More School!

Austin is really enjoying history & so far we both like the Alpha Omega Lifepacs. We just finished up the American Revolution & are about to start on the Civil War. So I gave Austin the Lifepac on the Civil War early so he'd have it on Monday morning & he has already read half of the workbook.

We are also enjoying videos about the American Revolution created by PBS. If you have recently studied or will soon study the American Revolution, I highly recommend these videos... they are very interesting (Austin is even enjoying them & was somewhat skeptical of them at first) & even have actor's portraying certain key figures of the times... http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/

In Science we created sundials! It was really amazing (they actually worked ) & complicated to actually create (a lot of work involved).



Austin's is the red one & mine is the blue one!



And here are a few pics of Austin doing some science work...




Of course, as you can see, Austin had to make a funny face at me because I was taking pictures of him!

In Bible, still my absolute favorite subject, we are learning reasons to believe in God & 4 logical arguments for His existence:

1. The Casual Argument: Anything that begins to exist must have been caused to exist by something.
   
2. The Design Argument: If something exists that is designed, then it has a designer.
   
3. The Mind Argument: If there is no intelligence behind the universe, then our thoughts are only by-products of matter & we have no reason to trust them.
4. The Moral Argument: Since moral law exists, there must be a moral law-giver.

Austin & I both agree that to us the mind and/or moral argument make the most sense to us.

I must admit that I truly LOVE this worldview curriculum. It has generated a lot of good discussions between Austin & I. I will definitely be purchasing the 12th grade version (http://www.summit.org/curriculum/hs/homeschool/) when Austin is a senior, which apparently can be used to obtain college credit according to the Summit Ministries web site! Though Austin keeps saying that he is not going to college, which if that is what he wants I'll support him but I do plan on at least preparing him to go to college should he change his mind.

And for PE we just get out in the yard & play... our favorite game has been H-O-R-S-E! Here are a few goofy pics of Austin playing. Notice the shoes!




I am truly blessed that the Lord chose me to home school my son. I am enjoying every minute of it! I am learning so much through this... probably as much or more than Austin is.

Last but not least, Austin JUST got a hair cut yesterday that we both adore. Not sure that Mike is keen on the idea but I just LOVE it. Now, if we can just reproduce it!





The hair dresser gave him "choppy layers" & styled his hair to look unkempt, which is perfect for him since his hair always looks unkempt to begin with! All he has to do is put hair wax in & just run his fingers through his hair, which of course is easier said than done! We tried to re-create the look for church this morning but it fell! We'll just have to keep playing with it until we get the hang of it... of course it could be that I didn't buy the expensive product the salon sells & instead bought a cheaper version, which as we know, the cheaper versions aren't always as good as the more expensive ones.

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?

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!

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!

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!