Saturday, August 22, 2009

Second Week of School!

The 2nd week of school is going much nicer than the first 2 days went! Though I didn't go into much detail about the first 2 days in my last post, I was frazzled & exhausted by the end of the day each day last week. This week though, we seem to be getting more settled into our routine, which is making the days go so much smoother even when we have occasionally gone over our typical ending time (of about 1:30) by an hour or so.

So far my favorite subject is Bible/Worldview, of course, & Austin seems to really enjoy the workbook format of Alpha Omega Lifepac History, though History is his favorite subject so that may have something to do with it, huh?

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Back to School!

The first 2 days back to school have been wonderful as well as hard work! Mixed with all the hard work though there have been lots of laughs & some goofing off! While eating lunch we played Monopoly... Austin & I are both Monopoly fanatics! That has been both Austin & my favorite part of the day.

Actually we got off to a little bit of a rough start yesterday morning... I think Austin is depressed about not being in school with his friends so he got a little emotional but I hpe we worked through that. I told him we'd invite his friends over for something sometime... a play-date or something. That seemed to make him smile! Actually he has commented several times that he likes it so far... staying home to school!

Yesterday school ended at 2:30 & today at 3:30! We're still working out the kinks though, considering this is both of our first year at homeschooling. I have just decided today that instead of trying to do grammar, creative writing, vocabulary, & literature every day we are going to divide it up a bit. I thought we'd do creative writing on Tuesdays & Thursdays & literature on Mondays & Wednesdays leaving grammar & vocabulary to do every day. I think this will work much nicer for us.

Here's our *loose* schedule...
7:00 – 7:30 Breakfast/Free time
7:30 – 8:00 Morning chores
8:00 – 8:10 Prayers/Morning devotional
8:10 – 8:55 PE
8:55 – 9:40 Bible
9:40 – 9:55 Break
9:55 – 10:40 Grammar, Vocabulary, Creative writing (Tues & Thurs), Literature (Mon & Wed)
10:40 – 11:25 Mathematics
11:25 – 12:05 Lunch/Recess
12:05 – 12:50 History & Geography
12:50 – 1:00 Break
1:00 – 1:45 Science
1:45 – 3:00 Study Hall/Free time

We obviously don't follow the schedule EXACTLY or we would have ended by 1:45 today & yesterday. Actually the Bible/Christian Worldview class has taken longer than expected but mostly because it has generated some wonderful discussions between Austin & I. I am so proud of Austin... I actually asked him the question, "What is truth?" and he said God!!! YES, that's my boy!!! I really feel like God is going to do great things through Austin!

Actually both Austin & I are very excited (can't believe he IS excited but he is ) about this particular worldview curriculum. It really looks interesting & fun... there are videos to watch (we actually watched 2 videos today & discussed), movie clips from some very popular movies (such as The Matrix, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc) to watch, as well as the traditional bookwork to do.

According to the book (our worldview textbook, Lightbearers)...
The main point is this: those who understand how to think well about life will have the opportunity to influence the ideas that rule the world.
...
The goals for this curriculum are twofold. The first goal is defensive: to keep you from being deceived by anti-Christian worldviews. The second goal is offensive: to train you to actively live out the truth of Christianity in a culture of relativism & confusion.
...
Christian students renounce their faith in college: ...the percentage of Christians who no longer claim to be "born again" by their senior year is as high as 59%!
This sums up nicely why I am so excited about this curriculum, besides the fact that I heard about the curriculum publishers (Summit Ministries) through James Dobson's radio show Focus on the Family, that is! I hope to solidify Christianity within Austin, as well as to give me the worldview training I never received growing up. I absolutely can not wait to finish this curriculum & am very much enjoying it so far!

Friday, July 31, 2009

Vacation Week, a Special Birthday, & an Invitation!

So this past week has been vacation week for us but instead of going anywhere major we did a stay-cation, only going to local attractions... Tannehill State Park, swimming, the movies, & the zoo! I have pictures I wanted to share of the Park! This was my first time EVER to this park & it was pretty cool but I was definitely wearing the wrong shoes... flip flops!!!

And as most of you know it was Mike's birthday & our anniversary, all rolled into one, Friday, July 31st... 5 blissful years!

Pictures, for your viewing pleasure... http://s439.photobucket.com/albums/qq111/acollins24/Vacation%202009/?albumview=slideshow

I attached a link to the slideshow even though I REALLY REALLY wanted to embed the slideshow! I just couldn't figure it out... I can embed it fine but I can't make the pictures go in the order I want them in, instead they're backwards (the last image shows first & the first image shows last)! If anyone knows the answer to my issues, please share!

Last but not least... a friend & I are hosting a wonderful marriage building seminar (The Love Dare, based on the movie Fireproof) on one of my fav Internet communities on the web, Just Mommies! Anyone interested come visit us at the board... just click on the graphic below for more details!


Friday, July 24, 2009

Preparing to Homeschool!

Welcome to our homeschooling blog! This is my first year homeschooling my 13 year old son and I am both nervous & excited! I have just finished loosely planning our year. Well planning the year for the subjects I have on hand, that is. The subjects I don't have on hand, I just ordered this afternoon... I am such a procrastinator! Planning our year has gotten me all excited... I absolutely can not wait to start our homeschooling journey!

What (8th grade) curriculum are you using, you may ask. Well, let me share...

Bible/Christian Worldview: The Summit Ministries, Lightbearers
Math: Math-u-see, Epsilon
History: Alpha Omega, History & Geography
Science: Bob Jones University, Earth Science
English/Grammar: Easy Grammar Plus
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000, Book 8
Creative Writing: Christian Liberty Press, The Exciting World of Creative Writing
Literature: My first thought was to allow Austin to check books out from the library & write a report but then someone suggested to use Progeny Press, which looks absolutely amazing but a little steep in my humble opinion. Well, I happened to find this at my library that I thought we could try... http://www.amazon.com/Literature-Guide-Bridge-Terabithia-Grades/dp/0590065696. If this works, I thought we could see if the library has anything else similar we could use on other novels, and the best thing is: it's FREE!