In The Process | |
School Update Part 1Well I finally found some time to give an update on our school year. Today I will fill you in our Bible time. For Bible time with Emma I decided to teach her the "hows" of having a devotion time. We read 1 chapter a day, discuss it together then we both journal about: What God is teaching us, what God is showing us about His character etc. We started the school year in the Book of Matthew. My goal is to do all of the Gospels first and then maybe some of Paul's epistles then we will tackle books from the Old Testament. Bible time with Eli and Abbie I am reading The Jesus Storybook Bible. I love this children's Bible!! Here is an excerpt from today's reading from Isaiah. Dear little flock, (A letter from God) You're all wandering away from me, like sheep in an open field. You have always been running away from me. And now you're lost. You can't find your way back. But I can't stop loving you. I will come to find you. So I am sending you a Shepherd to look after you and love you. To carry you home to me. You've been stumbling around, like people in a dark room. But into the darkness, a bright Light will shine! It will chase away all the shadows, like sunshine. A little baby will be born. A Royal Son. His name will be Emmanuel, which means. "God has come to live with us" He is one of King David's children's children's children. The Prince of Peace. Yes, Someone is going to come and rescue you! But he won't be who anyone expects. It goes on to say: But people will hate him, and they won't listen to him. He will be like a Lamb-he will suffer and die. It's the Secret Rescue Plan made from before the beginning of the world! It's the only way to get you back. But he won't stay dead Yes the Rescuer will come. Look for him. Watch for him. Wait for him. He will come Oh how this story made me cry today I barely could read the words. Every story in this children's Bible points the Savior Jesus. I highly recommend this book to everyone!!! God is so good to us. He has provided away back to himself for us. Thank you Jesus!
Christmas in August!Yippee my Rainbow Resource order just arrived to day! I'm off to open the box and play with my new curriculum. Soon I will post our daily, weekly, and yearly schedule.
Bringing Up ChildrenI just finished reading a great article in my Rod and Staff August 2007 newsletter. The article is really geared to teachers but I think it applies to all parents especially those who are choosing to homeschool. It is referencing the biblical idea of raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. ( Eph. 6:4) Here are the suggestions for bringing up children in a classroom. Parenthesis are my own thoughts and ideas. 1. Most important, commune with God each day. Truth must be in our hearts before we can teach others. (Pray and read God's word daily before school) 2. Pray daily for each of your students (pray daily for my children) 3. Prepare and share meaningful devotional thoughts that are on the students' level. (Make Bible time and devotion time a priority, daily) 4. Claim God's grace to keep right attitudes and to not be moody. (Ask for God's grace in this matter!) 5. Teach by word and action a reverence for God and His Word. (Again make it a priority daily and teach the things of God throughout our day) 6. Teach respect for authority and love for each other. (Remind children of the scripture that apply to this idea) 7. Be awake to each child's needs. (pray that God would reveal my children's needs to me) Needless to say I need to daily bring myself and my children to the foot of the cross and cry out for God's mercy and grace as a parent, teacher and believer.
2nd grade schedule2nd grade (tentative) Language: Bible: Science: Math: Horizon 2 finish this and then move on to 3 Fine Arts: Fitness: Homeschool Family Fitness, sports for kids Other Languages: Memory Work: poems, Bible verses, general info, AWANA things etc. This looks like a lot when written out on paper, however, we will not be doing all things everyday. Sometime I will post a schedule. First I need to put that schedule together!
Summer Schedule
Here is our school schedule for the summer: Emma: Handwriting: ½ page of Italic 2 or 3 times per week
Handwriting: ½ page of blacklines or 1 page in Italic book 2 or 3 times per week
Easy ClassicalI am so excited I just received the Easy Classical schedule for history. Next year we will be studying Greece and Rome using Veritas Press New Testament, Greece and Rome cards as our spine with numerous resources along the way. This schedule has it all laid out for me! It tells me when to read SOTW or other books, when to do map work, read alouds etc. It also contains ideas for memory work! Now I have one less thing to plan out for next year. Yippee! I am off to explore my new resource.How do you do it all? Part 1How do you do it all? This is a question I get asked a lot by friends who are just starting the home school process. How do I keep the house clean? How do I get the laundry washed, dried, folded AND put away? What do I do with the baby? How do I get all the subjects in? How do you manage when Oscar works so much? The list could go on and on. My simple answer is I don't and you won't either, something will have to give! My next answer is PLAN or that other evil word SCHEDULE! (more on planning and scheduling later) But relying on God is truly the only way I make it! Let me say, for the record, I am not an expert on any of this and I feel truly humbled when people ask me these questions. Now, I will attempt to share what I do when my dear husband works a lot. My husband lately has been averaging 60 or so hours of work per week. This is nothing new for us especially since he is the boss of a small architectural design firm. When there is work to be done he must be there to do it so we can eat and pay bills! No 9 to 5 hours for us. Spring, summer and fall tend to be the busy times for him. During the winter things do slow down a bit, thankfully. So how do I handle this? Well, over the 9 years we have been married, I've tried grumping, whining, complaining and nagging. Never good things to do! Proverbs says a lot about nagging, complaining wives. Needless to say I did not want to be that kind of wife! So I changed my attitude, with God's amazing help. Now don't get me wrong I still complain sometimes. And there are times I must say "You need to be home for X,Y or Z". But all in all I truly understand that this is our life and when we said "I do" this is what I signed up for. I have decided, again by God's grace, that being thankful for the work we have is much better than complaining about all the work. When I do feel like complaining I must stop and ask my self "why not enjoy the life God has so graciously given?" Now how do I deal with the long hours? My answer is God! **My husband by the way is very good about taking time off when it is really needed and he is very good at scheduling work things at times that don't conflict with family things. K5 scheduleThis is our K5 schedule for Eli: Phonics: Phonics Museum + readers, Bob books and some Phonic Pathways Writing: Italic A, copywork and the writing with Phonics Museum Math: Saxon 1 and Singapore Earlybird Memory Work: Poems, Bible verses, Geography things, and rules for gentlemen With Emma VP History-NTGR VP Bible-Judges-Kings Art/Music PE Big Truths for Little Kids Still thinking about First Language Lessons and Spelling workout **I did not like these programs with Emma last year in 1st gr. I think I might see how they work for a K'er.
Curriculum HitsI just had to write about some new curriculum we are just now using. The first is A Child's Geography. It is basically an Earth science curriculum like Apologia's Exploring Creation series by Jeannie Fulbright. It is doable in 1 maybe 2 days (perfect for busy families) , contains lots of narration opportunities and even fun experiments, that are very easy and don't require hard to find items! We love the fact that it focuses so much on God our creator and Earth as His creation. The kids have truly enjoyed learning more about their home Earth. I like it because it gives us a time to just read and snuggle together! The second curriculum I am really liking is a home ec course from the people at the Pearables. My daughter, Emma, has been wanting to do more things in the kitchen (peel, cut, cook, etc). And this home ec book has been our answer to slowly teach her how to do those things in the context of "someday you will have your own family to take care of". As a 7yo. who loves to help mom she would rate this book as a definite 10! I love the fact it is biblical and is very easy to implement. In the home stretchAfter taking 2 months off after having Josiah, we are finally in the home stretch to the end of school! We have about 5 weeks left. We still need to finish up our VP bible, VP history and A Child's Geography. I think I will have Emma do two more weeks in spelling and be done. Grammar we will stop in about 2 more weeks. Math we will continue to do drills and the worksheets . Eli will keep trucking along with math and phonics. Through the summer I think I will have the kids contiue with some handwriting practice, reading aloud, review of history and bible (we plan on putting together a timeline book), and math drill. I'm really excited to finish this year so I can go purchase and play with all the curriculum for next year. First I need to finalize what those purchases will be!
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