Homeschooling for His Glory

We went apple picking today. It was the kids' first time and they had lots of fun climbing trees and picking apples. My younger one did most of the picking  though, he really enjoyed picking the apples. Here are some pics: Now watch out for the apple pies, apple crisps, puddings and everything else I can find interesting to do.

Just thought I would post pictures of my boys reading.

I was so excited yesterday: the BJU readers arrived. It is always exciting when someone knocks at the door and you know you have a package from Christian Bookstore coming. Dad got his Commentaries on CD and I got my homeschool materials. We started on the readers right away, and both kids like it. And so do I. They are very short, cute stories which progress very subtely in dificulty and have an acute rhyme focus, which is good for us since my 5 year old is not very rhyme oriented. We also got Volume 2 of Hide Them in Your Heart CD and DVD by Steve Green. We absolutely love it. They are really good songs on Bible verses with short, catching tunes. I am planning on getting volume 1 at Christmas.

Books are overflowing at our house, as Dad is an avid reader, always reading a book and my kids like to have a sub-library of the Toronto Public Library at the house. These days they are borrowing a lot of truck book for my 5 year old and franklin for my 3 year old among others. But, I do have an official reading list which are the books I am hoping to have my 5 year old read throughout the year. Here it is:      The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein  Where the Sidewalk Ends: the Poems and Drawing of Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein  The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum  Heidi by Johanna Spyri  Machines at work Honeybees - by Deborah Heiligman The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle   Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown   Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin, Jr.  The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister  Corduroy by Don Freeman  The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats  Guess How Much I Love You by Sam...

I was browsing tonight some blogs and found this very useful list of household uses for WD40. I thought some of you might be interested so here is the link:  Heart at home . Robin's blog is very informative and enjoyable. Hope this helps someone. I will definitely be using this reference .

Our school has been quite disturbed but we are now on the road to a more regular schedule. Here are the details of what we are covering for now with my almost 5 year old: Math: Horizon K . We started earlier in the winter when I first started officially homeschooling my boy, but had to stop since i think he was not quite ready for it (we had covered more than 1/4 of Book 1 though). It is going much more smoother now. It is amazing what difference a  few months make. I really like the Horizon Math. It is a spiral kind of teaching, where different  concepts are  introduced at the same time but reviewed frequently which allow more gradual mastery, as opposed to saturation in one setting. Each lesson is of average length, sometimes we do 2 at a time. It is also a rather advanced program. In one review that i read, a math teacher was saying that it is a grade higher than the actual grade. For instance the K books (2 in total) would in fact be a grade 1 level. We have been...

Praise God after a couple of weeks, I can post again. As mentionned before my husband has just been diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis and suffered a crisis which lended him in the ICU. He was there for a week and then spent another few days in the hospital. He came home last week friday and we are so thankful that he is doing ok. He still has to have a lot of rest as he is still recuperating and trying to manage the illness. It is gonna be a long road to a  normal life but we are confident that the Lord will give grace and guide us. Myasthenia gravis is an auto immune illness which affects your muscles. The communication between your muscles and your nerves is obstructed by your own antibodies. It is not curable but can be managed with medication, of which working cocktail varies from patient to patient. In brief, when you suffer from this illness you get fatigued easily and can experience muscle weakness in the mouth, eyes, arm, fingers, neck, legs. Thank God, He is always wi...