Allison's self portrait

A message from Karl about Forgotten Children

This is a song inspired by a trip to the Central African Republic where we are now partnering with ICDI to drill wells to provide clean drinking water in villages there. The words at the beginning of the song are words I read while I was there and come straight from the Bible. It's as if God was looking at the same images I was seeing. His inspired Word communicated perfectly my thoughts and emotions at the time I was there..
Karl Moraski is the worship pastor at our church. You can visit ICDI for more information about this partnership.
The Central African Republic is a destitute country which gets very little aid from the US or any other country. In a country ravaged by disease, clean water gives their people a better chance of survival. Only about 15 percent of the population has clean drinking water. Unsafe water is the world's number one killer. Preventable water-related diseases are responsible for 80 percent of the sicknesses in the world.

Forgotten Children

Operation Christmas Child

This past weekend some of my sisters in Christ and I got to assist in an amazing ministry. We packed up and headed to Boone, NC, to volunteer for Samaritan's Purse. One of their ministries is Operation Christmas Child. This was such a heartwarming experience for me. The facility is amazing. This year alone they will process over 600,000 shoe boxes full of gifts for children all over the world. Our day the boxes we assisted on were going to Jamaica, India and Brazil. Boxes are received from all over the country. Our job was to inspect every box and pack them to be shipped. There are some items that can't pass through customs, so these items had to be removed. Because of many generous donations we were able to replace these items with other gifts. As I inspected each box my heart was overwhelmed at how blessed we are that our children have what they need. Most boxes contained things such as toothpaste, soap underwear toys, school supplies and hard candy. Imagine not having such basic things for your child. For some children this will be the only gifts they receive. The staff pray throughout the day for each and every child that will be receiving the boxes. They especially pray that each child might get a glimpse of Christ and the love that He has for each one of them. As an added surprise for us Franklin Graham showed up! He came to pray with us as we prepared the boxes. He is am amazing man who has made such a difference in our world. Read more about Operation Christmas Child on their website. If this is something your church has participated in but you haven't gotten involved, I encourage you to check it out.

Nicole Mullen

Nicole Mullen is just so amazing with her music and her love for Africa. She was actually born and raised in Cincinnati, a place I lived for a short time. Mullen established a mentor group for girls called “The Baby Girls Club”. She and her husband, David Mullen, are youth leaders in their local church, tutor inner-city youth, and participate in Across America summer camp for inner city youth. Mullen is also active with the International Needs Network Ghana, an organization that works to free Trokosi slaves in Ghana. I have always had a heart for the people of Africa and I know if I ever felt led to missions outside of the US this is where I would go. We have just fallen in love with her and her music. She has four children and now lives in Tn. You can check out her website at Nicole Mullen.

Nicole C. Mullen-Redeemer

The Mina Project

A few weeks ago our church decided to really step up. Pastor Mike told the parable of the talents, Mathew 25:14-30. In this parable a man goes on a journey and entrusts his property to his servants. They were all given talents according to their ability. The man given five talents immediately put his money to work and gained five more. The man with two talents also gained two more, but the one who was given one talent dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After the master returned he was pleased with the first two of his servants. When the last servant said that he was afraid and he has buried his money, the master replied, "You wicked lazy servant."
Mike then proceeded to distribute $35,000 to the congregation. Each person would receive an envelope containing anywhere from $10-$500 and written instructions. You couldn't give it back to the church, you couldn't spend it on yourself, and it must be used by Christmas. We were all amazed! He has such a heart for the community. Imagine what could happen if everyone doubled the money they received and reached out to our community.
We are in the process of growing our money with plans to help a family for Christmas. After listening to the parable it was clear that God wants us to grow that money.
You can read some amazing stories on our website Mina Project

Pablo Picasso

Picasso was born along the southern coast of Spain . Although during his baptism he was given ten names, he signs his painting with just one...Picasso. He began experimenting with a style of painting that reduces images to geometric shapes, sharp edges, and angles. In this style, called Cubism, noses sometimes look like cones, and eyes like triangles. By drawing the human face this way, Picasso was able to show us views from the front and the side at the same time.

Allison loves Picasso. In her art class they got to draw their own rendition of Picasso. Here is her picture.

Wow! It is December!

We are busy trying to wrap things up for the year. We have one more week of school and then we are on break until January. Everyone is progressing well. It just seems that I never get everything accomplished that I have planned.
The 3 older kids are in the process of watching How to become a Superstar Student by Tim McGee. He has taught for many years at Worland High School in Wyoming. This is a course that instructs high school students in how to improve basic study skills and develop a true love of learning. The goal in education is to teach a love them how to learn. This is better achieved when the student has the confidence and the tools needed to succeed. More to come after they have completed the series.
Math is probably the most successful subject in our home right now. Everyone is doing well. Jonathan loves numbers much more than letters. He is about to finish his K Math book and will be moving on to the 1st grade book. I have to say it again.... I love Teaching Textbooks! It is allowing everyone to be successful and learn.
My goals for the week are to wrap up everything in all subjects. They have many exams to take that will put them at a good stopping point.
We are all looking forward to some down time. Although it will still be a busy month. The 2 older kids still have classes in the co op until Dec. 18th. But it will still be a much lighter load.
Christmas is such a wonderful time. My goal is to make sure we all remember why we celebrate. I never want to lose sight of our Savior in this busy time.

Allison's art work

Here are the pictures that Allison completed this month in her art class. They studied about different textures using leaves for the abstract and a shoe for the fish.

I Will Lift My Eyes - Bebo Norman

Our first lapbook

After reading You are Special by Max Lucado I wanted to do something to remind Jonathan about how special he is .Well we finally did our first lapbook. I am not a crafty person so I needed lots of help. Thanks to Ami on my lapbooking Yahoo group I was able to put this together. I used the All About Me freebie from Live and Learn Press(Thanks!) Because Jonathan is only five he needed a little help:) Here are some pictures.

The Voice of the Martyrs

The Voice of the Martyrs -- Servants of the Persecuted Church

There are more Christian martyrs today than there were in the days of the Roman Empire. We hear the stories of what happened to the Christians in 100 AD times--thrown in for the wild animals to tear apart, beheaded, stoned, crucified, thrown into boiling oil or a furnace, or coated in tar and used as human torches, to name a few--and yet we do not hear what is happening to our Christian brothers and sisters around the world today, where Christians are still dying.Christians are still dying for their faith in Jesus Christ today. An estimated 164,000 Christians were martyred in 1999 alone. The numbers and stories are staggering. A great book to read is Jesus Freaks by DCTalk and The Voice of the Martyrs.

They encourage and provide smuggled Bibles for Christians in persecuted countries, distribute tracts in various ways, encourage and help those imprisoned for their belief in Jesus, and do numerous other activities that benefit Christians in persecuted countries (an example is the Sudanese blanket drive, where blankets are collected and distributed to Sudanese Christians).

UZBEKISTAN – Pastor Sentenced to Four Years in Exile March 9, 2007
On Friday March 9, Pastor Dmitry Shestakov was sentenced to four years in exile. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts in Uzbekistan, the location to which he will be exiled has not been determined. It is not clear if his family will be able to go with him.
In January, Pastor Shestakov was arrested in a raid on his congregation in Andijan, which is affiliated with the registered Full Gospel Church. Uzbekistan’s Religious Affairs Committee claims Shestakov, an evangelical pastor, is not an authorized leader of any officially recognized religious organization in Uzbekistan. They describe him as an “impostor” leading an underground group identified as “Charismatic Pentecostals” engaged in proselytizing under Shestakov’s leadership.
“This is an example of what our Uzbek brothers and sisters face in their country,” said Todd Nettleton, Director of Media Development for The Voice of the Martyrs. “This is a government that says they give their citizens religious freedom, but that is clearly not the case.”
“Our prayers will continue to be with our brother as he faces this sentence, and we pray that the gospel work in Andijan will continue and grow.”

Please visit The Voice of the Martyrs to keep informed of news across the world. Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Some samples

This is Allison's rendition of The Bedroom by Van Gogh. As you can see she felt his room was a bit too drab and added her own character to the picture.


Twelfth Night

Our week

I can't believe how quickly our days are going. It has been another busy but productive week. Morgan and Bryan are both doing well in their honors and AP Biology classes. They have both received A's on their exams and homework assignments. In history we have begun a more in depth study of the constitution and how our country's government was formed, plus began the reading of Washington Irving's The legend of Sleepy Hollow. Our cultural center is doing the play in a few weeks and we hope to get to see that. Algebra is just algebra, progressing well.
Aaron is moving along in his study of American history by reading Genevieve Foster's book George Washington's World. Physical science is still going well. Reading is still slow in that he just doesn't love to read fiction. But we are working on that.... He loves his Fallacy Detective Logic Book, but then again that is his thing. He is keeping up with the others in his high school Latin course. IEW has really helped him with writing and he is writing some good papers these days.
Allison is just thriving on the changes we have made for her. Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day is her favorite book right now. She has learned all about binomial nomenclature, and can tell you all of the classifications in order. Her notebook looks awesome. We are continuing our study of the Vikings and Leif Erickson for history. She is reading Socks by Beverly Cleary and of course loves that since it is about a cat! We are about to wrap up our study of Van Gogh and Vivaldi even though we hate to say good bye to them. We are reading Twelfth Night for our Shakespeare study. In Latin she has learned the first conjugation verb chant and the first declension noun chant. She has memorized the Lord's Prayer and several Latin sayings. Grammar and spelling come fairly natural for her.
Jonathan just read Bob Book #4. He is so proud of himself! We have enjoyed reading many books together. But he says that You are Special by Max Lucado is his favorite of all books. If you haven't read this book, it is a must read. We have also read Stone Soup, Panda Bear, The Napping House, Duncan and Deloris, Right Choices, and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. All great reads. He is beginning to tell time in math and is working on numbers above twenty. Science is just nature study. We collected many leaves this week and pressed them in a book. That was a huge hit.
So overall a great week.

Why study Shakespeare in the early years

I guess when I first started researching Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy I just wasn't too sure about starting Shakespeare so early. But as I have studied Shakespeare and began to introduce his writings to Allison and Jonathan I am amazed at how well they are understanding the plays. We are using Tales From Shakespeare by Tina Packer and also an illustrated book of Twelfth Night by Bruce Coville. It is being enjoyed so much. They are also required to memorize certain phrases from each play that we study. Shakespeare is responsible for adding over 2000 words and phrases to the English language. His plays help us to understand the virtues of man and provide for in-depth discussion of many worldly issues. I know they don't understand everything at this point but as we study the plays each year their understanding will increase. Even though sometimes the stories show behavior somewhat questionable, this is usually unnoticed by young children. Many times Shakespeare is not enjoyed by high school children because of its difficulty. My hope is that if they are exposed to his writings at an early age they will have a much better understanding when they have to study his works in-depth. Here are some recommended resources we are using:

http://www.berith.org/hsres/shak/shak01.html http://cla.calpoly.edu/~smarx/courses/510F99/510Cal.html http://absoluteshakespeare.com/index.htm http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/ http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/shake.htm http://karenswhimsy.com/shakespearesplays.shtm

The Giver

I just recently read The Giver. This is a book I recommend to everyone. If you are not familiar with this book it is about a functioning Utopian society;a perfect world as envisioned by its creators. It has eliminated fear, pain, hunger, illness, conflict, and hatred—all things that most of us would like to eliminate in our own society. It is written from the point of view of Jonas, an 11 year old boy living in a futuristic society of sameness. There are no choices to make so no one ever makes a wrong decision. Everyone is polite and no one feels much pain. There are pills given to suppress pain and other feelings that are normal and healthy. At age 12 everyone is assigned an occupation, from doctors, lawyers, teachers to birth mothers. Birth mothers are the only ones that have the children, and are never permitted to see them. The babies are sent to the Nurturing Center until they are placed into families which have previously applied and have been approved to receive them. Each family is allowed 2 children, one boy and one girl. When the children are grown, the family unit dissolves. As you age you are placed in an old person's home until you are "released".

At the ceremony of the Twelves, Jonas is given the high honor of Receiver of the Memories. When the community went to sameness they released all memories of pain, war, love, colors, hunger and joy. The Giver places his hands on Jonas's back and begins to give him memories. The story is about how he deals with the realization that without any pain one cannot understand joy. No matter how delightful an experience is, you cannot value the pleasure it gives you unless you have some memory of a time when you have suffered.

This is a must read. Lowery was inspired to write this book after a visit to her aging father who had lost most of his long term memory. The major theme is about how important our memories and experiences are to us.

It has been an awesome 2 weeks off from our routine. The beach was a great way to spend some time together as a family. But now we must gear up for our busy time. Hockey season is back in full swing, and all of their classes have started as well. All of my lesson plans are completed for the next few weeks and we are all ready to begin. Here are some samples of things we are doing and things the kids have worked on before the break.
Here are a couple of samples from Allison's Vikings Notebook.



Here are the books she is using.

Jonathan also loves to draw!

And math is by far his favorite subject.

Here are some of the books he is using.

Morgan loves her Advanced Biology class. Here she is working hard on her drawings of salivary gland tissue.

Worship means different things to different people. “The Greek word for worship is "proskenuo." It means, literally, "to turn and kiss." It implies turning away from ourselves and turning toward our Lord in an intimate and affectionate way. It implies an emotional expression of love.” ~Jon CoursonI love worship. Ask my children. I sing all of the time! Everything makes sense to me in songs. Recently the whole family went to Greg Laurie's Harvest Crusade. It was such an amazing worship experience. Allison and Jonathan were dancing in their chairs. Worship is a personal time with God and is never about us. Here is a clip of some awesome worship with Chris Tomlin, a favorite in our house.

Holy is the Lord - Chris Tomlin

Excited for our break

I can't believe six weeks have passed and now we get a two week break. We have had a great start and I feel good about our accomplishments, but I am always looking for ways to improve. I will spend some of my time off relaxing on the beach but I will also be reading and preparing for the next block of school. My goal is to get to the point of more independence for the high schoolers. Morgan does really well in this area but I still keep on her to study for her PSAT that is coming up in Oct. She has really developed a good habit of managing her time. Bryan is a bit different. He is just starting high school and he is a boy. With that comes some challenges. I am still micromanaging him with the goal that if I do this it will become habit for him. I think we have made some progress but there is still work to be done. However, I have learned that if I can do the hard stuff now it will pay of the long run.
Allison did really well with her Charlotte Mason style of teaching this week. I will spend some more time reading her original works over the next few weeks so I can begin implementing more of this style.
Jonathan is now able to read the first two Bob Books! It is amazing how quickly they learn. He still seems to have a much better handle on numbers than on letters but that seems to be a theme in my home.
Aaron has finished up the first two modules of Apologia Physical Science with perfect scores on his exams. He doesn't seem to be challenged with the material but it is new information. Algebra is also continuing to go well.
So we will enjoy our break and hopefully all be ready to dig in when we return to school.

In defense of Teaching Textbooks

When I stumbled on to Teaching Textbooks I was overjoyed. This program has been amazing for my children. Then while reading some comments on TWTM board I was somewhat concerned that it was not rigorous enough to prep for college math. This really puzzled me because the writers of this program seem to be more than qualified to write a high school math program. One of the brothers has two degree form Harvard and has tutored college level students. Surely he would know what was needed to prep for college math. Someone wrote to them and voiced the concern about all of this. Here is their response....
This is from Greg Sabouri..

It may help to give you a little background on the TT series. We first developed the curriculum while running a school for academically-gifted students. We used the same techniques with them that are now used in the TT books. The academic performance of our students was outstanding. Their test scores were extremely high and a large percentage ended up attending very prestigious colleges. For instance, one student went to Dartmouth where he made the highest score in history on their math placement exam. Four years later, he graduated first in his class in math, and he s now getting his Ph.D. in math. With this background, it should be obvious that we would never produce materials that are not college prep. As for our personal backgrounds, I have two degrees from Harvard and tutored graduate students in statistics, probability, and game theory while I was a student there. My brother attended Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, which is one of the very best colleges in the country. We both have 12 or 13 years experience teaching math, and several of those years were spent teaching homeschoolers exclusively. So we're very familiar with homeschooler's unique needs. A few people asked whether TT would prepare a student for college algebra. The series will not only prepare a student for college algebra, but he/she may be able to test out of that course, because there is a lot of overlap between high school Algebra 1 and 2 and college algebra. You asked why our Algebra 1 does not include quadratic equations. It absolutely DOES include quadratic equations. A quadratic equation is just a second-degree equation. We have an entire chapter on that subject in Algebra 1 and all the subsequent chapters of the book review quadratic equations (in the problem sets). Quadratic equations are covered even earlier in our Algebra 2 book. It is true that we don t cover logs. But that is only because the TT series is not finished yet. The same is true of the 2 or 3 other topics that were mentioned. Our Pre-Calculus is coming out next year and that book will cover all those topics extensively, along with many others. The TT series, once it is finished, will cover ALL of the topics that a student needs, no matter what his/her future career plans (including science, engineering, medicine, etc.). Why is it that we put some topics in Algebra 2 instead of Algebra 1 or vice versa (or wait to do logs until Pre-Calculus)? We introduce topics in the order that we think will help the student learn the most. And we've had quite a lot of experience teaching math, as I've discussed. I don t think the goal should be to race through the most number of topics in the shortest time. What's more important is to really learn what you cover. Our approach is to help students gain mastery over foundational areas before moving on to new things. More generally, there are always differences in the sequencing of topics when you compare publishers. For example, to get through all of Saxon s geometry lessons you would have to take Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Advanced Mathematics. And even then, you wouldn't get a complete high school geometry course. Videotext covers Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 in only 180 lessons, whereas most books take about 260 lessons to cover the same material. But I'm not saying that Saxon or Videotext is bad because of their sequencing or the small number of lessons. When choosing a curriculum I think it makes more sense to focus on how well the book EXPLAINS the concepts, rather than just count up the topics. If topics covered were so important then public school students would have high test scores. That's because the public school books are full of topics. In reality, of course, many public school graduates can't multiply or divide or solve even the simplest algebra equation. And the U.S. is near the bottom of the international math rankings. The biggest problem we have in math education is not that topics aren't introduced early enough. It s that the books don't give enough explanation and the instruction they do contain is usually very poor (maybe because mathematicians are often bad communicators.) Inadequate explanation is an especially big problem for homeschoolers, who are often studying independently once they reach middle school age. The TT series is designed to deal with this problem. We cover all the major topics and we do so in depth, with full explanation so much explanation, in fact, that the student can pretty much teach himself! I am convinced that a student who uses the TT series will be BETTER PREPARED for the SAT and ACT and for college than if he/she uses any other series on the market. And the reason is the quality and quantity of our instruction. It doesn't hurt that we make math enjoyable either. Everybody knows that the more interested a student is in a book, the more he's likely to learn. As for the Jay Wile e-mail, I already told you that we will cover every one of the extra topics he mentioned in our Pre-Calculus product. And for those students who don't want to go all the way through our Pre-Calculus, we ll post certain topics (like logs) on our website for all users to access. The physics lesson that was mentioned was not on imaginary numbers. It was on complex numbers. A complex number can be viewed as a vector in 2 dimensions (and in the lesson we used a two-dimensional example). Also, the addition and subtraction of complex numbers and vectors are the same. This gave us a rare opportunity to show, in a way that a high school student can understand, how complex numbers (a very abstract and difficult concept) could actually be used in a real-world context. Other math authors have taken a similar approach.
Greg Sabouri
This makes so much sense to me, and I have seen this in my own children. It is an outstanding program and we will continue with it all the way through Pre-Calculus.
You can view samples on their website TT

Abstract random thinker......

Well, here we are 6 weeks into school and what I thought was the perfect curriculum isn't working for my abstract random right brain thinker. I have been reading everything I can about Charlotte Mason and her educational model. It is exactly what Allison needs. I am switching her science to Exploring Creation with Zoology She must draw to learn and this is heavy on notebooking. This is much more focused and in depth which will allow for more mastery.This immersion approach seems to be how she learns best. In order to see how the scientific world operates she will need to be provided with deeper more profound information. So I will make the change for her to meet her learning style. As for history we will focus on one time period at a time and stay with it as long as needed. As I mentioned before I downloaded a whole notebook full of notebooking sheets for the Viking time period. As much as I love Story of the World it skips around too much for her to remember what she has learned. I have ordered many books from the library on Vikings so who knows how long we will be studying this. We will stay with it until I feel she is ready to move on to something else. The beauty of homeschooling is that I am able to adjust for her needs. I have joined several CM yahoo groups to get more familiar with this teaching model. I have used it lightly in the past but now I will need to use it more with Allison and probably my little wiggly Jonathan.

Great find

I just stumbled on to this website while searching for notebooking ideas. You can purchase e-books of different time periods and subjects to use in your notebooks.You can view samples at homeschoolebooks . Allison is currently studying the Vikings and I was able to pay a small fee and download it instantly. This is a great way to enhance learning especially for our right brained children.

Our week

I can't believe another week is starting. Everyone is into a good rhythm and things are going fairly smooth. The co-op classes start for Morgan and Bryan this week. They are ready and excited. I have loved the low key of our schedule the past several weeks but I knew this time would come. Classes and the start hockey season changes everything for us. But in a good way too. But I must say I am ready for cool weather. We have been pretty trapped inside and Jonathan and Allison want their nature walks! It too will be here before we know it.
Jonathan continues to make progress with phonics and math. This week we will move to The Story about Ping in our FIAR book. I am skipping around in the three volumes picking and choosing books I love. He continues to listen to books on tape. But I have to say the most exciting thing for him is to see what the new sound will be to tell you when to turn the page. What a sweet thing!
Allison continues with Sonlight history and science. We stick pretty close to the schedule but I have replaced CHOW with SOTW. She likes the activity pages that go along with SOTW. We read a chapter, color the map and coloring pages, and then do a narration. We are studying the Middle Ages and in science we are studying birds. This is working well. We continue with Vivaldi and Van Gogh this week. Last week she created her own picture of Starry Night. It was amazing. She is moving to lesson 3 in Latina Christiana.
Aaron is continuing with Algebra 1 and so far no problems. He loves it and wants it to get a little more challenging. He still doesn't love reading but is pushing himself. He is keeping up with Latin and loves the BBC manual. He has been excited and reading his Bible each day.
Morgan and Bryan are also keeping up well with their load. Bryan is having to learn Excel and will really need it for his biology lab write ups. The Scarlet Letter is a challenge but they are making it through. Morgan is doing amazingly well with it and even says she loves the book. That just puts such a smile on my face.
So overall I am pleased with this week and looking forward to the week ahead. I am thankful that my attitude is one of thanksgiving. I can honestly say I love teaching them and watching them learn. I have been immensely blessed.

Why study Latin?

That is question I often get when speaking about homeschooling. Why study a dead language as it is still sometimes called? Even with my lack of formative classical education this is one thing I can now speak of with complete confidence. I guess when we started learning Latin several years ago I wasn't completely sure about it either. But I kept reading about the benefits and became completely convinced this was a path my children would take. Allison is in the 3rd grade and is in her second year of Latin. After successfully completing Prima Latina we have now moved on the Latina Christiana I. These materials are put out by Memoria Press and samples can be viewed on their website. After the completion of Latina Christian we move to
Latin in the Christian Trivium. This is such an outstanding program. It is intended to be a high school level course but can be started earlier if the student has a strong Latin foundation.
So what good is all of this? Well, for starters Latin increases our English vocabulary. About half of our language comes from Latin. A ten year study showed that students that have a strong Latin background score an average of 157 points higher on the SAT. Latin also increases the knowledge of English grammar, which in turn creates better writers. Latin is also the key to the modern Romance languages so a knowledge of Latin will hasten your learning of other languages. Many careers require a knowledge of Latin, such as medical, legal and hard sciences. But most of all studying Latin requires an intellectual discipline that trains the mind. This is something that will enhance all learning. So even if they grumble about it and grow tired of the difficulty it is training their mind in a way that will help them for life.

Mary..The mother of Jesus

I just finished Unafraid by Francine Rivers. Anytime I study the life of Jesus, it always seems to be the most difficult for me studying it from Mary's perspective. Yes, He is the Son of God but He was her son too. She loved Him not only because of who she knew He would be but simply because of who He was to her. I believe that God is so gracious the Mary surely was spared the knowledge that her Son was born to be crucified for all of us. I don't see how she could have made it through if she had known. As I read the story I have read so many times, I just don't even have a grasp on all of it. That anyone would choose us and go to their death for even those who were crucifying and rejecting Him. The story has been written, and we all know the ending. But let us never get tired of studying the Scriptures from different perspectives. There is so much to be gained....

Educational models

When I began homeschooling eight years ago I had no idea what an educational model was, or that there were so many. Over the years I have read everything I could get my hands on to gain insight. And I guess I have to say I haven't found one that is perfect. I do believe that classical education is the most effective educational model. That being said I don't follow it exclusively. I love Latin and it will always be a part of our studies. I love chronological history but I also think an in depth study of US history is needed. I love the Great books but I also think there are so many others that are worth reading that do not fall into this category. With my younger ones I love the Charlotte Mason model, but want more structure as they get older. So where does that put me in my educational philosophy? I guess if I were to give it a name it would be a Classical/Charlotte Mason/eclectic model. There is a great article by Susan Wise Bauer that compares the Charlotte Mason model to classical education. And where she differs with the CM Model I totally agree. You can read the article at http://www.welltrainedmind.com/charlottemason.html
I think for the younger ones learning has to be fun. It should be our goal to teach them a love of learning. And how better to do that than a nature walks, real books and learning the arts. This would never get old in our house.
So who is Charlotte Mason?
Charlotte Mason was born in England in 1842 and was educated at home. She was a devout Christian who spent her life teaching children and other women to teach using her philosophy. Charlotte loved children and believed that they should be taught with respect and gentleness. She believed in using living books, books about real people and things, and that children’s minds are fed on ideas. She also loved whole books and great literature. She would have a child narrate or “tell back” to her the story she had just read aloud thus increasing the child’s attention span and making the story his or her own. I love this approach to education and use her methods successfully with my own children.
You can read her book on line http://amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html
Also for more info on classical education visit http://www.welltrainedmind.com/activeboards.php

Great Week!

It has been a great week for all of us. School is going better than it ever has before. We just all seem to have a rhythm about us. I think the heat outside is helping us all. No one wants to be outside. Jonathan is moving right along with his letters. He is starting to sound out some three letter words with assistance. FIAR is such a big hit. We have moved on the Katy No Pockets. This has got to be one of my all time favorites. We have expanded our study to marsupials and their way of life. He is loving all of the research we are doing and learning so much. We also went to the library today and he picked out a couple of books on tape. Amazingly he sits through the whole book. I think this is a good way to help with concentration.
Allison is still progressing with her multiplication tables. I am not sure why this has been so hard for her. She has already memorized some many poems, Latin prayers, and she has just learned the 24th Psalm in a matter of a couple of days. It must be the right brain dominance showing itself. We are still studying Vivaldi and his music. Art is such a big part of her life so she draws in every subject. If she writes a story it will have illustrations with it.
Aaron finished up his first module of Apologia Physical Science and of course got a perfect score on the exam. He is moving right along in Algebra 1 and high school Latin.
Morgan and Bryan have adjusted well to the new load. They both worked a lot this week so everyone is tired and ready for a nice weekend.
I am researching more about Charlotte Mason and her education model. It seems so wonderful and I guess you could say we use a CM/Classical model. More on Charlotte Mason's model to come.

I just love Sundays

Don't you just love starting out your day in worship? I love my church and the small group I have. I have never had a Bible study group of women so change my life as these girls have. I love them all and thank God for them everyday. Our last service project was at the Ronald McDonald House. What a humbling evening for us all. We just can't wait to get back there and spend more time with these people. We love the fact that we can pray personally for each of them. If you need a podcast to listen to, visit our website http://www.gethope.net/ Click on mp3 and be blessed.
Tomorrow begins week 3 of school. It has been an auspicious beginning for us. I tell you it gets me up each day with a thankful heart.
I am reading To Kill a Mocking Bird. I highly recommend this if you haven't read it in awhile. You look at these pieces of literature differently when you get to be my age. Plus it is nice to challenge yourself when you think you will be reading Make Way for Ducklings five times this week. Although I must sy it too is awesome:)

Five in a Row

I used this curriculum many years ago with some of my now older kids. I am thinking of using it for Jonathan since he definitely has some wiggling issues. They have a yahoo group that I have just joined so hopefully I will get some great ideas from that. I am now also using the library frequently. Those who know me, know that this is a big step for me:) I have to admit I love it. Hopefully as I put together lesson plans for these FIAR books I will post them for others to use.

Just starting a blog

I have always wanted to keep track of things going on. But there are so many things going on. So I thought I would give this a try.
As a homeschool mom to 5 wonderful children I often read other blogs for wisdom. Well I am not sure how much wisdom will be here but maybe someone will find it useful.
We are just getting started with our new year. It is always an exciting time, with lots of new stuff to ponder. However, we will also find things that don't work for us. It is just how I am. I love to try new materials but I have also been known to waste a little money. I am sure there will be those who can relate:)
With 2 in high school now life gets tricky. They will both be taking classes in a co op so that does help. But as you know control starts slipping away. And that is not always a bad thing. Then on the other end of the spectrum is kindergarten... and teaching yet another one to read... But I must say he is so excited to be in school like the others. Then I have one in 3rd and one in 7th. So needless to say we are always doing something fun around here.
I am blessed to be called by God for this journey. Everyday is a new day and one I am thankful for.