Curriculum: High School

And last but not least....our 10th grade curriculum.

We let him play a big role in choices this year and here is what he is using.

His main curriculum core is My Father's World US History through 1877.
It is supposed to be for 11th grade, but he covered world history last year, and their world history covers 9th and 10th grades...we chose to go a different route though.
So, this curriculum covers, US History and Government this year and next year the other 1/2 of US History and Economics.
It also includes Bible, Language Arts, American Literature, and a great class on Developing a Christian Worldview.  He is on week 4, and we are very impressed by the curriculum so far!

Along with that, he is using Life of Fred Trigonometry for math.

He just finished Apologia Biology using DIVE into Science.  They have him finishing Biology then also cramming Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Apologia (Their advanced Biology course) into 2 months.  I chose that because he had no interest in the human body (GASP--with 2 medical parents.) but I wanted him to learn it and he was willing to do that route.  Turns out, 1/2 way into the book, that he wants to study the body the whole year cause it's so interesting and he would like to learn more and not rush, so we are changing our plans from finishing it quickly and moving on to Chemistry, to taking the whole year to study Advanced Biology and taking the Biology CLEP.   I would also like him to read through Where there Is No Doctor, and maybe go to work with Chris a few times to see how the medical field works.  Don't get me wrong, he still has no interest in the medical field, but it will be beneficial for him all through life.   Grin.

Electives:
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Piano
Soccer on Sunday's.  = )

Curriciulum: Middle School

I have 2 middle school students this year.  A 6th grader and an 8th grader.  They are both extremely independent workers which is great for me!    We are a few weeks into school and they seem to be really enjoying their curriculum, especially some new choices we went with to add some new excitement.


Here is what they spend their days working on:
Bible
They both spend time first thing reading through the Bible on their own.  Later, at naptime or in the evenings with Daddy, we are going through a Bible Curriculum Foundations 3 that has us reading a chaper every day.  We also have Sword Drills twice a week, and memorize a passage of Scripture every week.   They write, illustrate and act out their Bible Memory verses to help them remember them more easily.

Language Arts
6th grade
She is using a new curriculum for us called Intermediate Language Lessons.  I love it immensely and will likely use it for all the children below her in the years to come!     It is a very fun curriculum that doesn't have any "fluff" or (in my opinion) unnecessary grammar stuff that is impractical for the real world.
This is her first year using a spelling curriculum.  She is an excellent speller, but the book she is using Building Spelling Skills 5 covers many of the countries of the world, states and geography.  It also has a lot more practical words too.   It's much more than just spelling.  She seems to like it.
8th grade
Noah will be using 2 Total Language Plus guides this year:  Swiss Family Robinson and the Yearling.
He is also finishing the 2nd part of Jump In writing curriculum.  They have him do a 10 minute "Writing Plunge" every day with a story starter.  It is a lot of fun for him. He is also using Easy Grammar Ultimate 8th grade, that is a 1 page review every day of all grammar concepts.

Math
They are both using Life of Fred.  Hosanna will be doing 2 books this year: Fractions and Decimals & Percents.
Noah is finishing up Keys to Algebra that have helped him review some Algebra concepts and will be starting Beginning Algebra Life of Fred soon.


Science
They are both using Apologia this year.  Noah is using Apologia Physical Science, and Hosanna is using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Hosanna's comes with a really neat notebook that makes it so much more fun too!
We also just signed Noah up for a really neat, 2-day lab intensive science camp in February.  It sounds so fun, and will help make his Freshman year of Biology much easier.


History
They had an intense year of history last year, so this year is a bit easier.  They have studied all of history except modern history.  They are reading through Story of the World 4 and doing just the map exercises in the activity book.  They are also reading books 6-10 of The Story of U.S.
I have also assigned 8 more books to read to go along with that time period.  (Across Five Aprils, Courage to Run, Hudson Taylor, Sergeant York and the Great War, Twenty and Ten, Hiding Place, Number the Stars and Brother Andrew)

Spanish
Rosetta Stone

Electives
Typing with Mavis Beacon (both)
Thinking Toolbox for Logic (Noah)
Homemaking (Hosanna)
Feed My Sheep Art Curriculum (Hosanna)
Piano (both)
Guitar (Noah)

I think that about covers it.  = )

Curriculum: Elementary

This blog will cover my 3 elementary-aged children in grades Kindergarten, 2nd and 3rd grades.
We will start the home school day going what we call "together school."  This year we have a bunch of fun things lined up.
We will work on Bible Memorization using the CD's: Sing the Word A New Commandment and Sing the Word God the Provider.
Other things we will do in our together time:

• Memorize the Presidents using the book Yo, Millard Fillmore!
• Memorize the States and Capitals
• Memorize the Sign Language Alphabet
• Read through the book Our American Heritage Abeka 3
• Work though Our American Heritage Map Study skills 3
• Watch all episodes of Liberty's Kids through Netflix
• Read real books about topics covered in Liberty's kids and Our American Heritage
• Read through the Bible storybook The Jesus Storybook Bible

The together school takes advantage of their incredible memorizing ability at this stage and covers Bible and History. 
Daddy loves to teach science, so he will be teaching Science to the elementary crew using God's Design series from Answers in Genesis.   This year, they will be studying the Blue series that covers "Our Planet Earth," "Our Weather and Water," and "Our Universe."

For Math, we will be using Horizons Math Kindergarten, 2nd and 4th grades. (Josiah is a year ahead in math.) 
I see that Life of Fred is also coming out with Elementary math this month, and since that is, hands down, our favorite math for the older kids, I will likely order those books and include that briefly in our together school, just cause Fred is so stinking funny!

Praise (Kindergarten) will continue with Explode the Code Online and Explode the Code workbooks.  We were able to find it online for $32.50 for a year subscription, which is great! She started back in February.
She will be finishing Explode the Code book 2 and working on through book 3 this year.  She also reads to us a lesson of her phonice books. She is using Christian Liberty Press readers now.
All 3 of them will continue with the next Handwriting Without Tears book.

Jubilee (2nd grade) will be using Abeka Language 2 book, Explode the Code books 4,5 & 6 and English for the Thoughtful Child Volumes 1 & 2.  She also reads out loud to us for 10-20 minute per day from Abeka Readers 2nd grade or other equivalent levels.

Josiah (3rd grade) will be using Abeka Language 3 book,  Building Spelling Skills 4, and Primary Language Lessons .
He also does 30 minutes per day of reading (currently reading through the Boxcar Children) and also does personal Bible time. 

Hosanna and Josiah will also be using an Art Curriculum this year called Feed My Sheep.

I think that covers the Elementary Curriculum for the year....stay tuned to my next blog that will cover my 2 Middle school students.

Curriculum: The Little People and Bible

It's that time of the summer, when all my homeschool buddies and I eat, sleep and think about curriculum and planning for the next school year.
I have prayed, planned, changed my mind and finally know what I  feel will work best for our family this year. 

I wanted to incorporate some teaching time for Hosanna this year as part of her school to better prepare her for motherhood or wherever God might have her teach in the future. (The Bible makes it clear that all women are to be teachers...to the women younger than they are.)

So with that in mind, I found a really fun curriculum for Gilead (and Praise will sit in too even though she has her other kindergarten school to do.)  It only takes about 30 minutes a day. Hosanna is very excited to teach it though.

She will be using Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven for Gilead.
It includes 2 books and music CD's (you have your choice of 2 for the Bible and devotionals.)

New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor

Big Thoughts for Little People

It also incorporates the Singing Bible to help your kids sing their way through the Bible. 

Along with that, he will continue his little workbooks that he is already doing from the "I Can" series...

I Can Cut
I Can....Paste, Color, Trace, Draw

Gilead and Hosanna are excited to start their year and may not wait until August.

Moving on to Bible.
Since we just finished up our 6-year Bible curriculum with Student of the Word this spring, we are ready to start something new as a family.   It was really awesome to read every single verse of the Bible with my children....we have seen so much fruit from it.   We are not up to starting the cycle all over however.  Grin.
With that in mind, we found a neat, well laid-out Bible curriculum to keep us on track that we will be starting soon as a family in the evenings when Chris is home.
It is called Foundations.  We will be starting with Foundations 3 covering the New Testament.
It includes memory verses, daily reading, links to coloring pages for the younger kids on that particular Bible story and twice a week Sword Drills (races to find a verse to learn the layout of the Bible better.)
They have you illustrate the Memory Verse, write it out, act it out and do games to learn it. Effortless.

Foundations is mainly for the benefit of the younger kids who can't read since my 8 yr old and up have daily devotional times by themselves. It still is a great opportunity for us to get into deeper conversations with the tweens and teens. We're excited to use this since it's so well laid out and looks fun for the kids as well.

That's all for now. My next blog post will cover the early elementary curriculum that we will be using  Kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Are you a 1st, 2nd or 3rd line Christian?

I recently read a book that was pretty good. Not as good as Radical by David Platt, which is my recent favorite, but still, worth the read.
The book is called The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel.  My favorite part was actually the Afterword. The author shares a testimony of how God gave him a picture or vision of the Christian life.
I wanted to share an except from that here:

I saw a picture as clear as the words on this page. I stood before three lines in the sand. Somehow I knew what each line represented.   Line 1: I believe in God and the gospel of Christ enough to benefit from it.  Like so many, crossing the first line was easy. Sadly, many who call themselves Christians live here. If there IS a God I want to be on his good side. I want to go to heaven. I want him to bless me with good health, good relationships, and a happy life. Like the 9 ungrateful lepers in Luke 17, once God has helped me, I forget about him. 

 Most wouldn't admit that that is all the faith they can manage. We want God's benefits without changing the way we live.  We want his best without our sacrifices.  At the first line, we don't fear God or share our faith. We still love the world. We'll pursue happiness at any cost. First line believers get what we can from God without getting much, if anything, back.

Is first line Christianity  REAL Christianity?  Is believing in Jesus enough? I'm not sure simply believing in Christ makes a person a Christian...I'm tempted to say "No, I sincerely don't believe it is real Christianity."  Even demons believe in Christ....I worry about how many people will be deceived.  Instead of truly living as followers of Christ, many lull themselves into a sense of false comfort. I don't  point my finger at others only myself. For way too long, I've claimed a belief in God, but my life didn't reflect it.

Line 2: I believe in God and Christ's Gospel enough to contribute comfortably.   Past the first line are people who believe in God, not only enough to benefit but also enough to give back--as long as it doesn't cost too much.  Many first-line Christians eventually cross the second line. If I don't have to change too much, I'll do some of what God asks. If it doesn't hurt too much, I'll get more serious about God. But everyone has their limits, right? Like the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, I wasn't willing to go along with the religious rules as long as it didn't hurt too much....I realized I was a second line believer. I'd serve God in ministry but I didn't want too many critics. I'd given up some things for Christ....I'd follow Jesus anywhere as long as the job included insurance for my family.  The third line was just inches from me. It might as well have been miles.

Line 3: I believe in God and Christ's gospel enough to give my life to it.  Although most people I knew were line one and line two believers, suddenly anything less than line three didn't seem like real Christianity to me. Could I give my whole life to Christ? Verses I'd read dozens of times suddenly flooded to mind:

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it , but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" Matt 16:25-26  Am I willing to lose my life?

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer life, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20 Could I sacrifice my desires, my hopes, my dreams?

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I many finish the race and  complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel." Acts 20:24  What would it take to make my life nothing to me, existing only to do what Christ wants me to do?

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Phil 3:8  Could I truly count all my earthly possessions a loss, making Christ my greatest treasure?

I knew in the deepest part of myself: I had to be a third line believer. With unquenchable thirst, I pursued living water above all substitutes. I started praying like never before. I started pursuing God in the morning and continued through the day. Jesus was on my mind  when I fell asleep and when I woke up. Scripture started to become my bread of life, nourishing my soul.  I surrendered one thing after another, until one major hurdle stood between where I was and where God wanted me. I can't tell you what that thing is. It's simply too personal. My battle to cross the third line lasted almost two  years. I prayed daily, quoted Scripture. Though spiritually exhausted, I wouldn't give up...finally, one very normal Saturday afternoon, by faith, I gave this last part of my life totally to God. I sacrificed a fear that had held me hostage since I was a child and made a promise to God that I'd never take it back.

I crossed the third line. I believe in God and Christ's gospel so much that I'm willing to give up my whole life to this cause. Nothing in this world is more important to me than my treasure in heaven. No fear in my heart is greater than my fear of God. I desire nothing more than I desire all of God. Tears are filling my eyes as I type this. I cannot put into words what God has done in my heart.  I am a different person. You can be too.

He goes on to say how every day the world will try to push us back over the 3rd or 2nd lines. It's a constant decision to live out what we believe about God instead of the world. Every day we need to choose the third line.

That was a great word picture for me.  It helped me to see things that I was still holding on to that keep me behind that third line.  It's when God shows you those things that we are forced to make a decision.  Do we keep those things in our life that hinder us, or press forward as the author did, not content until we know we aren't holding anything back from being totally surrendered to Christ.

It also applies in our marriage....are we giving our all for our marriage or holding back? How about our parenting?      I pray that this was an encouragement to you as it was to me. To focus on the Christian race we are on....for eternity...and not getting distracted by the things of the world that don't satisfy and don't bring true happiness.

Christmas Play

In December, our church put on a Christmas play called If You're Missing Baby Jesus. 6 of my family members were in the play...Chris and the oldest 5. While most of them played characters fairly close to their personalities, I got a kick out of Aslan who is not typically real dramatic. He's more of an intellectual bookworm. He was a shopkeeper in the play, and his costume was this....

While the glasses probably technically fit his personality of a smart geek...it was really funny to see him dressed up like this.
It was a fun play, and they all did a great job!

A bit behind on blogging...

Sorry I haven't done too well blogging these last few months...with our crazy birthday season, followed by National Bible Bee, then Thanksgiving, 8 of 9 of us getting Influenza for a full week, Christmas, vacation it has been a wee bit hectic, not to mention dealing with my increasing inability to bend from a growing little fella inside.

Life will be (sorta) returning to "normal" tomorrow with re-starting school except we will add potting training to the agenda starting tomorrow as well. This will, no doubt, be a great character-building week for me....along the lines of all 7 kids plus me with influenza a few weeks ago...or maybe along the lines of what Sunday mornings are like...getting all the kids dressed and trying to shove food down mouths of little girls who eat S L O W L Y and like birds. I'm thankful for it all though...thankful that I HAVE 7 kids who can get sick...thankful that we can go to church and worship without fear of persecution, thankful we have dresses to choose from and a breakfast to eat...we are much more fortunate that most of the world.

One big moment this Thanksgiving was cutting Gilead's hair for the first time. Chris doesnt' mind long-ish hair on toddler boys, but he does like them to look like a little boy by their 2nd birthday. I loved his long curls, but in one of my more painful acts of submission, knowing he didn't like his hair long, I decided to cut it a full 3 weeks early. Not too many tears were shed, and now I'm used to it....it helps that I have another little fella coming along in 10 weeks to enjoy long toddler locks on again. grin.
Here are Gil's before and after pics...