Back to School

It seems I’ve stretched summer out as long as I could, and so today it was time to embark on a new school year adventure. I can’t honestly say I’ll be more faithful in blogging this year than last, but I’ll do my best to keep updating.

How is it going so far? A bit stressful. Right now is the kids quiet reading time, so I had a minute before laundry and errands to catch up. Settling in after having an unstructured summer will take a little while. But, I’ll tweak it as we go, and all should fall into place.

Laina is in 9th grade this year! A freshman! Does having/teaching a high schooler scare me? Not really. It’s more the life lessons she needs to learn that I’m worried about. I’m willing to teach, but she also has to be willing to learn. She is enjoying the SPCA still and has started taking piano lessons from a neighbor across the street. She absolutely loves that and acquired a keyboard from some friends to practice on. This year she is working on completing her Math-U-See Algebra, and then will move on to the Stewardship program. On Wednesdays, we have the opportunity to join a homeschool co-op, where she will be working on a financial class. She’s also doing Apologia Biology, Practical Proverbs Bible Study, Simply Charlotte Mason Spelling Wisdom, Epikardia Essays for High School, Spanish and a whole slew of reading. Whew!

I’m still taking the Charlotte Mason  approach, but am throwing in a bit of the Robinson Method in providing the kids with a booklist for history, geography, literature, additional science, economics, and character building and sending them on their way!

As a family we’ll be doing scripture memorization, bible study, poetry, hymn study, map study and current events, along with a read aloud.

Blake is officially a junior high kid now. He’s in 6th grade. He loves military and hunting stuff. Guy stuff. He’s already said he will probably go into the military after  high school. He chose this year to start Motherboard Books, Computer Science, Plain & Simple. He’s also working on Math-U-See Zeta, Apologia Botany, Simply Charlotte Mason Spelling Wisdom, a personal Bible study, and writing which I will assign. His choices off the reading lists to begin with today were: Narnia-which he’d already been reading, an autobiography by a former prisoner from Alcatraz who is now a Christian, The Hole in Our Gospel-by the CEO of World Vision, and Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers. Quite an eclectic choice.

Connor is now 4th grade and that just doesn’t seem possible. He asked to do an art class this year, so he’ll be starting How Great Thou Art. He’s also working on Math-U-See Delta, Apologia Land Animals, Cursive Copywork, Queen’s Language Lessons,  and a personal Bible Study. Both the boys will be attending a nature study class through the co-op for the next six weeks.

As I type it out, it sounds like a lot, but a lot of it is reading and if it needs to be pared down, I’m not afraid to do it. I really want my kids to understand that this is about teaching yourself to learn, not just cramming a bunch of facts into their heads. I want to build their character and life skills, and have them love God. It can be as simple as that. I wrote more about Homeschooling Their Hearts in this post.

I apologize for not including links to products/websites/pictures today-I’m out of time! I’ll update my sidebar with the kids school pics that I took this morning real soon!

Thanks for visiting with me!