Camping in Cold Weather

The Engineer has gone on a backpacking trip for the weekend with his Boy Scout troop. Poor guys! It's cold! The low is almost down to freezing tonight and will be slightly warmer on Saturday. The highs only get to about the high 40s, possibly low 50s. The Artist and I had gone on our AHG troop campout last weekend, and I was cold enough then! I'm so glad we're not camping this weekend.

I've been spending many hours over the past few days trying to determine what to do about the Engineer's schooling next year. I'd really like to move him more toward independence, and I'm thinking that we'll use Sonlight, particularly Core 100. I think I'll have the Artist do Core G, but very loosely. I plan to get the Core G IG but rely on the library for the books that we use. That will automatically whittle down our book list, which will be a good thing, as well as our budget. It will already be very expensive to buy Core 100 for the boy. I'd like to also use Science Core G for the girl, which is not cheap. I'd been wondering what to do about her science for next year, and Science G looks pretty good. However, it is likely that I will opt for a less expensive science option. I think I'll keep on her Teaching Textbooks, using 6 next year, as TT5 has been working out pretty well this year. I'd like to move the Engineer onto TT Algebra next year, but he's not excited about that option. We'll see. I need something that bridges the gap between his math studies and my math knowledge better. I don't know if TT is the way to do it, but I feel inadequate in helping him with the Life of Fred books. ???

With Core 100, the Engineer will do the Bible, History, and Literature, but we'll continue using IEW for language arts for both kids. He'll also continue to do science at One Day Academy, which has been working out pretty well for us.

IEW may be experimental for the Artist and me next year because I'll most likely be pulling source texts from her other subjects and applying the 9 units to them. I haven't had to do that yet, so I'm a bit nervous about how it will turn out and my ability to teach the system properly. I'll have to do a lot of review along the way, I suppose. She won't be ready for SICC-B yet. I'm keeping that until 7th grade for her. Her brother is using that this year in his 7th grade, and it seems like a good fit.

I'm planning to have the Artist continue with Core H in her 7th grade, using only the IG and library books again. But I'm hoping to use Bible H for her 6th and 7th grades instead of using the Bible G in 6th. Then we can take our time through the books rather than racing through them. Besides, that will give me some room to add in the logic and current events training in 7th grade as well, like the Engineer's been doing this year.

Another thing I'm pondering is using the Mystery of History books (and Genevieve Foster books?) as the Artist's history spines for Cores G and H. (I'd actually forgotten about the GF books until this moment.) I suppose I could also use those books to pull the IEW source texts from... at least for the first year.

Well, I haven't done any editing tonight as I'd originally planned. I got lazy tonight as I finished reading a book and figured I'd just finish up tomorrow. The Artist and I had planned to do some service hours in the morning helping to pack Operation Christmas Child boxes, but I've got my editing, a lot of cooking (dessert I didn't make tonight, soup for Sunday's church luncheon, and treat for Saturday evening with friends), and running to get done. I hate to make my activities the priority, but the girl doesn't want to go anyway, and I really only have Saturday to do my things. Sunday is mostly about preparing for the week and making dinner.

It's late. I'm turning in.