Last year, I read and blogged my way through the Bible.  This year, I am again reading through the Bible chronologically, but I have a new blogging challenge.

I am a homeschooling mom of an only child.  I want to write about our experiences together in hopes of getting and giving ideas and support from other homeschooling bloggers out in the arena.  I hope that writing about our schooling will give me a forum to evaluate our progress and will keep me accountable.

I have to guard myself from a tendency to follow after the next new wave.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. (Ephesians 4:14)

I like all things new.  The idea that I am a new creation in Christ resonates with me because new creations breathe excitement and life into me.  Even a new bag of potato chips or a new stick of butter gives me a slight rush of pleasure.  Yes, I know I’m weird.

Although homeschooling requires constants, it does allow for flexibility when life throws you for a loop.  I switched to a new math curriculum about ten weeks ago.  But as I look at our work, I see value in the Saxon math we were doing before we switched.  I have agonized over what to do about math instruction.  I want my daughter to love numbers just as much as she loves words.  So far, that hasn’t happened.  But I am not giving up hope.  After all, the Bible is filled with numbers.  I know they are important to God…so that makes them important to me.

This semester I am going to step out in unfamiliar territory and do a math hybrid.  I will combine elements of the two curriculums — the one that stresses memorization of many facts, such as the prime factors of numbers up to 100, and the other which incrementally teaches concepts and constantly reviews them.  A wise homeschool mom who has homeschooled for eighteen years once told me that it is important to USE the curriculum and not let the curriculum use you.

So, beginning tomorrow, I shall step out in faith as the boss of math.

Stay tuned.  With the extent of my mathophobic bent, this will only happen by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit giving me more inspiration than perspiration.