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'!

Year 4, Week 4: Stonehenge

     Our history studies brought us to Stonehenge this week and the kids tried to come up with different ways of how the megalith could have been built.  I can't remember everything they said but I know they said something about slides and ropes.  I probably should have written it down!  This is their model of Stonehenge, complete with a tourist snapping pictures:

     We began our Latin studies this week.  As I said in my first post for this year, we're easing into things and I didn't want to start everything from the get-go.  We're using Latina Christiana which they enjoy but find a bit tedious right now.  I reminded them that it's just the beginning and it will progressively get challenging as the weeks pass.  I happened to look ahead a few pages and it's even a bit challenging for me to teach!

     My Little Toughie seems to be enjoying her science and created this masterpiece depicting the different ocean layers.  My favorite is the deceased whale lying at the bottom of the ocean.  She read that in the book and felt badly about it.

     That's all for now.

   

Year 4, Week 3: Ziggurat

     We're studying the Sumerians this week!  The kiddos got to build their own ziggurat out of Legos:

     They wanted to make it our of sugar cubes but that would just be wasteful, especially in our Paleo house.

     We've also begun our looping schedule.  If you're not familiar with looping please check out Sarah Mackenzie on Amongst Lovely Things or read one of her posts about looping here.  Anyway, our loop so far looks like this:

• Draw Africa
• Art
• Geography Game
• Music

     We began drawing Africa this week:

     They did great!  I didn't get to draw with them as this was our first time using the book so I was in charge of reading the directions to them.  We had so much geography last year and we all loved it.  This year since the focus is history, there isn't a whole lot of geography so between this, our Classical Conversations map and the Geography Game (from My Father's World) I think we'll have geography covered.

     With that, I'll catch you next week!

Year 4, Week 2: The Ice Age

     This week our history study brought us to the Ice Age and Noah and The Flood.  They marveled at a sea fossil being found atop a mountain and that there were once land bridges between continents.  Oh, the love of learning and discovery!

     Also, in keeping with adding things in slowly we began science this week:

     I let each child pick their own science subject this year.  Little Toughie opted for sea animals while my son chose Earth Science.  This is our first time using Apologia.  I'm hoping they enjoy it.

     At the end of our Ice Age study the kids were challenged to put an ice cube on their belly to see who could let it sit there the longest.  Neither one lasted long enough for me to take a picture but I can tell you there was a lot on squirming and squealing in the short 30 seconds my daughter lasted.  My son didn't last more than 5 seconds and shrieked for about that long!

     That's about it for now.  Nothing too exciting...yet.

Year 4, Week 1: Creation

     I wasn't sure what to title this year since we're not using an all-in-one curriculum.  Last year I was able to use the country we were studying.  This year it's different.  We have a buffet of books to choose from, though our main subject is history.  Or language arts.  All of our reading is around those subjects but I don't think it would make for a good title.  For now, I'll just pick something that peaked their interest that week and we'll go from there.

     This year will be the year of outings too.  Last year we didn't get to do much because I kept dropping the ball on putting trips on the calendar or missing sign up dates.  I'm keeping a better eye out for things this year.  We already have 3 outings planned!

     This was our first week, obviously.  I read somewhere (I'm sure from another homeschooling blog) that it's best to ease into the school year.  While I may be excited to crack open each and every book and dive in, my kids may not share the same enthusiasm and I don't want to scare them off on day one.  Perhaps day 5.  Ha!  Thus, we are only starting with a few things this week, adding a bit more as the weeks pass.  This week I'm introducing them to their new history, grammar and math books.  Later we'll be adding spelling, science and Latin.

     I will say how apropos it is that as we make our way through Ancient History that on our first day we took it way back...way back to Creation!  The kids made cards representing each day:

     We also began reading Dr. Doolittle.  I actually read this aloud to my daughter when I first began homeschooling her.  She was only 5 then.  She doesn't quite remember the whole story.  Nonetheless, everyone is enjoying it so far.

     That's pretty much it for our first week.  Like I said we're taking it nice and slow.  Oh, wait!  Did I mention that I created a very official looking document that laid out what the Principal and I expect from the our kids this school year?  At the very top it has Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Then it starts out listing their major accomplishments last year and then moves on to their goals for this year, both on an academic and personal level.  Here they are reading it before they sign it.  Bwahahaha!

     Now I bid you adieu!

Ch-ch-changes! Year 4, coming soon.

     This is usually the time of the year that one big box is delivered to our home and the kids get to preview what we'll be studying for the year, much like last year.  Not so this year.  We bought some things from our local homeschool convention, bringing it home with us.  Some of our curriculum was digital, downloaded onto the computer which I'm currently sitting at.  Others came in at different times because one was delivered to the wrong house while the other was apparently damaged and never made it off the truck.

     Thus, I have no lovely pictures to show you.  I can, however, tell you what we're using and the changes we're making to our school year.

     The biggest change is using Mystery Of History instead of My Father's World.  We loved MFW.  I can't give anything but a positive thumbs up for that curriculum.  The deciding factor for us switching to MOH this year is because I officially have a HIGH SCHOOLER *gasp*.  I needed something that I could teach both kids at their respective levels and while MFW's Creation to Greeks goes up to 8th grade (and my son would probably find it challenging even at that level) I figured this would be a good time to give Mystery of History a try.  My daughter is still young enough that I can switch plus MOH gives me options at both the middle school and high school level; giving me the opportunity to gauge how much work my son can handle and what kind of work he'll produce.

     The other changes we're making is adding an official Language Arts program (English Lessons Through Literature).  We had used Level 2 a couple of years ago, taking a break from it last year.  We're also using Writing Rhetoric for our writing program.  Basically, last year the kids had so much copywork that I knew we didn't need an official program to cover grammar and punctuation.  We were using IEW's Bible Heroes, which my daughter loved but my son struggled just a bit with it toward the end.  Hence, the change in our writing choice.

     Also, since Mystery of History obviously does not include Science I let my kids pick from Apologia's science books at the convention.  I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.  I've heard great things about Apologia, but looking at the books at the convention didn't quite convince me.  Still, it's well-known amongst homeschoolers and gets rave reviews.  My kids will let me know whether or not they enjoy it.

     As for organization, I still have everything in their lovely pink folders labeled by the week.  I will not be putting their history work into sheet protectors in order to create their spiral bound books at the end of the year.  I will simply file their completed work in order in the correct folder and pull everything out once our school year concludes.

     We're also trying our hand at homeschooling year round.  I had discussed this with the kids last September and they were fine with it.  We break for a week roughly every 6 weeks, our way of honoring the Sabbath; taking a longer break during the holidays (a month!) and still taking a good chunk of the summer off, though not 3 months.  I think it turns out to be 6 weeks off in the summer, which gives me just enough time to put the previous school work and books away and prepare the new stuff.  This will still allow them to participate in a few summer activities as well.

     One of the great things about homeschooling is that I can change what we use and how we use it, anytime.  That doesn't mean that the second my child says they don't like something or if they struggle with it that I'll immediately find something else.  That's not how I roll.  I will teach them to persevere, to try a different way to find the solution/solve the problem/complete the task.  Whenever my kids say, "I can't" I tell them, "There is no 'I can't' but there is 'How can I do this differently?'".  They may sigh, but they continue on and as I observe them, I'll see their faces light up after a few minutes when the answer comes to them.

     We're just a few days away.  I'm almost ready.  Almost.