Hooray! Curriculum's done!

When we found out we were having Megan, I was so excited. We were not only having another girl, but our girls would be born less than a month apart--a boon for the hand-me-down collection. I was really looking forward to that.

I learned that I hadn't hit the lottery when Megan was about two. I pulled down the hand-me-down boxes to look for 2T fall clothes. There weren't any.

What?!!! What had happened to all the hand-me-downs?

It turns out that Ashley draws her genes from the tall side of the family, and Megan, well, she doesn't. Ashley wasn't in 2T long enough to need fall clothes--she went straight to 3T. Ugh. Megan is also built very small, and Ashley has the more sturdy Pack build. Megan fits into slims, Ashley, although never overweight, needed the bigger than normal sizes. Top that off with the fact that Ashley loves pink and frilly things, Megan loves T-shirts and cotton shorts. Ashley picked on cuteness (but no jeans), Meg's requirements were this: no pink, no plaid, no collars (EVER), jeans were great.

That's when the hand-me-down box got donated to other families in the ward and we had to buy completely new clothes for Meg. Double ugh.

What does this have to do with homeschool?

Hooray, both my girls are going to be homeschooled! I can use the same materials for both.

Yeah, right. What was I thinking?

After the first few months of this, I have learned that Ashley and Megan love to learn, but they love to learn differently. Ashley likes book work, no-frills, basic, sound curricula. Repetition is a plus.

Megan, on the other hand, wants colorful, exciting texts and hands-on activities. Repetition--forget it. Once she has seen something, she sees no need in drill after drill after drill. She's got it, so let's move on.

As I started asking them about what they wanted to do for next year, I should have known better.

Megan--"I want to do ABeka grammar next year!"

Ashley--"Please, please, don't make me do ABeka grammar again."

Megan didn't survive more than a couple months in Saxon math, which Ashley loves.

Ashley is eagerly looking forward to next year's Saxon math text.

Megan was eagerly pulling Singapore math off the shelves at the store today.

Ashley hates spelling and wants a challenging vocabulary program.

Megan...still spells phonetically at times. I had to choose the spelling program carefully, though--it had to be fun, non-repetitive, entertaining...

After over 2 hours in the homeschool bookstore, success. Even better, Jesse didn't cry too much over the receipts.

And to top it all off, they at least agreed on the same history program.

I'll take the little victories when they come. I do still hit the lottery on occasion.