First Day of School

Well, yesterday was our first day of the school year. This is my daughter's 4th year of homeschooling and I've also decided to start my son on some Preschool work; so I will have my hands full. Every year I start with such big plans, but always seem to let some of them fall by the side as the year progresses. In the past I've always had things come up that take me away from home. I'm hoping that this year will be different, since we're at home all day, every day. Which is, of course, the way it should be anyway. Hmmm, it's becoming more and more obvious why the Lord has put us here. I need to get my priorities straightened out!
My daughter has been using A.C.E. curriculum since the beginning and we are very happy with it. We are also going to add a few other unit studies along with this. We will be doing "The Mystery of History", which is one of those things that we started last year but never finished, and "Pictures from Proverbs" which is new to us this year. Each of these I can do with both children, just on different levels. The same company where I ordered the Pictures from Proverbs has a game called "The Richest Christian" that we're going to use as a supplement with Bible and Math -- but also just for fun! We will be learning Hebrew through Rosetta Stone software, and my daughter will continue learning typing through a PC typing game. Here's been my dilemma in schooling this year. My daughter took 2 years of piano while we were in Okinawa, but now we are stuck without a piano teacher. I don't want her to lose what she has learned, and I don't want her to lose this time that she could be learning more and practicing. Until I can find some way of getting her more lessons she'll be practicing on our keyboard at home. Each week I plan on teaching the kids a hymn. We'll sing the same one all week long, and my daughter can be also be learning how to play it. We can also use this hymn for copywork to improve my daughter's penmanship. As for my son, well, we're taking it much slower for him. He'll be 4 next month, so he's not yet the age for Kindergarten, but it's never too early to start introducing things. He's going to be learning one letter each week focusing on how to recognize it, write it, and the sounds it makes. DLTK has a printable series of "Alphabuddies" that my son will make each week, as well as their "Number Buddies" for teaching a new number each week. I'm also going to be teaching him shapes, colors, and general concepts like that. All of his schooling shouldn't take more than 15 minutes, so we won't be wearing out his attention span. I'm starting each school day with prayer, of course, and then with a Bible story. We'll have the same story all week, focusing on different parts throughout the week. The kids will have a craft or coloring page to do each day to reinforce what they've learned. Okay, I think I've officialy scared myself having written that all out!!! But, this post will serve as a reminder to me of what my goals are. In a few months I'll look back and see how well I'm doing.