doing pre-k at home, and I was very loose with the curriculum, but next year, if I go ahead with homeschooling, we'll be official.

Not that the state of Hawaii is has strict rules about homeschooling or record keeping. But...it will still be official.

This year, I bought the phonics program from Abeka Book. I have been happy with the results. The child thing is reading, and that speaks for itself. We actually finished up the pre-k program and are working on the kindergarten one now. This curriculum may be a little too repetitive, but I think we are going to stick with it for next year for reading/phonics.

The history and literature programs from Abeka do not really appeal to me, though. They seem a bit hokey/not challenging enough/overly Christian. That may sound strange coming from someone who's a Christian, but I don't want to shelter my kids from viewpoints that are different or "brainwash" them.

So I'm having a hard time deciding what sort of curriculum I'd like to do for subjects other than reading. I'm liking the Sonlight curriculum for history and literature, and I love that they buy into the living history book theory. This curriculum has everything included and planned out for you already, so that means less prep work for me. That sounds good! But then again, choosing what you want to teach and not having it all planned out for you is one of the benefits of homeschooling, isn't it?

But I also bought The Story of the World Vol. 1 by Susan Wise Bauer, and I find it very intriguing also. It is not completely planned out, so I would have to be more involved in the lesson planning, but it is still very inclusive. For each unit, you read a short chapter from the book, and it provides coloring pages and maps that correspond with each chapter. It also gives suggestions for projects that relate to what you're learning. And these are not hokey activities...they are cool. Like to go along with ancient Egypt, it has instructions on how to mummify a chicken! It also includes suggestions on other books and biographies that you and your child could read to delve deeper into any unit. It seems like it would be pretty fun and pretty challenging.

And math, well, I don't know. If I buy from Sonlight, I will probably buy a math program from them, too. But if I don't go with Sonlight, I may try out Abeka's math, too.

So this turned in to a long, rambling post, and I kinda doubt anyone has stuck with me so far, but if you have...sorry I have rambled for so long. If any homeschooling types have opinions/suggestions on any curriculum, I'd love to hear them!