Next year's curriculum choices

Okay, I think I'm done narrowing down all of our subjects for next year.
History: I thought was going to go with History Odyssey for history, but after seeing many reviews mentioning its "secularness", I finally went back to look at Tapestry of Grace again. The Lord granted me such peace with my decision as I realized that TOG is everything I never knew I always wanted! LOL I love how it ties together the history and the literature and the art and the bible and the writing and the geography (and, at the Rhetoric level, the government and the philosophy). I'm SO excited!!
Bible Devotions: TOG includes Bible reading and study within its scope, but Bean really enjoys doing a separate devotional program. I found one written by Bethany Hamilton called Rise Above. Bethany wrote it to "share with young girls her courage and enthusiasm for God, inspiring them to face life headon and stand strong in their faith." Her story is so inspiring and I can't think of a better role model for Bean.
Math: Bean wants to be an Imagineer for The Mouse and wants to major in Engineering in college. I know that choosing the proper maths and science progression for her will be super important. We have used Math-U-See for the past five years, but there is no Calculus level for that program. And, since I know nothing about Calculus (except that somehow imaginary numbers are involved at the beginning!), I was terrified at the idea that we'd be "thrown to the wolves" (aka have to switch to Saxon) at the Calculus level. Can you believe I was having nightmares about it already?? After visiting my most trusted source for homeschool advice (The Well-Trained Mind Boards) and looking at loads of samples of curriculum, we've decide to make the switch now to Chalkdust. I had Bean watch the sample video on their site and she felt very comfortable with "Uncle Buck". I love that we can email them any time we run into trouble! We can't wait to get started with their Pre-Algebra in the fall (I just have to save up the money first!)
Literature: Even though TOG has a literature component, I really wanted to do a dedicated Lit program with Bean for next year (must be the English major in me!). I went back to the WTM boards and checked out their thoughts on the subject. I saw many, many recommendations for Lightning Literature. I checked it out and it seems perfect for us! We are going to use level 7 for next year. The book selections are great and Bean is very excited to get to study this.
Vocabulary: We tried out the sample pages of Vocabulary from Classical Roots and Bean thought they were very fun, so we're going to do Book A, along with any TOG vocabulary we need to cover.
Science: Bean is very excited to begin her upper-level science adventures with Apologia. In the fall, we'll begin their General Science. This will allow Bean to complete the following schedule of maths & science by the time she graduates:
7th grade: Gen Science and Pre-Algebra
8th grade: Physical Science and Algebra I
9th grade: Biology and Geometry
10th grade: Chemistry and Algebra II
11th grade: Physics and Pre-Calculus
12th grade: Adv. Physics and Calculus
I love this time of year!! I love planning our educational journey together and I love seeing Bean get so excited about learning new things.
TTFN!

Our plant experiments

Hi everyone!
Bean and I are SO excited!! We finally have managed to get started on a major science project!! WOOHOO!!
We recently finished up our Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space curriculum and were at loose ends about what to do for the rest of the year. As we were driving around and noticing all the spring flowers peeking out, Bean said, "It's too bad there isn't a science curriculum that just focuses on plants." I told her that I know of one. We went right home and ordered Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany and all the supplies from Home Science Tools. The kit they sent us was lovely, BUT our electricity here is not 110v. I had to come up with a 220v way to do the light source for the light hut. Off we went to Praktiker (kind of like a Home Depot) where I was told that having a light bulb socket on a cord was not how things are done here. Luckily, another homeschool friend had hit another home improvement store and received much more useful advice. I bought what she said to (the light bulb was almost 13€! Yikes!) and actually had to assemble the connection between the cord and the socket myself (yay me!). Now that I knew we were going to get this thing built, I started looking for pots and saucers. With that accomplished, Bean and I built our Light Hut today and she planted Dill, Peppermint and Basil.

Now comes the really hard part: keeping my black thumbs out of the project!!

Our Netherlands Trip!

We went to our first Feis in Wassenaar, Netherlands on the last day of March. It was wonderful (well, except for the part where I had to start driving at 0400 to get Bean there by 0900 because Mr. Safety (aka DH) wouldn't let me drive there Friday night--that made for a very long day sitting there listening to the world's most boring accordian player). Bean did great for her first feis! She and her partner got 1st place in the Beginner 2-Hand!! WOOHOO!!

The next day, we went over to the Keukenhof to see all the spring flowers. I took over 240 pictures (but I will spare you having to see all of them)! Every single view was picture worthy! Here are a couple pics of Bean with some of the flowers:

We had such a great time. The weather was absolutely perfect!! The drive back home didn't seem nearly as long as the trip there, but that possibly because I was actually awake for the trip home! LOL
TTFN!