Friday, June 22, 2012

Weekly Wrap-up #2





No school this week but I have pictures to share. We spent Wednesday at a lake and just enjoyed the outdoors.




Blue Heron








Great Egret






We also saw some kind of sandpiper birds, but I couldn't get a good picture. 

Friday, June 15, 2012

Weekly Wrap-up #1








I'm going to start doing these "Weekly Wrap-ups" each week, as a way to record what we have done. 

We actually started our new school year this week. Everyone else is enjoying their summer break, and we are doing school work. The kids would not hear of this summer break thing. We got our new books, and they were begging to start them right away. Joel even said in his whiniest voice, "Mom, If we don't do summer school, we will forget everything." I love that they love to learn so I gave in and let them so some work. 


What we learned:
Trista 
Genesis 1 to 3 - read to Joel
Rod and Staff english - 3 lessons
Editor in Cheif - 1 lesson
McGuffey Spelling - 10 spelling words
Khan Academy Math - 20 minutes
Math lessons - 3 exercises
Daily Word Problems - 3 days 
This Country of Ours - Ch. 29 - The Founding of Connecticut And War With the   Indians 1636-39
Child's History of the World - Ch. 71 - Charles I
Trial and Triumph - Ch. 28 - Richard Cameron, Lion of the Covenant (1644-1680)
Minn of the Mississippi - Ch. 1
Daily Geography - 3 days
Spectrum Science - Lesson 1.1 
Storybook of Science - Ch. 1 - The Six & Ch. 2 - The Fairy Tale and the True Story
Building Thinking Skills - 6 pages
Word Roots - 1 page
PLUS - Notebooking and Timeline activities!

Joel
Genesis 1 to 3 - listened to Trista read
Missionary Stories - Introduction
Primary Language Lessons - Lesson 1
Phonics Pathways - 2 pages
The Boxcar Children (RA) - Ch. 1-2
Real Mother Goose - 1 page
Math Lessons - 2 exercise
An Island Story - Ch. 1 - The Stories of Albion and Brutus
Paddle to the Sea - Ch. 1
Discovering Nature: All Nature Sings - 2 exercises
Building Thinking Skills - 4 pages



Mom's Education
I started Don Quixote exactly one month ago and am now on Chapter 26. This is actually my third time reading it, and I am seeing things in a different perspective. It is slightly difficult to motivate myself to read it everyday, since I have already read it, but I am still enjoying it.



We had fun roasting marshmallows over a bonfire Thursday night!






Thursday, June 7, 2012

Quote from John Taylor Gatto, former New York (Public School) Teacher of the Year, and promoter of homeschooling


I read this today and had to share: 

"What you should be doing is exactly what you are doing now: spending about 90 percent of your time solving the problems of rearing your family decently and bringing the best out of your kids, and giving them a sense of religious purpose and civic purpose and personal power and strength. I've come to believe that most of the power that this other side has is not through their armies; it's through our fear that if we don't do what they tell us to do that somehow we'll lose out. Ignore these people's attempts to infect you with fear. If your kid knows how to read well (I think that's very important), count well, has a good attitude, loves work (sees that work is a grace and not a curse), your kid is practically impregnable."
- from an interview published in Homeschooling Today magazine, January/February 2001


I also wanted to share this post for anyone doubting that they can educate their children:

You are Qualified to Homeschool!


Enjoy!
"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school's meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?" — C.F. Potter, signer of Humanist Manifesto 1930

"Open war is upon you whether you will risk it or not!" — Aragorn, "Return of the King"