Back to School... and Back to Routine

After a long and wonderful Winter Break... we woke up this morning to start our Back to School routine. And, boy were we glad not to have to leave the house with the icy rain and dreary weather! Too bad the dogs still had to go outside for potty breaks! :)

We started our break the week of Thanksgiving, and we continued that break (except for some Bible study, Math, Reading & Foreign Language here and there to keep our minds active) all the way up until today. Whew! Our goal was to have as much time as possible to serve others during Christmas and really dig deep into God's Word to prepare for the Celebration of Christ's glorious birth. We also had plenty of fun baking days! It still flew by way too fast, yet the girls were happy to get back to our school routine and have some order around the house again.

The girls were so excited when they awoke this morning... they always have such a zeal for starting the new term with new books and new schedules. Everything "new"! Here was a recap of the "buzz" around the house:

~Had blueberry waffles for breakfast... yum!

~We got back on our chore chart routine that I just love from Managers of their Chores. That means that the girls get everything done in the morning, from Bible devotional to brushing their teeth and the dogs... all without me asking... yea! :)

~Ava recited the Old Testament Books of the Bible (she was afraid she had forgotten them) and Caroline recited the New Testament ones.

~We said our Christian, American and Texas flag pledges and it was Ava's turn to hold the Bible as we did our Bible Pledge of Allegiance.

~We also had the blessing of Erich playing guitar and leading us in our Praise Song this morning, How Great is our God.

~The girls loved drawing the Tabernacle from our Exodus Study. It's amazing how elaborate and beautiful the Israelites created it according to God's detailed instruction!

~Caroline read her Longfellow poetry and Ava read A.A. Milne's poems... they both loved them. (especially Caroline b/c she loves it when her poets have rhyming stanzas... it's that left brain of hers)

~Caroline reviewed her Algebra that she swore to me that she hadn't forgotten... she hadn't. :)

~Ava read Aesop's Fables of the Ant and the Grasshopper... then we read Prov. 6:6-11 and discussed the biblical basis for diligence. (Diligence is a character trait that Ava is working on... so am I)

~Caroline did her spelling while Ava did her copy work... that sounds boring... moving on...

~We studied our Botany lesson and learned about how wonderfully God designed flowers, pollination, bees, and creation. Bees are very fascinating... I won't go into it all here, but the girls were amazed!

~The girls even suited up to brave the cold and collect icicle specimens... that didn't last long. :)

~Caroline read and narrated about The Alamo and The Gold Rush in California. She just loves history!

~Ava worked on counting out change and paying for items in our pretend store. After Ava finished paying for everything, Caroline handed her the items she purchased as if we were in a real store. It was just precious... Ava's eyes lit up when she got a teddy bear, gum, a purse, and even some peppermints... everything she had "purchased". That was a great Math lesson... no wonder Math is Ava's favorite subject! (she likes shopping, too... lol)

~Ava read and narrated her History story. I typed exactly what she said to me so that she could work on grammar and clarity of thought and speech. Here is what she composed:

Narration of “Bruce and the Spider” from Fifty Famous Stories Retold

There was once a King of Scotland whose name was Robert Bruce and another King of England who were at war together. The King of England and his army fought Robert Bruce. Six times the King of Scotland’s men got beaten. So, the King, Robert Bruce, went up to the mountain to hide in a shed. He thought to himself, “I just give up.” Then he saw a spider who was making a web. She tried six times to hatch her string on the other end of the web, but it fell every time. She tried it a seventh time and it hatched onto the other side. He learned from the spider that people shouldn’t give up. So, the King of Scotland told his army to fight one more time and then all his people won.

~Caroline and I finished off the school day reading Oliver Twist... wow... that's a challenging book to read. We had to look up a lot of words... its amazing how many words Dickens writes since he was paid for each one. (If only I was paid for each word I said... lol)

~And, we had some friends stop by for a quick visit... brrrrrrr for them!

~As an after-school treat, we snuggled up in bed, popped Kettle Corn and watched a movie! It was a great first day back to school!

I just love homeschooling my precious children! God has truly blessed their hearts with a desire to have good disciplines, character and a love for learning! I wouldn't give up this precious time I have with them for anything! And that was a sample of our blessed day!

Oh, and since I love looking at schedules, here are our Term 2 Schedules:

Independence

This morning something wonderful happened:

I awoke to our home security alarm blaring loudly, and I turned off my alarm clock in the process of Erich disarming the security alarm. (It was a false alarm, of course) So, since I turned off my alarm clock accidentally, I overslept by two hours!!! The whole house didn't wake up until 8am!!! (That's not the wonderful part, in case you were wondering)

So, knowing that we were going to be 2 hours behind on schedule, I told the girls that we would school until the afternoon today to make up for lost time. I got in the shower and got ready for the day as I normally would, even though we were way behind on time.

When I got done, I went upstairs to check on the girls... and guess what they were doing?...


THEY WERE DOING THEIR SCHOOL STUDIES ALL ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT BEING ASKED AND HAD HUGE SMILES ON THEIR FACES WHEN I DISCOVERED THEIR 'SURPRISE'!!!!! :)


Praise God! One of our school goals is to establish an independence in the girls so that they will be self-starters and have a desire to learn on their own accord. We have always tried to foster in them a true love for learning. Today was awesome to see the fruit from the labor.

Caroline and Ava had done their spelling, copywork, history, geography & even downloaded our weekly praise song so that they could sing to the Lord.

Again, this was all on their own accord!!! It was truly wonderful to know that Caroline and Ava took the initiative to learn and due to their hard work, it made a very smooth and productive school day! :)

I read a wonderful post today on my sweet friend, Meghann's blog that discusses the very point of discipling our children to love learning.

And, for those that like looking at schedules like I do, here is our school schedule for the Fall Term:







They love school so much that Caroline told me yesterday, "I want to be homeschooled as long as I can..." and then started discussing her plans to homeschool her children when she's a mother. What a praise to God for instilling in their hearts the love of learning!

Have a blessed day!

Happy New Year... and Back to School

*Originally posted January 6, 2008

Hope you all had a wonderful start to the New Year! I can't believe it's already 2008 and time to go back to school!... time sure flies. :)

We started off our new year with a new family devotional: Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson. The first lesson proved beneficial (when is studying the bible with your family not going to be beneficial?) when Erich started explaining how great God's love for us in that He sacrificed His Son for us. It led to a wonderful discussion.

Erich illustrated it this way: "If somebody told me that in order for 100 people to be saved, I would have to let one of you (Caroline or Ava) die, I just couldn't do it. Especially when they told me that those 100 people hated me and were my enemies... I just couldn't imagine letting one of you die for them. But God, in His infinite mercy, compassion and grace, sent His only Son to die for ALL mankind that were His enemies (Romans 5:8) so that we would be saved. Isn't God's love for sinners awesome?!!!"

Ava surprised us by responding humbly and thoughtfully with this: "But, if I died, I'd go to heaven, and the 100 enemies wouldn't... so you'd need to let me die in order to save the others, because I'm already going to heaven."

WOW!!! We got tears in our eyes... we were so shocked that her little 5 year old heart responded with true biblical understanding of sacrifice. All Erich was trying to do was get them to understand how hard it is for us, as humans, to think about one of our children dying in order to save others... in hopes to paint the even bigger picture of how much more God loved us by sending His Son to die for His enemies. But, Ava took it a step further... Praise God that He is actively working in her heart to transform her into His image. Needless to say, we are looking forward to more studies in our new devotional! :)

Tomorrow we start back to school... the girls are excited, and honestly, so am I! As we start Term 2, we have a few "new" books to add to our curriculum as well as a new poet, composer & character from Plutarch's Lives. Caroline and Ava are excited about all the "new-ness" (you know how kids are with something new and different).

I've also prayed for discernment in adding some things into our curriculum. First off, I would like the girls to start their own quiet time with God in the morning. Time for them to pray to Him without my initiation... time for Caroline to meditate on a passage of Scripture and for Ava to look through her Bible. I want to make sure that they are learning how to have a prayer and study time with God, apart from me.

Secondly, Ava brought one of Charlotte Mason's principles to life in which prompted me to make another change. Miss Mason stresses the importance of teaching bible stories directly from the Bible itself, rather than from paraphrased children's bible storybooks. So, I was reading out of a paraphrased bible storybook, (only because it was a beginning reader book and I thought it would be good for Ava to practice reading from it) when Ava said to me, "I like it better when you read me stories out of the Bible... can you do that please?" Duh... what was I thinking?!?! :)
I was reminded of 2 key verses that prove this point. Hebrews 4:12 says: "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." and 2Timothy 3:16 says: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" So, of course I should rely on God's Holy Word to reach into the girls' hearts to teach them... not a man-made altered version using "easy" words. If we reach a passage in the Bible that seems "over their heads" or if they have questions, of course I will stop down to explain or use other translations to help illustrate the passage. But, I've now decided that we will focus our daily bible studies on a verse-by-verse study of different books of the bible... and we'll start tomorrow with Genesis (good beginning, eh?).

Lastly, I'd like to add a weekly "tea time" to teach table manners. I'm thinking we'll teach things like properly setting the table, passing food around the table, serving food to others, etc. The girls also need refreshing on proper posture at the table as well as common curtesies like not talking with food in your mouth, chewing with your mouth closed, and taking small bites at a time. I want them to have fun with tea time as we'll try different flavored tea and eat sweet treats! Yum! Of course, I'll pull out my china for the tea time, too so we can be true little ladies! :)

School starts tomorrow at 8:00am and I'm prayerful that we'll start off with the right peaceful and patient heart, eager to learn and ready to do God's will! I've attached our Term 2 schedule... I'll keep you posted on how everything goes! Have a blessed day! :)

My favorite calendar

*Originally posted on November 12, 2007

This calendar from Lakeshore Learning has been the BEST investment I have made for teaching Ava how to read a calendar. After just a few weeks of working with it daily, she had made HUGE improvements! Because everything is magnetic, she can set up the whole month, which is great practice for understanding how the days of the week flow and understanding holidays, etc. Also, as she works on the "Yesterday is_____, Today is______, Tomorrow will be______" section, she truly grasps time and what day is what. Now, 10 weeks into schooling, she is very confident about understanding the calendar, the date, the days of the week, months of the year, seasons, etc. She even looked at it today and said, "Since we went to Church yesterday, and we go to Church on Sunday, today must be Monday!" Yea!!!! She's finally getting it! It's also been great to correspond with our math lessons on even and odd numbers. When we do the pledges each day, Ava gets to hold the Bible for "bible pledge" on even numbered days and Caroline holds it on odd numbered days. Of course, that encouraged Ava to learn her evens and odds quickly so that she made sure she got her turn on holding the bible on the right day. Now, she can look at the calendar and say, "Today is Friday, October 26th, and since the 26th is an even numbered day, it's my day to hold the bible!" I'm so glad that she's able to reason through all of that... and I owe it all to this wonderful magnetic calendar!! Have a blessed day! :)

Our curriculum

*Originally posted October 5, 2007

As I mentioned before, I had searched through MANY different curriculum choices... and the one that seemed perfect for our family is Charlotte Mason. She was a Christian Educator who inspired teachers to teach their children to "love learning for the sake of learning"... that way they will be "lifetime learners". Don't just "teach at them"... but teach them how to learn so that they will continue learning their whole life. She also stressed the importance of "living books"... not dumbed down "twaddle" or boring text-book facts to memorize that they will later forget. She teaches that the more beautiful language they read, they too will use beautiful language. The more wonderful stories they read with good morale, the more they will strive to adopt those same characteristics of their "hero" in the story. She focuses her curriculum on teaching them God's word and centering their lives around the love of God, the love of His world and His people. She teaches that education is an atmosphere, a discipline and a life... she also stresses the motto "I am, I can, I ought, I will." It basically means:

I am . . . a child of God, a gift to my parents and my country. I'm a person of great value because God made me.

I can . . . do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God has made me able to do everything required of me.

I ought . . . to do my duty to obey God, to submit to my parents and everyone in authority over me, to be of service to others, and to keep myself healthy with proper food and rest so my body is ready to serve.

I will . . . resolve to keep a watch over my thoughts and choose what's right even if it's not what I want.

After reading many of her ideas and curriculum suggestions on Ambleside Online, we were totally sold on her method of schooling.

One thing I had figured out about Caroline is that she could memorize ANYTHING that was put in front of her. And, with her quick mind, she would not only catch on quickly, but she would master things immediately. With that ability also came the mindset that after she would take a test, quiz, etc... the information would no longer be needed. She was motivated by the competition of being the smartest kid in class, or the kid who aced the test, or the child who finished first... what she NEEDS to be motivated by is that she needs to learn for the sake of learning... for God's glory and for her sanctification process... and with Charlotte Mason's philosophy, our goal was to inspire Caroline to have a desire to learn more about Him, more about His world and a desire to be more like Christ... for His glory. Grades, competition, awards, etc. are all "self-focused"... what we want her to know is she needs to do work at everything with all her heart as working for the Lord, not for men (Col. 3:23). And we are so excited at the progress we've seen so far in her (and Ava) with this method of teaching! :) Caroline is 9 years old and in 5th grade (AO Year 4) and Ava is doing a "light" Kindergarten b/c she technically wouldn't be of age to do K yet ... but she's so ready academically that we're going ahead and doing reading, math and a few other subjects... while making sure it's a lot of fun! :)

So, here's an outline of what we do:

Every morning we start at 8:00 am with the Pledges (Christian flag, American flag, Texas flag, and Bible). We work on our Scripture memory every day (they already have 11 verses "hidden in their heart" and Caroline just finished the Beatitudes and Psalm 23... and Ava is learning the OT books of the Bible). Our focus in memorizing is for God’s glory… not to just to show-off what they know. (it's hard not to "brag" to the grandparents, though) We sing a Praise song... we Pray and then we do our daily Bible study. Currently, we have been going through a WONDERFUL bible study book by Doorposts called Polished Cornerstones. I have them draw what character lesson I am teaching which is good practice for their "note-taking" skills. Eventually I would like each of the girls to do a private devotional to teach them how to do a "quiet time" with God... but for now, this is how we start our day.

Next is Math. We use A-Beka with Caroline. She is truly gifted in Math... it is her favorite subject and comes very easily to her. Ava uses Right Start Math which I love because it teaches her "mental math" through a lot of games, hands on manipulatives, songs, abacus, etc.
Then we do our Poetry for the day (right now, we're going through Tennyson). Caroline reads aloud to us and sometimes makes up a tune to go with the poem.

Afterwards, Caroline does her Spelling with a book called Spelling Wisdom. It is a WONDERFUL book with very challenging words in it all wrapped up in beautiful poetry, excerpts from classic books, famous quotes, or bible verses. Some of my favorite words that she's worked on are: gregarious, scrutinize, languid, arithmetical. :) This is definitely a notch above what her school spelling words were. She not only learns how to spell the words, but I have her look up the definition, put it in her own words, use it in a sentence, and then picture it in her mind. Then, after 4 days of working on the words, she has a Dictation exercise she does which teaches her to be a good listener, a good writer and write her spelling words in context. It's been working out wonderfully.

We then do Copy work (which is like handwriting practice). Caroline copies from a cursive catechism book that I ordered on Lulu. She also does D'Nealian printing using George Washington's Rules of Civility. She does beautiful work and she's writing beautiful quotes... not redundant words over and over. She really likes it! Ava also works from a D'Nealian book and I'm trying to get her to write more with lower case letters; as of now, she mainly just uses upper case.

Ava has improved in her Reading AMAZINGLY in the last 6 weeks. We read books with Pathway Readers’s program and she does so well! She even has inflection in her voice as she reads instead of "monotonously sounding out words" It's been such a joy to see her flourish in reading! She asks several times a day, "Is ____ spelled like ____?" She has such a desire to improve in her reading and spelling and she LOVES it!

All of those "subjects" are the girl's every day work. After that, depending on what day it is, depends on what other subjects are studied. I'll attach my full schedule on here at some point when I figure out how to do it. :)

For Literature, we're reading Age of Fable, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, Little House on the Prairie and are about to start The Secret Garden. Caroline LOVES to read and has such good inflection in her voice that she often reads aloud because it sounds so nice! :) I sometimes read to her to help her practice her listening skills, and other times I'll have her read quietly to teach her to work independently. After reading, she "narrates" back the story. I know she's understood what she's read if she's able to tell it back. Sometimes, she can draw what she's read, type what she's read or even write what she's read. We alternate narration methods to use all the skills. :)

We study History through This Country of Ours, Ben Franklin's biography called Poor Richard, and church history from Trial and Triumph. She gets so excited about history because she's reading about it from interesting tales using intelligent language... not simple bullet point facts from a textbook. It really makes history "come alive"! We also use a Timeline to record our event’s dates in which she really likes. :)

We study Science using Apologia's science material, "Exploring Creation with Astronomy". It's written from a creationism standpoint and refutes the world-view theories out there with great biblical evidence. They have wonderful pictures, fun experiments and tell the facts in a "story-type" manner that keeps the girls interested. It's a wonderful curriculum!

We study Geography using Explore His Earth... very much like Apologia in the creationism, projects, etc. The book is full of wonderful information and very God-glorifying. The girls get so excited when it's time to do Science and Geography!

We also get out once a week and do Nature Study. Charlotte teaches that we need to get the kids out of the house to show them what all God created so that they can love nature and appreciate His creation! The girls will draw and journal what they see on the nature study and they've even written several poems. Caroline's poems are always very literal being the "left brain" that she is... and Ava's are very artsy and symbolic being the "right brain" that she is. :) It's so precious to read their poems... I'll post a few on here soon.

Caroline studies Grammar using a book called Simply Grammar. She also reads Plutarch's lives and Shakespeare.

Fridays we do "Fine Art Friday" We study Latin with Cambridge Latin, study Art (this term is DaVinci), study a Composer (we're currently listening to Korsakov), learn a Hymn (and the verse and background that inspired the writer), and today we started learning American Folksongs (the girls were giggling at some of these). Caroline also does an Art curriculum called Artistic Pursuits. It has taught her a lot... she is a fantastic artist and I see her talents flourishing with this program. She also does Creative writing using a book called Story Starters. I see her writing abilities really improving in creativity and skill because of this book. She has so much fun writing the stories, too. Fine Art Fridays are really a fun day (although, I don't think the girls would say any day isn't fun in some right).

We end every day with Piano practice (the girls take from a wonderful teacher, Kurt Kunzat... I HIGHLY recommend him!) and afterwards the girls have free time to help with chores, work on the computer (Caroline does typing with Mavis Beacon), read or just play. When I tell you the girls absolutely LOVE homeschooling... I mean it!!! God has given them such a desire to learn more from His Word and about His world... and it's AWESOME being their teacher and to learn right beside them.

Ava's quote from this week was, "Please, don't stop teaching us school right now... I want to keep learning!!"

Caroline's quote from this week was, "Homeschooling is more challenging than school and WAY MORE FUN!!"

That's a summary of what we do and I'll journal more soon about more "God-stories" that are evident in our new homeschooling journey. It has been so fun and rewarding so far and I can't wait to write more about it! Have a blessed day! :)