(And All My) Work Be Praise

Over the years, I've heard homeschool moms talk about doing so many activities that they can't find time to do school . This year, for the first time, I totally get it. This will officially be known as the Year of the Extracurricular. I'm going to be in the car as much as I'm in the kitchen this year, and we've already started talking about needing to make some decisions next  year. In addition, the youngest three and I will be attending a co-op twice a month, where they'll have two classes each. I also need to mention that while writing this I read my curriculum post from last year and had a good chuckle. So many things on that list got changed or ignored completely. I expect the same this year: in fact, I'm trusting that as we go along, God will make it clear which things aren't all that important and can slide off the plan without a backward glance! But I'm not one to start the year without a plan, and so without further ado: Levi: 10th grade Math...

I've always bought into the "one-room schoolhouse" ethos, but this year, it feels especially true. I have five school-age children! We are busy busy busy, but settling into our new school year routines in what seems like a manageable way.  Levi: 9th grade Levi was accepted into an amazing scholarship foundation at the end of seventh grade. His schoolwork and even some extracurriculars are now paid for by the foundation, opening up doors not just for him, but for the whole family as that part of our budget is assisted significantly. Math: AoPS  Intermediate Counting & Probability and  Introduction to Number Theory Science: physics 1 and 2 , in preparation for both AP tests History: American history (to 1877), with Land of Hope  as a spine, plus various other online resources Literature: a combination of Excellence in Literature American Lit and Apologia American Lit  (again, just the material up to 1877) Language Arts: IEW's Advanced U.S. History-Based Writi...

At this point, you can pretty much count on three blogs a year from me: my end-of-year reading log, my fall curriculum post, and something else that strikes my fancy somewhere along the way. But because I like to see what other people are doing, and because I like to look back on my old curriculum posts and laugh at how life didn't turn out like I planned, I'm sticking with it! T-10 days till our official first day, and here's what's on the docket: Levi: 8th grade Math: still undecided. Wait, what?! For my most mathy kid? Yes. We're waiting to hear about a scholarship opportunity before we decide how to proceed. Right now, at 11am on Aug. 19 while I'm writing this, he's taking his college algebra and  precalculus CLEP tests, one right after the other.  Science: finishing up Apologia biology, then studying other resources for two months in the hopes of taking the CLEP test in December. (And then, being done with biology forever. He hates it.) History/literatu...

Oh, this poor neglected blog of mine, ignored completely since Christmas. Life does not leave much time for writing! Nonetheless, I wanted to make note of what we're using for this school year (at least for now; I had a good chuckle reading over last year's post and realizing how much we ditched along the way!). My boys. Levi: 7th grade Math : He'll finish up pre-calc through EMF  this fall, and then I'm going to have him go through the Modern States college algebra review so he can take the CLEP test. I estimate that'll take us through about Christmas. After that, I'm still not sure. Maybe Counting and Probability or Number Theory from AoPS? Science : Apologia biology. As much as he loves other sciences, he hates biology, so we're hoping he can CLEP this in the spring and be done with it forever.  History/Literature : Biblioplan  Ancient History Companion, study guides, geography, literature. We're also going through parts of the Omnibus I textbook ...

As I mentioned in my homeschool curriculum post , Silas and Toby are using Galloping the Globe  as their core guide this year. We're learning a lot about animals and their habitats, a few key people and people groups from each country, assorted facts about assorted other things . . . and food! The Galloping the Globe  text has a few recipes included, and I purchased Eat Your Way Around the World   and the Usborne Children's World Cookbook . (Note that the latter, while a beautiful book as Usborne books always are, is not terribly helpful for unique recipes.) Our first continent to study was Africa. Here's what we ate: Kenya : peanut bread Morocco: couscous with chicken, orange and date salad, honey-glazed carrots, date bars, mint green tea, square flat bread rgaif Bonus: we sat on the floor and ate off the coffee table! Nigeria: banana fritters Egypt:  shish kebabs and rice casserole biram ruz beef and onion kebabs, plus watermelon (which is grown there) Stay tuned f...

For years, I have tried to jump on the "morning basket" bandwagon and/or use our time at the breakfast table productively. I'm choosing to take it as a sign of growing maturity and wisdom that I have stopped fighting our natural household rhythms, without any guilt. We don't do breakfast together, and that's okay for us. When we did  occasionally manage to start our mornings together, the focus was on Bible and catechism memory work. Obviously, I don't want to lose that, and I struggled for a while to find a system that would work for us. I honestly don't know how I came up with our current system, but one month in, it seems to be working reasonably well for this season! Bible memory work is now a part of our "habit training" system. This idea I "stole" from Life As Mom : the morning and evening "high five." The three oldest have five simple tasks they must complete before bed and upon waking. I'm pleased to report there h...

I'm about five years into this homeschooling thing now, and I've only ever done it with a bunch of babies and toddlers underfoot. I have lived and breathed by routines: the breakfast routine, the morning nap routine, the lunch routine, the afternoon nap routine. I always knew approximately what needed to happen in each approximate time of day, but I never, ever, ever planned anything by the clock. You know what happens when you plan things by the clock for toddlers and babies? They poop. Or they fight. Or lunch takes twice as long (or half as long) as you planned. Or naps take twice as long (or half as long) as you expected. Routines are golden. Schedules make you crazy. (In my humble opinion.) So it was quite a surprise to me when I realized, back in the spring when I started planning for this fall's schooling, that I'm sort of out of that phase. Sure, I still have Calvin (who will be two in October), but he's it. Everyone else is . . . dare I say it . . . fairly...

For reasons I cannot quite define, I have it in my head that dads have all the fun while moms do all the work. It's absolutely not true: my mom did a ton to make our childhood fun, and both my dad and my husband are super hard workers both at their jobs and at home. Yet the stereotype lives on in my head, and despite my best intentions, I've been living as if it's the truth. Don't get me wrong; I love my kids. I love laughing with them. I love reading and singing with them. I love that they play independently so well. Yep, there's the kicker. I enjoy watching them play happily, but I'm not usually all gung-ho about joining in. I enjoy doing school (for real, it's fun for me), but after that, I'm ready to check out and do my own thing while they do theirs. I don't feel responsible to entertain them all the time. I don't have any intention of dropping my other household duties every time they want to do something. They are a priority, but the...

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...

"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 ...

About a month ago, I explained to you how I obtain and store all the homeschooling freebies I come across. And as you can plainly see, I often DO use what I have gathered. All the same, today I came across an article that was so obviously ME that I had to own it, laugh it off, and share it with you. It's long past time for a desktop purge, I believe! Read it here: Table Life Blog Disclaimer: I've never read anything on this blog before, so I cannot attest to its general content. This post resonated with me, and we happen to use the same history curriculum. That's all.

This is extremely simplistic and almost too stupid to mention, but you never know what ideas will work for someone else, so I'm going to share anyway. I have downloaded a dozen (at least) free homeschool planners over the years, and never really fallen in love with one. We don't use a boxed curriculum, so my days aren't planned out for me, and several of my chosen curricula aren't scripted at all. Keeping track of when to do what, and knowing how long each book is going to take, has been a constant struggle . . .  . . . UNTIL I started using my very own grocery-list system! Last time I ordered from Rainbow Resource , they were kind enough to send me one of those magnetic pads of list paper. (I imagine you can probably always find them in holiday themes in the Target dollar spot, too.) A few months ago, in trying to figure out Owen's journey through the Miquon math program , I put one day's activities on each line (for about a month's worth of school days...