Have you missed us?

Sorry that we have not been updating as much, we've been busy! Enjoying the outdoors mainly and taking time to play in the fresh air before the weather gets too cold for long stretches of time outside.

Quick notes about what's happening in school~
Our new curriculum came in for Bible and History! Mom and Janelle are beginning this week to dig into The Mystery Of History Volume II. We'll be enlightened about events, people and places from early church history through the Middle Ages. Look for us to comment about this in the future.

As part of some music appreciation, today we listened to a recording of the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven and the girls had various responses. Jordyn asked why it was so sad and declared that we should listen to happier music. Janelle said "this song grips me". She went on to describe that the song seemed happy and sad all at the same time. That the happiness tried to rise above the sadness, but got swallowed back in. Excellent work Janelle! The sonata was written after Beethoven had witnessed the passing of a friend and it definitely has an overall somber tone.

Jordyn has almost completed memorizing Psalm 100 and is quite proud of herself. Janelle began working on John chapter 1 today. We'll try and record soon and pass this along! First, Mom has to learn how to do it. :o)

later everyone!

Have you missed us?

Just some pics

Just some pics

Simply Science

Okay, Janelle reporting here. I am here to tell you that I LOVE Science!! Mostly life science and anything having to do with the human body. Well, after almost a year of begging.....(drum roll please)....I have finally convinced my mother to let me dissect a frog! YES! I am so very, very excited you would think it was my birthday all over again. We ordered it this week, so it will be several more days for me to painfully wait. Mom says I should work on my skill of observation before then, so here is a simple project I completed.

If you take 3 apple pieces and place one in water, one in hydrogen peroxide, and one in white vinegar, what changes will occur after 1 minute? After 5 minutes? After 10 minutes?

Mom made me a chart to record my data. First, I made observations about the liquids. For example, they are all colorless. Can you think of others?

Then, I wrote a hypothesis for each of the three. You do remember what a hypothesis is, correct?

Then, with timer in hand and some help from Mom, the apples got dropped in as I kept a vigilent watch for any particular changes. One minute.....5 minutes....(nothing much happening, except the peroxide making sizzling sounds and bubbles around the apple).

Ten minutes....well, still no significant change for the water or vinegar solutions. Peroxide still bubbling. I guess some experiments are like that. Anyway, lastly I recorded all my observation on the chart and called it a day. I wonder if the apples changed in smell? Hmmm....

While I worked, Jordyn used an apple to paint.....

....and Josiah surveyed his kingdom.

Simply Science

Mama D's Musings

I thought it would be good to add my comments, musings or thoughts at random points throughout this blog. I have been so pleased with the start of our school year and am still basking in the 'glory' of fresh new days. This is partly due to our new basement and s-p-a-c-e to spread out, but today I realized it may have to do with the fact that I am more in tune as to why we homeschool.
On the first day, I processed this with the girls: 'why do we homeschool?' Their responses were funny and even impressive! But, I finally explained in words they understood. We have them home with us during this season of their lives because we want them to be instructed in our family's mission. They can receive an adequate or even superior academic foundation elsewhere, though we are committed to this as well. However, no institution can take ample time to teach our children some of the values we hold dear--or even if they did, it may not be with the same emphasis or passion.
So, what is this mission you may ask? In 2003, we adopted as a family (at least those who were speaking members then!) what we call our 'mission statement'--or purpose statement if you will. Five simple statements that we have felt sum up why the six of us are under the same roof---a LOT. I'll introduce them one at a time here and there along the way.

Number One: "We enjoy relationship with God and with one another. We love to laugh, talk & share, play, worship, work and have fun together."

Life is primarily about relationships. Period.

Yes, I guess it's important to know about Socrates, the dates of the American Revolution or how to calculate the area of a shape....but we strongly believe that our children also need time to build solid relationships. First, with their Creator God and alongside of this we emphasize that He divinely placed them in the context of a family to learn about relationships here on earth. Yes, we do branch out and encourage them to build friendships and associations outside of our family--but it all starts here. And home is at times the hardest place to put into practice the very aspects needed for great relationships: trust, loyalty, kindness, service...and the list could go on. We want to take not just small snippets of time, but huge chunks and large blocks of time to instruct them that real, rich and robust relationships with a holy God and with those in their family are BIG. It's the glue that kind of pulls the other pieces of life together I think. We don't always get it right, but we know enough to make it a priority.

So, there you have it. This, my friends, is the first reason as to why we base our children's education from home.

Mama D's Musings

Homeschooling Resources

{page continually updated}

Inspiring Reading for Parents:

• Educating the WholeHearted Child
• For the Children's Sake
• No Ordinary Home: The Uncommon Art of Christ-Centered Homemaking
• Upgrade: 10 secrets to the best education for your child--my absolute favorite book on homeschooling & education in general :: read several times!
• Real Learning--a bit of Catholic perspective, full of information to encourage true, authentic learning in the home
• Seven Things to Know Before You Begin Homeschooling
• A Mother's Heart: A Look at Values, Vision and Character for the Christian Mother--tremendous, inspiring, I've almost memorized sections of this one.
• The most eye-opening article from a homeschooling veteran, much wisdom to be gleaned. There's great stuff here even if you're not educating at home! It's long; I've read it in smaller chunks.

Developing Good Habits & Attitudes

• Laying Down the Rails :: every parent should have one of these; it's FULL of wisdom on character training & habit training for both parents and children.

Educational Philosophy :: I would describe our children as being 'classically educated in a Charlotte Mason style' if the need arose to explain our homeschooling. To make sense of this statement, here are a few links:

• Charlotte Mason's Philosophies--a simple introduction on the various aspects of a CM education (from the viewpoint of this author)
• Simply Charlotte Mason
• The Well-Trained Mind--while I don't adhere to everything explained in this book, much of it is enriching; see a description on classical education here
• Ambleside Online--a free online CM curriculum; even if not followed fully, it's a helpful guide for establishing a foundation of excellence in literacy.