Here come the boxes!

The boxes have started to arrive! It is August, and that means the homeschooling supplies for this year have started to arrive. We have items from six different places coming, so the kids are on UPS, and FedEx watch. It is like Christmas when they drive down the street. There are kids jumping everywhere trying to get a glimpse of what treasures are inside. Yesterday, the Rosetta Stone arrived, complete with headphone and microphone. Today, was the Apologia Chemistry books and glassware set. My oldest son, Michael, will be the one using this, as you need to have an Algebra 1 background to complete it. That doesn't bother the girls as they try to get into position to empty the box of its contents. Joshua, 7, has asked a few times, when we were going to start doing experiments. As I was telling him in a few weeks, I had an idea. I think I will have Michael teach the kids his experiments. I have a whole book on Chemistry for the younger children, but I think it would benefit everyone to have Michael teach. First, because the teacher always learns more than the students, and second, because it will be fun for the younger boys to have thier older brother for a teacher.
Next will come the stuff from George Wythe College (http://www.gwc.edu/) . I ordered some more detailed writings on the phases of learning. I also got a set of McGuffey Readers. I am so excited to have these for Kristen and the younger boys. I will see how advanced they get to see if maybe Caitlyn might be able to read them too - but she is a very good reader at this point, so the reading might be too easy for her. I can not wait till they get here - Kristen is looking forward to them, as she got bored with the Pathway series last year. I think Keith,5, might learn to read before Joshua does, as he is always asking to 'do school', whereas Josh is still not showing signs of readiness. (Though, I am thinking, the science experiments might be a way to get him excited enough about reading that he will want to learn).
Other boxes scheduled to arrive are some things from Kindred Learning. (http://www.kindredlearning.com/) We got some great Literature books by Prentice Hall that teach English through the great classic writings of some of the most influential writers in history. We also got some history books by Dan Hunter from Living History. They are called the World Before Christ. We actually shelled out quite a bit as they are meant to be taught over several years, but the way I am covering them, we will need each one of them this year, and next year. So that's a little more money than I planned on spending this year, but next years will be all set.
All in all, we have spent a little over one thousand dollars for this years stuff. Most of it was actually Michaels, as he is the oldest, and so we don't already have high school level stuff on hand. I had already bought the math on ebay in the spring, so the thousand doesn't include math. It is nice as the years go by and we have more resources on hand, because then that allows us to by more hands-on type stuff as well as pay for more field trips. I only include this number as a guide. We could have definitely spent more if we had it, and we probably could have spent less if we needed too. This way we purchased all the needs and a few wants.
Wonder what will arrive tomorow....

Welcome to Liberty Academy

Welcome to Liberty Academy!! This is my first ever attempt at blogging. I am hoping to capture our journey of homeschooling as we go. Our homeschool consists of my seven children, myself, and my husband.
We have recently discovered Leadership Education, and I am hoping to journal our transition from the Conveyor belt approach to one of true scholar learning. I will detail later how we got started in homeschooling, but for right now, welcome aboard, and thanks for joining us in this journey to help our children become the great statesmen and stateswomen they were destined to be!!!!!