Snakes!

Our library hosted a program for the summer reading participants called Snakes Alive. The 2 big girls loved getting to hold the snakes. Betsie liked looking at them, but didn't touch any of them. Very fun program and a fun way to kick off a new school year.

Getting Ready for a New School Year

Getting ready for the new school year (which started TODAY). I took these pictures last week. The room is more, ahem, lived in now.

First: The magnetic calendar I am using with Betsie, my kindergartner.

Second: I took the computer off of this desk and moved it to the office. Now this is Mary's area for seatwork. She is in 4th grade this year. And no, I never do workboxes anymore. Though I still like them and want to use them. I just never get them filled up. Ugh!

Third: View of whole room. I got bored and rearranged the whole thing. It will likely look different by the time another school year rolls around.

Fourth: The super heavy bookshelf that I moved all by myself! I wonder how long everything will stay so neat and tidy there.

Fifth: Finally found a use for both the pocket chart and my art postcards! I can't promise we will study the artwork, but at least we can see it now!

Sixth: The book basket. A tried and true, easy yet effective way to learn more art, history, and science. Put the library books in the pretty basket (on sale at Hobby Lobby) and make the kiddos look at the books for 15-30 minutes each day. Also helps to keep one kid busy while I work with another kid.

Workbox Update

I still love workboxes. I have found it's a little challenging some days to make sure I am not needed by 2 or more kids at the same time...unless we are doing something together anyway. I am getting better at the timing of it all though. I thought I would share a few assignments from today's boxes.

Let's start with a few of Betsie's boxes. Betsie is three. She is not required to do school yet, but if I don't keep her busy, it is REALLY hard to do any work with the other two girls! One thing she did today was match little foam numbers to a chart with numbers on it. This activity was from a preschool bag swap I did a few years ago. We have a similar activity for letters.


In the box pictured below, we did a sorting activity. That blue circle folds up like the red and yellow ones in the box. For older kids these make nice ven diagrams for comparing sets. For preschoolers, they make a nice easy way to sort items. We sorted unifix cubes by color. Then we counted each group. We made a stack for each set and compared the length of each stack. We also wrote the numeral representing each stack on an index card. Betsie thought this was so fun. She has no idea how much math she did today.


Betsie also got to play Memory with me, read a book, play with Little People, fold washcloths, and watch a Signing Time DVD today. I know she did a few more things, but those are the ones I remember right now!

The next two boxes show a little of what Mary, my 2nd grader, worked on today. The box pictured below shows our current read aloud, a biography of Gladys Aylward. I read a chapter out loud to all three girls while they ate their snack or worked on a different quiet activity. They love this time and so do I.


The box below was a math activity for Mary. She had to use the straws (which had been cut into a variety of lengths) to make several quadrilaterals. She also did the dot-to-dot activity. I put those in the same box because they were both quick activities and she was not doing 12 boxes today. (She is receiving tutoring and on tutoring days, I give her less work.)



Some of Mary's other work included a map activity, learning about animals in the arctic, and reviewing Bible verses we have memorized.

Now for a couple of Rachel's boxes. Rachel is my 5th grader. Yesterday I got this American Girl Minute Mysteries book with my Rainbow Resource order. I found it when I searched for logic items and I thought she might enjoy it. It says it is for ages 8 and up so I do think it's a little easy for her. If you have a sharp 7-9 year old girl, these might be perfect. You have to read a few pages and solve a little brain teaser. Pretty cute just-for-fun activity.


Rachel also had her spelling in one workbox. Not a fun activity, but it's got to be done. Love Sequential Spelling by the way.

Other things in Rachel's workboxes included paper dolls for Russia, a note telling her to research and sketch St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, math, and a few of the activities I mentioned for Mary.

We love this system and I am so thankful for it!

Is it Weird...

that I am so excited that one of our kiddos will start getting some tutoring beginning next week? Oh, how I hope it meets her needs and our expectations.

School Room Tour

We are in our 6th year of homeschooling (7th if you count preschool). But this is the first year we have had the luxury of having a school room. We do hang out in this room a lot even when it's not school time, but we house all school materials here and this is where we do most schooling. There are a few exceptions like nature walks, but this is pretty much it. I figured I better take pictures while it's clean (not as common as I'd like). I've been meaning to give a tour for some time. Again, sorry for the blurry phone pictures.

On with the tour:

First the view of the whole room

From where I took the above picture, I am going to take you clockwise around the room. So turn left and you will see a desk with a computer. This is a computer that is on it's last leg, but for the moment it is still good for Teaching Textbooks math and a few other things. We haven't used that pocket chart in a while, but I am thinking of ways to use it. Those little stairs in the bottom left corner of the picture go to an office area and bathroom. Very handy things to have near the school room.

Next there is a little cabinet that is for the teacher only! I have supplies in here like sentence strips and resource books for me that I want to stay in one piece. And there are Betsie's workboxes. That USA map is laminated so we can write on it and erase. Near Texas we added Spongebob and Sandy because we figured she wouldn't be TOO far away from Texas...maybe Gulf of Mexico? Very educational stuff going on here folks. That little white desk is not in use most of the time. It needs a little chair and Betsie would love it.

Moving on down that wall and we have a couple of small white boards. These are magnetic as well. One of them has some Bible verses on it right now but we use these for lots of things, especially reading practice with Mary.Below one of the white boards is our book basket. It is usually full to bursting with library books to go along with whatever we are studying at the time. Each girls has to look at books for 15 minutes minimum each school day (in addition to our read aloud time, etc.). They get a lot of extra info just from this simple activity.

The world map. We are studying world geography this year. We refer to this map a LOT!

And on the next wall we have our bookshelf! Homeschoolers love bookshelves. Lots of great storage here.Rachel and Mary's workboxes are next.

The TV and armoire are in the corner at the end of that wall. And this would be one reason this room is nice to hang out in even when we are not schooling. The armoire provides storage as well.
Moving on down the next wall we come to our art and writing shelf. This shelf holds pencils, crayons, markers, glue, scissors, tape, drawing books, etc. Very handy as it is right next to our seat work area and the drawing table.

Next to the art shelf is our seat work table. We do some of our work here but we use the whole room really. Occasionally I am in that middle chair with two of the girls beside me working on an activity together. This table has been great for us.

Remember earlier when I said those few stairs led up to an office area? Well there it is. Jason and I hang out there and "discuss" how much money I can spend on homeschooling. Ha! (kidding)Looking into the school room from the office. We use that bulletin board for schooling as well. Mostly calendar activities and displaying art work. That door on the right is a walk in closet where I keep more supplies for crafts, etc. Some toys are in there as well.

From the other end of the room:

Here you can see that this room is upstairs and also up into the office area. And there is our drawing table and our sofa for reading and devotions and watching TV!

Another view of the whole room:

Thanks for taking the tour!

My Workbox Peeps

Here are some other blogs discussing the workbox system.

Leslie has several posts on workboxes: Post #1 , Post #2, Post #3, Post #4, Post #5

Jessica adapted the system to fit her large family without taking up so much space. Read about that here.

Ami has some helpful posts on her blog. Check out her sidebar on the right for about 5 different links, including tons of ideas and free downloads!

Seriously...I love this system. Betsie is SO happy to be included with her own work. She fizzles out before the 12th box, but she hangs in there for most of it. I have been putting in a DVD for her last box and leaving that time to work with the older girls on something that isn't as easy with a little one around. That has worked nicely.

The workbox system DOES TAKE SOME WORK! I am getting faster and smarter about what goes in the boxes, but it does take some time depending on what you are wanting to do. But the payoff is so great. Spending a little time yesterday to put the baking soda, vinegar, and clay in a box last night meant that we actually made a volcano today. And I didn't have to walk around for 10 minutes saying, "Now where did I put that clay?" Just sayin'. I love how this is working for me (and many others), but not everyone will love it and that is okay. But I do hope someone will find this info helpful!

More on Workboxes

Wow, I love this system already! We got so much done today and the girls loved it. Two out of three even told me so...with the third working happily and without complaint.

A few details:
* The workbox system is kind of like a visual to do list for children. They can look at their shelf and see how much work is left to do and what has already been accomplished. No more, "How much more until we are done?"

* This system makes it easier for the teacher to remember to add in the fun stuff. Things like games and crafts that you always mean to use but never get around to.

*My kids were more independent today than they have been in a long time...or maybe ever!

*It is so easy to break down a complicated assignment into smaller parts with the workbox system.

*It is also easy to review previously taught material. I am putting an addition worksheet in my 5th grader's box tomorrow. Though she is already doing much harder math, she could use a review to make that harder math go a little faster for her. This will be an easy assignment and she will still do her regular math.

*My preschooler was kept busy and productive today which made school time happier for all of us!

*This system forces me to have everything ready to go before we start. No more scrambling to find an item we need and losing their attention while I search for something. Everything we need is right there in the box.

*It doesn't matter which curriculum you are using. This system is very flexible!

Here is a close-up of one workbox. Notice the "work with mom" card. When the child gets to this box, she knows to bring it to me and we will do something together. Velcro pieces are a BIG deal with this system and that is how the card is attached to the box.

I hope to do another post soon with links to lots of other blogs about this system.

Workboxes...I Am Officially on this Bandwagon

The ladies at the Five in a Row boards have gone crazy over workboxes since Leslie introduced them a week or so ago. Count me as one of the converts. Workboxes is a tool developed by Sue Patrick that is a useful way to organize a school day. First, here is a picture so you'll know what I am talking about.

Basically you use between 6 and 15 shoebox size clear boxes to assign and organize a day's worth of school work. Each child has a shelf with 12 boxes and they work their way through the boxes sequentially. The ones pictured above are Betsie's boxes (preschool). Here is what she will be doing tomorrow.

1. A shape worksheet (She asks for stuff like this so she can feel big.)

2. Handwriting Without Tears wooden letter pieces

3. Teddy Bear counter sorting activity

4. Book she is always begging to read that I usually try NOT to read because I am sick of it.

5. snack

6. Coupons and scissors (not the ones I actually want)

7. Alphabet stamps, paper, and ink pads (I try to have all necessary materials in the boxes.)

8. Dry erase board and marker

9. Story Bible

10. blocks

11. Before Five in a Row book

12. DVD

Here are Mary and Rachel's boxes:

Mary (2nd grade) will be working on these 12 activities tomorrow:
1. Reviewing the Lord's prayer
2. Science (Usborne book)
3. Reading Made Easy
4. tangrams
5. book basket
6. sight words and a snack
7. Math game
8. calendar activities
9. science coloring book
10. Math lesson
11. More of the Reading Made Easy lesson (This system makes it easy to break longer lessons into less overwhelming parts.)
12. Read aloud

Rachel (5th grader) will be doing these activities:
1. Review the Lord's prayer
2. Science (See Mary's #2)
3. Book basket
4. tangrams
5. Sequential Spelling
6. Health and writing activity (Using The Care and Keeping of You from American Girl)
7. Handwriting practice
8. Read the Times Tales stories (multiplication/division review activity) (Easy to build in review with this system)
9. Make geography cards
10. Math (Teaching textbooks)
11. Presidents thingy that was in a chick-fil-a kids meal
12. Read aloud

More on workboxes soon! Gotta go to bed!

I Can't Wait to be a Teacher Again!

It's almost Thanksgiving! And I feel a little like I am missing it this year. We move in just ONE week. The boxes are mostly packed, the loan has been approved, inspections have been completed, repairs have been made, and lists have been made (all sorts of lists to keep me half way organized and sane during this transition!).

What is not happening is school. Not totally true. We have stayed semi-caught up with the three R's. But we had a wonderful start to our year with My Father's World and that has taken quite the back seat since about September. I am so very thankful that in just one week, I will get to unpack those boxes labeled "school room." I will put the books on the shelf, set up an art and writing center, and hang the map back up on the wall. I will once again have ROUTINE!

I really am so excited about starting back. I really miss the way we were doing school before that "for sale" sign went up just 5 weeks ago. I enjoyed snuggling on the couch reading about the animals in the rainforest and then looking at the AMAZING drawings my girls made with their colored pencils to illustrate what they had learned. (Not bragging but my girls can flat out draw...Betsie too.) I know it may actually be January before our routine is solid again. The holidays, unpacking, and a trip to Disney World will throw us for a little bit of a loop. Still, those things are more blessings and I look forward to them with a happy heart.

So maybe I am not missing out on Thanksgiving. We aren't celebrating it in our usual way with decorations and stories of the pilgrims and Squanto, but I am truly thankful and feeling quite blessed. God has been so kind to me and I praise Him for His goodness.

Homeschool Blog Awards Meme - Something New

Well, this should be an easy post. This week's meme from The Homeschool Blog Awards is called something new. We are to share what new product we are using in our homeschools this year (and where to get it and why we chose it and how we are liking it so far, etc.). My challenge will be to share WHICH new thing!

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The most obvious new thing in our school this year is Exploring Countries and Cultures from My Father's World. And in summary...we love it! I chose it out of a desire for a little more structure, a little more of a Biblical emphasis, the desire to teach Rachel and Mary Evelyn together, everything is included in the schedule, and the history is taught chronologically. I like that My Father's World combines the best of Charlotte Mason's methods with the best of what classical education offers. I have already said a lot about MFW in previous posts, so if you are interested in it for yourself you can go here.

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I am going to also mention our new co-op. It is called Enrich and it is for users of the My Father's World curriculum. We met yesterday for the first time and my kids had a ball! I was the teacher for Betsie's class and as I type she is eating breakfast holding the crafts we made. Rachel and Mary Evelyn had a great time too. Not something you can buy, but new for us and I think a wonderful addition to our school. Plus it only meets once a month, which means we'll still be enjoying it 8 or 9 months from now! LOL!

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I won't go into tons of details but I will also say that I am glad we made the switch to Teaching Textbooks math for Rachel and Right Start math for Mary Evelyn. Math is not the evil around here that it once was. Yay!

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One last thing: we will start using The Learnables very soon for Spanish. We just got this in the mail last week. I haven't had a chance to even look at it, but that will be another new addition to our school. I have always wanted to add foreign language and The Learnables was much cheaper than my first choice and can be done independently on the computer. I'll let you know how it goes and if they learn anything or not!

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Let me know of you do this meme so I can see what's new with you!

Heart of the Matter Friday Meme: Your Children's Learning Styles

You may (or most likely may not!) have noticed that I added a new picture to my sidebar: Heart of the Matter online homeschooling magazine. I just discovered this magazine a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed browsing their articles and features. Each Friday they do a meme (don't ask me to define that.) for us homeschoolers so we can share with each other concerning all sorts of schooling/parenting/homemaking issues. Today's meme is about our children's learning styles.

I hesitated doing this meme because I have never really been able to figure out learning styles! With me, it's more of a , "hmmmm....that didn't work!" process. One of our children had some occupational therapy done last year and the OT told us her learning style seemed to be auditory...I still don't see it.

So everything from here forward about my kids is speculation. Does it count that I am not totally satisfied with being unsure? I have reserved a few good books by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias from my library. (I think I have read one of these before or at least a part of it.) The first book is called The Way They Learn. If I finish the book this time, I'll be sure and review it later.

Most people agree that the main learning styles are visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic. Since I have never been certain which category most describes my girls, I try to hit them all. Here are a few examples:

Auditory: We read book to the girls and they listen to lots of books on CD. We also use songs to learn things. It was a song that taught my girls the continents and Mary Evelyn some basic math facts. And of course, every kid learns the alphabet with a song!

Visual: Visual learners remember what they see. We learn a Bible verse each week. We do say it often (auditory) but we also look at it a lot too. Our map work is visual as well.

Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic/tactile learners need to DO something or TOUCH something to learn. Mary Evelyn's math curriculum is a very hands on program with a lot of manipulatives and games. I have seen her grasp the concepts MUCH better with this curriculum versus our former program (which was a traditional workbook program).

Hopefully I will learn more about my own kids by reading the book I mentioned. Here is an article that some might find helpful as well. So while I could not give definitive answers about my own children's learning styles, I am thankful that the meme sent me researching a little more. If you would like to see what others are saying about learning styles, go here for links to the others who have blogged about it.

Our First Break

We are now officially taking our first break from school. We completed our first 6 weeks on Friday and will be off for the coming week. I have made a to do list a mile long. Actually, I made an index card for Monday through Friday and wrote on each day what I hope to get done this week...things like shoe shopping for the girls, a haircut, going through all the kids' clothes and figuring out what fits, what can be tossed or given away, etc. Always a big chore. Lots to do.

Even with all that I hope to accomplish next week, it feels SO GOOD to have 6 weeks of the new school year under our belts just as the schools here are starting back. We have had a great start. I wish I could show some of what we did, but now even my cell phone is acting weird so I can't even use that camera! When we start back, we will study Canada and then Brazil before we take another break.

Other recent blog-worthy highlights are:
1. The birth of a new niece! Jason's brother and his wife just had their first baby (a girl) last week.
2. I was able to spend Tuesday with a friend that I had not seen in 8 years! We had been quite close from college on into early married life but then lost touch about 4 or 5 years ago. It did my heart good just to laugh with her over some of the funny memories we share.
3. We went to my grandmother's 87th birthday party today. Jason took some pictures with his phone so maybe I can post some of those later. My poor grandmother was not able to recognize many of us as her memory is so poor now, but I hope she felt loved as we celebrated her life and influence on all of us. I had a wonderful time catching up with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
4. We are planning a Disney World trip in a few monhs with my parents, aunt and uncle, and my siblings and thier families. Have you ever tried to make dinner reservations for 19 people at Disney World? Crazy!

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.

What Would You Tell A New Homeschooler?

One of my friends is about to begin homeschooling. Her child has already been in school, so if you have experience pulling a child out of school and then beginning to homeschool that would be great! I know sometimes that is different than starting with a pre-K or kindergartner.

I suggested trying NOT to be overwhelmed with the gazillion choices for curriculum and joining HSLDA, but I am wondering what others might suggest!

Got any special nuggets of wisdom for my friend? I'll point her to this post if anyone decides to comment with suggestions.

Thanks!

Hanging Out at the Library

Where would we be without our library? And where would the library be without all the books we help them buy with our late fees?

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!

First Day of School

It went well! We will add in a few more subjects as the week goes on, but this was a nice start.

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.