Summer Session

Our summer session of school has started.

I am really emphasizing reading with Angel this year. It is not that she is a poor reader. She is a reluctant reader.


She has reading to do during her character studies. We are finishing our Book of Virtues lap/notebooks. We are using the Book of Virtue by William J. Bennett Study by Shiver Academy.  For 10 days, we study a particular virtue. By the time she has completed a virtue, she has read 10 stories/poems and answered comprehension questions, completed 10 copywork pages and completed 10 lapbook elements.

For reading and comprehension, she is also doing the Abeka reading books grades 3/4 (I got them free--YEAH!).  I have started a grade lower just to help her get used to all the reading. She also hates writing, so I am sneaking in writing for her in various subjects.

I am also going to slowly introduce Total Language Plus: The Courage of Sarah Noble and The Whipping Boy. I am going to wait until we have completed the Book of Virtue Study. 

Curly is continuing with various Total Language Plus. We are going to study The Hobbit and The Twenty-One Balloons. I bought these last year. I think I was a little overambitious and thought we would complete many more of these that we did.

I am starting Excellence in Writing this year for both girls. I am a little nervous but I have a friend who has been doing it and says it is wonderful. I also went to their workshop during our convention to understand the reasoning behind their curriculum and it really made sense.


We are starting new math books: Angel is very excited to be starting the Life of Fred: Elementary Series. I know there will be a lot of review in the beginning but it is going to be worth it to make sure she has her basics. It is in a story format so this is another subject that will have reading comprehesion in it. Curly has started Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra. This is a sample of the book.

For Bible, we have been learning A Catechism for Boys and Girls. We are making a lapbook along with our study. For each doctrinal belief, or group of related beliefs, a mini book is completed.

I have been searching for a doctrinally sound Bible curriculum that is not just regurgitating facts but actually making them think on the Scriptures. I did not think I would find it, until I saw the creator of this series at our state home school convention. Everything she said made me want to jump up and run to her booth and buy the curriculum. I did have the common decency to wait until the workshop was over. :-)

Curly's Bible Curriculum

Angel's Bible Curriculum

Curly has been doing History Revealed for history. She finished Ancient Civilizations and the Bible. We are taking a break and working on American History. We are using America the Beautiful. It was great because I either had or bought at Chamblin's Bookmine all the literature books except one.

Science is not my strong point, so I am trying an online science class. This class is a 12 weeks Creation Apologetics course taught by Catie Frates.  

Catie Frates is a nationally recognized speaker on Biblical Scientific Creationism. In an entertaining fashion, she enthusiastically shares the scientific evidence that supports the Biblical Scientific Creation Model of Origins which empowers her audience with the information they need to interpret history and science into a thoroughly Biblical worldview.

I am really looking forward to this class. I am going to wait until Curly gets back from summer camp before we start this course.  

Calvary Chapel's Bible Curriculum

Calvary Chapel's Bible Curriculum

There are three main purposes for creating the curriculum on this site:

1. To provide a Bible study lesson which follows the Calvary Chapel “distinctive” of teachingverse by verse. (This also trains the children for their eventual transition into the sanctuary.)
2. To support and encourage those serving in the Children’s Ministry by providing the “basics.”
3. To be a blessing to those who desire a true Bible-based curriculum with no financial burden.

(There is NO COST whatsoever to access the curriculum.)

Little Ones Curriculum
This curriculum is designed for 3 - 6 year olds. It consists of 53 lessons, alternating between the Old & New Testaments, with more studies to come. The focus is to implant Biblical truths in these little one’s hearts and minds, that they may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Crafts to come in the future.

Calvary Chapel Children’s Curriculum (English & Spanish)
This curriculum is for 1st – 6th graders. It consists of 325 Bible Studies:
163 in the Old Testament and 162 in the New Testament.

Calvary Chapel Children’s Curriculum: The REVISION Project
This is a revision of the above curriculum. Please keep this project in prayer! There is much time and resources that are needed for the completion of the revision. There will be a change in the style, new coloring pages, and activity pages. A general face lift will occur.

CAMP Curriculum
This 8-study curriculum has been designed for 3rd – 6th graders and can be used at camps, VBS, or mid-week services. The 3 completed curriculum are “Sowing to the Spirit”, “God’s Love”, & “Grace Changes Everything”. We are presently working on “Faith: Pleasing God”.

Oh My! It's been so long.

I did not realize it has been so long since I posted. Life just totally got away from me. We got WAY behind in homeschooling and I have been trying so hard to catch us up. I think we are finally there. We are having a fun time learning about Botany and we are making a lapbook with it. We have finished Part 1 of the lapbook and am now working on part 2. I will try to post pictures by the weekend.

We are having so much fun (even though we are "playing catch up").

Spanish is a trip. During math, my youngest gives me her answers in Spanish. It is bad enough I have to "do" math--I now have to translate to English in the process. We made Mexican wedding cookies yesterday and one of their crafts. It was real fun. If you have younger kids and want to expose them to a foreign language. I would recommend La Clase Divertida. When they get a little older, I am thinking about getting Rosetta Stone.

I tried a different math with my youngest. It is a program from England called CIMT-MEP (Center for Innovation in Mathematics Teach - Mathematics Enhancement Program). It is free, but you need to join the MEP-Homeschoolers Yahoo Group to get the password to unlock some of the pages. I really like the format.

I am not thrilled with our choice of science book, but we are enjoying learning about botany. I modified some of the stuff to make it not quite so "trite".

Well, guess I need to stop typing and get back to my kiddos. Hope to write soon.

La Clase Divertida (The Fun Class)

Los Vocales en Espanol

We are learning Spanish. The program we are using is La Clase Divertida. One of the first thing the girls learned was the vowels in Spanish (hence the name of the song). The progam came with an instructional DVD, a CD with all the songs and lessons for them to listen to, a fun workbook and a teacher's book. My girls listen to their CD at night when they are going to bed. They really like this song.

We got to record it on Curly's new Flip Video Camera. She won it in the "Disney Be a Hometown Movie Surfer" Sweepstakes when the Disney The Christmas Carol Train Tour can to our town. Hopefully she will be on the Disney Movie Surfers website by next week. We are going to have fun video taping segments to add to the blog. For now, enjoy.

Already Thinking of Next Year . . .

I am wrapping up this year's schooling. It did not go as I had planned, but I do consider it a success. I was planning on doing a little of something this summer, but honestly, I need a break.

I have been working on my girls' curriculum for next year. It is very liberating to have it figured out. I am using a mixture of paid, already have and free resources.

This is what I am going to be doing with Carol and Donna:

• Bible - Homeschool Bible Curriculum Foundation 1 and Picture This!
• World History - History Revealed (a collaboration by Answers in Genesis and Diana Waring)
  
• Geography - The Star Spangled State Book and workbook (1/2 year)
  
• American History - studies of American History using texts and workbooks by Catherine Millard (1/2 year--will continue studying next year until books are completed)
  
• Science - Exploring Creation with Botany (M-Th) and Fun Experiment (Fri)
  
• Foreign Language - La Clase Divertida
  
• Reading Material - I am finding a lot of wonderful old books on Internet Archive -- Old Fashioned Education has some wonderful book lists that I am going to use.
  
• Art - Picturing America (going to use with American History) also found some neat art books at our library sale that I am going to use to teach about certain artists and styles
• Finances - KidsWealth Money Kit
  

Carol's individual lessons:

• Arithmatic - Life of Fred: Fractions (a literature-based self teaching math curriculum)
  
• Language Arts - Total Language Plus (The Courage of Sarah Noble, The Whipping Boy, Charlotte's Web and Caddie Woodlawn), Writing Tales Level One Student Book and Teacher's Guide, and Spelling Power
  
• Handwriting - Copywork (using a lot of History Scribe) Last year, CurrClick had a big sale. We had some extra money so I invested in the Scribe series--I got them all. I will use them whenever they fit into any lesson.
  
• Health - American Girls The Care and Keeping of You and The Body Book by Nancy Rue (I am going to do a lapbook using some of the templates from Homeschool Share and some that I make myself) Nancy Rue also has The Beauty Book. I want to use this book also.
  
• Extracurricular - Creative Writing
  
• Special Mother/Daughter Time - Raising Maidens of Virtue by Stacy McDonald (Thank you Julie for talking about this on your blog)
  

Donna's individual lessons:

• Arithmetic - CIMT-MEP (It is free and if you join 3RHomeschooling Yahoo Group, you can get the password to access all the files)
  
• Language Arts -First Langauge Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 1 and 2
  
• Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears
  
• Health - Human Body Lapbook (will be using some of the templates from Homeschool Share and some of my own) I knew I was going to be doing this with Donna so at our library sale I got quite a few books on the body, exercise and eating properly.
  
• Extracurricular - Violin - I tried with Carol last year and it did not really work so I will try with Donna.
  
• Special Mother/Daughter Time - I am not sure what I am going to do with Donna but I am still thinking . . . any suggestions?
  

Having my curriculum figured out allowed me to take advantage of our state home school convention. I bought most of my stuff there. There was not many discounts, but at least I did not have to pay shipping. I also bought items from one store that had a 10% coupon. YEAH! My husband and I are trying not to use credit cards and we don't really like checks floating around (Donald heard on Clark Howard that more damage can be done with stolen checks than credit cards), so we opted for cash. We only carried what we needed and the rest was put in our room safe. There are three items that were not available at the convention and I will have to order online but only one charges shipping. It feels great knowing that I have paid for most of the curriculum and will not see a bill for it later. I will also have time to leisurely look through the books and make lesson plans for next year. Many already have lesson plans and all I will do is copy them. After I bought all of my essentials, I had money left over to buy something I have been wanting for a couple of years--the 1828 Webster's Dictionary. I know that you can get it online, but I think there is something about actually turning the pages of a book.

I am on a message board about Sue Patrick's Workbox System. It is very interesting. I want to implement it next year. VERY basically, you put each lesson in a different box and the child works through them. They stay motivated because they can actually see their work disappearing as they complete it and time is not wasted because everything is put in the boxes the night before. Because of space issues, I might use crates and file folders. We will see. I do not have the book but I have gleaned enough off the message boards to get the idea.

Well, I will say goodbye for now.