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...

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...

I always love reading about what programs other homeschool families use. Sometimes what one person likes you recognize is exactly what you don't like, or what is a disaster for one kid is exactly what another kid needs. I never get tired of that beautiful diversity! This year my little fella will be a big Third Grader. I can hardly believe he's 8 years old. I distinctly remember my third grade year and the public school in Florida that I went to for part of the year.  It's wild to think that my "baby" could have such clear memories of this time frame when he is all grown up. Miss M is having a sort of second year of 6th grade. Although she did 6th grade level work across the board last year, I am in no rush to have her start junior high (and high school right around the corner from that). She's only 11!  So this year she will be advancing in her studies, but we're still calling it 6th grade. Some of her work will be at a 6th grade level and some will b...

Hello, my lovely blog readers!  Did you miss me?  It's okay if you didn't because your life is probably as busy and insane as my own. Can you believe I didn't blog at ALL in 2017? Not once!  An entire school year in the books without a single post documenting it. But that's okay, because I gave myself permission before the year began to not blog. Sometimes we need to cut things from our schedule for a season in order to put our focus more fully in other areas. But, I'm back for 2018! A super quick recap of what we did last year..... We used My Father's World's Rome to the Reformation for Bible, history, science, music, and art.  Both kids used Singapore Math . Mister E worked through Language Lessons for Today and part of Spelling by Sound and Structure until I realized he already knew how to spell all the words in the book and dropped it. Miss M used the final one third of Intermediate Language Lessons , All-in-One English , and Writing Strands ...

We are now a little over halfway through Creation to the Greeks and MFW First Grade. As you may have noticed, I dropped off blogging every week as I expected I would. It's easier to blog when the days are short and cold, but much harder to find time for it once spring arrives and we're out gardening and such in our spare time.  I wouldn't have it any other way!  If you wish to keep up with our weekly doings, you'll have to follow my Facebook page which is updated almost every day that we do school! So, now that we're on the downhill side of the year, I thought I would write a little about what has worked well for us this year and what hasn't. Our planners Back in January I copied the grid pages from my CTG and First Grade teacher's manuals and assembled them into a lesson planner for the year. (Remember: MFW allows for photocopying of the grid pages for planning and record keeping as long as you agree to never loan, give, or sell the teacher's ma...

Looking back on our second week of school this year, I see that we have become a little more comfortable with the process. Our days are proceeding more smoothly; we are transitioning from one subject to the next with less fumbling; and we are able to tighten up our schedule somewhat.  That's a good thing because even though we had fun last week, each day seemed to take forever! Mister E is pretty resistant to the increased workload of first grade versus kindergarten.  He's not very gung-ho about writing or worksheets or reading books. (He already knows how to read quite well, just doesn't choose to spend his time doing so). Since he's only six, I am trying to keep things pretty light. My main goal for him this year is to improve his handwriting, so I try to give him lots of fine motor activities.  Thankfully he loves Legos and spends quite a bit of time with those during his free time, so I know the fine motor skills will come up to par in time. ...

While many families were back to school this week, for us it was also the start of an entirely new school year.  I always get excited to start afresh in new books with new material to cover, brand new pencils to sharpen, unspoiled new notebooks to write in.  But at the same time I always enter this phase of panic where I look at all the new stuff, the new schedule, and wonder how on earth I am going to manage to pull it off.  Of course, once I get started it's really not that bad. After all, you really only need to manage doing one thing at a time, and that's not nearly so difficult! I think the hardest thing this week was getting used to waking up "early."  I tried to get everybody on a practice schedule our last week of vacation, but since Daddy was still home from work, nobody wanted to go to bed on time. They all stayed up late snuggling in blankets and watching movies or playing video games. I made sure to get myself in bed at a decent hour though, because...