Homeschooling for His Glory

We are in October, the leaves have changed colors and have started to fall. School, well that is another story. Here are my random five covering the last few weeks. 1. We just came back from a 10 days vacation in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania. It was lovely to see the array of colors on the trees down there as we were driving. 2. During our vacation we visited Gettysburg and Hershey Chocolate World. 3. These two curriculum were waiting for me as we came back: Well-Ordered Language from Classical Academic Press  (WOL secret review to be released next spring - secret review), and Eat Your Science Homework from McCallum Books (Crew review). 4. Before we went on vacation I had started a new schedule with Zach that falls into the block scheduling category. It involves focussing on different subjects each day. So, for example History on Monday, Language Arts and electives on Tuesday,  only dailies on Wednesday because he has TOG Co-op and violin lesson...

We are 2 weeks into September and summer is definitely over. After the burst of heat we had last week here in Toronto, I am glad for the cooler weather we are having now (though it also means starting to cover the neck back again). Our school year started about a month ago. We only took July off, which got quite busy with church activities. August was fluid, mix with school and outdoor activities. Here are a few random 5 from the past month: 1. I harvested tomatoes from my first time ever at trying my hands at balcony garden. I also have peppers growing. Yay me!!! 2 . In the first couple of weeks of back to school we finished up our year 1 of Tapestry of Grace, which we did not get to finish before our break in July. 3.  This year I have enrolled Zach in an online co-op for our Tapestry of Grace curriculum (we are doing year 2). We have had 2 sessions, and so far he is enjoying it. I am glad it will help us keep on track, but that also means pushing him harder at comp...

It's been a while since my last random 5 on Friday post. Since then, a lot has happened but here are 5 random facts: 1. We ended school the last week of June and took July off. 2. In July, we had our VBS and a few community outreach events with our church. 3. Hubby had a birthday which turned into a day trip to the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario.   4. I have been planning our next school year also during July, since we start back school next week already. You can see what we gonna be using in my Curriculum Choices post . 5. I downloaded Windows 10 today and so far I am a happy girl, as my computer has been working better that it has been in the last few weeks. Yay!!!!!

Fridays seem to come so quickly and end so quickly. So, here I am again, doing my random 5 on a Saturday. Past 2 weeks in review: 1 . Last week we had a profitable time on a field trip exploring the great outdoors. The boys did rock climbing, canoeing and orienteering. 2. This week we learned a new board game: Ticket to Ride . We are board games lovers here, and a friend owned that one so we were able to learned it. It is a fun game! 3. I am in full mode planning, which is going to be a couple months process, between finalizing next year's curriculum, and planning them out. Yesterday I came up with a new planning sheet, which hopefully I will get to share with you all. I am trying it out with our remaining 6 weeks of school work to do. 4. My parents are visiting from the Caribbean. It is nice to have them on the same continent. 5 . Johann's baking from yesterday: Banana Chocolate Muffins. Fridays are his baking nights.

It's been another month since my last update on what is going on here at our house. It's time for a Random 5. 1.  I am trying my hand at gardening, and balcony gardening at that, since we live in an apartment. This will be  a first for me, and so far so good. I have planted two types of tomatoes, lettuce, Zucchini, thyme and yellow peppers. I just did a transplant today. 2. On the school front we are nowhere close to wounding down. We still have: 9 weeks to go with our Tapestry of Grace. 6 weeks in our Writing program, Writing and Rhetoric. We just started  Life of Fred Decimals and Percents a couple of weeks ago, and there are 32 chapters, at one a day. Latin is getting there. We started a new program for vocabulary for the crew: WorldBuildOnline. French for Joho is almost done. Zach's duolingo still has a few lessons to go. We finished Psalm 121 in our copywork. Next week we will start Philippians 2. Grammar will still be going for a few weeks. We are ...

It's been a month since my last random 5. Wow, time flies by quickly! What have we been up to? 1 . Zach joined a violin/cello ensemble and is enjoying it a lot. 2.  Spring  Electives started back a couple of weeks ago, and the boys are doing: cooking, basketball, badminton, photography, and science 3. On the school front, things are moving along. We are still doing all of our subjects. We are slightly behind in our TOG studies, but pushing on.  We finished Fractions from Life of Fed this week, and will be starting Decimals and Percents next week. We have one more spelling list to d and then I am in search for a new spelling curriculum. I a crossing my finger for a review product coming soon that could serve as both vocabulary and spelling. This week we started a new read-aloud: Ten Boys who Made a Difference . 4. I have started planning for next year. Am I the only one? As I am planning for Zach's 7th grade year, I am keeping in mind that high school is n...

It's been a while since I did a random 5 on Friday. Life here has been going smoothly following the routine. 1. This week I got to get together with a friend I had not seen in years. It is so good to rekindle old friendship! 2. Spring seems to want to make an appearance here in Toronto, and I am so glad for the milder temperatures. 3. On the school front everything is still on target. We started Narrative II from Writing and Rhetoric last week. We all really love R&W. Watch for a review coming soon. 4. I was privileged to interview Christine Hoover about the release of her new book From Good to Grace . If you miss it make sure to check it out. 5. The boys have been enjoying our latest review product Startoaster. Watch out for the review coming up in April.

1.   My youngest and myself have been dealing with a new addiction: 2 . What we are reading? The boys have been enjoying The Brotherband Chronicles and Rangers Apprentice Series .  I have been reading Love the Journey, written by the author of Tapestry of Grace ,  and From Good to Grace .                                                                             3 . As a homeschooling mom married to a pastor, date nights are really rare. We were able to actually go out for dinner this week, and enjoyed a fine meal, thanks to a gift from one of our church members. 4. School wise, all our subjects are moving along. This week was a short week as it was family day here in Canada on Monday. 5 . We have been spending our family evening time playing a ...

It is another end of week. We had a light school week this week but still accomplished quite a bit. 1. We've had some snow on the ground since last week-end, so Monday I made sure they got to play in it outside. 2. Tuesday we had some friends over, so more time outside and some socialization in. 3. I am thinking of switching Zach's Latin curriculum because he is not doing to well with it and it is a drag to have him work on it. Since Johann is really enjoying Latin for Children, I am contemplating getting Latin Alive for him. I really hate it when I have to drop something half way through. 4. I got some second hand clothes for the boys from a friend of mine. This is so appreciated and welcomed, as Zach has been growing like crazy in the past few months. The pre-teen years are really here. 5. Talking about pre-teen years, I am having a boy who never slept in, sleep in and eating like he never did before. This is on top of my second child who normally eats...

It's Friday and time to look back at the week and what was accomplished. 1. School got done! Hooray for week 2 done. We tackled every subjects on the schedule. Love it when that happens. 2. We started volleyball with our Homeschool co-op this week.  Hooray for being out and exercising. 3 . I had a birthday this week. Yeah I am really close to the 40 mark. One more year to go. I am so thankful for God's grace on my life. 4. We are really enjoying that science kit I mentioned last week. 5. I am officially awaiting my first review for the crew this year. Yeah! Math Analogies from the Critical Thinking Co.

So, this is our first week back to School for 2015. Thank God it was a rather productive week. 1. Mom was up and running before the kids all week this week. It is amazing how it changes the atmosphere of the day and how much smoothly it all runs. 2. We had a playdate playing Settlers with some friends to whom we were teaching the game. And mom had mom to mom time yeah! 3. Johann had a little mishap at church on Wednesday night. Just a tiny argument with some chairs that caused him to get a couple of stitches on his eyebrow at the emergency that night. 4 . On the school front, we covered : Grammar with MCT Grammar Voyage,  Copywork: still in Psalm 1),  Math: Johann started Grade 6 with MCT Math and Zach is finishing up grade 6 getting ready for pre-algebra History: we started Ancient Greece this week. French: Johann is moving on very well with Getting Started with French, and Zach is continuing on with Duolingo. Latin I decided to include Read-Alouds as part ...