Homeschooling for His Glory

A new school year has started today, and here are my beloved 2 students/children: Zach: 9 (in November) Joho: 7 (in October)  

How Great is Our God  (Chris Tomlin) The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty Let all the earth rejoice All the earth rejoice. He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide And trembles at His voice Trembles at His voice Chorus: How great is our God, sing with me How great is our God, And all will see How great, how great is our God Age to age He stands And time is in His hands Beginning and the end Beginning and the end. The Godhead Three in One Father Spirit Son The Lion and the Lamb The Lion and the Lamb Name above all names Worthy of our praise My heart will sing How great is our God  

In the past month we have received Vocabulary Spelling City to review. If you have never heard about Spelling City, you have missed a germ when it comes to online educational sites. My boys do not like spelling, and this is one subject I am having difficulty to fit into our schedule. I was very happy to receive this to review, as anything that can help in this area is more than welcome. So, what is Spelling City ? From the website: " Our mission: efficient game-based study of literacy skills using any word list. " I think i t does just that. Vocabulary Spelling City is an online spelling and vocabulary program , which contains: " Over  42,000  spelling words with customizable sentences and definitions A  REAL person  who says each word and sentence Free home pages  for teachers and parents to save lists Teacher training videos Free printable  handwriting worksheets Free teaching  resources  with lists and lesson ...

We were yet again blessed with another Math curriculum to review this summer. This most recent,  Math Made Easy , is really a program set up to help students master their Math Facts, so it can be used in any grade, but targets elementary levels. We picked the Multiplication set as this were we are in our current Math education, and my boys' multiplication facts mastering is more than lacking. I was glad to receive this product and give it a try. I have to say I love it. It is worksheet oriented along with flash cards drills and some games, but somehow the way it is set up, it is not tedious at all. The day's worksheet page is very reasonable and achievable. My boys did not mind at all. This program is indeed very easy to use. It consists of a 72-pages book, made up of worksheets, games and flash cards to be cut out. The nice thing about the worksheets is that there is variety from day to day.   The way you are supposed to make this work is first of all teach...

  School room? What school room?  We have always lived in 2 bedroom apartments so there is no room for a school room per se.  Our school room is mainly the dining room and the living room. We utilize the dining table, the sofa and the dining floor. We do most of our written work at the table, such as handwriting (one needs proper posture), some Math and Grammar work. Lots of our hands-on work, when it happens, like TOG map work or Math manipulative are done on the floor. The boys often like to do some of their independent work on the floor as well. The sofa is our prime place for TOG and LA readings as well as any kind of read-alouds. The floor is prime spot for a lot of our science along with the kitchen, of course. When it comes to homeschooling supplies and materials, boards posters etc..., the living room is where they sit. That way it's easy access during school time and in front of them at meal time. The library books have their home in the hallway...

 Planning, Planning, Planning, this is a word I have mixed feeling with. I am not a planner, I do not like routine, however  I like having things done. I know these are contradictory, but that's me. I have discovered though that with homeschooling, especially in a classical way, planning, schedules and goals are a must. Winging it when it comes to rigorous studies and mind training is not exactly an option. So for the past 4 years I have been at school when it comes to planning. I am no expert on the topic, I am still learning and figuring out how to best plan our year and how to keep up with the plans. So, how do I go about doing this? 1.  I pull out a calendar .  I first need to figure out, when we are starting, when I am going to give the boys and I breaks, and tentatively end the school year.  In the past I have tried to have a year made up of 4-6 weeks of school followed but 1 week off and so on. Last year, with my involvement with the TOS crew rev...