Mystery of History!

If you read my post here, you know that I LOVE Mystery of History curriculum! I am finding a new love for history, and of course the girls are beginning their school careers with that love. You know that makes this momma very happy!



Today we talked some more about Egypt. For our map activity of the week, we made this:





An Egypt cake! How fun is that?!



I made flags for some points of interest, and the girls had fun putting them in their proper places. (BTW, I'm totally showing my ignorance here. I have no idea how I graduated with a 3.7 GPA - did you know that "Upper Egypt" in Bible times is actually South Egypt, and Lower Egypt is North Egypt? I didn't know that! Back then, they named it that way because of the topography of the land. The southern half of Egypt had a higher elevation, which is why it's called Upper.) (But I'm sure you already knew that).



It didn't taste too bad, either . . .

When we talked about Adam and Eve earlier in the year, the girls had to make a person out of clay to see how difficult it really is to make a person.

This is Emma's mostly anatomically correct "Eve".

We finally got around to painting them today, along with their cuneiform tablets they made.

Sarah's tablet and Eve with a baby.

Emma's Eve with baby.

When we talked about Joseph, we got to make these:

Which turned into these!

Here's our first day of Egypt - mummification.

And Sarah -

Our Stonehenge.

Can you see why we love it so?

Our Curriculum

I've been meaning to do this post for what - 2 months now? I am SO excited about our curriculum this year! We started school in the middle of September and nothing has disappointed me yet!



I posted here that I wasn't sure how the Lord was leading me regarding our curriculum. After lots of encouragement (and loaners!!) from some wonderful homeschooling friends, I felt peace and a little excitement about scrapping the boxed curriculum we used last year and researching/picking myself what the girls would learn from for this year. I spent about 3 weeks CONSTANTLY on the computer, researching, reading reviews, researching some more. Here's what I came up with.



To teach both girls together:



SPELLING: AVKO's Sequential Spelling - Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, Oral. This spelling curriculum uses all of these senses to learn to spell. Rather than introduce words as they're presented in graded reading, S.S. teaches spelling by word families, much like phonics. The girls are tested every day, but the tests are used as a learning device, not as a method of evaluation. I give the girls their word and they spell it to the best of their ability. I immediately show them the correct spelling if they missed it, and they correct their word at that time. Don McCabe, the developer of this curriculum, feels it is much more beneficial for the children to correct their own mistakes when they make them, not hours, days or weeks later. I'm finding that I agree. The words build on themselves every day. On day 5, both Emma and Sarah spelled "beginning" correctly. I am very pleased with this, and I'm thankful I found 3 years worth on Amazon!



BIBLE: Character Building for Families, Vol. 1. - I am so happy with this, too! Lee Ann Rubsam has created this unit study on 12 Biblical character traits that we should all be aiming to improve in our lives. These include: Obedience, Orderliness, Diligence, Loyalty, Deference, Cheerfulness, Gentleness, Contentment, Gratitude, Truthfulness, Servanthood and Hospitality. Each day includes Bible reading of Jesus and others exemplifying (or not) the specific trait we're talking about. Scripture memory and prayer are also a daily activity. This has not only been good for the girls, but the Lord has spoken to me quite a bit, too!



SCIENCE: God's Design Science Series - We're using God's Design for Life this year. This works very well for the two girls together. This year we will go through 3 books: The World of Plants, The World of Animals and The Human Body. So far, everything has been VERY hands-on, which we love. The girls retain what they've heard so much better when they DO something with it. We've taken hikes through our little acre of land to distinguish between our evergreen and deciduous trees, we've disected pinto beans to see all the parts of a seed, and we're currently examining 5 different jars of seeds (in different conditions) to see which germinate and why. Next year we'll probably use this same series, God's Design for Heaven and Earth. The three books in this are Our Universe, Our Planet Earth and Our Weather and Water. I'm looking forward to it!



HISTORY: The Mystery of History - Ask either Emma or Sarah what their favorite subject is and they will both scream "History!" They LOVE LOVE LOVE this! Linda Hobar has written this Biblically based curriculum with Activities for younger, middle and older students. We're using Volume 1 which covers Creation to the Resurrection. We learn about 3 different historical events/civilizations/wonders each week, Monday through Wednesday. For example, this week we learned about Stonehenge, Early Egyptians (including heiroglyphics and pyramids), and the Minoans. On Thursdays we make figures for our timeline, and Fridays we review and do some mapwork. The first week covered Creation, Adam and Eve and Jubal and Tubal-Cain. On Adam and Eve's day, the girls had to try to sculpt a person or an animal out of clay to see how difficult it is to create a person. They each made Eve, a baby, AND a bunny. I'll have another post soon with pictures of some of the activities we've done with this.



In addition to the above, Emma and Sarah also have work they do individually, with or without my help.



MATH - They're both doing Horizon's Math. Based on some reviews I'd read, I went on and got the 2nd and 3rd grade editions for Emma, because Horizon's is about a year advanced. I'm so glad I did this! Multiplication tables are introduced in 2nd grade, so I'm afraid she would have been overwhelmed starting out at the 3rd grade level, having never seen them before. I'm currently doing 2 lessons a day for her out of the 2nd grade book. When we finish it, we'll start on 3rd grade. I'm pretty sure she and I will do math all year through, summer included. I'd like her to be able to start the 4th grade edition next year when she's in 4th grade. Sarah is doing great so far in the 1st grade edition.



LANGUAGE ARTS - First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. Sarah is doing the 1st grade level while Emma is doing the 3rd grade level. This is a classic Language Arts curriculum. The girls are memorizing parts of speech and other such things. Each lesson has lots of review, with a little more info than the last. Sarah is already learning about proper and common nouns and she really seems to get it. This isn't terribly exciting curriculum, but I'm pleased with it over all.



LANGUAGE/SARAH - I ordered Explode the Code which is a worksheet based phonics program. Sarah is breezing right through it. I have 3 books for the year, but I have a feeling I'm going to need to order a few more. I had planned on Emma using this too, but it's really a little elementary for her. I just give Sarah her book, and she does as many pages as she feels like (usually 5 or 6). It's very much a lot of review for her right now too, so I'm pretty lax with it.



CREATIVE WRITING/EMMA - Writing Strands, written by Dave Marks. I've started Emma on Level 3, which is just perfect for her. Marks believes that children will become better writers not by memorizing parts of speech and such, but by writing! (Kinda like riding a bicycle - you learn by riding). The book is written TO Emma, so I hand it to her and stand by for any questions she may have. She wrote her first paragraph today about her tooth fairy doll, sans the topic sentence. Enjoy!



"Twinkle's shiny red braided hair was beautiful in a pale yellow bow. She held my teen in a gold and purple pouch when I lost them. Her clothes were beautiful. They're pink, purple, red, white and green. Also, she wore some cream and lipstick. I played with her whenever. It was fun! My sister realy, realy, realy wanted to steal her"



Dontcha just love it? I think she'll be doing quite well by the end of the year.



HANDWRITING - A Reason for Handwriting. Emma is continuing with cursive, and we're working on manuscript some more with Sarah. This is your typical handwriting practice, with the exception of the end of the week. The workbooks contain lots of bordered handwriting sheets in the back. The girls "practice" through the week is words to Scripture. On Friday, they are to color their decorative paper, and use their best handwriting to write their Scripture for the week on it. We then mail this to someone, take it to someone we know is sick, and we might even hit up a nursing home or two by the time the year is done. I love that I'm also teaching the girls to think of others, and they love coming up with who they want to send their sheet to.



In addition to all the above, a dear friend loaned us all of her Sonlight Core 1 and Core 2 Readers and Read-Alouds. I LOVE THESE BOOKS!!! Each of the girls is responsible for reading the Readers each day, and I am responsible for reading the Read-Alouds to them each day. It's great cuddle time! Emma's readers consist of books about George Washington, Sacagewea, Thomas Jefferson, etc. Sarah is reading lots of Dr. Seuss on her own. It's absolutely amazing to see the difference in her reading in just a few short weeks! Our current Read Alouds are Charlotte's Web for Sarah and Strawberry Girl for Emma. I will definitely be buying these 2 groups of books for the girls every year. It's an investment I'm more than willing to make!



Believe it or not, we're usually finished with school within 3 hours or so. I haven't been able to purchase my Art curriculum yet. We'll be using Artistic Pursuits just as soon as we can. Again, this is something we can do through the summer if need be.



WOW - I didn't imagine this would be so long! Hope you're still with me! ;) Just thought somebody out there might be a little curious about what we weird homeschoolers do each day. :) God has blessed our family so much through homeschooling already this year!


Oh, I purchased almost EVERYTHING from Rainbow Resource. This is an amazing homeschool curriculum site! They were consistently lower than most new things on Amazon and eBay. Another homeschooling friend gave me their catalog, which is probably bigger than a New York phonebook! I just pick it up and browse through it sometimes. Think I'll get a headstart on next year!

The best deals I got were from Homeschool Classifieds. Yes, those products were used, but when you're just buying the teacher's manuals, it doesn't really matter.

As soon as I can get it photograph ready, I'll get a post up with pictures of our schoolroom. Feel free to ask me any questions, I'll try my best to answer!

Homeschooling, Part Deux

Image by devonbunny via Flickr

Dontcha just love it when the Lord gives you confirmation that you're on the right path, when you haven't even been praying for that confirmation? He is so good!

I've been scouring the internet the past couple of weeks trying to find the girls' curriculum for this year, at the cheapest price out there. Yes, I know I'm a little late in looking for it. Yes, I know we need to start school soon. I've had every intention of purchasing this year's curriculum all summer long. I began in May, checking in on ebay every couple of weeks to see what I could find. I just haven't actually bought anything yet, because, well - frankly - because food has been a higher priority in our budget every month.

I've found myself wondering the past couple of weeks, "Are we still supposed to be homeschooling? Were we wrong in thinking this was the right road to follow? I can't afford the curriculum, so maybe we aren't supposed to be doing this. . . " The doubts would come, and I would shove them away - it has been SOO good for our family this year, and I couldn't imagine putting them back in public school at this time. But still, lingering in the back of my mind, I would wonder, "What are we supposed to be doing here?"

As you know, this post by Dave was in my reader yesterday, and it really touched me. I didn't think of it as a confirmation at the time, I just knew it touched me.

Lo and behold, yesterday in the mail I received the book, Blue Like Play Dough, written by Tricia Goyer. I had actually won it from a dear friend, Ann, whom I'd gone to college with. She's a fantastic book reviewer, and has had a number of book giveaways in the past few weeks. (Go check out her blog, Ann's Thoughts. She writes the most inspiring and challenging posts about her spiritual walk and the Lord's work in her life).

Anyhoo, I knew Goyer's book was about motherhood, but I had no clue that she had homeschooled her children. In Chapter 5, Learning Things Twice and Then Some, she discusses some of the challenges she faced the first few years she homeschooled. She spoke of days where she and the kids were watching the clock, so anxious for "school" to be over. She was stressed, her children were stressed - school had become a chore. Then, along came a spider. . . (and sat down beside her!) :)

"The spider, which had to be as big as a nickel, had just started weaving its web. With the grace of a ballerina, it swung from one corner of the long, tall window to the other. We watched as it worked with perfect precision. The morning sunlight glistened off the web, making it appear like spun crystal.

I'm not a fan of spiders, but I've never seen anything more beautiful. I forgot about the handwriting and spelling words and the other things on my list. Instead, I just watched.

"That's amazing." Cory's voice held awe. "How does it do that?"

"I don't know. Let's find out." For the rest of the morning we looked up spiders on the Internet. We drew pictures of our spider friend. We even went to the library and checked out books about spiders And as we rode home singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" at the top of our lungs, I felt this inner boice telling me, This is what it's all about.

Not that I didn't need lesson plans to teach math and science and writing, but that I could view our learning as a time of bonding and fun. It wasn't just about inserting facts into my kids' brains. It was about connecting with their hearts. The spider, which we called Charlotte, was just the breakthrough I needed."

Tricia Goyer continues talking about how much she needed the Lord during the homeschooling years. Days that she knew He needed to show up in order for anything to work that day. She needed Him for wisdom, and patience, and guidance as she trained her children. She stated that while she knew homeschooling wasn't for everyone, she believed God led her to this choice in order to make her more aware of her moment-by-moment need for Him. Wow, can I relate to that. The last paragraph of this chapter states,

"My decision to homeschool was a conscious choice to give my children time. Time to learn, time to share, time to grow up together. Little did I know how much the time would teach me. Little did I know how much God would draw my heart to His in the process."

Guys, I feel like that is just what God is doing with me! He has used so many different circumstances in the past 18 months to draw me closer to Him. Some have been very painful. Some have stretched me beyond what I thought I could handle. Some scared me to death. Some STILL scare me to death. But I can tell you, I can't give you another time in my life that there has been so much spiritual growth. I still have a LONG way to go, and I know I will NEVER grow enough. But I'm so thankful for where He has brought me.

And I'm also thankful for the time. Aside from my spiritual growth, my favorite thing about homeschooling is the way time has changed in our family. We have a very simple life. I don't miss the early morning rush. I don't miss yelling at Emma, "Hurry! You're gonna be late!" I regret those yelling mornings, so much. I don't miss the frustration she and I both felt as she began hour 3 on her homework. I'm so thankful that homeschooling has simplified our life in so many ways. Yes, we still have days of frustration. Yes, we still have times that we're running late to somewhere, and I'm unhappily shoving everyone out the door. But, those days are few.

I feel like for us, homeschooling has given time back to us. Nobody determines what we do with our time and our days but us, hopefully with the Lord's guiding. It's a big responsibility I carry on my shoulders, and pretty imtimidating most days. But you know what? For us, it's worth it. I wouldn't trade the simplicity we enjoy for anything.

I'm sure there will be days that the girls won't love homeschooling as much as they do now. I'm thankful that they seem to want this as much as we do. As we said last year when we began this journey, we're taking this one year at a time.

For this year, it's a go. And I'm sure we'll ALL be pulled and stretched, and required to lean on the Lord in the midst of it.

And I'm thankful.

Why We Homeschool

I came across this post today, and wanted to share it! Dave and his wife Christy are embarking on their first year of homeschooling this year. Dave is a public school teacher, and is sharing his heart about his family's decision to teach their children at home.

I love everything that he wrote. I know some people don't understand why we've made this choice, and that's okay. I don't believe homeschooling is best for every family. I don't believe public school, or public school teachers, are evil. :) We're just doing what we feel the Lord has called us to do at this time.

Please go read Dave's post, then come back here and let me know what you think about it. He got to the heart and soul of why we are homeschooling - I really could relate!