Planning

It's that time of year again. Planning for next year. Theodore loves this time, because not only do I follow him around the house espousing the virtues and downfalls of various curricula I'm considering, I also spend lots of money.

This will be my third year with Tapestry of Grace. I feel like I should be handed some sort of prize for sticking with a curriculum three years in a row. I had a chance to look at a friend's copy of Learning Language Arts Through Literature last night, and I didn't even crack the cover. I will not be swayed by the siren song of a new curriculum.

Of course, we're also going to stick with Rod and Staff for grammar. This will be our fifth year with it. I have become a Rod and Staff evangelist, since I've enlisted one friend on the program, and have almost persuaded three more. The kids have never particularly enjoyed Rod and Staff, but have never complained...much. Peter, however, has realized this year that none of his other friends are having to diagram sentences with subordinate clauses and thinks perhaps there might be an easier way to do this. And I just laugh, because I'm cruel that way.

And then there's science. Science is the subject that always causes me the most consternation, which is ironic since that's my background. I had never seriously considered Bob Jones University Press. Since Theodore and I are way more conservative than the rest of the world, so it's a little freaky to discover a publisher that is even more conservative than we are. But I received the books yesterday, and they're so shiny and beautiful and rigorous. It's just what I'm looking for.

Now for the hard part. I have to actually finish THIS year's stuff.