Box day!!!!

So, I had to share my joy with all of you. It's here! EEEEEEKK!! My favorite holiday...box day (known by many home schoolers as the wonderful day of the year that the UPS truck arrives to deliver all of next years curriculum and then just like Christmas you get to unwrap all of the boxes and look at all of your new stuff!) The only bad part of this holiday is that as I've heard others say "The new stuff is all so exciting that you want to start it now and lose interest in what you're currently doing." I'm trying hard not to have my head in the clouds thinking about everything I have planned for next year, but to focus on what we're doing now. We do still have a few months of this school year left, although I will admit I'm anxious to be finished. So, here is a picture of everything that came this past week minus a new keyboard for music lessons!

I still have a list of read-aloud books I want to buy and of course supplies. But, this is all three girl's curriculum so far. It's nice that because we decided to return to My Father's World, Sis and Boo will now do all History, Science, Bible, Read-aloud, Art and Activities together! That means less books to buy and less time trying to teach 2 different grades. They will separate only for the grade leveled subjects...Math and Language.  Baby Bear will be starting K (I can't believe she's kindergarten age already!) She will also be tagging along with anything fun the older girl's are doing.

The last time we did MFW together Boo was only in preschool and just tagging along for fun, but we did Exploring Countries and Cultures together as a family. I think that was our favorite school year. We had so much fun. I love all of the hands-on, crafts, games, read-aloud time, food, field trips, and celebrations that go along with My Father's World. So I am so excited about next year. My kids seem to learn best together and when we're having fun.

Next year we will be learning Rome to Reformation. There's so many opportunities to make school fun next year, learning about The Roman Empire and time of Jesus, then Medieval Times with castles, knights, and princesses! Some fun things that we already have planned are a Roman Feast, building a 3D medieval castle, learning to play Chess, a cooking class, and keyboard lessons. There are also crafts and projects/ activities every week. I have a lot of read-aloud books planned including a nice full color 126 page picture book of Pilgrims Progress.

For science we will be finishing the 2nd half of our "Science in the Beginning Book" and then the 2nd half of the school year will be astronomy! Fun! I'm thinking solar system models and a trip to the planetarium will be on our agenda. MFW also included some good Christian books on having important talks with kids about growing up, becoming a woman, and where babies come from. I also ordered a couple good ones from Heart of Dakota. I can't say I'm too excited about having those talks, but I am thankful that MFW thought of that and gave us some good material to help when the time is right.

Our MFW package included a year long subscription to World Kids for the girls to read for their quiet reading time. We already received the first issue and it's basically a news magazine for kids about things happening in our world right now. I loved it and I think the kids are going to enjoy reading it too.

Other than that I'm searching Pinterest and blogs for activities, recipes, and field trips that will go along with next years studies. Wouldn't a trip to a Medieval Times dinner show be perfect? We'll see. I also have some fun ideas for the first day of school and some surprises for the kids.

This past school year has been really hard for us. It just seems to be dragging and I really dislike how much of Sis' work is independent and we're all doing different things. We've skipped out on so many of the extras that make school fun. Science is my kids favorite thing about school and of course that's the one thing we do together. I feel like this year we've sort of lost what I love so much about homeschooling...us learning together as a family, the kids working together on projects, spending time together and making it fun. School has not been that way this year. We're all disconnected. They're taking turns learning with me while the other goes and works in their room.  I use to have kids begging to do school and now I hear more groaning, "Do we have to do school today?" It's not age, kids can love learning and have fun doing it at any age. It's that when you're not enthusiastic about school, your kids will not be either. So it was a no-brainer that we need the My Father's World family cycle. It's what works best for us and I have high hopes that next school year we're going to be back to loving school like we did in the past.