CHRISTEPHI

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 ...

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is socially acceptable to turn our attention to Christmas. (That's how it works, right?)  Don't tell, but I've been in "Christmas mode" since quite a while before Thanksgiving.  This year I'm heading up a casual chorus of Christmas carolers.  Because of that, I've had Christmas carols on the brain since early October!  There couldn't be any better timing for a book about the stories behind our most beloved Christmas carols. About the Book From Oxford professor and renowned British composer, a joyous account of the history behind our favorite carols. Everyone loves a carol in the end, even Ebenezer Scrooge. They have the power to summon up a special kind of mid-winter mood, like the aroma of gingerbread or the twinkle of lights on a tree. It's a kind of magic. But how did they get that magic? Andrew Gant choirmaster, church musician, university professor, and writer tells the story of twenty of our fa...

Reading a true story set against the backdrop of WWII that leaves you with an overwhelming feeling of upliftedness, hope, and peace is not commonplace.  However, that is exactly how I felt after reading ‘Til We Meet Again . As a busy homeschool mom, it’s not often that I get a chance to sit down and read for pleasure.  Oh, I’m always reading! But most of what I read is related to homeschooling — either educating myself on how to teach or reading aloud to my kids.  So when I carved out a chunk of time to read this book, it was a special thing.  I read it from cover to cover in four hours flat. About the Book Ray and Betty Whipps both served in Europe during WWII: Ray as an infantryman under General Patton in the trenches of Normandy, Paris, and Belgium, and Betty as a field nurse in Cherbourg, France. The two met when Betty tended to Ray after he was injured in a mortar blast. Both strong Christians, the two bonded over their shared faith, and as Betty...

Ahh! I just realized I haven't blogged our Adventures in U.S. History since Week 26!!  What happened?!  We've just been plugging away contentedly at our work and are nearing the end of our school year.  So, while I go get myself sorted and whip up the rest of our weekly reviews for you, I thought you might like to see our latest project. A Cocoa Krispie Sod House Ingredients: 6 tablespoons butter 6 cups miniature marshmallows 9 cups cocoa krispies 3/4 cup fancy shredded coconut ("fancy" looks more like grass, but any shredded coconut will work) green food coloring extra butter or cooking spray Also needed: large sauce pan (or large microwave safe bowl) wooden spoon jelly roll pan or cookie sheet waxed paper small glass bowl fork knife clean scrap of cardboard popsicle sticks kitchen shears Directions: Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Don't let the butter brown!  When melted, add in the marshmallows and s...

I got a bit behind in my blogging about our weekly Adventures!  I'm going to catch up now because I know there are lots of other homeschool mamas out there looking for ideas and inspiration in their own homeschool adventures.  I hope to stay caught up after that! This week we learned about George Washington Carver.  He was an African-American scientist who developed hundreds of uses for peanuts, soy beans, pecans, and sweet potatoes.  His innovations were a great boon to southern farmers.  To honor his contribution to history, we made sweet potato pie. Miss M mashing sweet potatoes for sweet potato pie. The recipe was included in our Teacher's Manual for Adventures in U.S. History by My Father's World.  And oh, my stars!  It is so good!! Delicious sweet potato pie! We learned about why a body needs a head and why Jesus is called the head of the church.  The human body is one of Miss M's favorite subjects and she spent several ho...

We are nearly halfway through our Adventures in U.S. History!  This week we took a couple days off from learning about states to learn about Daniel Boone.  I wanted to make little coon skin caps for the kids (I remember doing that when I was a homeschool student way-back-when), but I didn't have either the time or materials on hand. We added another name of Jesus to our bulletin board: Immanuel, which means God With Us.  We had lots of fun learning the lyrics to O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and a long discussion about why Emmanuel is sometimes spelled with an I and sometimes with an E. The one thing I've added to our curriculum that's different than the recommendations from My Father's World is the CLE 2nd grade Bible program .  It is a walk through of the Old Testament (I intend to follow up with the New Testament in 3rd grade).  Since Adventures itself is already an adequate workload, we only do CLE Bible on Mondays and Thursdays.  We are enjoying it...

It was finally the week we've been waiting for…the start of our study of the 50 states !  Miss M has been anticipating this all along and has already memorized the states, their capitals, their shapes, and their locations, thanks mostly to the fun little game Stack the States . When she's interested in something, there's pretty much no stopping her from learning about it!  We have a large map of the U.S. on the wall in our hallway and she spends a great deal of time looking at it, asking questions about the names of places or the legends on the map.  She's really enjoyed some of our book basket books on the states, but her especial favorite is United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds Their Stories, Their Glories . (affiliate link) We are learning about the states in the chronological order of when they joined the union.  First was Delaware, aptly nicknamed First State, then Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia.  Next week we'll learn about a few m...