Home School Daze

Well, I had intended to rest after our long trip to SC. But, things have been a whirlwind of planning around here, and there has been precious little time to rest when there is laundry galore, and so much to do before school starts! My head is spinning! However, we did manage to squeeze in a baseball game with the kids last night. 😉

Yes, I am wrapped up in a blanket like an old lady.
The kids caught 4 balls and got their picture with this guy.

Many of you have asked what we are using to teach our kids this year. So here it is:

Holly and Hope:

  • BJU Math @grade level
  •  Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind
  • aBeka Grammar
  • Writing with Ease,
  • Story of the World
  • Daily Geography/Hillyers Geography
  • Reason for Writing- I love using this handwriting series. At the end of the week, the kids write out a verse with a picture around it, which we color and bring to one of the widows in our church. They love having the colorful verses on their walls in a nursing home or on their refrigerator.
  • Apologia Zoology 1 and 2
  • Health and first aid

Matt and Emily

  • Teaching Textbooks, Algebra II (Matt) and Geometry (Em)- can’t say enough good about this series. Love them!!
  • a Beka Grammar-because you gotta have grammar. 😉
  • Fundamentals of Literature, BJUPress plus various classics to read
  • Chemisty online via BJU Distance Learning
  • History of the Ancient World (Em) and Medieval World (Matt), by Susan Wise Bauer
  • Health and first aid
I am very willing to throw out anything that does not work for us. I refuse to struggle with curriculum that doesn’t meet our needs, so this is what we intend to use. What we actually use depends on how this all works.
I know I’ve told you before that over the years I have  ordered a scandalous amount of merchandise from Timberdoodle for our home school and have always loved their recommendations and customer service. I love how they use to send free Mrs. Grossman’s  stickers with their orders. ( I am a huge fan of stickers. Being a home schooling teacher is my excuse to buy them. )  Well, I was just recently offered a chance to review a few of their items in exchange for “doodle dollars.” So my first choice was to review “Piano for Quitters,” a course intended to teach piano drop out’s like me some basics. I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
Other plans:
music lessons
bimonthly co-op
art/watercolor instruction
lots of reading aloud as a family.
I am loving the last few days of summer, but it is feeling fall-y here, already and  soon it will be harvest season! Can’t wait for Matt to help bring in the cranberry harvest with his grandfather! My father’s cranberry company was featured here at La Tartine Gourmande in an article entitled “Cranberry Harvest in New England.” You can also see some pics of the  harvest, my dad, uncle and son, Matt.
Linked to Courtney


1 thought on “Home School Daze”

  • Ah, the ready-to-be-harvested bogs are sure a sight for sore eyes! They’re definitely among the top things I miss about New England! It was rather nice seeing some familiar faces in that post too!

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