May. 29, 2008 - Catching up...
Well, I haven't been the best blogger lately. We have a lot going on with homeschool ending this week, lots of action on the farm, and Chris working a few extra days than normal to cover for a sick Nurse Practitioner who is out for 4 weeks.
I'll have to get some pics of the farm animals. This is the most wonderful time of year.
Billy and Willy, our billy goats are growing quickly and spend their days romping and wrestling with each other in our pasture. Whitey the Muscovy Duck, is still acting proud of her ducklings who still follow her around faithfully. Though she is down to 4 ducklings now. We have a bunch of new chicks and ducklings who are trying to grow quickly so they can be released to free range on our property like the big birds! We have 10 chicks hatching today, 60+ more birds (chicks/ducks and guineas) over the next 10 days or so.
The human babies around here are enjoying the warmer weather and the end of school for a while. Josiah, my amazing 5 yr old, hopped on his bike this week and just took off riding without training wheels, while Noah and I stood there with our mouths hanging open asking him, "How and when did you learn to do that?" He is usually our more cautious child, so when he started riding unassisted this week, breaking all Konsavage kid records for early bike riding, we were all very excited and proud of him.
As with most homeschool moms, this is a time of year for perusing homeschool curriculum catalogs and placing orders. A group of us went to the Nashville Convention 2 weeks ago and had a great time. 8 straight hours of drooling looking through thousands and thousands of different books. It was like heaven! I went with a bunch of "baby" homeschoolers so was trying to help them as well not feel overwhelmed. I'm not sure that they didn't get overwhelmed but I remember my first homeschool convention back in 1998....the HUGE one in Orlando Fl. Something like 10,000 people or something. I walked around so proud to be among the homeschoolers. My 2 sons were finally old enough to start teaching. They were the ripe old age of 2 and 6 months old. LOL
Is anyone else happy that they will never again be a first time homeschooler.....or parent for that matter. Oh the gift of time and wisdom.
Anyway, I have my Rainbow Resource order all set to click the "order" button, but I can't. Every day I change one little thing here or there. So, alas, it sits. My shopping cart full for 4 days so far...as I continue to pray through everything.
This school year, I will have 4 grades: 7th, 5th, 3rd, Kindergarten plus a 4 yr old, a 2 yr old and......well....I'll save that for another post.
I desperately want our homeschool to be God-led...to not feel stressed and pressured to conform to our society's standards of education. To not feel chained down to checking off boxes and crossing off pages we accomplished...so I continue to ask God to give me wisdom on what TRULY matters.
Some things He has showed me is that reading and writing is important, but knowing what an adverb or an indirect object is or how to diagram them, is just not something that an 8 yr old needs to be tied down to right now. In fact, as an adult, when do I ever need to prove that I know the present participle of anything. I can actually be a good writer and not know those things. (Though I do....)
Anyway, God has been showing me what is TRULY important in His eyes. Would you believe that it is, in many ways, different from what our educational system would have us believe? Even different from what most homeschool curriculum would have you teach. I just think it's important for each family to pray though their choices and be God Led. I still think, in the end, I'm doing too much.....but we can tweak it as we go.
Because I LOVE to hear what other homeschoolers are using for their curriculum each year, I will type mine out. If you decide to type yours out, please let me know so I can read it on your blog.
Main Curriculum: STUDENT OF THE WORD. We are in Year 4A this year. (my oldest 4 will be doing this and my 4yo on occasion)
Mystery of History 1. I have done Story of the World before but I just love how this curriculum meshes Biblical History with World history so you can see what was going on at the same time. I never learned that in school. They were taught seperately and I never realized that life was going on at the same time in the Bible and the World.
My 4 oldest will do this and I will also assign weekly reading of books based around what topics we are studying in MOH to my 3 oldest. I am using all the extra books from Winter Promise to supplement their reading.
Aslan 7th grader:
Total Language Plus
Apologia General Science
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
Piano
Noah 5th grader:
Total Language Plus & some Book making using blank books
Apologia Elementary: swimming and Flying Creatures of the 5th day. He wants to do both of these and work independently.
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Singapore Math 5
Piano/guitar/drums
Lamb's book of Art 2. (He just finished book 1 and loves it and learned so much!)
Handwriting without Tears
Hosanna 3rd grade:
Total Language Plus and book making with blank books
Singapore Math 3
Sonlight Science 1 with Josiah (Daddy teaches this)
Handwriting without Tears
Rosetta Stone Spanish (Starting this fall)
Piano
Lamb's Book of Art 1
Josiah Kindergarten
Learning Language Arts Through Literature Blue book (We're 1/2 way through now)
Handwriting without tears
Explode the Code
Singapore Math 1
Sonlight Science 1 w/ Hosanna and Daddy.
Of course this is all subject to change tomorrow. (Grin)
Comments
May. 30, 2008 - Thanks for your curr list
Posted by seasonsmom
Hey, that was so nice of you to share with us what youplan on doing this year. Hope it goes really well, which with you as the teacher it can't go wrong. Blessings, N
Jun. 5, 2008 - 3 G's by RC Sproul Jr.
Posted by Anonymous
Misti, a bunch of us went to the Convention in Orlando and listened to RC Sproul Jr. speak about the 3 G's being more important than the 3 R's. I bet you could go to the FPEA website and Rhino Technologies and buy the audio CD. He spoke exactly about your blog topic and was very encouraging! He also spoke on one called Goal of Education - Kim C. from Tampa
Jun. 7, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by momanna98
and? and?? where's the follow up post? Is another Sweet Savage on the way?
Jun. 7, 2008 - Observant award!
Posted by SweetSavages
I have to give the Observant award to Momanna98! Good job. Only one to mention my comment in a previous blog! Since most don't read my comments, I will post an official announcement of Sweet Savage #7 soon!! Good job!!! = )
Jun. 8, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by momanna98
Congrats!! I have good baby radar. ;-)
