Farewell Year 3!

     I'm writing this just a week away from the beginning of Year 4!  How can that be, you ask?  Well,  my kids and I discussed the different schedules we could take on for the new school year and settled on one that we think will add more flexibility.  I think; but I'll write about that in another post.  This post is about how our third year went.

     First off, we LOVED, absolutely loved My Father's World.  It was well organized, well put together, easy to follow and all of us enjoyed the activities and readings planned (so many great books!)  It is a wonderful, truly God-centered curriculum.  Now, with that said.  We will be changing things up and I'll explain that in another post as well.

     What did my kids learn with My Father's World this year?  Well, they can name the majority of the countries on each continent (better than I can).  They've learned about the different ecosystems, terrain and animals on each continent.  They got to try A LOT of food from different countries and learn about the different cultures throughout God's creation.  They heard stories of missionaries serving our Lord and others with nothing but faith.  They learned to see things, to see God's creation, through His eyes.

     In addition to what they learned in My Father's World, they memorized prayers in Latin, they learned how to create an outline and write a paper based on that outline; they learned a number of spelling rules along with Latin word rules.  My daughter mastered her addition and subtraction facts while my son received an A- in his math curriculum.

     We read plenty of great books, too many to name and such wonderful ones that it's hard to pick a favorite.  Reading aloud to my kids is still one of my favorite things to do any day, homeschooling or not.

     This year, as suggested by another mom using My Father's World, I carefully saved their work and then spiral bound them to keep as mementos and references:

     Their Geography work is located in the Geography A-Z book while the sheets provided by My Father's World is in the one labeled Exploring Countries and Cultures.  The other one with Philippians 4:8  on it contains their scripture copywork, Hero Tales copywork and their writing work from IEW's Bible Heroes.  I created covers for each book and brought everything to our local office supply store for binding.  I think it only cost about $25.00 for all of it.  Well worth the price and since I had everything organized, it was easy to put it all together.

     All in all, it was an awesome year and I can't wait to start the new school year.  Only a few more days away!

Year 3: Exploring Countries and Cultures, Week 1

     So, can I just say I hope the rest of our homeschool weeks go as smoothly as this one did?  Thank God for the peaceful, productive week!

     We started with watching a movie titled On The Way to School (it's on Netflix).  It documents four different kids trying to get to school and what they have to endure just to get there.  These kids realize that their education is a privilege and go to great lengths just to make sure they make it.  My kids now know better than to complain about the little chores they have to do before school starts everyday.  There are no lions to contend with!

     We got to dive straight into some wonderful books about maps and mapping, which I thought was cool since the basis of this year's curriculum is Geography.  If you can't read a map, how will you know where you're going?  We also read a few books about different cultures, just to give the kids a preview of the weeks to come and to give them deeper insight into the meaning of John 3:16.

     We even learned a bit about the distortion of flat maps and why they are not quite right.  They got to experiment with that on a tangerine:

     My favorite part so far about this year is their writing lessons.  We're using Institute for Excellence in Writing (better known as IEW) Bible Heroes in preparation for the full course we'll be using in a couple of years.  Both kids loved reading the short story, creating their outlines and writing their rough drafts.  By the end of the week they were ready for me to review their rough draft, make corrections and complete their final draft.  Mind you, we didn't do this all in one day and this week I decided to type it up for them.  We spread each part of the process across the week and they looked forward to it every time, especially since they read their work aloud to The Principal.  Below are pictures of them hard at work with their rough drafts.

     Well, that's one week down and 35 to go!

It's Box Day!

   

     What is Box Day, you ask?  Well, in the homeschool-sphere, it's the arrival of curriculum, supplements and all sorts of homeschooling goodies for the brand new school year.

     As listed in Our 2015-2016 Curriculum we're using My Father's World as our main curriculum.  Above is a picture of all the great books included in the set.  I chose My Father's World because it is God-centered, has a great collection of books/materials, I can teach both kids using it and I get to select my own Language Arts program, without having to stick to one we don't like.  Plus, there's a lot of different activities that will keep them engaged.  I can't wait.  My favorite part is the YWAM books at the very bottom of the picture.  I'm eager to read those aloud to my kids.

     We'll also be using All About Spelling.  Little Toughie will be using Level 1 because she's never had a formal spelling program, even though she's completed several Explode the Code books.  She'll get through this quickly, so we may end up getting Level 2 mid-year.  My son will be using WorldBuild, but that hasn't arrived just yet (because I haven't ordered it yet!)

     Did you know you can ask for a picture to be drawn on the box that your All About Learning Press supplies comes in?  I requested Alice In Wonderland for my daughter and this is what showed up:

She was so surprised!

     For Math we're using Singapore Math (my daughter has been using it) and Teaching Textbooks (my son got to try it out at a homeschool convention and loved it).  For Latin, we're using Prima Latina, which also teaches English and Latin grammar concepts.

     I've organized all the MFW (My Father's World) student sheets, copywork and any other items they'll be using (aside from Math, Spelling and Latin) in a hanging file folder system, pictured below.  It's what I did when the kids were doing Classical Conversations, Foundations.  I figured I can use the same system for MFW once I saw how each week went.  Each week is numbered and there are also Monday-Friday folders so that the kids and I know what sheets are used on what day.  Also, there are two removable Post-It Tabs with their names so that they know which sheets belong to whom.  I'll move those, along with the daily folders, to the next week when the current week is finished.  This is especially helpful for The Principal who, on occasion, has to be The Substitute. 

     Each child has two binders, one prepared as directed by the MFW Teacher's Manual and the other for Bible, Spelling, Math and English.  The binders will hold their completed work.  A fellow homeschooling mom shared her idea of keeping the completed work in sheet protectors so that at the end of the year she can have them spiral bound, creating a keepsake (and record) of the year's hard work.  I think I'll do that at the end of our school year which means I'll be putting everything in sheet protectors (Costco to the rescue!)  This may also help the kids keep their work neat; knowing it will eventually be a book they can keep and share with others.

     While we use the library A LOT, I had the opportunity to host a Facebook Usborne Book Party with Brandy of Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood.  She did such a wonderful job and I was blessed to have met her and her family, and to have her as my party consultant.  From the book party, I was able to get several Usborne books from my wishlist.  Many of them we will use during this new school year.  We are stoked!  After I took this picture the kids grabbed a couple of books and settled in.

     Last, but not least, what good are all those books, files and sheets if we have nothing to write or color with?  I cleaned up my old Pampered Chef Turn-about (I had let my son use it, but he colored all over it) and gathered everything I think we may need.  It's a shame they no longer make it in white.  I'd like another one.  By the way, Goo Gone is what removed all the pen and marker scribbles that were all over this caddy.  I had used several different cleaners, but they only faded them a little.  Goo Gone removed every bit of it, no scrubbing needed!  (No, I'm not getting paid to say that.)

     Our first day of school is just a little over a week away.  I can't wait to start and share our explorations with you!