Coram Deo

Things That Have Changed

Things that have changed since I was on here blogging...

1. We got milking goats and they had kids.
2. We got chickens, guineas, ducks and hatched and sold them. Rick made a giant incubator that holds about 500 eggs.
3. We are selling our house and moving into a place that is dumpy and needs everything really replaced. From the floor to the wiring to the walls to the plumbing....
4. Rick is getting laid off from his job at GE with about 200 other people. (well, about 150 layoffs and 50 early retirements)
5. Since Rick is getting laid off we are planning on going back south for the winter. Maybe we will go a little further south this time for a few weeks. There are clear waters and pyramids in the southern part of Mexico along the eastern coast. The Caribbean coast.
6. We are selling a bunch of our animals so we can go south and housing out the rest of them with friends.
7. Savannah, the oldest child, just became our first teenager.
8. Rick is building a windmill. It is almost done. I will blog it when it is complete. The outside is fully done but he still needs the guts and batteries. It is SO cool.
9. We should be able to take the windmill with us in our VW camper van to Mexico. Then we can camp with electricity! Oh, and the point of changing to #9 is that we are getting the VW camper van finally done and painted. (we better get it done while we still have $!)
10. Uuuummmmmm..... I know there is more but I can't think of them right now.

Fall 2009 Family Photos

We are back blogging I think....

To see the individual photos up close just scroll your mouse over the screen.

My Jesus, I Love Thee

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

Catching Up on Our Homeschooling This Year

I have seen the future of schooling, and it is us.

Let me explain. My oldest daughter, who's 14, is supposed to be going into grade 9. Our province allows students who wish to take their courses online, through one of the school boards. So we decided to have her do Math and Science online, while I continue to teach her English, History, Social Studies, etc.

Last year she took French and Science, and she quite enjoyed it. This year she's doing grade 10 Science and grade 11 Math. She could have done grade 11 Math last year, but there was no room in the class. My younger daughter, who is 12, is ready for grade 11 Math next year, but I'm going to let her wait a year before she takes it online. But teaching them at home just let them whiz through most of Saxon Math's program, and we've loved it. They're so far ahead.

So even though I love homeschooling, I'm letting my daughter do some public school courses (although they still are online). Why? It's simple, really. If she has six grade 12 credits from an acredited school, then getting into university is no problem. We don't have to jump through hoops. And I've decided that this just sounds easier, and I want to make it easy for her.

Besides, I'm still teaching her the important stuff!

We calculated it out, and she'll be finished her grade 12 credits when she's 16. And then she has a year and a half to work full time, or write a novel, or travel, or do missions trips before university.

But as we've been watching this whole process unfold, it has occurred to me that this must be the future of schooling. Think about it: it's much easier to teach online. Sure, you still need a teacher to mark the papers, but there's no physical building. You don't need gym equipment. You don't need a library. You don't need to hire a janitor, or a secretary. It's a lot cheaper.

And then the kids aren't exposed to all the crap they get in high school. Why wouldn't more parents have their kids do it this way? And as governments face more budget cuts, you can bet they'll start to look at more online alternatives.

Of course there are Christian online options for high school, but here in Canada most of them aren't acredited, so we went with something that absolutely was. But it just makes so much more sense. Rebecca has two Science classes a week, of about an hour and a bit each. She submits one assignment a week. And they cover the entire course curriculum. In a regular classroom you'd do 400 minutes a week, instead of their 180. You just get rid of all the wasted time. So the kids have more time for their real life.

Why wouldn't this catch on? Personally, I'm still having fun teaching History and English. We're using Veritas Press' Omnibus curriculum with both she and her sister this year, although I've added some books for her to read. Over the course of the year both girls will read approximately 27 books. Next year she's doing Sonlight's Survey of British Literature, which also has 27 books. That's serious learning and serious reading. In public school English (including online), they read 4. How is that education?

I'm thrilled that I can find the best education that works for my girls, and for our family. We're taking a month long missions trip to Kenya this year, and we don't have to worry about missing school in the middle of it.

I really think more and more people are going to clue in to how much time is wasted in school, how poor an education it is, and how much better your life can be with real educational alternatives. So let's not shirk when people ask why we homeschool. Let's be proud! We, after all, are the future.

One, Two, Three, Four...

School Rules

Lift and Thrust

I always joke that I learn just as much as Cameron, if not more, as we go through our school work.

Today in science, we learned about lift and thrust.  I have heard these terms before but never really understood them.

We did an experiment that shows what lift does for the flight of a bird.  Because of the shape of its wings, the air on the top of the wing moves faster than that of the bottom.  This creates different air pressures.  The air on the bottom is pushing more than the air on the top.

When he blew, very hard, across the the top of the straw in the water, it created a lower air pressure.  The air pressure on the rest of the water was stronger than that across the top of the straw and Cameron and I were surprised with a spray of water.

AMAZING!  The things I never knew!

First Caterpillars of the Season

Cameron and I consider ourselves Monarchologists. I'm not sure that is a real word but that's what we are.  We look forward every year to when we can start looking for Monarch caterpillars.

We were visiting my mom's house.  Cameron was sent out to the mail box and RAN back to the house to breathlessly tell me that he found one.  I wasn't even sure what "one" was yet.  He wanted to drop everything and go harvest it. He had even already named it Edward.

Today, Cameron measured Edward.

He may look small but he wasn't even 1/4 of an inch when Cameron found him.  We were amazed with how much he grew in just a week.

With Edward we ended up with two other caterpillars.  They were so tiny, we didn't even spot them on the leaves at first.

We just love Monarchs.  And even though we've done them for a few years, they are still exciting, interesting and a big learning opportunity for us.