Thoughts for 2011-2012 School Year

I feel like I need to get all my ideas, thoughts, gameplan, etc down in one spot.

2nd grade
We are dropping phonics this year! I know a lot of schools and homeschooling parents continue phonics through this year, but with as well as DD is reading, I just don't see it as a neccessity for this year. I never really used the Saxon literature supplements that went along with the program. The spelling in the Saxon program I loved, but I think I may have found something to replace it!

Math: Saxon 2
Science: Apologia Botany
All other academics/Bible: Tapestry of Grace
P.E.: YMCA combo dance class
Music: Piano lessons

Preschool (Year 2)
I looked over what we accomplished this year and took into consideration DS's age and desire for school before deciding that putting off Kindergarten another year was our best option. Many preschool curriculums, though, are LESS advanced than what we did this year. :-( I did find something that looks like a good bridge between what I've done with him this year and what Saxon K (phonics and math) will cover.

Preschool: Horizons by Alpha Omega Publishers

General Thoughts
Now, I just need to get a game plan going on how to purchase these items and from where. I usually pick up things from eBay, Craigslist, or Christian Book Distributors. I know that I cannot get the Tapestry of Grace curriculum from anywhere except the publisher, so that means a much higher price for those items and much more work on my part on raising money to purchase needed items.

I need to sit down and figure out some sort of schedule for fitting in two full school schedules. I feel like I failed miserably at this last school year. I do know I want to do a 4 day school week with Fridays as "catch up" days in the even we need to take some extra time on a subject or have something come up earlier in the week.

Also a change from last year is that I won't fill out the entire plan book for the year. I'll go back to doing it weekly. I still plan on pulling all worksheets and sorting then into daily folders like I did this year, which I think greatly helped with preparations for daily tasks. It was so easy just to grab a single folder and be ready with all of DDs schoolwork for that day. I'll definitely use this method for DS's schooling. I'm torn about it for DD's, though. On a homeschooling blog I follow, she uses a workbox system. Each night she puts all her kids' (4 or 5 of them) work in an organizer with multiple drawers, arranging them one subject per drawer. When the child sits down, they merely start at the top drawer and work their way down. DD is a very independent little girl, but I don't know if she's ready for something quite like this yet. Obviously I'd be right there able to provide assistance should she need any help with her work, but this way she wouldn't have to wait on me to finish something up with her brother. She could just move on at her own pace.

Then to figure in to any scheduling and planning is the baby. Come end of Aug/beginning of Sept, he'll be 3 months old. During the school year, he'll still be nursing and hitting all those phases of wanting to play more, learning to crawl, possibly working on walking, etc. There's always the question of what to do to keep him busy but not leaving him feeling ignored while I'm focused on the two older kids.

*Sigh* I'm thinking a call to Michelle Duggar is needed -- STAT! LOL!