Curriculum Time Part 2....the 5th-9th grade

I have a few minutes to jot down what the older 3 will be using this year.

For Bible, we will finish our 6th and final year with STUDENT OF THE WORD. I can't believe we've been at it his long. It has been such a fruitful, wonderful journey reading every word of the Bible with my children! We even read the geneologies and the Levitical laws. Grin.
These 3 are currently working through the Bible Bee study memorizing about 5 verses a day as well.

My 5th grader, Hosanna, will be using:

Math- Teaching Textbooks 7

Science- Sitting in on Answers in Genesis' science with the younger kids that daddy will teach as well as study Apologia Astronomy (her choice) and a Child's Geography

History: she will be going through a great looking program with Noah from Heart of Dakota called "Renaissance to Reformation" I will have them read and work through it together. It looks like they will have a lot of fun with that!

Language Arts: Handwriting Without Tears Cursive (the last book)
Abeka Creative Writing 6
And a combination of Total Language Plus and 1/2 of the Abeka Language C (6th grade) book. (I didn't love the look of the 5th grade, so I decided to spread the 6th grade out...TLP is her main LA's but Abeka has a few things that we've never covered and she is a workbook lover and will enjoy the variety)

Reading: I assign one long book per week for her

Spanish: Rosetta Stone

Music: Piano

Typing: Mavis Beacon

Homemaking: Lots of stuff...cooking, housekeeping skills etc. Lots of mommy time. = )

For my 7th Grader, Noah:

Math: Life of Fred Pre-Algebra 1 and 2

Science: Abeka 7 Order and Reality

History: Heart of Dakota Renaissanse to Reformation as above with Hosanna

Language Arts: Total Language Plus; Student of the Word Creative Writing

Writing: Jump In by Apologia Press (This looks like a FUN way to learn to write especially for boys!)

Art: Book of Many Colors

Logic: Fallacy Detective followed by Thinking Toolbox

Spanish: Rosetta Stone

Music: Piano, Guitar and Drums (He's our musical lover)

Typing: Mavis Beacon

He also spends a bit of time latey studying fish and aquariums as that is his insterest.

And finally, the 9th grader..our first year of High School:

Math: Life of Fred Advanced Algebra
We are planning on him studying for the College Algebra CLEP test after that and take that test next summer sometime.

Science: He will be using D.I.V.E. Biology CD-ROM studying both Apologia Biology and Advanced Biology (Fearfully and Wonderfully Made) and the plan is to see if we can take the AP Biology Exam in May. He's excited about all the dissections and microscopy that entails: frog/fish/worm/crawfish/sheep eye/sheep heart and fetal pig. (Seriously..we love science here...we're weird that way. Grin)

History: Exploring World History (Notgrass) Will possibly have him prepare to take the Western Civilization CLEP test next summer ... still researching that.

Language Arts: Exploring World History covers all of 9th grade Language as well as it includes a lot of writing and reading 13 complete books of literature. He will also be doing some Creative Writing assignment with Student of the Word year 6 and 2 Total Language Plus guides: Pride and Prejudice and Animal Farm.

Spanish: Rosetta Stone level 2

Logic: Introductory Logic by Nance and Wilson (his request not ours..grin)

Music: Piano.

Reading: Participating in the Generation Joshua Book Club

I'm sure he will continue researching and practicing Horticulture and Botany hours a week which is his passion as well.

It probably sounds like a lot, but many of the "extra" subjects are only done a few days a week so they have variety in their school week.

Curriculum Time! (the 8 and under crowd)

It's curriculum time and, after weeks of praying and researching, I finally have all the curriculum chosen. It's not simple, but I'm excited that it looks like a fun school year.

My goal for this year was to spend time doing Bible with everyone and allow the 3 older kids to be more independent and spend more time with
the younger crowd.
Here is my plan for the 2nd, 1st and K4 year olds (and the 1 yr old when he sits still..smile)

For my together time with the younger 3 or 4, I will be using a combination of things. One that I'm excited about is Five in a Row volume 3 with the Bible Study supplement and the Cookbook supplement.
FIAR is a program for younger kids where you read 1 book every day for a week and each day touch on different learning aspects: Social studies, science, nature, math etc. We will be tying in the Bible and the cookbook to each story as well.
I will also alternate that with History for Little Pilgrims... a Christian Liberty press that covers basic history and has coloring pages you can buy to go with each day's lesson.
I will continue with read alouds that I implemented this summer as well. For now we are reading through some of the Sonlight Kindergarten and 1st grade books I have from the older kids. 30 minutes before naptime, we have snuggle time on the couch and I read a longer type book to them. It is one of my favorite times of the day as well as theirs.
Since FIAR doesn't have Bible every day, I will be reading a Bible story every day and using a coloring page. We will use The CHildren's Illustrated Bible by Hastings.
My 2 favorite Bible story coloring pages are
Calvary Chapel

and THIS ONE.

We will continue with memorizing 1 verse a week using the CD called "Sing the Word from A-Z" We started this summer a few weeks ago and are up to "D".."Do to others as you would have them do to you for this sums up the law and the prophets and this is Matthew 7:12" I can't type it without singing the song.

Chris will be tackling elementary science again using the curriculum from Answers in Genesis called God's Design for Life studying the World of Animals, World of Plants and the Human Body.

We will also try to fit in art a few times a week using I CAN DO ALL THINGS from the company How Great Thou Art.
We started that book last year and they always begged for more than I could find the time to do. grin.

They will each have their own level of handwriting using Handwriting Without Tears...their own Math using Horizons 1 and 3. I also have them do 10 minutes of FLASHMASTER every day to work on math facts.

Praise is continuing to work through ANSWERS FOR PRESCHOOLERS that is by far my favorite preschool curriculum yet! She is about 1/2 way done having started it when she turned 3 and doing it slowly at her pace.

For Language Arts, my 2nd grader is using English for the Thoughful Child along with Abeka Language 2. I also have him email a few times a week to friends and family as that really helps them to learn punctuation, capitalization and spelling in a non threatening way.

My 1st grader will be doing Abeka workbook Language 1 with Critical Thinking Press' Language Smarts B (Language arts that incorporates some critical thinking skills)
She also has phonics books that she reads out loud to one of us a story a day that gradually gets harder and harder. She is a good reader already though.

I think that covers our early elementary/preschool plan.
Stay tuned next time when I share what we're using for 5,7,9th grades.

Crazy Crazy Love

I recently heard about a book called CRAZY LOVE by Francis Chan. I immediately pictured something like this....

Then, I saw the book cover and heard some amazing reviews from friends like, "This is the BEST book I've ever read!" "This book should come with a warning label saying it will totally change your life!" Well now. How can you resist recommendations like that....Not that I don't LOVE my current life, but I'm always all about changing to become more like Christ. So, I slapped those words on my birthday list and VOILA, my favorite teenager in the whole world bought it for my birthday.

I finished it this week and WOW is all I can say. If I could buy a copy for everyone who calls themself a Christian, I would do it...but I'm too cheap, I mean frugal. I am nowhere near as articulate as Francis Chan, but let me just tell you that he challenges us to realize that there is no such thing as "lukewarm Christianity." Using the passage of the church at Laodicea, "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Revelation 3:16
he shows that you cannot be lukewarm if Christ dwells in you. Being spit out of God's mouth is not exactly descriptive of one about to enter the kingdom of heaven. He is very clear that it has nothing to do with our works, our salvation is totally about what Jesus did for us. If we have accepted the gift of salvation, thereby having the Holy Spirit in us, lukewarm is not a word that CAN describe you.

Oh, there were so many great quotes and examples. PLEASE go get yourself a copy. I'd be glad to loan out my copy too, but there is already quite a waiting list. grin.
It has challenged me more than any man-written book that I've read in a L O N G time. It has totally helped me to focus on what truly matters and what being a Christ-follower looks like.

God's protection of 1 year olds

It's so easy to see a situation that could have been "bad" but turned out okay and think "Whew, that could have been a mess...how fortunate that it turned out so well," and totally miss God in the equation.
Yesterday, Gilead was VERY ONE. I was doing a Bible study with the older children that goes along with Bible Bee, when Gilead disappeared for a few minutes to another part of the house. A few minutes later we heard a crashing sound like metal or glass.
Aslan went to investigate what the stinker had done now (he had already bitten the tips off of 3 makers, pulled off 2 of Aslan's pitchers on one of his favorite pitcher plants and dumped over a huge glass of water and it was only 10am).
Aslan returns with Gilead to report that he had gotten into my bottom dresser drawer where I keep birthday gifts hidden.
I had 4 glass "goblets" in there that my 5 yr old requested for her 6th birthday later this month. She wanted "fancy goblets to drink out of like princesses do." So I found 4 at the local thrift store for 50 cents each.
Well, Gil had gotten a hold of 2, completely broke them on our bedroom floor and hallway. There was glass everywhere.
Despite his chubby, little, bare feet...he had NO cuts. On top of that, when Aslan brought him to me, he was chewing on something.
I checked his mouth and he had a dime sized piece of broken glass in his mouth! There were no cuts or blood and he had been chewing it for almost a full minute, likely.
So, at first I was thinking, "Whew, that could have been a bloody mess." But later, thinking about Sunday's sermon about how we get ourselves into habits of thinking about or not thinking about God, I realized that this truly was a God-sized miracle. He should have had glass cuts on his feet and mouth but he didn't? Why because God was protecting Gilead's body and protecting my sanity after the crazy morning we had had with him. Grin. Don't miss God in the day to day victories. He's absolutely IN THEM!!!
Thank you God for loving us enough to protect us from ourselves, even if we are only 18 months old.