New Homeschool Laws and Future Lesson Plans

I was going over some of the homeschool laws for Georgia. I noticed that, thanks to a new bill, we are not required to register with the Board of Education, but now the Department of Education. And instead of sending monthly attendance reports, they are yearly along with the annual progress report.

I found new contact information and decided to ask them about registering Samantha this year, and they told me not to register her until 2015, now matter what grade she will be starting in this year. So she will be almost 7 years old when we are required to register her. She will be starting 3rd grade that  year, and since we homeschool year-round, she will definitely meet the required hours and such. We won't be doing anything wrong, just less paper work for us until then. :)

We have lots of fun stuff coming up. We are continuing to work on the space unit, but we are running out of things to learn...well, there is lots to learn about space, but some of it would be a bit over her head at this point. She liked watching the Documentary on Black Holes, but it is definitely nothing we could expand on. So Sam is thinking she wants to learn more about butterflies, flowers, and even ladybugs this Spring. We are going to do a Spring themed unit study, about life cycles and different insects and such that we see more during warm weather. We are going to plant a real butterfly garden this year with lots of butterfly bushes. We will research what types of flowers we need (Research and Planning Skills), shop for the flowers (Math and Planning), plant the flowers (Life Science), care for the flowers (More Life Science), and study them (Again-Life Science). We will see the life cycles and behaviors of butterflies-maybe humming birds, and if we add in some of the right plants, maybe some ladybugs too. We may talk a little about how different plants grow better in different climates and parts of the world-Georgraphy. And of course somewhere in there Samantha will draw in her Nature Journal and/or write a little bit about what she has seen. (Art and Writing/English) And as usual, lots of Reading, Reading, Reading about anything and everything Butterfly, Ladybug, Flowers-Springtime related. Ah. I just can't wait.

Of course, on the side, we will be doing plenty of Nature Studies as we walk trails and camp or go to the beach. When we take vacation this summer, I also plan to finds lots of educational sites to visit. I know I have said it before, but I will say it again...Spring can't come soon enough!!!