I never really went away, but I have definitely neglected my blog.  I have been a bit frustrated by my lack of direction here.  I post school plans, family updates, health news, and miscellaneous thoughts.  And I guess this will continue to be a hodge podge of my scattered thoughts.

School Update--Plugging away!  We finished The Magician's Nephew within two days and we've also read Archaeologists Dig for Clues.  And we're about half way through each of the other books listed in my previous post.  We have also added a few other books and movies.  Biblically and historically we have reached the time of Noah.  One thing different this time around is that I have given myself permission to not finish a particular book or to just read excerpts from it.  We will most likely not be reading all of Genesis: Finding our Roots, but we will likely finish Adam and HIs Kin. 

We have added:  The Magic School Bus:  Inside the Earth, The Magic School Bus:  In the Time of the Dinosaurs, and Dinosaurs, a nature series by Dalmation Kids.  (All completed.)   We have read several chapters of a biography of Charles Darwin by David C. King and will continue to read it.  We have used an Usborne Flip Flap book for reference and will use it as we study other historical periods (Homes and Houses:  Then and Now).  I found a book, We're Sailing to the Galapagos:  A Week in the Pacific, which we will be reading and reviewing this week.  I also have a book that we will be reading called The Case for Creation by Wayne Frair and P. William Davis.  This was published in 1967 and I believe belonged to my dad.  This is NOT an exhaustive list of what we have read, but it does include most of the books we have used for this particular study.

We have enjoyed AVKO Sequential Spelling and Edward Brook's Mental Arithmetic, although I have had to modify their use to fit our family. 

During these last few months we have had to take time off for illness, the death of my grandmother, work and vacation.  Currently, we are battling the H1N1 Flu (no complications) so we haven't been doing the basics (spelling and math) but have instead been listening to books on tape and reading aloud.  We have also, these last few days, been watching Al Gore's An Incovenient Truth.  We have watched about an hour so far, and we are watching only a few minutes at a time then discussing what has been presented and examining the facts and the conclusions he draws compared against facts and science presented on other websites.

The children have also had individual projects that they have worked on.  Noah is busy creating stories, comic book heroes, and comic book drawings.  Jonah has tried his hand at gardening and has quite a pepper patch.  Grace has been sewing clothes for her stuffed animals and a nightgown for herself.

So...that is our semester.  I'm glad we started early so that I haven't had to worry about taking our time.  We will likely finish what we can this month, then take a break to do a Thanksgiving unit study and then a Christmas unit study.  (If we can get to Abraham, then we will begin incorporating the Weaver curriculum into our studies in January.)

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