CHRISTEPHI

I am so excited to go through Exploring Countries and Cultures again. The last time my kids were so little -- 3rd grade and Kindergarten. And now they are in 5th and 8th grades! They have grown so much over the past five years. As I began to think about our plan for this year, I realized two things: 1) my gifted eldest child remembers just about everything we covered in ECC the first time, and 2) my younger one hasn't had many of the basics that ECC covers. So I was faced with a dilemma -- how do I adjust ECC to suit the very different needs of both children? How do I shift the focus for my 8th grader to aspects of ECC that she hadn't spent time on before (such as types of governments, imports and exports, etc.) while also taking my younger child through the more foundational information that he missed when he was just a kindergartener?  ECC is designed to be parent-led, family learning, with a supplement for 7th and 8th grade. But I came to the conclusion that I need to deco...

Happy Independence Day to my American readers! Although it is July 4th today, we actually began our current school year back in January. However, since I never got around to typing up what I did to prep for the year, and have had several inquiries about it recently, I figured today was as good as any to show you what I did! Since my kids are getting older and are less taken by cutesy decorations, I didn't really do much in the way of posters or decorations in our homeschool space. A little negative space in the room has been nice this year! I started off by separating the president and state pages from this year's pack of Student Sheets. Since we already started the 50 states and all the presidents last year in Exploration to 1850, I simply punched the ones for this year with my spiral binder and added them to the state and president books I made for the kids last year. Now each book is a complete set! Next, I sat down with my teacher's manual and the Story of the Wor...

I fell down a rabbit hole last night. Does that ever happen to you? You're innocently poking around the internet and the next thing you know you're hours deep with 15 browser tabs open researching something.  What was I researching, you ask?  High school electives.  Yes, my eldest is only in sixth grade this year, but I've been working on making some curriculum choices for her for next year. Since next year will be her seventh grade year, and seventh grade leads to eight grade which leads to high school, you begin to see how this all happened.   High school is a whole different ball game where each year is tied to the others with a whole progressive course of study to be plotted out! So, down the rabbit hole I went. And I made some exciting discoveries! Not only did I sketch out a basic plan for my kids' high school years -- an endeavor made supremely easy by My Father's World -- but I discovered some really fun elective programs available to homeschoolers...

Our first two weeks back to school have been slightly bumpy, but overall great! It's always tough transitioning from vacation mode back to a schedule and assigned tasks, even when you homeschool. On top of that, we had some frightfully frigid weather keeping us homebound more than is typical. We started off our year with some back-to-school pictures. E insisted on donning his Viking costume since we were learning about Leif Eriksson on day 1.  I have found that costumes are one of the best ways to get my son engaged in what he is learning. The nice ones can be pricey, but if you shop costumes on Amazon when it's not close to Halloween, or check the clearance sales just after Halloween, you can usually get some good deals on historical types of costumes.  Miss M was completely ready to begin our school year. She loves academics and appreciates the routine of our school days.  Our first two weeks were a bit of a light start with some subjects not being added...

Every so often I like to pose a STEM challenge to one or both of my kids. We've done some really fun challenges like building bridges strong enough to support 100 pennies with just 3 notecards and some tape.  I recently ran across a post where they used a clothesline and pulley to construct a Lego zip line. Since the kids' nana had just recently given them a set of  Classic Legos , this seemed right up E's alley.  And boy, was I right! First we looked for a plastic clothesline pulley at Walmart, but they didn't have any. Then we went to a small local hardware store, but only found expensive metal ones. So we tried a big name hardware store and finally hit the jackpot! Pulley: $2.38 Clothesline: $2.78 You could buy them on Amazon here and here , but they are more expensive there. Next he had to build a platform and figure out how to attach it to the pulley. Then he tested his contraption and discovered it arrived at its destin...

He's still working on me To make me what I need to be It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars How loving and patient He must be 'Cause He's still workin' on me This is a song I heard often growing up. I don't remember if my mom had it on a record or cassette or if she just sang it to us, but it's been on my mind a lot lately. ( Listen here ). As my kids grow and develop, they hit stages where they really want to try out their newly discovered faculties. Sometimes this results in some pretty uncomfortable moments where they're each pushing at and picking on the other -- one to try out a newfound knowledge, the other rejecting input and desiring space to be their own person, etc.  It seems to be really hard for them to see each other as a work in progress rather than as an already complete -- and faulty -- individual. In pondering our goals and focus for the new year, God laid it on my heart ...