Thankfully, my work load has lightened, and things are looking much better. Long story, but now that we've been able to replace some house-hold appliances that had bitten the dust, I don't feel so overwhelmed.
First of all, we have plunged full force into a new stage of life: high school. It really blows my mind. It just seems like yesterday that I was just teaching phonics and creating home-made play dough crafts. Now here we are learning Algebra!
I have been pretty relaxed over the years about everything, but right as summer rolled around, I felt a real urgency to learn about how to document high school. I feel like each child needs a custom education catered to his learning style, his God-given talents, & his interests. This calls for being very intentional about everything we choose to use, each activity we pursue, and what life skills we choose to teach them.
So, I've been trying to squeeze in some reading. These books have been so helpful. They have given me the gift of freedom and peace of mind.
This year was wrought with some financial hurdles that seemed very difficult to overcome, and I have been and do pray constantly that the Lord would show us what to teach the boys. Thankfully, I was able to find something really amazing: a Christian website offering FREE homeschooling courses. I wouldn't say our home-schooling this year has been 100 percent free, because we have spent money on some items, but I would say it has a lot less expensive because of the internet.
First of all, I had bought a Saxon math book at the quarter store a couple of years ago because of all the rave reviews I had seen in the home-school community about it. I wanted to look over it to see if it was something we'd be interested in using. The book was above Ryan's grade level at the time, but since it was only a quarter, I figured why not get it and see if it would be something we'd be interested in using? It was helpful because it showed me that I did want to use it for Ryan. I went ahead that year and bought the proper grade level for Ryan. Ryan has done so well with Saxon math, that I have used it ever since for him. I wanted to use it this year too, but I really didn't have a lot of money at the beginning of the year to go online and order it. What a blessing to find that the math book that I had purchased at the quarter store all those years ago was the very math book Ryan needed for this year!
Ryan is continuing in Abeka Language Arts this year. I already had a Language book, his readers, history, & science here at home.
I also found Scholastic Dictionary of Spelling at the thrift store for a quarter! It has over 15,000 words in it, and we use it to make lists on SpellingCity.com, which is also free. Justin & Jonathan do 15 words per day (instead of per week) and Ryan does 10 words per school day. I believe this is a great program, because it gives them the freedom to learn a lot of words at a very fast pace.
For Justin and Jonathan, we are using Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool and Easy Peasy All in One High School for both Math and Language, and also for Justin's Music Appreciation course. All that is needed for most everything on the Easy Peasy websites is a computer, paper, pencil, & printer ink! Those have been a real blessing because the math comes complete with video instruction.
Another perk is that EasyPeasy also has printable grading spreadsheets & attendance records.
For history, we use what we call "living books." I have blogged about my love for living books in the past, but to recap, living books are real, literary rich books written by authors passionate about a topic. I have been able to find great books at thrift stores, used book stores, & ebay for very little costs.
These books tell history in a whole-world-history style (what was going on around the world during the same time as famous events):
Justin writes a short report each day summarizing what he has read. I use a sort of rubric (point system) to grade his reports. It has been an easy and effective way to have him pay attention to what he has read, and for him to show me his work. This system is great for any type of book that I want him to summarize.
For Jonathan and Ryan, I have them read a portion of their book, then they are required to narrate (tell) to me what they read. This gives them oral practice, so that they will eventually transition into writing reports. I have specific criteria for choosing historical books. If I see positive comments about them over and over, I will check into them. So far, the following books have come highly recommended: the older Landmark books, the older Childhood of Famous Americans, Genevieve Foster's books, and G.A. Henty's historical novels.
I have recently learned how well real books help a child to retain information. We were using the Noggin cards (mentioned below) to learn a new set of historical facts, and I asked the question: "Who invented the cotton gin?" Ryan piped up, "Eli Whitney." It wasn't because he had memorized it from a textbook. It was because he knows a lot about Eli Whitney because he read a biography about him.
For factual memory work, we are using Noggin game cards. I use one card for history & one for geography each week. There are seven questions per card.
I plan to purchase more of these when we get through the ones we already have. They also have other subjects available. I am also still using Latin & Greek roots as well for memory work.
Justin documenting the results of his experiment:
Jonathan and Ryan are completing a Thomas Kinkade drawing course together. It's actually a LifePac pace, so it is extremely easy for them to just do it themselves. Here is a picture of Jonathan giving Ryan a drawing lesson. This was on their own free time without anyone telling anyone to do it:
Another drawing lesson (not from the Thomas Kinkade book)
This year we joined our local home-school group. If we were to do everything available to us through the group, we'd never be home. We plan to be involved in some field trips and some activities that they will offer in the future. Here are a few of pictures of our field trip to Huber Farm on October 3rd.
Last, but not least, we have been involved in serving our community with Bertha's Mission on Mondays. It has been an excellent ministry for us. I told Michael the other day that I believe our community involvement is just as, or maybe even more important than the things they learn in textbooks.
We meet a lot of neat people this way, and we enjoy it very much. An ex-Marine turned pastor, widows, disabled veterans, elderly, and lonely people who just wanting someone to talk to them.
This past week we met a lady there who serves at a different time than we do. Her sister, who serves with us, told her that she really needed to meet the boys. She came in early during our shift just to meet the boys. She is an avid fossil collector who used to travel to schools to show her collection. She was so excited to show the boys, and was so pleased at how much they love fossils that she actually gave them several pieces.
We also finished up our fall Good News Club this week. There are "hidden" (hidden to the boys, but not hidden to me) benefits to being involved in this ministry as well. Yes, we are sharing the gospel with little children, but the boys are learning some very valuable lessons: How to serve others, how to lead singing, how to do a skit, how to teach memory verses and tell Bible & missionary stories, how to give a short devotional, and how to lead someone to Christ.
Well, that is all for now. Hopefully it won't be next year before I post another update.
