Devotion Time

We are studying the book of Matthew. I thought this was a sweet scene in our home tonight so I went and grabbed the phone for a picture (camera still not working). Sorry for the grainey looking photo, but this made me smile tonight.

Week 3 of Exploring Countries and Cultures

Well, I really wanted some good pictures of the girls doing their various assignments and projects this week. Unfortunately, even though the camera battery is in good working order now, the lens won't open. So...if you don't want to read about our school week, I understand. Visuals are so much more fun.

School is still going so well. I can't believe the difference in last year and this year. The hard parts are not necessarily gone...I just feel that God has given me some tools that help. And he has let me be encouraged enough to persevere. Today was probably our hardest day yet, but still, we hung in there and got our work done. By the way, when I say hard day, it is never about the academics...always about the attitudes or atmosphere in the home. Or the interruptions. Rachel answered the phone today during school and by the time I was able to get off the phone, Mary Evelyn had left the white board where we were reading and headed into the back yard. Those kinds of things do not help. I think we are clear on letting voice mail handle calls during school from here forward.

In our Bible time this week, we read about D.L. Moody from the book Hero Tales. I love this book now. I tried to use it a few years ago, but I think the girls were too young. We are really enjoying it now though. We also began a biography of Cameron Townsend. It's really good too.

For geography we began our journey around the world right here at home...the good ole USA. The girls can identify many more states on a blank US map than they could just a week ago. For science, we focused on deserts (and will for a few weeks to come). We'll continue to hang out in the states next week, plus we'll have guests! My nieces and nephew are coming to visit so they may be doing a little summer school whether they like it or not! (They are wonderful so I am sure it will be fun...better check and see if I have enough craft supplies though!) We will also celebrate Betsie's birthday next week.

One final tip of the "here's what is working for us" sort. In the past I have often saved the fun school stuff for last. We would do the least favorite thing first in an effort to get that thing over with. This year I am finding the opposite to be working. We started this morning by completing a floor puzzle of the United States together (a fun activity). It helps get all of us in a better mood from the start. We ended with the least favorite subject. With Mary Evelyn, it makes her work a little faster and keep her focused. I can remind her that if she sticks with me and finishes up, she can go play. It works so far! Just wanted to share in case it helps someone else.

Starting Strong

I know that the real test will be in finishing strong, but for now, I am SO thankful for the way our school year has started. Tomorrow will be day #10 and I am very pleased. Rather than blog about the details of our week (which are pretty similar to week #1 except that I botched a science experiment and had to majorly adapt a craft project), I want to post about why this year seems to be working so much better than previous years.

1. Bribes - There you go. You think I'm kidding? Last Friday the girls had ice cream for LUNCH from Bruster's because they had 5 good school days in a row. Not sure yet what the reward (better word than bribe) might be tomorrow, but if all goes well in the morning, I need to come up with something really soon! Maybe we can just go swimming or something like that.

2. A set start time - We have started each day at approximately 8:45 (with a couple of exceptions) and that has helped tremendously. Consistency always helps but I am not always so great at providing this important element. But we have done well for 2 weeks and I can see how valuable consistency really is!

3. Keeping the girls together for most subjects. This is the biggie for me and it was one of the main reasons I switched to My Father's World. Last year I felt like I was doing two different school times. (I was.) I taught one and then the other. Then I did one level of Five in a Row with one child and another level with the other child (on a good week!). So if I was trying to teach Rachel, I had two other children to possibly interrupt or get into mischief or whatever instead of just one. Keeping the older two together for most subjects means only Betsie has to be directed. And most of the time she is working out of her own little school box. I did remove the scissors from there by the way. I am going to post our general routine at the bottom of this post.

4. Tons of prayer. This should probably be first. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to be nervous about this year. It sure sent me to my knees! And God has been so faithful to allow me to see some fruit already this year!

5. Staying off the computer until the afternoon. And staying off the phone too. My Father's World recommends giving your children your undivided attention in the morning. This seems so obvious, but I confess that I have not always done this. I would get started checking email and then maybe blogs or whatever else. And what were the girls doing during that time? Drawing, collecting bugs, fighting, playing together, watching TV (which they are not supposed to do until after school but who can blame them when I was being such a poor example?). We always got school done, but sometimes not without a fight since I often had to drag them away from something they were enjoying! I think this is one of the essentials to my being a better manager and teacher this year. I blew this the other day (not too bad) and I saw how big of a no no it really is.

Okay, back to #3...I have so far found a few things that have helped me manage to get most of our work done in approximately 2 hours in the mornings. So here is our basic morning routine for school as an FYI to others who may be using My Father's World with two children. It's a routine, not a schedule, so I am just listing the general order that we usually do things.

• Geography. We do this part together.
• Math. This is where I found something that is WONDERFUL! Teaching Textbooks has allowed Rachel to be an independent math student so I can work individually with Mary Evelyn. Mary Evelyn uses Right Start which requires me to be right there with her. It is SO COOL to get math done with both girls in one shot. If one finishes earlier, I have an amazing ability to make her review like crazy until the other is done allowing us to keep going with our little routine.
• Handwriting practice. So far they have just been practicing the letters of the alphabet with Handwriting Without Tears but soon they'll be copying character qualities from Hero Tales.
• Science. We do this together. If there is no science in the schedule for that day, there is usually art or something like that to do together.
• Now I split them up a little. Rachel has book basket time while I do language arts work with Mary Evelyn. Then Mary Evelyn has book basket time while I do language arts work with Rachel. Language arts includes spelling, language lessons, phonics lessons, etc.

All that can be done in about 2 hours. In addition to those two hours, they have some independent reading time in the afternoon. (as in sit somewhere comfy and just READ a book!) And in the evenings we do the Bible lessons/devotions and read chapter books to the girls. That takes quite a bit of time and is a nice way to wrap up the day. But it's all included in the lesson plans.

We have several more weeks before we take a break so I am still praying hard. I really want to be a good steward of the time I have with my kids. So many things easily distract from our school time so I am trying to be very protective of our mornings. I can't wait to see how much more we all learn next week!

Week One Exploring Countries and Cultures in My Father's World

We had a great first week of school. We went a little light on the three R's and will hit those a little harder next week. I wanted the girls to enjoy their first week back so we focused on the fun stuff. We did still do math, spelling, handwriting, reading, etc...just not in heavy doses and a lot of it was review.

We started our week last Sunday night with the first Bible lesson. We talked about how God made and loves ALL people all over the world. And we began learning John 3:16 (which was new to Mary Evelyn but review for Rachel). On Monday morning we prayed together and went on a prayer walk around our neighborhood. I wanted the girls to see that God loves the people all over the world AND right next door too! Plus I learned from our experience with occupational therapy that some kids learn better after some physical activity. (We always start Mary Evelyn's math lesson by counting to 100 while she swings as high as she can on the swingset!)

Our curriculum is My Father's World and we are doing year one in their five year History cycle. It is called Exploring Countries and Cultures. It is a year long geography course which serves as a great basis for learning history in the coming years as well as giving children and parents an appetite for world missions. (Those of you at North Hills know this goes perfectly with our summer World View curriculum for kids...so cool!)

These first two weeks are an introduction. We are learning about maps in general as well as learning the names of the continents and oceans. We talked about hemispheres, the poles, directions, and the equator. The cool part is that both girls memorized the names of the continents (thanks to a catchy little tune!) and can locate them on the map!

One of our fun activities was making the poster pictured above. Rachel wrote John 3:16 out for us and the girls cut out pictures of people from National Geographic magazines. They also put a small picture of our family on there. This poster will be displayed above our world map in the school room for the whole year...it's the theme of the year.

The girls also enjoyed our science this week. Probably because they got to draw, one of their absolute favorite things to do! Three days this week, I read them a couple of pages from the Usborne Living World Encyclopedia. Then they got to illustrate something they learned and write some sentences about it. I have heard some complain that there are not enough science experiments in Exploring Countries and Cultures, but I was never great at that anyway so this is just the right pace for us. There are SOME experiments (we have one or two next week actually) and the geography is very hands on, so we are happy as can be. With all of that and science at our TWO co-ops, I think drawing is just perfect...and about all I can handle! Their science drawings get filed into the science section of their notebooks. We'll also have a nature journal, which we will work on weekly.

This is Mary Evelyn's picture of a gecko from one of the science lessons. She dictated her sentences to me.

A world map that Rachel labeled with the oceans and continents. We'll add to it next week.

There was more but those are the highlights. I joined the My Father's World blogring so I will try my best to blog about our school year. If you prayed for us last week, THANK YOU! I was a little anxious, but it went so well.

Stay tuned this weekend for updated pictures of Betsie and the haircut that takes your breath away!

Back to School? Already?

It seems like summer just began, but we start school in just a little over 2 weeks. It is SO HOT here that we might as well do a morning of school work and then SWIM in the afternoons. I have been coloring boundary maps for a geography game and I need to have our new wall map laminated. And if you notice Wal-Mart's big school supply sale, let me know! I like to have all that ready when we start if possible.

I am a little nervous about starting a new curriculum. It feels like moving to a new town. I am excited but it will be very different than what we have done before. One of the books I am excited about using with My Father's World is called Window on the World. It is just the sort of thing that Jason loves so I might save it for him for family devotion time if he wants to use it. A couple of times a week, we'll read about a certain people group around the world, look at the photos in the book, find where they live on the map, and pray for them. (Specific prayer requests are listed in the book for that group.) Jason and I were saying last night that we don't want this to just be an assignment. We want to approach this resource with the excitement and faith that God will hear our prayers for those people and that maybe one day we will see the fruit of that in Heaven.

School Supplies!

Jason thinks I am weird for enjoying new school supplies and storage containers and that sort of thing. He's never actually called me weird (over this anyway)...he just doesn't get it. But I know for a fact that other homeschool moms understand!

So next year we will be making geography vocabulary word cards. The teacher's manual suggests writing the word and definition on an index card, illustrating, and filing in a card file box...then of course reviewing often. But at Wal-Mart today I found these nifty little notebooks for index cards. They already have 50 index cards in them and you can buy refill packs with the holes of course punched in just the right place. So I bought one for each of my two students. Yippee!

The first assignment will be to decorate an index card and then slip it into the little sleeve for the cover. That's right, the fun here never ends.

My Father's World

I mentioned that I am planning some changes for next year. And then I had some curriculum for sale. So I guess it's obvious that our biggest change is that we will not be using Five in a Row for the older girls next year. I have been using Five in a Row (FIAR) since Rachel was a 4 year old. It is wonderful! Very gentle and easy to use and also very rich in what it covers. I am hanging on to my manuals and all the lovely books I have collected over the years because I assume we will still pick it up and do a unit every now and then. I also assume I will use it with Betsie.

My original plan was to continue in FIAR with Mary Evelyn next year and have Rachel use Beyond FIAR, which is the next step up. It uses chapter books and the units take several weeks instead of one or two. However, I decided I really want to teach the girls together. Yes, I could put them together with FIAR, but Mary Evelyn really isn't ready for Beyond, and Rachel needs to move on. Teaching them separately leaves little time for anything else...unless I skimp on someone's school work. I don't think this is a FIAR problem because I see many people on the boards and through their blogs using it at different levels just beautifully...and I am impressed. However, Jason and I have decided that we want to try something else next year.

Though a few friends I have discovered My Father's World. There is a strong group of homeschoolers in my area that use this curriculum. There is a yahoo group and even a new co-op starting in the fall for those in our area using MFW. I am going to a conference at a local church this weekend to hear the authors speak!

Some of what draws me to My Father's World:

1. Missions focused curriculum. The program we will use next year is called Exploring Countries and Cultures. We will focus on World Geography and in the meantime will pray for various people groups around the world and read through the book of Matthew. We'll also study some of the great Christian heroes like Nate Saint and Amy Carmichael.


2. Keeping the girls together!!! After first grade, My Father's World keeps siblings together who are between 2nd and 8th grade. Ways to adapt the program are right there in the curriculum.


3. A schedule! Some people hate schedules and I used to. I liked planning it all out for myself. However, I think at this season of our homeschool journey, I could use the help! The curriculum is broken into 36 weeks and we will focus on one week at a time. Fridays are scheduled very lighly to make time for catching up or field trips or just life. With art lessons and church activities and occupational therapy, etc., I know this will be very helpful. The schedule doesn't look as heavy as another popular curriculum that totally intimidates me. MFW seems to have a nice balance...a relaxed schedule, if you will.


4. It's a unit study. This means many of the subject areas are integrated. (Five in a Row is also a unit study approach...love that approach.) I mentioned that next year we will be exploring countries and cultures. Our Bible study will focus on people groups and missionairies. We will study geography of course and learn about maps and globes. We will play games to learn how to identify the countries on the map and there will be plenty of hands on crafts and cooking and working on our notebooks. Science will be centered around the various habitats around the world and will correlate to the area we are studying. Nature journaling is also part of the program.


5. Chronological history. I don't think it's necessary to cover history chronolgically to understand it as long as you have a timeline of some sort. But I am excited to know that if we stay with MFW for the next few years we will cover creation to modern times with (and this is very important to Jason and me) a BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW. Eveything I have seen on their website and in their forums leads me to believe that our world view matches theirs. This is a relief!


6. Everything is included...supplemetary book lists, the schedule, the books that make up the main part of the curriculum, read aloud suggestions, scripture memory verses, and more. This will be helpful to me. My friend assures me that there is little prep time involved.

I am not trying to sell this curriculum to anyone who reads this (many are my FIAR friends and they are using an AWESOME curriculum...actually we are still using it for the time being as well). I am just sharing what our plan is. (Family reads this too and I want them to know what we are up to!) I told a dear friend yesterday that I feel so much peace about this decision and I am more excited than I have been in a long time. I was wondering if I had what it takes to homeschool long term. I feel like this is an answer to prayer.

The plan for Betsie is to use a combination of Before FIAR (their program for 2-4 year olds), letter of the week, and some preschool activity bags I have.

I can't wait!!!