Today marks the beginning of our 2nd semester for the school year.  I always like to take stock of how things are working in our homeschool.  I think it keeps things fresh and allows us to make any necessary changes to better our learning experiences here at home.

While there are several things that have been absolutely right about our school year, I have felt led to make a few changes for this semester. I think that if you are willing to listen to the Lord, that He will guide and direct the learning in the home.  After all, we are His children and He knows us best.  So here is what we are going to be doing for this next semester of our school year:

• We are dropping Grammar after the end of this month.  I wanted to finish through week 18 of the study.  We will pick it back up next year and complete the course in the first semester.  This is a very strong area for my son anyway, so it really won’t hurt us at all to have a break from those studies.

• We will be completing our Christian Kids Explore Biology course the end of this month as well.  Instead of picking up a new science course to finish out the year, we will be doing some delight directed learning through unit studies.  We will be doing the Space study by Amanda Bennett.  When we complete that, we will do a unit study on insects and then one on volcanoes.  I will be writing both of those unit studies.

• We will be picking up where we left off on Write Shop.  We took a break from this when November rolled around so that we could focus on NanoWriMo.  I also want to do some fun creative writing exercises with my son, so we will be exploring that area of writing as well.

• We are putting Mystery of History away for the year.  Instead, we will be using Truthquest to study Rome.  I really wanted to compare these two curriculums side by side, and this seems like a great way to do it.  I keep being drawn toward using Truthquest, so I figured it was time that I listened and made a change.

• We are going to implement using The Madsen Method:  English for Life during this semester.  We have been using it a little bit, but I really want to focus on it and see how we do.  That is another one of the reasons we are going to drop our grammar program for this semester.  We don’t want to overload ourselves!

Everything else will be kept the same.  We will continue to use Teaching Textbooks for math and Vocabulary Cartoons for vocabulary.  Our music program and p.e. program will stay the same.  We will continue to do art projects throughout the year that tie in with holidays or our history curriculum.  That has seemed to work the best for us this year.

Are you doing anything different in your school?  Have you felt led to make any changes, or is everything going as planned?

I am running behind today in posting my menu and linking to the Menu Plan Monday meme as well.  I think sometimes we get so busy with life and being a mom and wife that we don’t always get to do the things we want to…when we want to.  But, I figure that slow is perhaps better than not doing it at all.  At least I am trying, and that is progress in the right direction.

One of my very favorite quotes is by Neil A Maxwell.  Here is what he said:  “Eternal things are always done in the process of time.  Direction is initially more important than speed.”  I think that is so very true!  And I like to think that even something as simple as menu planning is indeed an eternal thing, as it benefits my family and nourishes them physically so they can better do for others.

So here are our menu plans for this week:

Monday–Ribeye Steak, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans  (It’s a celebration night in our home.  So a special meal is being prepared.)

Tuesday–Hamburgers, French Fries

Wednesday–Fish Sticks, Mac & Cheese

Thursday–Teriyaki Steak and Vegetables, Rice

Friday–Pizza, Cheesy Salad (This is green salad with cheese sprinkled on top.  My son likes to call it Cheesy Salad.)  

Saturday–Chicken Foldovers, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Salad

Sunday–Oven BBQ Chicken, Twice Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Brownie Sundaes

Yes, I realize that this Sunday is the same as last Sunday.  However, we had a change in dinner plans and were invited to eat with my BIL and family.  So we actually had Roast Chicken, Peas and Carrots, Potato Salad, and Apple Crisp instead of the BBQ Chicken I had planned.  I hate to waste a great menu item, so I re-scheduled it for this week instead.

If you have had lots of ideas running through your head this week about how to incorporate lapbooks into your curriculum, then you will love the video I have found for you today. There are so many possibilities when it comes to making lapbooks, that the combinations could be endless. You may find that you loved one so much that you will want to copy the idea and make a second one that implements many of the same ideas. Again, the possibilities are virtually endless.

I hope that you find even more inspiration in your lapbooking projects in this video:

Are the ideas running through your mind? What will you create? Leave me a comment and share.