Well, we have run a marathon in "sprint" time this year!  For the past few years we start school in mid-August when we are all tired of the scorching hot days and have finished most of the gardening and have had enough "break" to want "order" back in our lives so we start the new school year with plans to finish by mid-May.  Then in September the last vegetables come in, October is so very nice and so very many good field trips and things to do, and November is so wonderful to get yard and farm work done ready for the winter and December has so many special things to do.... and then we fall behind little by little and finish in early to mid-June.  Not so bad.  Well, this year I HAD to finish early because we had my dh's company convention and we extended our trip to then rush back here to graduate dd #1 (child #3) so.... we did it!!!  Every book and every subject done for dd#2 and math, Chemistry and all but some Social studies reading done for dd#1 which she will (hopefully) finish on her own before graduation.  I like finishing in early May - although I must admit we planted a smaller garden this spring between school and knowing we would be away for almost 2 weeks.  I'm such a nut, though - do you take school books and homeschool magazines and catalogs with you on vacation?  My dh and I haven't been away together for over 3 years and I had a suitcase half filled with my "favorites".  Some people like fiction or biographies - I like homeschool magazines and catalogs to read on the beach or by the pool. 
Give me my Bible, my Timberdoodle and other catalogs, a TOS magazine and a stack of highlighters and I am one happy camper!!!  Strange but happy!!  I'll post some pictures of our trip soon -
-F

Several of you have asked me to blog about the "hits and misses" for 2006 like you have done.  I just wanted to mention one surprising "HIT' we have discovered.  For our family, we have found some literature and a few texts from BJU press that were hits over the years but generally most were misses.  However, last fall for social studies for my senior, I hesitantly went with their text called "What is Truth?" It is a definite HIT!!  It covers the basic tenets of faith for several world religions in a conversational way that opens up to as in-depth a study as you want, or leave it at the basics.  The teacher's manual is a typical BJU teacher's manual but this time I think well worth the money, not only for the answers but also for all the ideas for research and essay topics.  We are doing "Who is This Jesus?"

-F

As you may have noticed from our "bookshelf" to the right, we have begun a new unit on CHINA.  There are so many fun things to do.  Since Chinese New Year falls so close to President's Day this year and since we have some relatives who were here at Christmas and are now in China, I decided to do activities for China and Chinese New Year now instead of in February (Chinese New Year this year is February 18th; Presidents' Day is February 19 and we spend at least a week on the Presidents).  So here are a few things we are enjoying:

This site is great for overall preK and early elementary activities and this is where I printed our map that the children used to color and learn the main geography.  Another good overall site is the DLTK one.

To have your younger elementary children learn about the Great Wall, try this approach and for activities and crafts "Discovering China" is a good site for ideas.  And of course no unit study is complete without FOOD!  Want to know how they jump rope in China?  Or how about a game that's good for groups or large families called "Caught You"?  This site is good for information about China's rich artisitic culture.  You can download or watch a video clip of the "Golden Dragon" dance from a festival.  These are some of the sites I've used.  Let me know if you've done a "China" unit study and what you found to be useful.  Have a great day!

-F

I guess each year we "do" the Christmas season differently.  Part of it is because we of course have different combinations of ages but honestly part of it has to be that I like to "create" units on what I liked/didn't like from year to year.  Last year we got a nativity advent calendar similar to this:

This year as we add each piece we talk about how that piece could represent something about Jesus.  For example, we added the stable the first day, talked about how it protects the animal's bodies then talked about how Christ protects our hearts, souls and minds.  We used Psalm 16:1 "Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge" as our verse.  We sang "A Mighty Fortress is Our God".  The second day we added the moon piece and talked about reflection (versus light itself) and how we can reflect the Glory of God when we obey Him.  Our verse was "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." from 2 Corinthians.  We sang "More Like Jesus".  The 4yo is just interested in putting the pieces on and "storytime" when we read a book (see the righthand bar) but the 7yo is really thoughtful about the concepts of the character of Jesus.  I'll keep you updated on how it goes as days get busier......  My 17yo and I want to do an advent wreath, too, but so far I haven't been anywhere to get one at a reasonable price - any suggestions there??