Well since this is supposed to be a blog for homeschoolers, I figured I should probably blog a little bit about our homeschoolling from time to time. 

Most of my posts lately have been about things I'm personally dealing with on a spiritual level...and that's okay with me.  Writing about the things God shows me is a big part of who I am.  But another big part of who I am is a God called homeschool mom!

This year has been interesting to say the least...filled with unexpected obstacles.  But overall our homeschooling has gone well I think.  At this point in the year, we are looking forward to some much needed time off...beginning next week with spring break, followed by summer break 7 weeks later! 

So far Science has been Bridgette's favorite this year.  She is facinated with learning about Marine science and is a little disappointed to not be studying it next year.  But we will be moving on to other Apologia Science courses...which will eventually lead her back to their High School Marine Biology course.  Unfortunately for her, there are pre-requisites and so first things first.   Back to this year...her Ocean Box is coming along nicely despite some mishaps...namely one of our cats!  We made the mistake of leaving it on the kitchen table and Heidi (or should we call her the SEA MONSTER!) got into it and caused some damage.  We had claws broken off of the lobster and crab (who also lost an eye), a fish with a missing fin, the snail was relocated, the shark had some battle scars and the dolphin had some teeth marks on it's dorsal fin.   But Daddy felt bad about all of Bridgette's hard work thus far and helped her glue everybody back together! 

History has been good for the most part...considering we have taken bits and pieces of a variety of materials to make a unit study of sorts on the 1700's Revolutionary War era.  We have gotten thru all the "activities" I had planned already, and so for the rest of the year she is just reading historical fiction of that time frame and probably doing some notebooking.  Which she is happy with...my little bookworm!

Math, we are plugging away at.  There have been some frustrations...just little things that get to her.  But overall she is doing well

For Bible we have been going thru the book of Acts...it's been interesting...and I am looking forward to watching the Acts Visual Bible on dvd when we have finished reading it all.

Total Language Plus...She has completed 2 books so far this year, Julie of the Wolves and Twenty-One Balloons.  She is currently reading Swiss Family Robinson and seems to be enjoying it.  We don't use the grammar from TLP, but instead have a separate grammar workbook.  This has been a tough thing...she dislikes grammar with a passion.  And I have to agree with her.  There are some things that come pretty easy, but others are not and I'm not an expert and so there have been a couple of pages that we've skipped simply because I didn't understand how to do them either....even with the answer key I was confused.   Really when in life are we truly going to need to know how to identify predicate nouns, noun clauses or objects of the preposition in our sentences?    And I suppose having good grammar skills will be helpful for her in her writing endeavors, but seriously...

That leads us to her writing.  Not to brag or anything, but my kiddo has some talent when it comes to writing.  She is writing the way I wanted to when I first got the writing bug.   My dream of writing fiction may just be realized in her.  This is the first time she has actually expressed a desire for something to do as a "career"...saying that she wanted to make money writing.  That is exciting to me, especially knowing what she has written so far.  I believe she will actually accomplish this goal.  She is a voracious reader, and gets ideas from and picks up on the styles of the stuff she reads and blends them all together with her own quirky humor and imagination.  Recently she had part of a story published in our homeschool group's kids newsletter...and has both sets of grandparents eagerly awaiting the rest of her story!  I might get her permission to post it here.

Well that's about it for a homeschool update...I will have to post again soon about our plans for next year, and about how our evaluation goes for this year.