Homeschooling for His Glory

Our third installment of the Journeys into Classical Homeschooling series features Lisa from Golden Grasses. I have been aware of classical education for decades and always equated it with great books. Our homeschool has always been literature and history rich but my understanding of classical as a pedagogy was really expanded and broadened by reading The Well Trained Mind 15 years ago and by meeting and hearing Leigh Bortiens speak, about 9 years ago. I went home from that meeting, read The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers, along with everything else I could get my hands on about classical education, and we haven’t looked back since. We are currently in a Classical Conversations Community and will have our youngest two kids in Challenge this year; A and 1. In the past we have relied heavily on Memoria Press, Peace Hill Press, IEW, The Lost Tools of Writing , and lately Roman Roads Media , which has recently produced Old Western Culture , re-released The Grammar of ...

Next up in my  series on Journeys into Homeschooling , we have Beth from  As He Leads Is Joy   talking to us about Classical Homeschooling at her house. This fall I will begin my 7th year homeschooling. I have two children. My son who was adopted from Eastern Europe when he was 7. He is now 14 and beginning high school work. My daughter just turned 11 and has Down Syndrome. My daughter was born in Asia. My husband and I are both from America but met in Asia. We lived in Asia for a number of years and now we are living in England. We are missionaries working with Chinese students in England.  I was impressed and intrigued when I listened to the things that my friend's son who was just a few years older than my son had learned in Classical Conversations (CC). I thought that would be a great foundation for my own son. My husband has said that he wished he had a classical education. I attended a CC meeting and the big question in my mind was what to do with my...

I am back on day five of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop. Today I will take a look at planning your daily routine. So once you have a general idea of what your year will look like (in broad strokes) from our post on Wednesday about Planning Your Homeschool Year , you can then turn to planning a daily routine to get through your weekly workload. First step is to figure out how many times a week you will do every subjects you have planned. For example this what our week looks like when it comes to the distribution of subjects throughout the week: One we get that figured out, we distribute the work load for each subject throughout the week. Using a form like this one comes in very handy for that work. Next, we come to our daily routine. I am not a early riser, so school does not start early here. The earliest would be 10:00am. My kids are quite independent now though, and often start their easy subjects without me. For my oldest (11 1/2) that would be one or more of...

Welcome to day three of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop. Today we are looking at planning the school year. If you have followed my blog for any period of time, you would have known that I am not a big planner. But over the years, I have grown to love planning and see the benefits of it. So how do I go about it? I gather my planning sheets. I am a planner hoarder. You should see my homeschool file on my computer, I have dozens of printable planners. The funny thing is that I always end up making up my own. I prefer planners that allow me to plan all my subjects weekly. This year I created one that I really like. All of the other ones I like usually did not allow for me to see all of the subjects at once. With this form I have all my subjects all at once for any given weeks. Unfortunately I had to use two sheets. I would prefer to have them one next to each other but decided to work with it and put them one under each other. Under each week I mark the week number and...

Welcome back to day two of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop. Today we will look at First Day Traditions. I am not one who loves traditions so much, so our back to school first day is usually uneventful and just like a regular school day. However, that said, I know that many homeschoolers love to make the first day of school special, and I have to admit it is kind of cool if you get to do it. We did do something special a couple of our homeschooling years. So, today I would like to share with you a few ideas to make that first day of back to homeschool memorable and exciting. Here are 5 to get your juices flowing: 1. Plan a field trip on that day. Many homeschoolers take that first day as a day to get out and enjoy the outdoor, or go on a field trip. What a way to get the school year on a right foot! A fun day of learning! A lot of my friends always go to Marineland the week of back to school here in Canada 2. Plan a special meal, either for breakfast or lunch. Ideas can be...

It is Back to homeschool time in a lot of homeschooling families' home, and ours is no different. So, I am joining the Schoolhouse Review Crew and the Homeschool Blogging Connection in a week long blog hop on the topic of back to homeschool. Today I would like to talk about setting goals for the school year. Why setting up goals? They help you keep on track, and they help you measure your progress as the year advances. We are entering our 9th year of homeschooling and I can tell you it does not get easier. With each year comes its own challenges. That is why having clear goals become more and more important. In the younger years, you know you have many years ahead of you to get to where you wish to get. As the years move on that window shrinks, and focus becomes of major importance. My boys are entering 5th and 7th grade respectively, and I am starting to narrow down their strengths and weaknesses, and their academic future paths. Whereas in the younger years, the focu...

I am joining with Family Faith and Fridays to bring you a used curriculum sale round up, as I clean up the shelves to make room for more books and curriculum. If you are interested, send me an e-mail (found in the margin on the right of this blog). All prices are without shipping, so I will have to calculate that once I have your postal code. All items are in good to fair condition and come from a smoke-free home. All payments will be through paypal. What's the Big Deal? - $6 The Action Bible Handbook - $8 The Usborne Illustrated World History : The Greeks - $6 Roots of English (Memoria Press) - $10 Various French Books -  $3 each Captivated DVD - $10 Who Lives in The Sea - Dive into Your Imagination - $10 Mind Benders DVD (grades 2-6)  - $6 Mastering Essential Math Skills DVD - $5 Daily Word Problems Math Grade 5 - $8 DK EyeWonder: Earth - $2 Oxford: The Legionary - $2 Focus On: Science...

With the Back to School season upon us, it is time to give thought  and share what our school year will look like and/or how we prepare for a new school year. Mark your calendars - August 10 to 14  - it's time for this year's Back to Homeschool Blog Hop . The Schoolhouse Review Crew will be joining forces with Homeschool Connections to bring you a week full of back to school encouragement. Here at Homeschooling for His Glory, I will be sharing about: Setting Goals for the Homeschool Year Beginning of School Year Traditions Planning your School Year Planning Your Daily Routine So come back on Monday and do not miss a post!    We will have 56 homeschool Moms sharing their combined wisdom and insights covering everything Homeschool related. That's 280 posts of encouragement and information just for you! Meet Your Back to Homeschool Blog Hop Hosts Marcy @ Ben and Me Debra @ Footprints in the Butter Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses Amy @ Home...

Today I am starting a new series on Classical Homeschooling, on how different homeschoolers came to homeschool classically and how they each implement it. Though I follow a classical homeschooling approach, I do it my own way. I typically call myself a relaxed classical homeschooler. You can see what I mean by reading my series on Relaxed Classical Homeschooling. Now I thought it would be nice to hear from other people about how they implement the classical homeschooling philosophy in their own school. This series will run every Tuesday in August, so we will visit with four homeschoolers in total. First up this week is Christy from Unexpected Homeschool Classical Education with Chronic Illness Our path to choosing a classical homeschool education for our currently 13 year old daughter, Amber, started after abruptly removing our only child from parochial school in January of her fourth grade year. We knew we wanted to homeschool for fifth grade, but shocked even ourselve...