This week we began our Spring semester. This was exciting for me since Rachel has left the international school and has returned to homeschooling. This has been more of a challenge to me than to her at this point. Since she was in 7th grade when we left the states I have not homeschooled a high schooler. I have been looking at books and curriculum since we made the final decision in October to go ahead and start homeschooling this Spring. We are using AO (of course) but in order to finish the history she started in the fall we are doing year 9 even though she is completing her Sophomore Year. We are still waiting on some of her books that we ordered in December (we had to wait on funds to be available from our mission organization). So here I enter the high school journey just in time. Because in the Fall of 2010 I will have two high schoolers.
I guess homeschooling now feels normal again with all three of the girls home.
A bosque is a natural area that has been preserved. At the bosque near our house there are also some animals. For Abilgail birthday we took a field trip as a family to the bosque. This was the first time that everyone in our family had gone at the same time. We were studing about roots at the time so we did look for the different types of roots that we had studied.
All 5 of the kids were able to go since Abigail's birthday falls during a Catholic Holiday all the schools were closed.
We looked for unusual root systems.
Here is another of the same type of tree but the roots are smaller.
We took some other pictures of roots but it is hard to see their root systems. Here is a pretty flower on a water lily that I like.
Over all this was a nice way to celebrate Abigail's Birthday!!
This semester we have studied Precepts Discover 4 Yourself Bible study of Revelation. Rebekah has really enjoyed the study . It was suggested that you make some objects to help you remember some of the promises to the "Overcomers". She really got into this project and has made these figures and then posted them on her facebook. (used with her permission)Jesus promises to the overcomes (Christans): Jesus will let us eat from the Tree of life
Read about it in Revelation 2:7
Jesus promises to the overcomes:the Crown of life
Read about it in Revelation 2:11
Jesus promises to the overcomes: hidden manna,A white stone, And a new name
Read about it in Revelation 2:16
Jesus promises to the overcomes:the morning star,reign with Christ
Read about it in Revelation 2:26-28
Jesus promises to the overcomes:will be given a white garment; his name won't be erase from the book of life, Read about it in Revelation3 :5
This is part one. She has recently taken more pictures but I have not uploaded them yet. Hopefully later this week I will post part two.
We are finishing this semester strong. Rebekah started the year doing her 7th grade work and has finished all but one subject. The Algebra is almost 3/4 of the way finished. She has until the end of our second term , the last week in January , to finish her work. She is really excited about moving on to the 8th grade (catching up to were she should be). Sarah has done really good at keeping up with her work. She is right on track and doing well in all her subjects. Over all this has been one of our best semesters we have ever had homeschooling.
I hope to be more faithful blogging next year. I am really excited about the Spring. Rachel will be returning home and homeschool AO Year 9. She is a 10th grader but the Year 9 History will finish off what she studied this year at the international school.
We have really enjoyed our Exploring Creation with Botany. Since we all love flowers and plants it has turned out to be perfect for us right now.
A few weeks ago we were to make clay models of flowers. I was not sure how well this would work but the flowers turned out great.
Rebekah is patiently forming her parts for her flower. She has made her stem and leaf with the calyx on top. On the table she has cut out her petals and is now forming her carpel and stamen.
Rebekah and her finished product.
Here is Rebekah's flower from a different angle. I think it turned out very nice.
Sarah is working on her flower. She is working on the last few pieces before we put it all together.
This is Sarah's finished product.
* * * * * Flower Dissection * * * * *
We also dissected a flower. The girls had to find three flowers so that we could all do the activity together. They had fun finding the perfect flower for dissection.
This is the flower that the girls picked for the project. Below the flower had discolored a bit but this is what it looked like the day we taped them to their books.
This is Rebekah's dissection page.
This is Sarah's dissected flower.
We have also done some other activities such as seed collecting, seed dissection and activities with leaves and now we are on to the roots. As we have more interesting activities I will share them with you.
Happy Homeschooling
I have taken several pictures this month in order to blog and I have not sat down to work on them. This weekend I intend to catch up. We officially completed 12 weeks of school today. We are on track in all but one of our read alouds and I plan to read some extra in order to not get behind on our next term. The girls are either right on track with their subjects or a little ahead. It feels good to finish the first 1/3 of the year and not be behind.
We have had our good days and bad days but over all I think we are getting back into the groove of homeschooling. Sarah was in a private school for 2 years so there are a few habits that we are having to undo. The attitude of just doing enough to get by and finishing as quickly as you can are our two main hurdles to cross.
Keep watching I have several post coming. In addition to my post I am going to be posting some pictures that Rebekah posted on her Facebook about her Bible study of Revelation.
I can't believe that I have not blogged in a whole month. I will try to do better :)
This month has been good We have chosen an area of study for our Nature Challenge. Since we are studying botany for science it is just natural for us to study plants.
Our family, minus Rachel, went to minister in a rural community about 2 1/2 hours from here. The people were wonderful and the time was great. We took school books and Rebekah and Sarah got a good bit done. I can't complain.
The first day we went on a walk to the River and we turned that into a nature hike. Here are some pictures that we took on that walk
These are just a couple of the amazing plants that we saw.
Just before we left the River we saw a beautiful sunset.
We did not take our nature journals with us but we each came back and wrote about our walk and sketched some of the plants that we saw.
Well we finished the week and the girls completed almost all the work that I had scheduled. So thing are looking up and they are doing better. We received our books for Science Notebooking and Geography (for everyone) and Texas History (for Rebekah) this week so we were able to add these into the schedule at the end of the week.
Sarah was able to complete the work for the week early because she was. invited to two birthday party sleep overs. Because school has no started for her friends it does not interfere with there school. She left yesterday to go to the parties across town.
Since Sarah was gone Rebekah and I had a easy day. My goal on Friday is to have a light day any way. Rachel and Joshua both have half days on Friday so I don't want to homeschool in the afternoon other than our nature study.
I am just happy to still be on track and a little ahead is some areas since we did a few days of school work in June. I know that the frustrating days will come but I want to keep them to a minimum.
Today has been one of those frustrating days. Nothing seemed to go as I had planned.
The day started off good as Joel and I walked Joshua to his first day of school. But when I got home it continued to go down hill. We were home by 8:00am but no one was ready for school. It has hard to get the two girls up. They didn't seem to want to do anything. I wanted to pull my hair out. I had to leave at 11:15 to go with Joel to get Joshua and when I came home not much had been done (if anything) on the workboxes. It was like pulling teeth all day to get things done. I had thought that with Joshua gone all morning it would be easier to get our work done. But no. And did I had at 6:00 we still had workboxes that were not completed.
I sat down and wrote out a list of Family Rules that I am going to inforce so that tomorrow might be a better day.
1.Get up each morning in time to do chores and get started with school by 8:00
2.Do your chores on the list before school time.
3.Be on the couch with a smile and anything that you want to work on during read alouds by 8:00
4.We will begin each day with read-alouds and then you are responsible to complete your work boxes.
5.In order to get my help, present a “work with Mom” card to me and then I will either begin helping or I will give youa “wait” card.
6.If you are too noisy I will give you a “quiet” card. If I have to give you more than 2 quiet cards a day you will give up your free computer time for that day.
7.I will be available until 4:30 to help with work boxes after that you must work alone.
8.During school time is not the time for conversation. You need to be quite and do your work.
9..After doing work with Mommy return to the table. All work must be done at the table.
10.Be in bed by 9:30 each night. So you will be ready to get up when called in the mornings.
I have really found it to be difficult for Sarah to work on her own. She has been in an American school for the last two years and she has forgotten how to work independently without someone spoon feeding her. So I know that I have a challenge on my hands. I want them to have a fun day but they need to re-learn how to focus and not be distracted.
Well we are pressing on. I will let you know how things are going.
From the Brandhorst Family in Brazil
Jesus promises to the overcomes (Christans): Jesus will let us eat from the Tree of life
This is Sarah's dissected flower. 
