31.1.10

New Book, and New Directions

First, I discovered a great book today at the bookstore:



Why is it great? It has background information, biographical information, detailed information about evolution, and, best of all, integrates genetics into what I feel is its proper place, part and parcel of evolutionary theory. I had in the back of my head to put together an Evolution & Genetics class for the autumn for the co-op; whether it happens via co-op, another venue, or just in my own house (please let it be out of my basement with the tiled floor and the second kitchen, please let it be out of "my" new house, please please please), I think this will work amazingly well as a spine or jumping-off point. Ideally, I want EG to read Why Evolution Is True and perhaps the new Annotated Origin that was released last year.


Second, my plans for next year have taken a different turn. Through a series of conversations and too much time to think in the shower, I'm 95% sure that FB is going to start history next year, in kindergarten. This is mainly due to EG's desire to do at least one portion of school with her little brother. They are far enough apart in age that somewhat coordinating history is about the only way for it to happen. So FB will do SOTW 1 next year (K), SOTW 2 in first grade, and SOTW 3 in second grade. Then, in third grade, EG will be in eighth, and doing a full year of United States history, so FB will do the same, before finishing up the SOTW series with SOTW 4 in fourth grade.

This has thrown me into a tizzy. I wasn't planning to start history with him in August! I was planning on starting in August 2011! Eek! So naturally, I've spent my spare time attempting to start hashing out some semblance of a plan.

What I need to do starting tomorrow, though, is spend the 28 days of February getting the house in perfect shape to sell. Some good thoughts, a dash of prayer, a lot of manifesting, and of course some hard work... because I have got to make this happen.

5 comments:

Smrt Mama said...

I'm totally manifesting your house for you, too!

Anonymous said...

Good luck w the history - i started the year thinking I could do joint socail studies with mine - but they are 6 and 13, and the 6 yo does NOT want to study much at all except math, so I gave up. (think I found you on secular home school group, btw?)

Kash said...

@dbmamaz - Yeah, I don't anticipate too much of their work will actually be done together, but I can at least coordinate field trips and the older can read some books to her brother. Okay, I admit it, I am looking forward to foisting off the David Macaulay books - they get long! ;)

Anonymous said...

I admit I'm still planning on trying the same thing next year, but using Asimov's chronology of the world as a spine, and the library and discovery streaming for most of the material. I'll probably just make myself nuts, tho.

Angela said...

We'll have to add this book to our library! We've got tons of Darwin/evolution books, this one looks great, how did I miss this?

FB should be fine, we started SOTW 1 for K. When she was 4, we did a very thorough prehistory study, and I found that evolution helped her understand the world soo much better!

This website was designed by Sam Rushing

"A little rebellion every now and then is a good thing." - Thomas Jefferson