It's almost that time...

to start some school around here!

Woot! Woot! 

I think, lol. 

I was finally able to get the The Little Blue House in August for 10 days, preceded by a 4 day trip to Beaver, Utah with some of the kids & friends for the County Fair.  Chicklet and I just got home last Wednesday, and am struggling to find the discipline to get my rear in gear, as far as school is concerned.

Guitar and Survivor have been doing math for 2 weeks, basically.

Chicklet has done some, but not so much as her brothers. 

I am excited to start TruthQuest. 

I sat down one day, before our trip, and made out a broad schedule for school. 

I listed the first 3 or 4 topics from each era (Ren/Ref and Age of Rev) and then wrote down books we are going to read while studying each topic. I ordered some of the other resources for Chicklet and Survivor, such as the Binder Builders and Notebook Pages. We'll see how they enjoy using them. My kids might be a little too old for that, maybe not.

The younger two are doing Math-U-See and Guitar is doing Teaching Textbooks Algebra II. 

I might check out Khan Academy for online drilling. 

We will start Winston Grammar review, and do the intermediate book this year. I think we'll spread it out one lesson for 2 weeks. It's simple, but I am just doing it to reinforce what we did last year, they came so far I don't want them to lose the ground we gained. 

Guitar will be doing lots of reading for Language Arts. I will have him do written and oral narration on his history and books. We are going to spend some time on vocabulary as we will be taking the SATS and ACTs this year. 

Guitar and Survivor will be doing Latin as well. I purchased Latin, the First Year by Henle. I am excited about how it works. I will be spreading the First Year over 2 years though. That's the plan. That can always change, lol.

Well, that's all the blogging for today. I need to get the books out and get organized for Tuesday! 

July 19, 2012!

Summer is half-way over!

We haven't done much... or I haven't done much.  The kids have been off to camp, working, traveling overseas, leaving me.  I don't like that last one.

I have spent some time looking at curriculum, planning our next year, praying over these things.

Guitar Man is coming home for school again.

He will be starting his junior year.

Yikes, homeschooling a highschooler, that idea is a little intimidating. 

I have been tempted to use a boxed curriculum for him, like

Bob Jones or Christian Libery Press.  I know he'd be okay with those, and would get the work finished.  I want more than that for him, though.

I want him to be challenged, to think outside the box, to study history with a Christian world view, to read living books, to search for what he is passionate about and persue that passion.

Two years ago we used AmblesideOnline for our spine curriculum. We really enjoyed the books and scope/sequence.  Last year, we used Sonlight as that spine. We used  some of the books from AO as well.

We didn't enjoy Sonlight enough to fork out the money for it again.

While perusing the AO sight, the scope & sequence for my 11th grader, I came across a reference to

www.truthquest.com. 

TruthQuest embraces the Charlotte Mason method, using living books.  What I read truly excited me. The author of TQ, Michelle Miller, views history as this...

God initiates, man responds, history happens.

She says History is His story...

The scope and sequence is similar to AO, and can be used together. What I like about TQ, compared to AO, is that TQ has somewhat of an outline to go by.  The Guides come with a Table of Contents, each chapter (if u call it that) consists of a commentary.  Along with the commentary is a list of suggested readings, resources and fiction.  We choose what we want to read from there.

I like that it has the outline to go by. I can read whatever commentaries I want, I don't have to read them all if I don't want to. But at least I know what and who I can read about, in that time frame we are studying, without having to do that research myself. 

The Guides are inexpensive as well, another bonus!

The younger 2 are doing TQ Renaissance to Reformation.

I think Guitar Man will do the Age of Revolution I, II, and III.

We inherited a pastor's personal library a few years ago, and there are some amazing history books in there, some from the 1800's.  Before 'those who know better' started changing history.

  

I am ashamed of myself for not keeping this blog up-to-date. We've had a busy year, and are still schooling here in the desert.

Chicklet and Survivor literally just finished their grammar final (Winston Grammar). 

I am ready to call it quits, myself.

I told the kids they have to finish reading Story of the World - Middle Ages and spend three 30 minute increments on www.ixl.com, working on math.

They are also going to read some biographies I have upstairs, that I can't bear to give up. They haven't read them yet, so I am going to make them read them before I pack them up.

Just 'cause I can and I am the MOM in charge here, lol!

Anyway... now what?

Guitar boy will be coming home for 11th grade this year. Missions boy graduated, and we really can't swing the tuition this year.  That's ok, because I really missed him when he was at school.

So... dynamics always changing.

I think Survivor and Chicklet are going to do TruthQuest for our history, geography, and language arts this year.  I stumled upon it and was soooo energized, excited, and impressed by the curriculum. It's a lot like Ambleside Online (www.amblesideonline.com) but has a twist. The Guide Books have commentaries, that give an overview. The TQ side of history explains how God initiates and man acts... how historical events and cultures are a direct result of man's opinions and beliefs of God.

TQ actually uses or recommends several of the same books that AO has as well.  And we loved all those books!

I will probably use it for Guitar boy as well.  I haven't really decided on that one though. I am going to go ahead and order what I need for the younger two. Can't wait to get my hands on it all.

The younger two will still be doing Math-U-See, The Write Institute, and also Story of the World Vol. Three w/ our TQ.  I picked up Rosetta Stone Japanese at a curriculum swap.  We will be doing keyboarding as well.  I believe they will have their own little lap tops this year, but we will be disconnecting the wi-fi on it.

I might also do a unit study on the electoral process. Good timing for that one.

So anyway... that's what we are up to. What about you?

Blessings!



Gilcrease Orchard

October 3, 2011

Our V&B Homeschool Group went for a little field trip to Gilcrease Orchard in the northwest part of the desert.

Acres and acres of pumpkins, veggies, apple orchards, etc, growing right here in the desert.  It was fun!

We've been here 10+ yrs now, and this is our first trip to G.O.



Catching Up...

Catching up...

it's the story of my life!

We started our Sonlight program on Sept. 6th.

We are enjoying the program, mostly.  I haven't had the funds to get some of the books, so we are adjusting the curriculum to that fact.

I do like the history, so do the kids. They like the readers and read-a-louds. We are doing Winston Grammar, simple yet complete.  We are doing Math-U-See, and we like it overall. We are just doing a lot of review on math, making sure we master math and not just keep going on. We are almost done with our first book! I think we'll get through at least 2 more levels this year.

The kids are doing a lot of writing with Sonlight as well. I like their L. Arts program, overall. We are doing dictation on Mondays, and writing every other day. Sometimes, I have them copy poems to get some handwriting practice.

My overall review of Sonlight - it's important to have all the books, otherwise it's difficult to follow.  I'm still waiting for some of our science books to come in.

I'll admit, I am missing Ambleside a little bit. We'll see... but we are doing this Sonlight till we're done!

We went on a field trip last Tuesday with our group to Gilcrease Orchard. We picked veggies and walked in the rain and thunder! It was a beautiful day in the desert.

I have no idea who this little girl is... she wasn't with our group. But I loved her hat!

New Curriculum

Well...

Last summer I was up & down about our curriculum. Drove me nuts. I'm sure I drove everyone nuts. We did http://www.amblesideonline.com/ and really enjoyed the history. The one thing I didn't like too much was the booklist... what the kids were supposed to read along with our history. The books they had listed didn't correlate to the same time period as what we were studying. 

I was planning on staying with AO... and decided to look at a recent Sonlight Catalog to look at their book lists. I love their booklists!  You can download (for free) a 3 week Sample of their History, L. Arts, and Science programs, for any or all levels.  So I did!

Their booklist is in time sync with their history timeline. (Both AO and SL study world history this year, but AO doesn't start at Creation, as I'd like).

I love how their L.A. program (writing, dictation, narration, vocabulary) focus around their readers and read-alouds, as well as the history books.

While reading reviews of SL, I noticed moms saying that SL was a little weak on Grammar.  Looking through their L. Arts guide, ah, they might be a little. But I can fix that!

So... I chose to do Core G - World History 1.  Next year we follow up with WH2.  I was able to buy the Instructor's Guide for History/Geography, L. Arts, and Science (a & P) on Ebay and am piecing the books together. Some I have, some I am purchasing, some I will borrow (hopefully).

I was going through the IGs tonight and am getting excited about starting school. Of course, we need to finish school. UGH!

Summer Vacation

Summer Vacation....

Has lasted a lot longer than I intended!

We will start back on Monday July 18th.  We are not 'starting' our next year, we will be finishing the past's years assignments!  hunk #4 has to finish math & spelling, and Chicket has to finish spelling & work on grammar.  We'll take @ 2 weeks, tops, to finish up, then take a break for a few more weeks.  But we just gotta finish what we started, right?

We are going to be doing Sonlight this year, Core G... World History 1.  I am pretty excited for it... Hunk #4 has found my books and is already reading them. I need to hide them!