I thought I would write a short post on what we are doing for schooling this year.

The girls all start the day with copywork, usually a Bible verse/passage, a poem or hymn.

Bethany & Emily (9 & nearly 8) are both working through ABeka Math 3.  I plan for them to follow on with Saxon Math 5/4.

Bethany is working through ABeka Language B, and Emily is working on English for the Thoughtful Child 2.

Ainsley (my 5 year old)  is on ABeka Math 1 and Adventure in Phonics Level A (by Christian Liberty Press).  We are also working on teaching her to read, but finding readers I am 100% happy with is not easy!  I borrowed the Sing, Spell, Read & Write readers for the other girls, but can't get hold of them this time. 

Once a week, we get together with another family to do Story of the World Volume 2 (The Middle Ages) and on alternative weeks we do Considering God's Creation.  We find that getting together with another family ensures these subjects get done, it also makes it a lot more fun ;-).  Instead of just putting the activity pages into folders, we have been cutting & pasting into visual diaries.  This makes their books a lot more "scrapbook like" and means each one is different.  They often add their own narrations or illustrations and photos of crafts we have done.

I have also started doing a lesson a week of Barry Stebbing's Lambs Book of Art.  We have dabbled in watercolour, acrylic & pastel paintings in the past year and plan to do more of this.  We are looking forward to another drawing workshop with Graham Braddock in May.

Last year I did a course called Teaching Writing, Structure & Style by Andrew Pudewa, from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.  Andrew is coming to New Zealand to take some conferences in February, so I am looking forward to that.  Ideally, I would like to go through his course with the girls this year too.

Eeuwe takes our family devotions each night after dinner.  We are going through Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Sally Clarkson.

Eeuwe also does the daily read-aloud each night after devotions.  At the moment they are reading Across the Great Divide by Simon James.

We have a piano again, so I am hoping to buy some books for the girls and start to teach them.  They have taught themselves a few notes already.  Piano lessons are not really on the budget at the moment, but I have had lessons up to Grade 7 level, so I will make do for now!

I have added some of our NZ homeschool suppliers to my links on the side bar.  Christian Education Services sell ABeka books and Saxon Math as well as most of Clay & Sally Clarkson's books.  Learnex sell Story of the World, Considering God's Creation, Lamb's Book of Art and Graham Braddock's How to Draw cards.  Geneva books sell Christian Liberty Press books along with many others.