Year 8, Week 4: Bible

     Another week in the books!  Literally.  Sonlight is a literature based curriculum so we have A LOT of books.  I don't mind, though.  I love reading!  Sonlight is what we're using for our Bible, History, Science and Geography.  Today, I'm going to focus on our Bible studies.  We always start our day with our Bible readings/study and prayer.  It's an important part of our day; it's THE most important part of our day and I make a point to remind my kids to start their day with God.

My well-worn Bible

     In the past we've used Long Story Short:  10 Short Devotionals to Draw Your Family to God and Old Story New: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God.  While both books are family devotionals I decided to use them as our studies because the kids were still young when we started them and they had a lot of great questions to draw them out.  It opened plenty of great conversations as well.  It took us a little over 4 years for us to finish both books; we started Long Story Short in 2016 and made a point to only use it during the school year (we did something else during the summer breaks).  We completed Old Story New toward the end of 2019.  In January 2020 I purchased a devotional suited for each child and decided that our Bible studies would be based on our personal readings from the devotionals; sharing what we read and how it applied to our lives. 

     Now, with the new school year under way, we're using what Sonlight suggests which begins with reading Mark along with a smaller "field guide to the Bible" of sorts.  I say suggests because while it's in the schedule I don't necessarily have to follow it.  Frankly, I may change it up.  Both devotionals above were so thorough in drawing the kids out and helping them make connections that currently they seem a little...bored.  We've done an inductive study of Matthew and our church did the same through the book of Luke over the course the past year and a half.  So, I can see where reading Mark with very little discussion can seem monotonous.

     Recently, I happened upon a short video that touched on the failings of some youth ministries and it convinced me to take this opportunity of homeschooling to also instruct them on how to study their Bible.  Perhaps an exegetical study of Acts?  Or a shorter book since this is their first time doing it?

     I don't want to overwhelm them but I do want them to do more than just read the Bible.  Of course I want them to live it out as well, but they can't do that unless they know it well.  I want them to be equipped. to fully put on the armor of God.  And...I think I just answered my own questions.  I think a study of Ephesians 6:10-18 is what I'm looking for!  It's amazing how God works.  I'm sitting here typing this and when I typed the word equipped, God brought me to that scripture.

     I'll take some time over this holiday weekend to see how I can approach this, but as I sit here finishing up, I'm getting excited at the prospect of digging into the whys and hows of Ephesians 6:10-18.  Woohoo!

     Have a safe holiday weekend!

Year 8, Week 3: Scheduling, Part Two

     I hope my last post on scheduling was clear.  I feel like I was rambling, but then again....I did warn you!  In this post I'm sharing what our day typically looks like.  If you're a parent whose child(ren) is doing distance learning due to the SAH orders, some of this may not apply to you but it might give you a better sense of what homeschooling entails or prepare you for the long haul.

     We start our day between 8:30 and 9.  The kids know their morning chores/routine need to be done by 8:30, thus they're up around 7:30.  Their morning routine includes making their bed, having breakfast, doing the morning dishes, feeding and walking our dog.  Then we start our day:

Bible and prayer	8:30 - 9:00
History	9:00 - 9:45
Break (to walk the dog)	9:45 - 10:00
Grammar/Spelling	10:00 - 10:30
Math	10:30 - 11:00 (This is usually when I get to work out, after I go over their lesson for the day and while they do their assignment.)
Writing	11:00 - 12:30 (This is only once a week because Little Toughie has an online course.  A380 is doing something different  We're usually done before 12 or a bit after.)
Lunch	12:00 - 1:00
Science	1:00 - 1:30
Assigned Reading	Must be done before any screen time
Free Reading	Should be done before dinner

  

     I have specific times, but that's really just a guide.  This is basically Block Scheduling but I have specific times just to make sure we aren't dawdling; it's very easy for us to get caught up in discussions (we do it often) and lose track of time.  Bible, History and Writing are well-known for drawing us into long conversations after I read to them.  It may look like our day is complete by 2 or so but, like most kids, they have activities outside the home roughly three days out of five, sometimes more depending on the time of the year.  If for some reason we don't finish we can go back to it and I know where we left off.

     "Homework" would be anything that they didn't get completed during our day or anything that I asked them to correct.  They also have a chore of the day that I have on our schedule, but much like their Assigned and Free Reading, there's no time.  It just has to be done before any screen time AND before dinner.

     Our Fridays have a lighter schedule to give them time to work on projects or experiments or to catch up on anything that didn't get completed during the week.  At this point, week three, there isn't much to do but I know as the year progresses the work load will increase.  Friday is also the day where I use Looping in our schedule.  We alternate between a geography game, Art, Music Appreciation, writing poetry and mapping skills.  If I find an educational game then I might add that to the schedule or if they want to spend some time doing something of their own choosing (delight directed learning) we can add that in as well.  Something my daughter wants to add this year is FCS (Family and Consumer Science)----Can I just tell you how much cooler that sounds than the "Home Ec. of my days?!)  She's in the midst of preparing for an audition, so I don't know if we'll be able to do that, but that's the benefit of looping.

   For all of this I use Homeschool Planet.  I'm not getting paid or anything like that to share this.  I'm really just sharing what I use and what I like about it.  First, it's very user friendly.  I've been using it for the past four years.  I had a free trial and was immediately able to use it without even watching the tutorials.  I can easily mark off what's been completed.  I can change an assignment, drag and drop a particular part of our day, print reports and more.  I can view the schedule of just one kid or both.  I can give each child their own log in.  One of the things I do every year is print out and keep our school year attendance (as required by our state) and then a copy of our weekly schedule (just one week and I usually pick one later in the year once I know we've found our groove).  Since I can also add Resources, I print out that list too, so that I know what books we've read and used.  Later I'll also be able to print out high school transcripts for college purposes!

Courtesy of Homeschool Planet

     Next week, I'll share our week along with a bit of each subject we're studying this year.  This week was pretty quiet; we've added a couple of things into our schedule so it's starting to get busy.  I forgot to order their grammar books so what I thought was the last of the homeschool books deliveries was incorrect!  That will be the last of them when they get here.  That's all for now.  Have a great weekend!

       

We're Back and It's Box Day! (Sort of)

Hey there!  Thank you for taking a few minutes to read my nonsense. Well, not nonsense...perhaps musings on homeschooling or the ramblings of a mom who's had a long week and needs an outlet other than exercise to release said ramblings.  Regardless, I'm going to try to get back to writing weekly.  Over the years I haven't been able to keep up with it because our school days started to fill with more than I could handle and I had to choose between keeping this updated or honestly, losing my Bible study time.  And I know there's no way I could homeschool without spending quality time with the Father.  So, there you have it.

Now, in this current season things have slowed a bit.  Plus there's a couple of other reasons.  One, my Little Toughie is starting what would be considered middle school and I would like to get back on track with documenting what we're doing.  The tracking will also help us plan out her high school years 😬.  Plus, for A380, this is a transition year where I get to focus more on the skills necessary for his success and I'll get to document that.  The second part, and only some of my immediate family know this, is that I'm writing a book.  I already have the ending of it outlined and partially written, but to hone my writing skills I have to write!

Moving along...It took some time for us to plan what middle school would look like for our tween.  We had completed all four history cycles (and then some) as per The Well Trained Mind and I knew come high school our focus would move to studying current ideologies/events or 20th Century History or Church History or perhaps the History of Science but I didn't know how to fill the gap until then.  Thankfully, we decided to go back to Sonlight, which is what I used my first year homeschooling Little Toughie in Kindergarten.  Basically, we'll be doing all four cycles again but condensed into two years and it's heavily literature based.  As a bibliophile I love that there's a lot of reading.  But then again, there's A LOT of reading.  See:

For Box Day I'd typically lay out EVERYTHING and take a picture of it like in this post, but with The Principal working from home and the dog zooming around, it just wasn't feasible.  These are just some of the books. 😲  These are the ones I was able to get through and add as resources to my digital planner so that I could set up their schedule, mostly the history books.  We still have our Bible study books, additional science materials and various other books for spelling, writing and vocabulary.  I'm running out of shelves y'all.  I think we need to build an additional room!

We start on Monday, August 10 and I hope to post every Friday (or Saturday).  We'll see how it goes.