"Don't worry about anything; on the contrary, make your requests known to God by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. Then God's shalom, passing all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with the Messiah Yeshua." Philippians 4:6-7 (CJB)
~Quote~
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next Abraham Lincoln
~Books I'm Reading~
Bible
A Heart Strangely Warmed Louise A. Vernon
Letters Of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart
We just finished our first week of school. We won't be doing school tomorrow, for we have had some other plans. But, I wanted to share with you all, what it was like this week.
Our first week of school has been great. Every year I say I will start school earlier, but never do. Well, since we had all of our books minus one, we started school this past Monday. The reason I wanted to start earlier? I am going to Brazil for three weeks in the fall, no school or not as much. The other reason, when April/May rolls around, we just want to enjoy the nice weather.
I would like to share about HOW, it's a blessings! The Bible comes to life, the lessons are very applicable to real life situations. I confess I was very afraid of it, at first. I am thankful the Lord led us to it this year. I can't say enough about this curriculum.
HOW, offers so much to choose from with so much flexibility; do as little or as much you like. I am sure some days there will be more work than others. "There is always room to be flexible"
Remember the open House schedule I said: "allowing room to be flexible" As we schooled everyday this week, we are learning what works and what does not work. Our schedule is bit different from what previously planned. We are still testing the waters. So far so good.
We added a new twist to school this year. We are doing a more relaxed textbook approach. I will list our changes.
Past Math: we did all of the exercises everyday, besides the videos.
This year - DD is doing only half of the lesson's exercises.
Past Language - the same as Math, everything by the book, either Abeka or Bob Jones.
This year: Using LLATL. We love it! Not an over kill workbook, like Abeka or Bob Jones.
This year, I added scrapboking for History and science, Anna is loving it!
I have learned a lot from PlainJane, how to be more school with less textbook. PlainJane's blog is a blessing. Her scrapbooking school is fantastic. Take a pic at these posts.
TAG RULES:
1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight
things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged
and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Canadagirl added a twist to this, we are to talk about homeschool. I am doing eight things about my school experience as a child and now as a HS MOM.
1. I was very much afraid of hs, for I thought my English grammar was very inadequate. I was also very misinformed about socialization.
2. The Lord made things very hard at my job and for DD at school in the spring of 2001. I quit my nice paying job and brought DD home where the both of us belonged. The first thing we had to do in order to survive financially - we gave up cable, cell phones, pre-made foods and eating out.
3. Math was and is my worse ever subject in school. I did summer school just about every year in order for me to pass to another grade. When I was in seventh grade my teacher gave me 1 point in order for me to pass the grade that summer. Sometimes I think he passed me just to get ready of me, I had him as a Math teacher for three years.
4. Ok, one might be asking how in the world does she teach her DD Math? I taught DD Math until grade three. Fractions are my #1 enemy. In grade four I discovered something called Abeka videos, that was a disaster, we finished the year with Bob Jones Math. We have been using Bob Jones Math DVD's ever since. One got do what it works, this works well for me.
5. As badly I it sounds about my math troubles- I use math in life everyday, I just wasn't the math textbook kind. I am also the one who manages our budget and house accounts.
6. Anther subject which I was not fond of it and my grades were almost as badly as in Math, was History. Public Library was downtown. I had the same teacher from 5-8 grade. She was boring and very impersonal. There was no money for textbooks, so she dictated the lessons or made us copy it from the black board. History was boring and a thing of the past for me.
7. History has been our most favorite subjct for Hs. The first two years we just used Abeka, we later used Beautiful Feet. Between B. F. and HOW site, our love for History was born. History is fun and enjoyable, give it it try with Living books.
8 Tip - I will have to say that if Math is not working for your middle school kid, hand him/her a calculator, teach them about real life math.
I am supposed to tag eight other friends. I really don't like to tag people, but I will tag these three friends, i don't think they will mind. Short, Garringer9, gnjlopez.
Tiany at Less of Me-More of is hosting a Homeschool Open House for everyone to share their homeschool plans for the up coming year. Thank you Tiany, very nice idea
Hello, come on in, and allow me to give you a tour of our homeschool. I hope you will blessed as you stroll around.
Our Homeschool Journey
We started HS our DD in the fall of 2001. I am Anna's (AKA dancing4Him) mother, she is a lovely 13 years old young woman. After two years in a nice but expensive ChristianSchool, I quit my full time job and brought my DD home. We felt it was our responsibility to teach and encourage her in becoming a woman of valor for God, while trying to avoid the negative influences/circumstances found in many public educational settings. We teach with the primary focus of Training her heart to display the beauty of the One True God of Israel, who is the creator of all.
Our Family/School Verses
Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Isaiah 54:13
All your sons (and daughters) will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace.
Teaching Style
Eclectic
Curriculum for 2007/2008
Bible/History - Heart of Wisdom
Language Arts - LLATL
Foreign Language - Hebrew
Science – Great Science Adventures by Dinah Zike.
Math - Bob Jones
Arts - Co-op
Physical Education – Hebraic and Irish dance classes
Life skills - everyday and every moment there is something new to be learned.
Our Daily schedule
Our school day beginsat 7 AM,
I allow for a flexible schedule aiming to finish between 1 -2 PM with books and such. (This is not set on concrete, it just a goal to make sure we don't get off tract)
7 - 7:45 Personal time/Breakfast
7:45 - 8:15 Morning chores
8:15 - 9:00 Bible study
9:00 - 9:45 History
10:00 - 10:45 Math ( 4 days a week)
10:45 - 11:30 Science ( 4 days a week)
12:30 - 1:15 Language
1:30 till .....
Life Skills/ personal interests - blogging, dancing, needle work, baking, knitting, Hebrew classes playing and etc...
Thank you for stopping by, Blessings to you and yours this coming school year.
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
As I visited Sharity and PlainJane the other day I found out there are some bloggers posting their thoughts on the HOWTA. Well, I commented on Sharity’s Blog that I might do a post with my thoughts on HOW. Here are some thoughts of how I came to HOW and my experience with it. Update: CanadaGirl and ThreeLittleLadies also posted a HOW post, see their comments below.
HOWTA - Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach
I don’t have the book HOWTA yet, but I do have Robin’s Biblical Holidays, What Your Child Should Know and When, and her Unit Study Adam to Messiah.
I came across Robin’s material on my first year of Home school; I know it was of the Lord, because it was just about at the same time my husband and I begin to study and discover Jewish Roots. Our first year of hs was full of new adventures, excitement and also frustrating times.
I borrowed “What your Child Should Know from my local library. Plain Jane said on her post, she did not read the book, she devoured it; this is exactly how I felt. I could not put the book down; I reordered the book over and over again. I finally bought my own copy, which was a very good investment.
The HOWTA is God first, and everything else is taken from that.(This is what got my attention) I’ve seen too many curriculums out there saying Bible first; however it still has a strong sense of Western/Greek mind-set. We didn’t get her Unit Studies at first, but I kept visiting her site and looking into her wonderful articles, book suggestions, biblical studies…etc.
We finally, purchased the Adam to Messiah Unit Study when DD was in the 4th Grade. We did not feel that it was the time to start, though we did implement her ideas throughout our schooling.
Here are some things we did with our school since we found HOW:
_ Read directly from the bible, not using man made books for Bible study. We started our day with the Bible (still do), and from there we found lots of exciting topics.
_ Daily Bible copy work– DD would copy a Psalm or other bible passages.
_ Science, this is something we read out of Abeka or another science children’s book from the library.
_ Since my DD was not ready to study Ancient History we concentrated on American History – Europe – Australia…Etc. She has a very good grip on this, which I am very happy for it. We both have felt in the last month we should start Adam to Messiah this coming school year.
The Biblical Holidays book is another wonderful HOW book. Oh, this is so full of ideas and interesting fun pages for children. Some of you already know that my family observes the biblical Feasts, so this has been one of those books we used, over and over again.
I would like to explain what I mean in my own words why it’s so important to study the bible from a Biblical Hebraic point of view.
As you all know by now I am from Brazil. Now, some people may say they know me. But do they really? Unless one can be familiar with certain aspects of my culture, they really don’t know me; they can assume and hypothesize. There are lots of things that my husband’s family does not seem to understand. Some days, I wish they would go out of their way to understand certain aspects of my Brazilian culture. When I came to America, I had to learn and observe the American way. I had to learn, so I wouldn’t appear foolish (which at times is easy to do coming from a different culture). In the same way, we miss so much more out of the bible, because we want to understand this Ancient Middle Eastern book with our modern western-American mind set.
Well, in a nut shell, HOW puts God first with a Hebraic Biblical point of view.I highly recommend and endorse Robin’s books.
This was the theme for our Homeschool Mom's meeting this last Monday evening....After so many years of not being part of a HS group due to the location where we lived, it is such a blessing to be part of a group again. There were several questions asked as a getting-to-know each other.
There was all sorts of answers given to the question above. I pondered this question for a awhile, and the only thing that I could think of it: "My need to be with other HS mom's" Sharing our up's and down's, curriculum choices and knowing we are not alone in this world. Our meetings are so relaxed and encouraging. I just love the HS community, what a blessing!
Another question: What age will you allow your children to date? I thought to my self, how do I explain to this group of our own conviction on this issue? Not very many people we know agree with our convictions, and we get tired of the funny looks at times or remarks. Unless, I am asked about it, I kinda keep it to my self..... and so, at this meeting I was put in a place where I had to answer it..... To my surprise, another mom had the same convictions as we do. I am discovering, that more and more HS families, are rethinking this very sensitive issue.
Take a look at this! I just ordered my first 10 this last Friday morning and received it this last Tuesday. DD is really enjoying the software things we were able to get it. Below is a bit more information about it and also a link. This is way too cool for a couple of reasons: FREE shipping, and they have things my local Library doesn't have.
Freshwater Fred's Lending Library includes approximately 1,100 educational videos, software programs and curriculum - and the collection is always growing. Explore topics such as biology, zoology, anatomy, physics, math, history, geography, the arts and environmental science.
There is no charge for Lending Library materials. Freshwater Fred's Lending Library is brought to you by Hoosier Energy and its Environmental Education Center, located at the Turtle Creek Reservoir in Sullivan County, Ind.
Materials are available to educators in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin for 30-day intervals. Renewals are subject to demand. Educators are limited to 10 items at any one time.
It seems that at our house we don't get enough of History.....We are always looking for good resources. One of the topics we really have spent a lot of time in our hs, is the Holocaust. This is such a dark, horrible ugly subject in history. I thought I would post some of the movies and documentaries we have viewed together as a family. There are some others our there, but like everything thing else, we had to put it aside for now, due to some extras like, sex content.
~ The Long Way Home ~ Nazi Medicine; The Cross and the Star
~ Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
~ The Last Days
~ The Children of Chabannes ~ The Devil's Arithmetic
~ Paper Clips
~ The Scarlet and the Black
~ The Pianist
~ Miracle at Moreaux
These next three are excelent, but might be a little too violante or too long and boring for younger grades. ~ Israel a Nation is Born - 3 part series
~ Heritage - Civilization of the Jews
~ Holocaust - The Liberation of Auschwitz
~ Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
I have not been able to keep up with my Blog lately. I have had some medical problems, which one of them is a tennis elbow. In order for this to heal my doctor advised me to not spend very long periods of time doing the same repetiouscios movements, and computer was one of them. I have had to use a brace for it, and also it has helped having a special mouse cushion for my wrist to rest on as I use the mouse.
Since February is African American month, which happens to be one of our most favorite subjects in school. I would post some of the things we have done for this, as my DD grows we are able to dig deeper into this very sad aspect of American History.
Recently we checked out of our P. Library the life of Harriet Tubman.
~ A woman called Moses - DVD (200 min.)
~ Go free or die : a story about Harriet Tubman- book on tape
This Blog is about my life and the different adventures that I experience being a wife, homeschooling mother, homemaker, friend, and daughter of the king of the Universe. I am a follower of Yeshua (Jesus' name in Hebrew) He was born a Jew and lived as a Jew on this earth. It's because of him, and his incredible love towards me, that my ashes were turned into beauty.
I'm a native of Brazil. I have been married to my DH, for 22 years. We met while he was there on a Mission's trip. We have one wonderful 13 years DD.
We won't be doing school tomorrow, for we have had some other plans. But, I wanted to share with you all, what it was like this week. 
The Bible comes to life, the lessons are very applicable to real life situations. I confess I was very afraid of it, at first. I am thankful the Lord led us to it this year. I can't say enough about this curriculum. 
By CanadaGirl
