Homeschooling for His Glory

In my previous posts about Middle School I have shared about how I have been blessed with quite independent kids. I had promised a post about how I went about to encourage independence in my children. Here it is finally! First off I have to say that some kids are naturally independent, and in this case it is quite easier to cultivate that. With others, it is a bit more difficult and requires intentionality and being more aggressive about it. When you have kids who have learned to be independent and to own their learning, they end up being kids that do their school work, even if mom forgot to write a subject on the list of to do for that day. Here are a few steps I took in developing independence in the boys. Give them freedom - the first step is to gradually give them freedom in how they want the school day to go. Involve them in the decision making of what subjects to do each day and in the order as well. Build trust - the kids need to know that you trust them and expec...

Here we are at the start of another year and time for another Virtual Homeschool Fair with Susan@Homeschooling Hearts and Minds . This year the topics are gonna be slightly different but still the same concept of showcasing what  homeschooling looks like in different homes. Week 1 - this week - we are talking about the reasons why we are homeschooling. This topic is a providential one for me to be talking about at this time, as I am feeling the tiredness and weariness of 10 years of homeschooling. I feel like I have no energy or drive, and yet I know I need to persevere. Why do I feel that way? I can come up with at least five reasons which, I know will set me on a road to renewed enthusiasm and maybe encourage you in the process. 1. Time with my kids is invaluable. This was one of the main reason why we ended up homeschooling to start with. The prospect of spending time with my little ones (at that time) and not missing any of their milestones was an invaluable incenti...

It is the end of August and School for us is starting this coming Monday. Planning for this upcoming school year has been on going since May, and hopefully I have settled on what we will be using. This year I have a 9th grader and a 7th grader. I cannot believe I will have a high schooler in the house. Time really flew by.... So what are our curriculum choices for this year? A couple of notes before I lay the choices out: *****Last year we switched from online Math to paper Math. Hubby did not like the idea of doing Math online and wanted the boys to do paper math, so we switched to Alpha and Omega Lifepac (which is a curriculum he has used when he was in school). **** I am planning for my high schooler to be homeschoold all the way, so am working on a 4-year high school plan that will allow him to be well equipped to take the ACT and some AP classes comes 11th grade (which are what universities in Canada look for). Some outside grades will be nice too, so I will be thinking...

Week 4 of the 2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair is here, and it is time to talk about History, Geography, and Science. You can check  Homeschooling Hearts and Minds  our host for this curriculum fair to read more about it. Social Science has been the easier school subject to cover since grade 2, when I stumbled upon  Tapestry of Grace.   There has been no turning back and will not be. I invested in the four years of this curriculum which is rotation based curriculum. This is our 7th year using it and we are at our 2nd rotation of year 3 (The Exploration Age). With TOG the boys have been able to explore the World from past to present from a Geography and History perspective. The advantage of repetition offered by this curriculum is that they get to look at time from different perspective when they go over certain periods of time again. Also with TOG you cover civic as well and government which allow for the kids to really understand the world around them. My oldes...

Week 3 of The Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Homeschooling Hearts and Minds is all about Math and Logic, discovering patterns. How did (do) we tackle this in our homeschool? Read along! I will first start by saying that I have two children who approach Math very differently. One loves it and the mechanics of it, but sometimes struggles with the logic of it (he's got his own logic, which he gets from me unfortunately). That said, he does pretty well and is actually ahead of his grade. My other son does not like the repetition and practice aspect of math, though he most often has little difficulty to understand the concepts. He is doing fine and is at grade level. In the elementary levels we have used Singapore Math (grade 1 and 2), which I would highly recommend. It is a strong Math curriculum. The boys got strong foundations from it. We ended up settling for Math on the Level, which attracted me because of its cost effectiveness. MoL covers everything you need for g...

Welcome to week 2 of the 2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Homeschooling Hearts and Minds . This week we will be talking about the Language Arts. When it comes to the Language Arts, it is a very important subject in our homeschool. As a classical homeschooler, mastering the Language Arts is a very important step and component of our study. Reading: Both the boys read at a young age with minimum teaching from me. I had to catch up in teaching them some phonics so that they could learn to read well. I do believe both whole language learning and phonetic learning are essential for a good reading education. They both read above their grades and have good comprehension. I am very thankful to The Logic of English as it helped me fill in the gap of whatever they lacked in the area of phonetic awareness. I used the Essentials program then and would recommend both the Foundations and Essentials, as a worthwhile reading and spelling curriculum. Read my review of it to learn more...

2016 was a pretty skimpy blogging year for me. Ask me why, I am not sure I have an answer for you beside life happening and writing inspiration fading. With a new year upon us I will try to get back on the blogging scene and what best topic to start the year with than giving you a glimpse into what homeschooling looks like in our home with now two teenagers. In the past 4 years I have enjoyed participating in the Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Homechooling Hearts and Minds , so I am happy to start my year participating once more. For those who are not familiar with the Virtual Curiculum Fair, it is a month long series of posts, where over 20 homeschoolers share about their homeschool curriculum and how they homeschool. The weeks will go as follow: Week 1: See How We Learn/Welcome to the VCF Week 2: Playing with Words Week 3: Discovering Patterns Week 4: Exploring Our World Week 5: Seeking Beauty So how do we learn here? this is the topic of this ...

I have a rising high schoolers, and as I am getting ready and preparing for High School and eventually university or college, one of things my son and I came to agree on is that he most likely will be heading for a major or minor in English. He has always loved writing stories. So, when the chance to review a product relating to writing for the High Schooler came up for reviews I volunteered, of course, even if he won't be officially in High School till next school year. The product in question is Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers put out by Everyday Education, LLC . What it is is as the name suggest a handbook for writers that will help the student to become a better writer as he prepares to enter college. It covers essay writing and punctuation, style and usage. It is a hefty book ( 420 pages). I received the e-book version and downloaded on several devices for easy access. What does it contain? Part I: Everything to know about writing Essays and Arguements A...

As I mentioned before on this blog, Homeschool curricula abound. One can become very overwhelmed as the plethora of material that are out there for you to chose from. Math is not immune to this abundance of resources, especially online products. Today I am here to talk to you about one of these: LearnBop . When it first came up for review I knew nothing about it. So I had to customize myself to this program. LearnBop is an online Math curriculum that offers a grade 3-12 program called  LearnBop for Families . They offer two types of subscriptions, one for 1 student and one for multiple students up to 4. We got the 2-4 student subscription. I decided to use LearnBop wih both my children (grade 6 and 7). First I had them take the suggested test (called warm up) corresponding to their grade that is supposed to assess where they are at and what learning gaps they need to fix, or as they would refer to it, what building blocks they need to understand before they dive into t...

It is planning time for many homeschoolers, and we on the Schoolhouse review crew have a great product we want to let you know about. The Old Schoohouse has come up with a planner just for you homechool moms. They call it the Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 . As a planner junkie, even if I have a hate/love relationships with planning,  I personally find it very handy and useful. First off I find this planner attractive to the eye. I love the pretty pictures and homey feel it has. I also love all the yearly calendars it comes with, right at the beginning of the planner. You have 2016, 2017, 2018 covered. The planner itself starts in July and ends in June. Each month takes 2 pages and has lots of space to write up what needs to be done. On top of the dated planning calendar, it also contains undated weekly planning pages, also spread over two pages. These are my favorites. I can write the days of the week in them and plan my subjects. The spaces for these are als...

This month's theme for the Canadian  Homeschool Blogging Team is about what we would say if we had to give a talk at a homeschool conference. There are lots of topics that can be touched on at a homeschooling conference, but I would like to focus my talk on homeschooling the Middle School age kids. I have two boys, one in 7th grade and one in 5th grade. Next year I will have two middle schoolers. I have found that homeschooling the younger grades is somewhat easier that the older grades. Teaching your kids to read, count, reading books on the couch, doing science experiments, exploring nature through nature walks, baking cookies together, playing games, make the whole experience exciting, rewarding and fun. As the kids gets older, they become more independent and develop their own interests, which may or may not be the same as your own, and definitely vary from child to child. I have found that as the kids get older, it becomes harder to steer them in the same way as you di...

The teaching of Language Arts in homeschooling is comprised of a lot of subjects, and can take a lot of different forms. This includes Grammar, spelling, handwriting, literature, reading, and writing. One practice that is really useful in improving handwriting is copywork. This is where Homeschool Copywork, one of our latest review product comes in. We were blessed to have been given a Lifetime Membership to their site. As a classically minded homeschooler, I am a strong believer in copywork not only as a great handwriting practice tool, but also as a tool to consolidate the other aspects of the Language Arts through the copying of right spelled words, good punctuation, and well phrased sentences. I have not always included copywork in my homeschool, but it has always been one of those subject that I value as a great benefit to my boys. That is why I was very glad to receive this membership. What is Homeschool Copywork and what do they offer? Homechool Copywork is a homes...