The summer has gone by incredibly fast and here we are at the start of a new school year. This year I am trying a few different things. Over the summer I reread "Teaching the Trivium" by the Bluedorns. I am implementing these ideas mixed in with my Principle Approach notions. Because of the age differences of my children, I have decided to include all of them in the lessons that I can. History, Literature, Science, Language, and labs and projects will be done as a group. What is required of each will vary according to their individual abilities.

We are studying from the Fall of Rome to the end of the Middle Ages. Our major textbooks are "Story of the Romans" and "Story of the Middle Ages" from Nothing New Press. We are also going to read "God's Mighty Hand" from Little Bear, "Foxe's Christian Martyrs" and "Uncle Eric's Book of Ancient Rome" from Bluestocking Press. Other resources we will use are the Webster's 1828 Dictionary, Strong's Concordance or e-Sword, the King James Bible, "Kingfisher History Encyclopedia", "The Wall Chart of World History", and "Ancient History from Primary Sources".

For our Literature reads I mainly chose books from the Veritas Press catalogue. I had a few books, my friends had some for me to borrow, and others I bought or were donated to us. My family really enjoys G. A. Henty. Four of his books from this time period are our read aloud books for the year. It might be more if we finish early with these books. I have a dozen or so other books of various levels for my children to read or have read to them. During the read aloud times, I have various Middle Ages coloring books from Dover for them to occupy their wondering bodies and (hopefully) keep their minds focused on the story. We also crochet sometimes; it'll be their choice.

Language is a challenge as I have Actress the High Schooler, Pilot the Grade Schooler, Jet the Preschooler and Baby (still no blog nickname yet) the, well, baby. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! The books we are using are:

Actress - "IEW Bible Based Writing Lessons", "Story Starters of the Middle Ages", "Grammar Made Easy", and "Poetry Daily Spark"
Pilot - "IEW Bible Based Writing Lessons" as much as he can do, Writing Road To Reading Phonics and Spelling Rules, Classical Writing Copy Book II, and McGuffey's 2nd Reader
Jet - WRTR, Classical Writing Copy Book II sharing with his brother, McGuffey Primer

We are also doing a little Latin using Latina Christiana and English from the Roots Up. All of them will participate, though just Actress will be required to do the work in Latina Christiana. They all will make the flashcards for ERU.

In Science we are all using Apologia Biology. Pray for me... and the kiddos for this one . The Modules will be read allowed and discussed. Pilot will only be required for definitions and ideas as well as the labs. Actress gets to do the vocabulary, questions, test, and lab work.

Actress is doing Pre-Algebra from a book I had lying around the house. I have no idea where it came from, but it is here anyway. Pilot is using Rightstart Mathematics and Rays Arithmetic. Jet is going to do Rightstart Mathematics.


I am also planning History, Art, Science, Music projects and field trips and other such fun things. I am hoping to add a little PE in the day to help focus our minds. For extra curricular activities, Actress is in Drama (what a shock, I know) and Pilot is in Gymnastics. Jet wants to do Gymnastics; we are just waiting for the right time.

We use notebooks for everything, so they actually develop their own work and keep it well (hopefully) organized.

If you notice, there isn't a separate Bible section. The idea is that the Lord is Lord of all subjects - He is our source and sustainer. The Bible is the basic text for all subjects. In reality, I have only figured out how to implement this into History. I would love to get it into all of the subjects, but my mind gets overwhelmed. My hope and prayer is that the Lord will open my mind to implement His Word into the work of all subjects. Little by little for now and daily steps will lead to more inclusion of His Holy Word into our hearts through His subjects.

So that is my goal for the year. We start on Monday.