Six Flags over Texas and Homeschool Fair

Auston and Gregory riding Boot Scootin
Mikey and Gregory (note Gregory's look of fear and tight grip on the bar) and Calley behind them on the Sombrero
Plain Tuckered Out after a great day at Six Flags over Texas!
Gregory and Auston in Yosemite Sam's Ride, (pronounced YOS Mite Sam by Gregory!)
Can't remember the name of this ride, but Auston, Gregory and Calley enjoyed it! All in all we had a great time in Dallas with Michael's brother and his family. We went to Disney with them last year and we really enjoy vacationing with them! We started the trip off with a trip to Texas Christian University for the Duke TIPS awards celebration. Calley was awarded for outstanding performance on the SAT as a 7th grader! We are very proud of her! Then we went to Six Flags on Thursday. It was wonderful! There were hardly any lines at all, so we are all making a mental note to go back the same time next year! Our night ended in excitement when there was a drive by shooting at the cabaret next to our hotel! Needless to say, we will not be staying at the Motel 6 next to 6 flags EVER again! But all was well, and we had a fantastic time!!

We got up early Friday morning and headed back to Houston so that I could go to the setsha Homeschool Conference. It lasted Friday and Saturday and Michael went with me on Saturday. The kids were enrolled in their children's program for the weekend and they had an absolute blast! As for me and Michael, we have now purchased our curriculum for next year- There is not turning back now!! LOL!!

Seriously, we left the conference feeling energized and excited about homeschooling our children! I met so many wonderful people and just really enjoyed myself! For those that are curious, here is a snapshot of our chosen curriculum for this upcoming school year:

Bible: Picture This!: They color a page for each book of the bible and when you are done they have an illustrated page for each book, essentially their own illustrated Bible! It sounds more simplistic then it is, it is actually recommended for grade 4 and up, but I think Grego will do fine with it. I am even going to make my own!

Math: Singapore Math: I think this will keep up with both of them, and keep them on a fast pace...

Science: Great Science Adventure, Human Body for the 1st Semester: We will kick this study off with a visit to the Body Worlds exhibit at Houston Museum of Natural Science! I am VERY excited about this one!!

History: The Story of the World: This has a book that tells the history of the world in story format starting at the beginning. It is actually a 4 volume set that takes 4 years to complete. The workbook has gobs of extra activities to do with it too, like using dirt, rocks and grass seed in a roasting pan make your own model of the Nile and flood the Nile once a week to see how it makes the grass grow... Cool stuff!

In addition to the Story of the World about once a month we will do a Unit Study on a State and occasionly encorporate visiting that state if possible! I got a cool book to help with this called Cantering the Country to help with this, but I will encorporate my own stuff to..

Handwriting: Pentime looks like it is short sweet and to the point, so we will try that. We are doing A reason for Handwriting this summer, and they don't really care for it, so hopefully they will like Pentime better.

Language Arts: Learning Language Arts Through Literature. I am excited about this one too, it is written by one of the authors for the Great Science Adventures and I heard good things about it. I think it will be really fun!

Chess: Yes, Chess! We got a book/DVD pack and will be working on Chess this year!!

And finally, journaling. I got several story prompt books to choose from and we will journal daily. I am going to try to find a pretty nice notebook for their journals, because I have always considered them keepsakes..

The only thing I haven't got yet is a Spanish Curriculum. This seems to be more difficult that I anticipated, so I am not sure how that will work out. They will be taking Spanish at the Enrichment program, but I was hoping to do a little more with them...

Oh, that reminds me, they will go to the Enrichment Program on Tuesdays and there they will take Creative Writing, Spanish, Art, PE, and Science. It was recommended by the administrator, though to enhance the Science curriculum. So, that's it in a nutshell! I will keep you posted on how it is going!

Oh, one final thought: As I was watching the 100+ children from the children's program go outside to watch the man juggle the fire torches I wished I had my family members who do not support my decision to homeschool with me. The theory that homeschool children are unsocialized misfits is completely false. These were normal, well behaved children. If being well behaved makes you a misfit then that has always been my goal, homeschooling or not, so this shouldn't really be an issue.