Well, I’ve decided to try something new.  I’m going to try to do a homeschool wrap up at the end of every week, with pictures and everything.  There don’t seem to be very many Further Up and Further In bloggers out there, and I know that seeing what others are doing can be inspiring and encouraging (not that I’m saying I’m all that inspiring, but I did find a blog that inspired me, so I thought I’d try to pay it forward).

What is Further Up and Further In (FUFI for short)?  Well, it’s a Unit Study curriculum guide written by Diane Pendergraft and edited by Margie Grey (yes, that names rings a bell, right?  She’s the lady who wrote the Prairie Primer.  Ahhhh.. yes, Cadron Creek Curriculum!)  The Unit will take us on a Narnian journey… covering everything from Science to History to Bible and MORE.  We’ll be using the CIMT Math (grade appropriate) with it, and we additionally spend a half an hour on our Awana studies so we’re getting a fair bit of Bible in there each day.

I did this curriculum with my Bigs a long time ago, but when I realised that my Littles had distorted ideas of the Narnia story (thanks for that, Disney) I knew it was time to dust it off and start a new journey with them.  Now with the Bigs we did the books in the order of Narnian history (starting with The Magician’s Nephew), but I’ve done some reading on the reasoning behind reading them in the order they were written, and I think we’ll be tackling them in that order instead.  I can’t wait to see their eyes wide as they make the connection between the “old professor” and “young Diggory” or to grasp the WHY of the magic in the Wardrobe.  I think it’ll be more fun this  way.

So, today was our start date.  It was a really relaxing school day.  At the end of the school part of the day, Greys said, “This is going to be the best school ever!”  I hope he’s right!  I forgot to take pictures today (too busy having fun), but I will take some of their finished work and outline what we did each day… maybe somewhere down the road that will bless someone else.  And if you are thinking that a Narnian Trek sounds good for 2014 yourselves, head over to Cadron Creek to pick up the book and blog your own journey!  If you do, please comment your link so I can be inspired by you too!

Be back later this week with my first update!