Year 5: Rome to The Reformation, Week 4

     Our homeschooling is going fairly smoothly so far.  I say that only because we're just a month in and I'm still slowly adding more work in.  We'll see how it goes once we're working with our full load.  I have not doubt that they'll handle it fine; I think it's myself that concerns me 😜.

     This week we added Latin.  We're using a different curricula because we did not enjoy our last program.  Not that school or work will always be enjoyable; I remind my kids that there will often be work you don't want to do but it has to be done.  Persevere!  But my kids had questions that I couldn't understand because this curricula was not very clear, even with the pricey DVD I ended up adding in hopes that it would help.  It didn't.  Thus, that program was just not the one for us.  However, we decided to give Latin For Children by Classical Academic Press a try.  We love it!  Dr. Perrin is humorous and a delight to listen to.  Plus, I purchased that activity book (my kids love activity books) to help reinforce what they're learning in a fun way.

     This is another one of our books for history:

     This week we read about the Roman bathhouses.  My kids were grossed out.  As much as when they learned that there was no plumbing and "stuff" was thrown out the window, sometimes from the second floor onto unsuspecting bystanders.  I told them to imagine if that were the case now.  They were squeamish.

     We also began our nightly Read-Alouds.  I say nightly simply because we wait until The Principal is home so that he can hear the stories as well.  Anyway, I've said it before and I'll say it again.  This is one my favorite parts of homeschooling.  Mind you, you don't have to homeschool to read aloud to your kids.  It should be done on a regular basis, even as they get older.

     There's not much more to share.  Smoothly, I say.  Smoothly!

Year 5: Rome to The Reformation, Week 3

     One of the many benefits of homeschooling?  You can take it to the hospital if you need to!  The Principal needed knee surgery this week so I planned accordingly and packed up our materials as well as lunch (One can never be too sure about the hospital cafeteria and having once worked in a hospital I wasn't about to take a chance.)

     We completed our school day and had lunch with just enough time to get some reading in before they allowed us into The Principal's recovery room.  Praise be to God all went well AND I drove home safely.  In case I've failed to mention it before, I have an aversion to driving on the freeways.  I'm not sure when that began or even how especially since when I was younger no such disinclination existed and I was ALWAYS cruising down the highways.  So now, the few times that I've had to take the freeways (and managed it well) I've first thanked God and then patted myself on the back.  It's the little accomplishments, ya know?

     This week we began memorizing the books of the New Testament, starting with the gospels, of course.  My kids already knew that so I went ahead and added the next four books.  We also began our grammar/writing curricula.  We're trying something new this year.  We've used English Lessons Through Literature, which we love, but happened upon Apologia's program and decided to give it a try.  Writer's In Residence is an all-in-one language arts program that so far, seems to be fun and engaging.  While the kids miss diagramming sentences from ELTL they like that the very first writing project in WIR asks them to write about themselves.

     We're continuing our reading of Augustus Caesar's World, which can be a bit dry at times, but my kids enjoy making the connections between what we're reading with what we already learned last year in Mystery of History Vol. I.

     In science my kids had a fun project and surprise help.  My brother and his wife came down to visit for the Labor Day weekend and got to help my kids create an edible cell.

     They didn't come out exactly as we all had hoped.  Despite making sure the bowls were properly and thoroughly greased their edible still stuck and fell apart upon release.  Still, the kids had fun making it with their uncle and auntie.  Plus, they got to nibble on some of the candy organelles.

     Well, I'm off to enjoy the rest of the Labor Day weekend and take care of the recovering patient!

Year 5: Rome to The Reformation, Week 2

     So, did you hear about the eclipse that occurred this week?

     We spent most of our Monday in and out of the house viewing the eclipse as it slowly progressed.  When our day ended we gathered our books and headed outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. 

     We began reading Augustus Caesar's World and the story began with the death of Julius Caesar, which of course my Little Toughie found sad.  Sometimes the readings are a bit long so I end up reading it to them while they have their lunch.  So far we're all enjoying it, but then again I've always been a fan of Roman History.

     We also began science this week.  We're starting with Human Anatomy.  They did a great job on their Cell Anatomy pictures:

     We aren't following the My Father's World recommended science since my daughter really enjoyed Apologia's Science and wanted to use it again.  I simply looked at what MFW had listed as the science focus and selected the corresponding Apologia books.  Plus, we already did the human body project a few years ago when we were still participating in Classical Conversations.  Eventually, we'll be moving onto Astronomy toward the end of the year.

     That's about it.  All the excitement of Monday's eclipse subsided into a quiet week; another one in the books!

Year 5: Rome to The Reformation, Week 1

     We started our fifth year, albeit a week late, but we started!  After placing our order for our My Father's World curriculum I decided to pull up our calendar to start scheduling subjects and saw that we should have already started.  Oops!  Luckily, my order arrived a few days later and I was able to start a week later.

     These were the goodies we got just in the nick of time along with my handy file box that has all their MFW (and any other sheets) organized by week:

     We began our studies in the founding of Rome, which is a bit of a review for the kids since we studied Rome in our Mystery of History Vol. I last year.  First up was a notebooking page about Romulus and Remus:

Next, we got to enjoy a Roman snack (as Roman as I could make it) outside as the Ancient Romans would have done.  I even played music for them:

     We're finishing up Long Story Short, our Bible study, before we move into Old Story New, which ties in with this year's history.  Plus, I love how in depth these books are and how they open up discussion for me and the kids.  MFW had a great project to help the kids remember the different types of books within the Bible.  I prepped it the night before by cutting out the covers and the next day they worked on wrapping and labeling:

     The finished project:

     All in all, in was a pretty good week.  I'm starting out slowly, as always, adding in something new every week.  In about four weeks our schedule will have our full load.  Right now, we're just working on history, reading and math.  Over the next few weeks we'll be adding science, Latin, spelling and writing.  I think that's it.  Well, at least that's it for this post!

Year 4: DONE

     I've been MIA for awhile.  A long while.  I feel like I should begin this particular post with a screen crawl saying, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...".  I had this silly notion that as the kids got older and were able to do more independent work that I'd have more time to do the things I wanted to do like keeping this blog current.  I was wrong (for the first time ever 😜)!  It seems that this year between my and the kids' activities (acting, piano, my classes and and personal studies, our marriage ministry and volunteering for American Heritage Girls) I had very little time to begin with.  So, something had to give and the only thing I could think of was this blog.

     I set out hoping to document what we learned every week, both for posterity and for record keeping purposes but as the weeks slowly passed I couldn't keep up and even turned to jotting down notes of what we did so that when I had the chance I could sit and write.  But even finding a moment to make those notes let alone remember what we did was becoming a difficult task.

     Which brings us to the end.  This is the conclusion of our fourth year of homeschooling (both of them; I started with my daughter when she was in Kindergarten).  We covered a lot, from Creation to Christ.  My daughter is practicing her cursive writing, my son is moving into Pre-Algebra.  We've read some wonderful books, though not many missionary ones as I would have liked to since we used Mystery of History this year. (We will be going back to My Father's World for year five, though.)

     We learned a lot about ancient history, sea animals and the weather, all of which seem like a blur to me as I was being inundated with facts about all of it during my day and then working on my own studies at night.  My kids, however, could rattle off more about the Old Testament than I or my husband ever could at their age and I'm thankful for that.  They are able to see the connection between the Old Testament and the New and all of our studies have lead to wonderful and deep discussions.

     They can diagram sentences and even find it fun.  They memorized poems learned how to amplify or summarize stories.  The only thing we did not complete was Latin.  Latin became a challenge for all of us.  I even purchased a pricey DVD thinking that it would help.  It didn't.  We're going to give Latin one more try with a different program and go from there.

     What next?  Well, we're on a break for six weeks which gives me just enough time to put away all the old stuff and prepare the new stuff.  I'm hoping to catch up on some reading that I've fallen behind on.  The kids will be doing some reading and math during their break.  I've even created a summer schedule for them:

     I know our summer is going to pass quickly.  We have a lot going on and this is our first time homeschooling year-round, so there's a bit of a learning curve as to the timing of it all.  I probably should have purchased the new school year's curriculum in the Spring, but how could I do that when I was trying to stay focused on the current year?  Besides, I have no where to store those glorious boxes of new books.

     I can't say much more about our year except that I'm thankful that God has blessed us, once again, with the ability and opportunity to homeschool and that my kids are both progressing in their own ways.  Our new school year is just around the corner.  I better get preppin'!