Actually.

I've actually given a little thought to school off and on today.  We usually start the day after my daughter's birthday which is Monday, but this year, we've got the oldest going off to college and it's consuming a lot of our thoughts, at least mine.  I've also been thinking a lot about my mom, since she fell and hurt her back and also feeling sorry for myself since my back still hurts after 2 1/2 weeks of antibiotics.  I may have to go back to the very expensive specialist and I don't want to do that.  :-(
But, in between the busy crazy times, my husband and I both have been thinking about school for our 2 remaining high schoolers.

We're going to do chemistry this year, geometry, writing and MS Office.  Then the girl will also be working on a foreign language.  She wants to switch that from French to sign language, which does count, so I guess we will.   The boy needs to work on his writing literacy.  He has dysgraphia so he's in an entirely different place than she was at this age.  He will also have to continue typing but I'm going to have to get something different from Mavis Beacon because MB wants him to be fast before he can move past the home row and he's not fast.  The girl already types well enough that I think she can stop doing MB every day.  I've started looking for a chemistry curriculum.  I downloaded a free middle school curriculum from someplace but it doesn't look very in-depth so I've been looking for supplements for it, with really no luck so far.  Anyone have suggestions?

So that's it.  I've thought a little bit about school and with as crazy as it's been around here lately, that's an accomplishment.  :-)

Update.

After 2 days of use, my daughter likes this writing book very much.  It's nice for her not to ask me what to do for writing and nice for me not to have to try and figure something out every day.  It says on the web site that it is Christian based.  I haven't looked at enough to know how much so, so if you are looking to use it in a secular homeschool, I don't know how well it would work.  We like it though and I am relieved. 

I've been doing some planning.

I am so glad that Monday is finally here. I had my nose to the grindstone all weekend, working and I'm so glad to have my one day off. Whew. We don't have anything planned for today unless I've forgotten something, so we can stay home and clean this house. Joy. Since the kids have been out of school, I have just let my routines go and you can tell. The house looks a lot worse this week.

Yesterday, when I was waiting for my work to be downloaded or transmitted, I spent a lot of time looking at high school options for my oldest. I really would like him to have a diploma from an accredited school.* I narrowed it down to 2. Penn Foster and North American Regional School (NARS). I decided, after a great deal of personal anguish (because making decisions is difficult!), to go with Penn Foster because all the books are included. I discussed this with him and he said he wanted NARS because then I would be planning his work and it wouldn't be boring. That is really a great compliment coming from my 14-year-old but I think all that work of planning everything kind of scares me. Not to mention that it will cost somewhat more, because we'll have to buy the books, etc. I'm going to check and see if Penn Foster has a money back guarantee/ trial period or something.

(* Why do I want an accredited diploma? I don't know. I can just picture our family and friends saying 'well, they just printed his diploma out on the computer. Anyone could do that. Lookie there, I've got my Ph.D." I know that I would make sure that the child was educated thoroughly before I printed it out. In fact, he'd probably be better prepared because I would feel so insecure, that I'd make him do twice the work and he probably wouldn't graduate until he was 20! Overall, I just think letting someone else decide when he's done is probably better.)

For the younger 2, I'm going to put something together with the things I already have and things I've downloaded from the internet (love the homeschool estore).

I already have the complete KONOs collection, History Scribe, Christian Cottage (for the western hemisphere) and Mammoth Math. I already have grammar and handwriting books. There's a free download of Study Dog available now which I've downloaded for my youngest. Here's the link if anyone is interested.

Now my only problem is getting this all organized. That is not my strong point so wish me luck!