Second Semester Planning and KONOS

I posted awhile back about wanting to try something new that would liven up our studies. Well, a lovely lady here in my town has homeschooled for years. She lent me a couple of KONOS books to browse through. I'm really curious how this will work for me.

I have only one child being homeschooled, and most of the activities are family-oriented. However, there are some things about the curriculum I think look interesting. For one, it is a unit study. Laura and I haven't really tried a unit study before. Konos incorporates a lot of subjects into the study of character traits. That made an impact on me because one of my main reasons to homeschool Laura is to help train her character.

Next, there are SO many activities. I want to try some more activities. I'm all about reading, but I think the addition of really good activities, projects, and field trips would make homeschooling more like an adventure instead of school at home. Konos talks a lot about making learning fun, and that is a plus for me.

Last, Konos uses a living books approach to learning. That is my favorite approach. I am naturally drawn to programs that use that approach.

The drawback is that using Konos takes a lot of planning time. But, to try the program, I am willing to do that. I have been planning since the beginning of the year anyway, and this at least gives me some more ideas. The only subjects not covered by Konos are Math, Spelling, and Grammar.

We are going to start with the unit Responsibility. If I do the whole unit it will take up most of the rest of the school year. I might throw in a few weeks of the Love/Generosity unit at Easter and Valentines. Together these will make up 18 weeks of school, which is what is left.

The Responsibility unit looks perfect for me to start with. First, it will study the colonial time period in American History. That is where we are at in our History studies. Second, Responsibility is something Laura really needs to work on in our home. I pray this will affect her in a positive light as she sees and reads lots about being responsible and as we incorporate some new chores that are more age-appropriate.

I still plan to do the Bible we've been doing even though Bible is part of Konos. I don't want to overload Laura, but we've been working on Mpact Girls and don't want to stop. I may make the Prims badges as part of the Responsibility Unit as much as possible. I also don't want to stop with the Old Testament stories. It doesn't take Laura long to read a story a day, and that is the one thing her father requested be covered.

I may ease into Konos, still doing some of our other Science and Abeka reading. If Laura really enjoys the program, then maybe I'll utilize it more and more.

All in all, Konos will be fun to try. If it seems like something that just isn't going to work for us, than at least that is a lesson learned. I have lots of planning to do this week as well as getting the house in order from Christmas. However, I am kind of excited to be trying something new and different than what I've been doing. And the fact that I've been able to borrow the program to try it before buying is a wonderful blessing.