(And All My) Work Be Praise

I got lots of comments on yesterday's curriculum post , especially regarding our history curriculum. So, I thought it'd be fun to do a photo-post of the activities we've done so far through Mystery of History ! This doesn't include anything done on paper, since those don't make for good pictures, but we've done some fun mini-books and things like that, too. Building Stonehenge. Making "cuneiform" cookies with gingerbread and a toothpick. Starting the timeline. Being a mummy. Making a bookmark with his name in hieroglyphics. Reading G.A. Hently's The Cat of Bubastes   on the Kindle together. Map-cake of Egypt. (Gosh, Owen looks little here!) Duplo re-enactment of the Trojan Horse.  (You can see the Duplo guy hiding under the horse, attached with a rubber band.) Making mini clay pots. Finished clay pots. Salt-dough relief map of Israel and Judah. The city of Ninevah, with its huge walls....

I've been wanting to share what we're using for Levi's schooling this year, but didn't want to do it until I'd publicly outed him as being profoundly gifted . Naturally, his schoolwork doesn't look like a lot of seven-year-olds', and that's okay. He did, however, ask me yesterday, for the first time ever, what grade he was in, "if I'm in a grade at all," and I wasn't quite sure what to say. For now, we're sticking with, "we homeschool, and I'm seven." I'm hoping that'll be enough for a while. Anyway, on to the good stuff. I love  researching and picking out curriculum (even more than implementing it, sometimes!). I always thought I'd be the kind of parent who doesn't pay too much extra attention to learning styles; I figure some things, you just have to soldier through and learn and it doesn't really matter how. But then I ended up with this crazy asynchronous firstborn, and a second-born who is p...

This is a conglomeration of the past weeks, since I didn't have time to write anything down last weekend. What I'm Cooking French dip sandwiches on these homemade buns . I consider myself a pretty average cook -- I can follow a recipe, but it's nothing too amazing -- but these were delicious . I used some soup bones I've had in the freezer for years (literally) to make homemade beef broth , then used the broth in the sandwich recipe. Seriously, delicious. (Yes, I said it twice.) IKEA meatballs and mashed potatoes. Okay, I didn't so much "make" the meatballs. Last time Silas had an appointment in Minneapolis, we visited IKEA for lunch afterwards. Since Isaac couldn't come, he requested I pick up a bag of meatballs on the way out. I'm only mentioning it because I used the leftover au jus from the sandwiches above to make gravy, which I've only done twice in my life, and that turned out well, too. (I modified this recipe , making a much smal...

"Morning Time" (or circle time, or table time, or what-have-you) seems to be all the rage among homeschooling families right now. I've probably seen a dozen blog posts on the topic, each with her own master plan of what subjects to cover at the start of each school day. It probably comes as no surprise that my current routine is very simple. After all, I can only hold them at the breakfast table for so long, at their current ages! On our best days -- probably three times a week, if we don't have anything extra going on -- our list looks like this: 1. Bible story, with optional Bible song. This is most often taken from the ABC Jesus Loves Me two-year-old curriculum . I read from a variety of sources (a different one each day, when I can) -- first the Beginner's Bible , but sometimes from the "real" Bible, or the Jesus Storybook Bible , or a storybook of parables we have if one of them happens to correspond. Depending on how full little mouths are (I ...