Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Unusually quiet around here

For the next few months this humble blog may seem rather silent. School will continue as scheduled, but my free time will look quite different. My husband has started a three month sabbatical. He has a great job, that he is quite good at, if I may say so. His job can be rather intense. To compensate for that his employer gives all full time workers a three month sabbatical after every five years of work. It is an amazing deal. I assure you that during those five years of work he wakes up every morning prepared to pour himself out each day.

The kids and I are thrilled to have him home. As my seven year old was setting the table on the first night she asked me, "will Dad be home for dinner?" It was wonderful to answer, "yes."

I am sure that I will read several blogs as I prepare for next school year, but I might not post too often myself. I will be enjoying my husband's company and relishing backyard baseball games.

Math - -join the conversation

As I posted a few months ago, I have been carefully reviewing math in our school. I have enjoyed reading the posts that Sylvia has written (there are three, so be sure to read each one). I have also enjoyed reading the comments that were added by her readers.

At the end of May I am going to sit in on three "how to teach math" sessions at the state homeschool conference. I am looking forward to compiling all of this information and making a final decision about math for next year.

Thanks to those of you who have been a part of the conversation. I certainly benefit from reading your ideas. I am sure that others do too.

TOG library style

For the last quarter of the school year (Year 2, Unit 4) I have tried using the library for all of our books. Overall I am pleased with the result. By relying on inter-library loans, I have been able to acquire most of the books that we will need. There were about 10 books that I was unable to match perfectly. In most cases I have been able to find a reasonable substitute.