Though many of us, including myself, have never met Marsha (and David), in person we all feel like we know her and are all reeling from the news of the profound loss of their precious Christian.  If you are not aware please go here to read of the loss of their youngest son this past week. 

Keep their family in your prayers in the coming days, weeks, and months, and consider offering what sympathy you feel led to or a gift to their church in memory of Christian.  What a fitting tribute to this little boy to give to missions to carry the Word to a lost and hurting world.

I know for me personally I have enjoyed getting to know Marsha's family and her boys through her sharp witty posts and insightful humor into life.  Though in this world of cyber-everything where so many relationships are surface only, Marsha reaches out and intimately shares her life with you and gets involved with yours.  I count her as a friend though we have never met face-to-face. 

I look forward to meeting Christian when we all sit at Jesus' feet.

     We have officially ended our first week of school for the 2008/2009 school year.  It is safe to proclaim that our week was a huge success!  We are doing the happy dance over the loop schedule.  I am surprised at how much we are able to get done in 3 1/2 hours.  It is so nice to have our afternoons free.  It is also nice to see all of my children becoming more independent.  I wrote of how Mia was doing this earlier this week.  Even Rocky is becoming a big guy by playing math games with his younger sister.  He has taken her under his wing to teach her math, as that is his area of expertise.  Missy is showing areas of interest in learning as well.  Last night I had some Eyewitness books on the table.  She picked them up and flipped through the pages.  She proceeded to tell me how a butterfly comes out of a chrysllis.  Her fascination with this touched my heart.  

     Let me tell you all of the grisly details of what we did this week.  Rocky has completely grasped the concept of Roman Numerals.  I love the way that RightStart Math explains this number system.  It is so easy to understand.  Rocky got this right away.  Mia did a little bit of everything this week for math.  She reviewed her 7 times tables and  played around with cube arrays.  She also learned a new game called Multiple Solitaire.  It's a fun game.   Missy is learning her numbers this month.  We did the number 5 this week.  She made the number 5 out of playdough, made numerous piles of 5 pennies, played with the abacus and also learned a new game called the Ice Cream Game.

     Reading was a bit rough this week for Rocky.  I should have known better than to have taken a month off of reading.  Anyway,  we have taken a few steps back.  I think it is going to take us a few weeks to get back our rhythm in the reading area.   Missy is learning her letters of the alphabet.  We didn't do too much in this subject this week.  Mostly I just read stories to her.  We read some short stories from The Children's Book of Virtues  by William Bennett.  She loves this book.

     We started off our writing with a new curriculum.  I was going to use Classical Writing with Mia and just do copywork with Rocky but I decided to buy Susan Wise Bauer's new writing book, Writing With Ease.  Since reading this book,  my plans have changed.  I have decided to do writing based on this program.  I am hoping to write a post about the book next week.  Suffice it to say that I really like how this book approaches writing, both from a learning viewpoint as well as from a teaching one.  This makes teaching writing very easy.  This week,  we used the passages used in the book.  Rocky did copywork and narrations from The Little House in the Big Woods  by Lauran Ingalls Wilder.  We need to do lots of work in the area of narration for Rocky.   Mia did her writing practice on two Aesop Fables.  I decided to go back to Year Two for Mia  so that she can catch up on how to do dicatation.  Mia does very well on narration so I think we will be able to breeze through this year and move on to the next one.  Her task for the next little while is to grasp the two main ideas from the passage that is given to her.

    We didn't do much with grammar this week.  We did two lesson from First Language Lessons 3.  Mia did a review of predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives and how to diagram them.

    The rest of our learning time was taken with content subjects.  We played a homemade game of Risk as we are stepping into World War 2 for History.  We started our study of Physics this week.  We spent two days understanding just what Physics is and how you go about to study it.  We baked apple bread, did form drawing, played games and wrote letters to our cousins. We also started Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography  book. 

What We Are Reading This Week:  Mia has started Arabella Buckley's Of Pond and River.  I am reading The House at Pooh Corner  with Rocky.  We have left the world of Henry Huggins and have returned to Pooh. This boy cannot leave Pooh for too long.  For our first week of school we have decided to re-read The Tale Of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo.  We love this book and thought it appropriate to read it the first week of school.  I have also picked up (again) Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.  I am really liking this book but, due to the busyness of the last few weeks,  I haven't been able to read much of it.  I am hoping that I will be able to give it more of my attention in the next few weeks.

     So, that is our week.  We are topping off our learning time with  Math Day today.  Friends are coming over and we are going to spend the entire day doing math things.  Or as Mia says,  "Fun math things."  There is a difference you know.  I am hoping to post about that tomorrow.

     Now that school has resumed,  we are back into the rhythm of reading amazing picture books.  This year, though, we are reading them in the morning, after circle time and before we start with our core work.  We have read some great books this week.  I got the titles from A Picture Perfect Childhood  by Cay Gibson.

The Cataract of Lodore  by Robert Southey and Mordecai Gerstein.  This is an illustrated version of Southey's poem.  The poem is such a delight.  This book is teeming with rhyming words.  My kids loved it so much, they demanded that we give it a repeat reading.

The Wondrous Whirligig by Andrew Glass,  My Brothers Flying Machine  by Jane Yolen, Jim Burke.  Both of these books are about the Wright brothers.  These stories were quite interesting.

Of Numbers and Stars: The Story of Hypatia  by  Anne Love,  Pam Paparone.  This book is about the first known woman mathematician.  It was quite strange for that time, but Hypatia was well-liked and respected by everyone due to her amazing knowledge of science and mathematics.

P is for Passport: A World Alphabet  by Devin Scillian.  The pictures and words of this book are beautiful.  It takes more than one sitting to get through it.

     In the four years that we have been homeschooling,  I have been concerned over Mia's inability to do school work on her own.  Whenever there were times that she could do something on her own,  she would have meltdowns.  She always thought that she needed me by her side to get this work done.  I have to admit that this worried me.  I mean,  I was okay with this for Grade 1, but I thought by the time she was 7 and 8 she should be able to do math sheets or spelling words by herself.  I continued to be her security blanket even up until last year. 

     One of my goals this year was to wean her from her dependence on me and give her more confidence to do work on her own.  I had expected that this would take the full year.  I was prepared for this year.  This is another reason why I thought that the loop schedule might be an answer to prayer.  With this type of schedule,  it gives her opportunity to work on some subjects independently.  Also,  I just can't be by her side anymore as I have two other people needing my presence.  The great thing about looping is that even though I am not talking her through every task,  I am still in the room.  There is still that security blanket aspect that she needs. 

     I was a bit nervous this week as we started our school year.  I didn't know how she was going to handle being more independent.  I was prepared for meltdowns and tears. 

     I didn't have to worry, though.  I have been pleasantly surprised at how well Mia has taken on this independence thing.   Things were a bit tense the first day when she saw the work that she had to do for that day.  She put pressure on herself and was visibly worried that she wasn't going to get it done in time.  I told her that if she didn't get it done in time that she could finish it during quiet time.  In Mia's mind, though,  she saw that as failure.  She is her mother's daughter.  I would see it that way, too.  I was starting to wonder if this loop scheduling just might not work for us. 

     Yesterday went a little better.  Mia  wasn't putting as much pressure on herself as she did the first day. (We did a trial run of the loop schedule on Fri.)  Today,  she sailed through her work without a hiccup.  In fact, she sailed through it so well that she finished all of her work for the week!     I had put all of her work for the week in a folder.  I let her go through the work whenever she wanted to during our school time.  Well, she was so over-eager  that she went through all of the sheets in her folder.   I told her that for the rest of the week, she can do art, crafts, reading, anything that she wanted to do.  In her books, this is a sweet reward.

     I guess my concern over her not being independent was unfounded.  All she needed was a bit of maturing.   Now I have one down and two more to go. 

     Today was the big day!  I have spent a great deal of time preparing and organizing for the first day of school and it all paid off.   We had a great day!   It went very smoothly.  We even had time left over.  I cannot believe that one.  I was so worried that we were going to have to push things back constantly but we didn't have to today.   Whew!

     There were a few firsts today.  Not only was today the first day of the school year but it was also Missy's first day of Kindergarten. She did very well.  She didn't last the whole 3 1/2 hours but she was pretty close.  I have to think up more things for her to do, though, as she went through the activities that I had planned for her like lightening.

     It was also the first day that we implemented the loop schedule.  I have been very nervous about doing school this way.  I am not a schedule kind of girl.  I feel very hemmed in when we use schedules so I'm not too sure how this will fly in the long run.  But it went very well today.

     Pretend you are a fly on the wall and I will give you a guided tour through our day.

     I woke up at 6:00 this morning.  This all by itself is amazing as I didn't sleep very well last night at all.  In fact, I haven't been sleeping well for some time now.  I was prepared to get up at 7:00 but my insomnia was alive and well at 6, so I thought I might as well make the best of it.  I had some computer time as well as time to read my Bible and meditate.  I woke the kids up at 7:30 and made zucchini bread while they ate their breakfast.  The kids then did their chores and, miraculously enough, we were ready to start school at 8:30.

     We started our learning time with Bible reading.  We read about the Holy Spirit and what his role is in our lives.  Then came circle time.  We sang some apple songs and action songs to get the blood moving.  I wasn't going to have a read aloud this morning but when the kids found out that we were going to start  The Tale of Desperaux  they begged for some read aloud time.  We, then, trudged downstairs to begin the meat of our learning.  This is when the schedule kicks in.  Mia had her time with me for math first.  She had a review worksheet to do.  While I was going over this with her,  Rocky and Missy did some puzzles and played a math game.  Rocky's math lesson was on Roman Numerals.  He caught on quite quick to this.  I am always happy when this happens.  It makes my job so much easier.  By this time,  Mia worked on her Vocab-u-Lit worksheet and Missy played with dominoes.  Missy's math time with Mama included making piles of 5 pennies.  It is, you guessed it,  the number 5 week so we are learning all about 5. 

     After math comes reading,  Rocky went first while Mia continued working independently with her cursive copywork.  Missy wrote out her name, then worked on some Explode the Code worksheets.  I, then, read  Pollyanna to Mia.  As I am reading this,  I am realizing that this is a book that she could very easily read to herself.  Oh well,  next time I need to be more aware of these things.  It was time now for snack.  I brought down zucchini muffins and bananas for the kids to eat.  I have noticed that it works better if I set out a platter of things, like fruit, bread, cheese and let the kids graze and nibble throughout the morning.  Missy handles her morning much better when we snack like this.

     Writing comes next.  I received Writing With Ease last week.  This is the new writing curriculum by Susan Wise Bauer.  I will go into more detail at a later date but I really like this program.  I am putting both Rocky and Mia through this but in different years.  Rocky did a narration today from LIttle House in the Big Woods and Mia did copywork.  Mia did this to gear up for tomorrow's dictation. 

     We didn't do grammar today.  That was a purposeful decision.  We will do it tomorrow.  All of the seatwork was then done  and we moved on to science.   This was our first day  with Christian Kids Explore Physics.  I have to say that I am not sure if I like this program.  It better improve alot in the next few weeks is all I have to say about it.   We read an intro about Physics and what it was exactly.  We made a chart of all of the things that uses the various elements of physics, like heat, electricity, light, etc.  It wasn't a bad lesson, but it was very lightweight.   I'm not sure if lightweight is a good thing at this stage of the game.  I'll get back to you on this one.

     We finished our morning at 11:10.   We did not do baking like we were supposed to because I had to make lunch for Daddy and his hired men.  During harvest, you make concessions.  So I made lunch while the kids played.  Then we went to town for groceries.   Rocky's friend was supposed to come over for a sleepover tonight but the friend was sick so we have postponed it for tomorrow night.  Rocky had a hard time accepting this.  "I have been waiting for this day all of my life."  (His sister's dramatic flair has robbed off on him, I think.)  So we went to town, came home, put groceries away, had supper then watched Canadian Idol.

    That was our first day of school.   And a very good day it was.

Seems I have this talent for falling off the face of the earth every so often.  Life gets so busy doesn't it?  Thing is I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why life gets so busy with just one child.  I know I have other irons in the fire but heavens to Betsy!

Well let me update the household.  Biggest news is we had a mini Biology lesson recently.  Fresco, DS's kitten, is now a Fresca.  Yep.  She's a girl!  DS is okay with it and calls her "his little girl."  He has become quite protective of her.  Sadie and I are glad to have another woman in the house, too. 

We have been busy and recently put on a marriage retreat for couples in DH's unit.  It was a success, we feel, and pray that it will impact those marriages and give them some help in remaining committed to each other.  We enjoy doing those and feel strongly about them.  We have a heart for marriage and especially the military marriages. 

We haven't officially started school yet.  We never really officially ended last year.  But again the Lord's faithfulness met me at my need and provided His plan for us yet again.  Another year that He moves us in a direction that is more focused on Him and using Him as the basis for our academics.  I see as I look back how each year He moves a little closer to Him as our 'curriculum' if you can say it that way.  I am excited.  It is definitely stretching me.  It is pushing me really on my "selfish" limits and causing me to purposefully be more engaged with DS and building our relationship.  That is what it is really about anyway, isn't it?  It isn't just schooling at home, it is relationships.  The Lord has shown me some things about myself I needed to see and shown me some things about DS I hadn't seen before.  Exciting times.

We are also going to be in a co-op for the first time.  I am so very excited about it.  I never thought a co-op would be something we would do but with having only one it does offer some benefits for us.  Plus it is a new one.  One of my former college roomies headed up starting this one up.  We are going to be called the Koinonia Co-op.  Greek word there.  Google it.  It is way cool the meaning behind it.  So DS will be getting science per his Mom, geography and art/music.  Cool.  I will be teaching Apologia's Astronomy and I am super excited about it.

That is about it for now.  I am sure there are things that have happened to share but they are coming to me right now.  I keep promising to do better about blogging and sharing especially what the Lord keeps showing me and teaching me.  Then that life thing gets in the way.  Thanks for hanging in there and checking in even if you don't get anything new for a while.

Happy New Schoolyear!

      It is already time to plan out all of those extracurricular activities that you are going to have your children be involved in.  I used to get excited about this time of year with all of the possiblities that were laid out at my children's feet.  It hasn't taken long for the shine to fall off of the apple, so to speak.  I am no longer excited about the Autumn Blitz of signing up your children for those endless activities.  I have learned my lesson the hard way.

     My Beloved and myself have decided that this year we will severely limit the activities that our children will be involved in.  Our decision was made in light of two things 1) the price of gas--we live out in the boonies and taking our children to swimming lessons, piano lessons, art classes, karate lessons, Kids Club, well, it all adds up to a very scary number as far as gas goes,  2) I have not been feeling well this summer and it is looking that my malady is going to continue on to the month of Sept.  I do not have the evergy to cart children all over the world.  So we are limiting our outside-of-the-home activities.

     My children will still be involved in activities but I have carefully selected these outings so that I don't have to to leave the house too many times during the week.  We will be taking swimming lessons with our homeschooling group.  The kids are very excited about this as they will be able to have lessons with their friends.  Right after the swimming lessons, on the same day, we will be going to another homeschooling family's home for a book club.   Mia is especially excited about that.  I don't think Mia will be involved in this and the jury is still out on Rocky.  I think we will have to play it by ear with him. 

     We have also made plans to meet with another homeschooling family once every other week for math history class.   One week we will meet at our home and then the next time we will go to their home.  We will spend the day together doing fun math activities that will be rooted in history and science.  Our first meeting will take place this Friday at our house.  We are all looking forward to this day.

     And that is it.  That is all this prairie family is going to be doing this fall.  You know what?  I am so happy about it.  Usually I look upon the coming of autumn with a sense of dread as I think of all of those hours I will spend in the van.  I just might be able to enjoy the beauty of autumn this year. 

I have updated this post to go along with this weeks theme at Homeschool Memoirs.   Our school verse, Jeremiah 33:3, is over on my left side bar.  A verse that God has used to speak to me recently is:

"The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."  Deuteronomy 31:8

With only a week before we officially start our new school year,  I have finalized Kayla's school work for 10th grade.  Phew!  She (and I) will be busy this year - which is a good thing!  This does not include the leisure reading she'll be assigned or all the time she'll spend on her guitar! Here goes...

Math - Saxon Algebra 2

Algebra 1 was not easy but we got through it with a B- average.  I found out the hard way how difficult it is not to have the current edition which gives you chapter numbers with each problem.  This year we are up-to-date and I've got a good friend to tutor her once a week as well!

English Language - Christian Light Ed. for 10th grade

This is units 6 - 10 which will be completed in a half year.    (She completed the first half in 9th grade.)  CLE is heavy on diagramming and has a good dose of writing!  This is probably her most hated subject.

Literature - Perspectives of Life in Literature

This is Christian Light Educations Lit. Course.  Kayla will be going in depth into Pilgrims Progress (Yay!).

History/Geography - Streams of Civilization Vol. 1

She could have did "Mystery of History" along with the boys and I but I would have had to beef it up quite a bit and I don't feel I have the time and energy to do so.  "Streams" comes highly recommended for it's strong Christian worldview.  I plan to use Vol. 2 next year.

Science - Apologia The Human Body

This is Apologia's advanced biology course that she specifically asked me to do!  Science is one of her favorites and it's because of Apologia which we started using when she was in 7th grade.  Lord willing,  we will be meeting bi-monthly with the same girls she did her dissections with last year.   I am going to make a real effort to read this book along with her - I have already read the first chapter and it's awesome as usual.

Foreign Language -  Spanish 1

Kayla had a desire to learn Spanish and the Lord has provided her a great opportunity.   This will be a co-op class that she'll attend all year.    The classes are 1 and 1/2 hours long for 1 day a week with some homework assigned.  I'm excited she has the chance to take this in a group setting with a teacher who actually speaks the language!  The class will cost me much less than the Rosetta Stone software I was originally considering.

Latin - Latina Christiana

In addition to Spanish, we are also going to tackle some Latin.  We have used "Latin from the Roots Up" previously.  I believe Latin will be helpful in her Science studies and I'm hoping to improve her vocabulary as well!   This will be worth a half credit.

Art - Artistic Pursuits Sr. High 1 / Drawing classes

Kayla is interested in drawing and photography and she may pursue a degree in Art.   I hope to post some copies of her drawings as she works through this book.  She is only required by NY to have a half credit in Art but if she completes this book it will earn her a whole credit.  In addition,  she will be taking a freestyle drawing class at co-op this fall.

Electives - Logic/Critical Thinking

I will be working through "The Fallacy Detective" with both Kayla and Jordan.  After we finish I will assign Kayla the second book, "The Thinking Toolbox".  When she has these completed I will give her a half credit for the course.

I'm excited about the coming year!  Other than the Algebra 2,  I wish I had the time to go through each of the courses myself - they sound so interesting to me.  Of course,  I was not this enthusiastic when I was 15 but now I know better!

You can find a list of curriculum I'm using for 7th and 3rd grade on my right side bar.  You can read an explanation of  why we are using these particular books at my previous posts:

Seventh Grade (My Right Brainer Learner)

Third Grade