We will officially be starting the 2008-2009 school year starting on September 1st. We are trying a few new things this year.

The first new thing is a unit study by "In the Hands of a Child". It is about the Presidential Election. If this works well I'll buy the one about American Government. I found after testing this year, we have a few holes in our understanding of how the government works. Today we did our first two vocabulary words, election and republic. I like the definition they gave for republic.

Republic: A state or nation in which the supreme power rests in its voting citizens and is exercised by representatives elected by them and responsible to the citizens. ( Not to be confused with a "democracy" because many democracies, past and present, have heads of state who came into power by military force, or were elected by a small minority of the population).

The other new thing is a program to teach writing. It is called Institute for for Excellence in Writing. I am excited about it. Unfortunately, it means I am going to have to study. There is 12 hours of lectures that I have to watch. I am also going to have to write, so I have a clear understanding of how the system works. I know it will be good for me, but I am lazy. I may post some of the writing here, if it is not too embarrassing.

We will be using some of the same things as well, Sonlight, Teaching Textbooks, Wordly Wise, and Easy Grammar. I am really looking forward to this year. It will be interesting to see how we will get it done with two little boys on the loose!