Matthew 6:34So don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Well, it's been such a long time for me to update.  Shame on me!  We have been so incredibly busy!  We've had birthday parties and the ending of a homeschooling year and, of course, our garden to put in.  I must say I have a new dislike for rabbits.  They have eaten every bean we planted.  So on to planting more in a different spot. Though it may already be way too late. How dare they think that we planted them just for their tasting pleasure.  Little stinkers.  We've finally got the pool up and running and have been enjoying that a lot!  The kids are just getting out of it and it's 9:23pm!    I haven't blogged lately primarily b/c my camera was out of batteries and I always love to add pics to my blogs!  What a silly reason, but anyway!

So two important bloggy issues!

First:  Our new goat. 

We call him baby.  He is a baby and a sad one at that.  We have actually rescued him from our dear friend whose father bought some goats at an auction and didn't realize how malnurished and sick they were.  Well, this baby's mother died shortly after kidbirth and this kid has been on his own without milk supplmentation and basically eating feed since birth.  Needless to say, he's not doing well at all.  Didn't even want to stand and hardly walks and looks thin and a bit dehydrated.  We surmise the other two kids born were eating all the food and this little kidlet was to weak to get up and go to it.  So we are nursing him.  He ate a whole bottle today.  He wasn't really interested in the feed.  I so pray he will make it through the night.  The children are praying too.  He is incredibly cute--a brown nubian.  Any suggestions?  I thought I might try beet pulp to add weight.  We've been doing this to one of our horses who seemed to need a bit of weight when she's not pastured each day and it's been doing well so I thought this might work well.  I need to research it though and what better way to get advice than to ask my fellow experts here at the homesteadblogger!  I will take some pics tomorrow if baby makes it.  Please pray for this little guy who has had a rough start in life.  I pray too for my own children that if the goat doesn't make it they can understand. 

Second: Homeschool Curriculum!

It's that time of year for us all to think about next year.  How'd this year go, what did we accomplish--what didn't we accomplish--how'd the curriculum work--what did we like--didn't like, etc..  I could go on!  I would love to do a litte survey of you homeschoolers out there of the curriculum you used, if you would recommend it why and why not, what you liked best, what you liked least, etc. and any new programs out there worth looking into!

My answers:

I used Alpha Omega this year for 6th grade. We used the lifepacs vs. the computer programs primarily b/c I don't want my children to have carpel tunnel by the time they are 19 :)  Just joking.  Partly it is true though, my vision of homeschooling wasn't my children doing a school program at a computer all day so I opted out of that option.  I would recommend the lifepacs to teachers who needed a program that would help their children to be self-sufficient, independent learners.  This program can really help to accomplish that.  Each book if very easy to divide lessons day-by-day and give your child the freedom to determine how much work to do each day and when.  This allows you to give a broad-based assignment that by such and such date this amount of work should be accomplished.  On the down side, lack of involvment with preparation of lessons, activities, can make the lifepacs a little on the boring side if you are a very motivated hands-on teacher.  I compensated by using the theme, topic, etc being studied and often times going to the library to get books and even creating activities around the theme/course of study.  This really helped with our hands-on learning approach.  Affordability is another plus.  I believe this program was a little under $300 for the entire year. I liked the best that it was an all-inclusive curriculum!  You purchase it and arrives all put together and essentially you have nothing to "do" if you don't want to supplement activities.  The least desirable part of Alpha Omega is that it can be a little dry and lack hands-on activities which I feel are vital to true learning.  That being said, I am really learning towards going back to Konos this year with my 6th grader and a preschooler (plus two pre-preschoolers!)

I hope to get some great responses and lots of insight!  Blessings to you all!