Monroe County History Center.

Today was quite full for us.  This morning we went to Bloomington to a Child Evangelism Prayer meeting.  It was wonderful to be together with believers.  There were several from other churches praying together for our communities, for each other, and for revival. 

After the meeting, we completed a tour of the warehouse that will eventually become a Christian community center.  The building had been donated to a Christian media company, but that company/ministry has allowed several other ministries to use the offices.    It was very exciting to hear what they have planned.  I felt a wonderful presence the minute I walked through that door.  

After the tour, we helped our CEF director load some boxes into the new area she is going to use as a library for child evangelism materials, and we spent some time talking about our ministry and our plans for the future.  

  

I decided that since we were already going to be in Bloomington, we'd make a day of it and also have a field trip.  I chose to take the boys to the Monroe County History Center.

  We enjoyed the displays.   I decided to add the silly pictures as well as the serious ones.  

 This was a flag from the 27th (?) Regiment.  

Union uniform. Silly faces.

 Justin & Jonathan were pretending they didn't believe Ryan when he is trying to tell them a giant Kodiak bear is about to eat them.  This bear had been in one of the old local gun shops for several years.

 Posing with John Dillinger

 In an old schoolroom display.  I loved the old desks.  The boys were pretending they didn't want to be there.

 Yes, that is a dunce hat on that chair in the corner.  I can only imagine what the boys were carrying on about.

 An old cabin

 I could not get a clear picture of this for some reason.  Maybe it was the lighting in this room, but it is filled with old muskets and lots of Civil War items. Justin said he loved these guns in particular.

Charlotte Mason for High School

I'm in the process of researching how to home school through high school the Charlotte Mason way.  I'm very excited about this, since most students actually enjoy learning in this fashion.  I've been using this style (eclectically to a degree) for elementary, and now junior high.  We like it so much that I want to make sure we can do it through high school as well.

http://simplycharlottemason.com/2010/03/17/basic-mainstays-homeschooling-through-high-school-the-cm-way/

http://www.amblesideonline.org/ 
I'm including the link for Ambleside online  because it actually has book lists, and since a lot or most of the books are classics, they can be obtained mostly for free!


One of the biggest things that hooked me with the Charlotte Mason education is that we use living books.

"What is a “living book”?

Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.” They can be contrasted to dry writing, like what is found in most encyclopedias or textbooks, which basically lists informational facts in summary form."

The student uses narration to show if they retain the information from the material they have read.

"Narration requires a much higher thinking level than fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, or true or false. And if we saw the value of this method during the earlier grades, how much more should we require this higher thinking level now that our children are older?" 

 Oral narration eventually transitions to written narration.

This is a biggie for me.  I made high A's in high school  language arts, but when it came to writing an essay to be placed into a college level English class, I didn't make it.  I was placed into a college prep English class to learn the things I already knew.  It was very discouraging for me.  I hope that, even if my boys do not choose the college path, that they will be able to express themselves in written form.

Local Exploration- Friday, October 5, 2012

These are some pictures I took of the boys when I took them to Williams Dam.  For some reason, I didn't post most of the pictures I took and I didn't publish it.  It was in my drafts folder.  This was a Friday getaway. We tried to do this on Fridays.  Very enjoyable!  

Thanksgiving 2012

Around Thanksgiving, we always try to do some kind of activity where we write down what we are thankful for.  This year, I used Ann Voskamp's printable.  One side has a Bible verse and the other side is used to write down the things for which we are thankful.
We traditionally listen to Focus on the Family Radio Theatre Squanto, and we also use Barbara Rainey's Thanksgiving CD's.  We enjoy them so much.  This makes life easier for me because we can do other things while we listen.  Barbara Rainey's CD is wonderful because it has a drama on one side and nice instrumental music on the other. What a blessing, this time of year is so busy!

Election Day! Educational Videos

Curricula Favorites

I'm in the mood to talk about some of my favorite curricula.

 

I either have really nerdy kids, or maybe since we home-school they don't know it's not cool to sit around reading your text books, or maybe their textbooks are just that interesting.

 

I also wonder if it is odd that my Justin and Jonathan talk among themselves about the difference between commutative or non-commutative numbers.  Maybe it's odd that Justin tells us when we use a hyperbole.

 

 I might think it is a combination of all three, but I'm more likely to think it's because of the awesome way their curricula are written.   At first, I had a little difficulty pulling away from my traditional thinking about these things.   After hearing rave reviews, I decided to check out some different curricula for Math and Science.  After all, I am the parent and the teacher and yes, I am free to direct the education of my children.  So last year, I took the plunge.  I am not disappointed.    Learning should be fun, shouldn't it?  It should also stick.  I have come to the conclusion that when learning is fun, it naturally sticks.

 

You know books are fun when your children read them:

 #1 Without much coaxing

 #2 over and over....and over

 

Life of Fred Math:

 

My favorite thing about Life of Fred books - besides the fact the kids love them- is that they teach in a holistic way.  In other words, the kids learn about biology, history, and other topics along with the math instead of separating math from life.  As a matter of fact, just to name a couple of the titles: Pre-algebra with Biology and Pre-algebra with Economics. 

 

The coolest math books ever written:

Life of Fred Math 

One of the lower elementary books

*I do supplement by using math problems from other textbooks as well, but the author assures the me that it is not necessary* 

 

 

The coolest science books ever written:

Apologia Science

 

 

Justin, reading Apologia astronomy purely out of interest 

 

I think what I love so much about Apologia is that it is more of a living book, meaning that it reads more like a novel.  There are plenty of fun projects.  Instead of just answering questions, the boys narrate the information back to me.  They take notes in their notebooks.  They are allowed to draw pictures.   They seem to enjoy narration and notebooking. What kid doesn't love talking about the things they are learning?  Especially an auditory learner. They also enjoy going back and looking at the pictures they have drawn and the things they have written. 

Ryan's

 

 

Jonathan's

 



Justin's

 

 It's hard to break free from the thought process that says that learning has to be boring, but we are doing it.  I believe that more is retained when it is enjoyed.

Electives: Art

I had an answer to prayer. I have been feeling a little unsure lately about electives for my boys. Instrument? Carpentry? Art?  Justin and Jonathan had been taking piano, but I had come to a point where I was unsure how to move forward.

One day it dawned on me that the Lord knows what type of future they will have, so of course He knows more than I do what types of things they need to learn. All three of my boys love to draw, and I had noticed last year or so in one of the home-school catalogs that Thomas Kinkade had an art curriculum. I thought it would be great if we used his, but it was just a fleeting "maybe one day" thought. Besides the fact that I didn't want to jump into anything without praying about it. And that stuff is expensive!

I don't like to stress over things, so we started taking it to the Lord each morning during our devotions. A new friend of mine -I met doing Good News Club- called me and asked me if I would be interested in art lessons for my boys. She had bought it for her grand-daughter, but they had changed their mind about using it. She wanted to give it to me, and wouldn't take any money for it. Guess what art curriculum it was? That Thomas Kinkade set I was looking at!

 

 

I'm not saying this replaces music.  We are still praying about that.  It does give us something to which to look forward!

Local Attractions

Link for Lawrence County brochure. 
http://propellermktg.net/paperlesspub/limestone/

I want to use some of our Fridays to take some local field trips.

September 2012: First day of School

 

Today was our first day back to school after having a month-long break. Here are the boys after enjoying some time running around outside in the sunshine.

 

A few curriculum additions we have made this year are the following. I've linked the book titles to outside sources as a way to provide more information about the titles I am using:

• Lessons in Responsibility for Boys. 

• For Bible we are going through Nathan Brown's "Discipling New Converts". 
• We are all learning Latin & Greek roots this year.   

 

•   Peter Marshall's History Series.  One of the books is pictured in the red pan below.
 
• Last but not least, I am just thrilled to have figured out an easy way to keep books in order.  Dishpans!  Yes, they are for Justin & Jonathan's books (Ryan uses his desk). I am simply posting about it just because I'm excited that I found something that works well for keeping books in their place.  They use the kitchen table for seat-work, and this makes it a breeze to clean up.

•  

We are studying the planet of Venus, which is covered with volcanoes.  This is one of the projects recommended in Apologia's Exploring Creation With Astronomy.  The butter represents lava which is soft, molten rock.  The experiment shows that as time passes, the molten lava hardens back into rock.