Posted in Homeschooling

We have discovered lapbooking.  Rebekah LOVES crafts and is very artistic.  She can crochet, knit, make jewelery and  scrap book just to name a few.  I was looking for a way for her to express her creativity and in the process we discovered lapbooking.  We are currently working on few projects.  We are working on an Easter lap book that we are really excited about.  As the others come together I will post some pictures.

When Rachel and Rebekah were very young I made 13 Resurrection style eggs (from a pattern given to me by a friend).  This was before the official ones were made by Family Life. We have used them for the last 10 years or so but when it came to pack to leave the country we had to leave things like that behind.  But I did bring with us a print out of the bible verses and information about each of the objects that we had in our 13 eggs . 

So now we are going to have to start all over.  Here in Brasil they do not sell plastic Easter eggs. Our family in the states has sent us a few but not many.  So when we came across a lap book with a Resurrection egg style we were excited.  I wanted Joshua and Abigail to experience the Easter story in a fun way.




  We got the majority of these ideas online at www.lapbooklessons.com and http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/Lapbooks/ . A few ides were changed to incorporate things that were special to us. We also watched a few videos on youtube.



Rebekah (age 13 ) and Joshua (age 4)  have done most of the work on this lapbook.



I had all of the kids (the four oldest) decorate Bingo Cards so that they all can play with Joshua.  The more the merrier.

Rebekah & Joshua March ´09 enjoying their lapbook of Easter

Posted in Homeschooling

Since Rebekah has dyslexia  we have been focusing a lot on her reading this year. We spend about 45 minutes to an hour each day using Barton Reading and Spelling. This is a wonderful Orton-Gillingham approach to reading. She started the program after Thanksgiving of 2007.  Because of different situations at her school she had a slow start .  In March´08 I was trained to use the program. By the end of school last year she was just starting the 3rd level out of 10.  I brought the program home last summer and we completed the 3rd level. Because I had Rebekah at home during the fall we completed level 4 during the fall.  From Jan 12th to March 13th  we completed level 5.  Last week we began Level 6.  Our goal is to complete 6, 7 & 8 by the end of  2009.  Level 9 & 10 are Latin and Greek roots so we are not sure if we will do these right now.

I am very pleased with her progress.  In  just 16 months she has increased several grade levels in reading.  Once we complete the 6th level she will be able to read almost anything she wants to read.  Last week when she was reading to me tears came to my eyes because of the progress that she has made in such a short time.

We are celebrating her progress as we go along. I am so thankful for this program and the progress that she has made. It has been work but like I told her, "We are eating this elephant one bite at a time so it will take time to finish the job."  

The reading is going super but she has her challenges in Spelling but that is for a later post. 

Posted in Homeschooling

Late last fall we were given a large amount of homeschool material from a friend.  His wife had homeschooled in the past but since her death last summer he knew that he would never have need for this material. Wow! what a blessing. In January I discovered that we had received an old Precept Bible study for children from the 1980's.  Being on the mission field there is no telling how long it has been floating around South America.  We were blessed with materials that we love and are or will use and other materials that were ready to be thrown away.  But the precept study was one of the "treasures of gold".

 Rebekah and I started this study of John back in mid-January.  We are now about half way through.  We have already ordered a new Precept "Discover 4 Yourself" bible study for next fall .

Posted in Homeschooling

Today we started on the AO (Ambleside Online) selection for Artist Study and Hymn Study .  The artist is Sandro Botticelli. Even thought this is the Term one selection we went with him because we are also studying Bach (the term one selection for composer study).  Since it was so late in the year we are listening to the Bach CDs that we already own.  Our Hymn for this month is A Mighty Fortress is Our God. 

Since  we are returning to AO after a 2 year break my goal for this month is to just memorize the first verse of this Hymn. Our artist study today consisted of looking at some of his art and reading a little of his history. I will post later about what we are doing in the area of Artist study.

The highlight of our day was receiving our books that we ordered in February.  The start of an exciting day!!

Posted in Homeschooling

I thought I would share what we are studying to finish out our school year.

Since we only returned to homeschooling officially in February we are completing some of the books that Rebekah started at the international school she was attending.  So even though I dislike it greatly we did not change her Language and Math.  We are using Abeka for those two subjects.  So here is the list.

AO AmblesideOnline year 4
History:
This country of Ours (Starting on Ch 29)
Poor Richard (Arrived today March 30th)
The Light and the Glory **(Because we had not received the books that were ordered we have substituted books that we have here with us)
Science
Exploring Creation through Zoology 3 (Glad it arrived today!)
Madame How and Lady Why
MacBeth
Plutarch -Alcibiade (Elsie- by -a -these)
The Age of Fables
Robinson Crusoe
Free Reading
At the Back of the North Wind
Pollyanna
Poetry- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Foreign Language- Rosetta Stone Level 1 Portuguese

**Copywork/ Spelling and Dication: Spelling Wisdom

Bible- Precept study of John


**Not an AO book

I will post some about some of the individual things we are doing each day with this material.

Posted in Homeschooling

Since I am now homeschooling again I will be posting here about our homeschooling journey here is Brasil. Right now homeschooling looks very much like it did in the states.  We do have some unique opportunities.

Some obvious differences will be in our nature studies. Nature study will be on tropical plants and bugs and animals.  We won´t be experiencing the changes of season that you do in the states since we live just south of the equator. We are not only learning a new language because that is a CM thing to do but we are learning a language to communicate with our neighbor and friends. 

Another difference is that we don´t have the wonderful homeschooling community to support us as we go through the journey day to day.  I have found a great support with my HS friends on facebook and yahoo groups that are so helpful.

Please pray that we find the things that we need and continue to have a great journey of Homeschooling in the Amazon!!

Posted in Homeschooling

After finishing our full time language studies in the August ´08 I was looking forward to being at home again with Joshua and Abigail.  Joel and I started discussing taking Rebekah out of school and homeschooling her last Fall but we wanted to also have the blessing of our Education consultant before we did anything.  We felt that Rebekah was making a lot of progress at home with the Barton Reading & Spelling program and we wanted her to progress in all areas of education. 

In the early part of September ´08 we started a part homeschool program were she would do her work at home and go to the school for testing each week.  This was worked out with our education consultant and the school.  It worked okay as far as schooling but was very time consuming.  In February our consultant came to check on things and it was decided to go ahead and take Rebekah out and finish the year homeschooling.

We are so glad to be back  to Ambleside on-line.  We started with AO year 4. In 2006-2007 we completed AO Pre- Year 3 (a combination of  years 1 & 2). Rebekah and Sarah did this together.  Next year Sarah will be home and we will continue the homeschooling journey together.