New Days

Well, there are some changes coming soon to the Nodaway Valley Christian Academy, but changes I think everyone will welcome. I've never been so exhausted and so refreshed at the same time. Our annual conference for homeschoolers was this weekend, and my head's in a spin. We had so many great workshops, including one for "Boys and other kids who would rather build forts all day." This didn't particularly deal with moms who'd rather do the same, but I got the point! Michael went to that one, too, and I am so glad. He wants a larger role in this school, and I think he got some fantastic ideas, too. I'm just so excited about new ideas we got for nearly every subject. I went by myself on Friday, and I like that. I get a chance to look at all the materials without pressure of buying because I don't do that until Saturday when I have Michael along. Then I can explain everything to him, and hearing it out loud doesn't hurt me any either! So anyway, after these last couple of years "not working" for most of us, I knew we needed something different, and I found a curriculum that I really fell in love with. It lets the kids work at their own pace without any labels of grades, it needs no lesson plans by Mom... however... the kids have to set some goals to pace themselves. It also includes a chance to earn a day off in certain subjects when we meet certain goals. The records that are kept are so easy for us to do, and so easy for Michael to see our progress. I just kept coming back to that booth time and time again. I just knew it was so right for the whole family. Then each workshop just seemed to solidify that feeling. I guess I couldn't explain it very well to Michael Friday night, but we went to a couple workshops on Saturday morning and then I showed it to him. We are both so thrilled with it. We'll have to do some testing this week to see where to start everyone, but the courses are so detailed and the units are so short that we can get everyone placed with as little or as much duplication of material as they need. And no one moves on until a skill is mastered. You can order another of the small units for less than $3.00 if you just want to take that skill again. Okay, I'm sure you weren't planning on hearing all this, but it's just so exciting to me! I just love learning new things and now have so many new ideas for my kids to love the same and for Dad to have some sort of proof that we did indeed learn something today!! Besides the nifty new fort in the backyard, but anyhoo...