Homeschooling for His Glory

It is week 3 since school started and we are already behind. Tell me I am not the only one. Anyway I am fine with it. We did some catch up this week, along with some of our regular subjects. It would seem that I have packed our week a bit on the heavy side, so I need to spend some time this week-end to rethink our whole schedule. Here is my random 5 for this week ( and last week as well, since I missed last week): 1. We got some hands-on projects in, and started on a timeline, yeahhhh   2. Last week Friday we had a field trip on a ship. It was really cool and the boys learned a lot. 3. So thankful for the discussions our Tapestry of Grace curriculum allows Zach and I to have. Such questions on the afterlife, how we know the Bible is true and more. 4. Our library crate is getting fuller. 5. I got to meet another homeschooler this week. How exiting! On that note I am in the process of starting up a homeschool group with a friend of mine. Lots to...

   It's been three weeks since my last weekly wrap-up. Time flies. It's not that we have been super busy but more mom being lazy to sit down and write it up. In our homeschool . . . We have been trodding along in all our subjects: Handwriting : they are both getting to the end of their handwriting books which means it's time to order new ones. I am thinking of starting Joho on cursive since I have seen how it has helped improve Zach's handwriting. I really like Handwriting without Tears. Math: We are still working on divisions and fractions with Joho and fractions, and decimals with Zach along with reviews. Zach got to work on graph and probability with A+ Tutorsoft which I just reviewed for the crew . History : we started our study of the Civil War and Zach is really excited about it. We started making a lapbook. Hopefully I'll get to blog about. French is going along slowly. Spelling is still going strong thanks to the Logic of English, of wh...

Another week is over. It seems that the weeks are flying by so quickly since we the year started. We had a good week of school accomplishing the usual subject: Math, Handwriting, Science, Spelling, Grammar and History. This week we tackled China and Japan in our History. I was glad to have discovered this site this week in relation to our study this week: National Geographic Education . The new thing for tis week was starting French using French dailies from Schoolhouse Teacher s website. If you have not visited Schoolhouse Teacher make sure you do, this site is full of homeschool help on every possible homeschool school subjects. The attempt at drawing in the picture came from Schoolhouse Teachers dailies as well. We were blessed with snow all day today, so dad and I took the boys out to play in it. The boys in capes here represent their version of hobbits. Zach is creating stories after stories of hobbits adventures, and Joho is quite happy to join the part...

It's Friday and time for a school recap. I missed last week's recap for this is a run down of the last 2 weeks. In our Homeschool . . . Our school has been going smoothly: Handwriting: doing the next thing. Grammar: moving along in Practice Town Writing: we've almost completed the first part of Paragraph Town. We have learned quite a few things about the paragraph: need for order, clarity, and logic, the different kinds of paragraph. Math: Joho is working on a review product. So far so good. It is mainly review for him, even though it is a grade higher than his official grade level,  but it helps solidify what he knows. I am continuing decimals with Zach and some problem solving. History: we are wrapping up unit 2 of TOG with the Gold Rush after talking about the Oregon Trail last week. Zach can't wait to get to the Civil War part. Spelling: we are still enjoying the Logic of English . The boys especially enjoy the games (as seen on the picture...

For this second week back to school I am still happy to report that we had a good week. In my life this week… I hate to admit it but I have been enjoying not having my hubby around. I do miss him and all the things we do together, but being the independent kind of girl I am, I have been enjoying the somewhat freedom is absence is giving me. I do speak to him twice a day, that kind of helps with the void. In our homeschool this week… We had a productive week in all subjects: Handwriting, Math, History, Science, Grammar, Writing and Spelling. I started Joho on our first review product and so far I love it: A+Tutorsoft (watch out for the coming up review) Other than that, the boys are still ploying away in the Hobbit and can't get enough of the Civilization game I got Zach on his birthday, back in November. Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… I love to teach the boys together even though they are 2 years and normally 2 grades apart, however I discover...

School is almost out for the season. We are dragging it another 3 days and then it's party time, at least for the boys! You know how it goes, for us homeschool moms, break time is really planning time, isn't? I have lots of planning to do for the coming year's school schedule. Since we came back from our vacation in November I have not been doing all of the subjects I really want to cover, so it's time for a new plan. But, that put aside, what happened this week? Let's see... The boy's cantata at church went well, praise God. They both had a solo part and did quite well. On the picture they are the boys at both extremities. We've pressed on in Handwriting We've started a new spelling curriculum, which I am really excited about: The Logic of English. Watch for a review of it sometime in January. We've covered estimating or rounding, multiplying decimals, place value including decimals and continued practicing long divisions. We'...

It's Friday and time for a wrap-up. By God's grace we had a reasonably good week. Yesterday, the boys had  to have their annual check-up so we took that opportunity to go to the Science Centre afterwards. We enjoyed a sport exhibit, a space exhibit and the regular children's area. On the school front we continued on  with our regular subjects: Nouns and pronouns with Johann Verbal phrases with Zach Division, rounding and multiplying with decimal numbers Spelling Handwriting In history, Zach covered the Cherokees, and we started learning about Andrew Jackson's presidency They've read: " First Strawberries", "Cherokee Animal Tales", " A Boy Called Slow", "The boy Who Drew Birds", "Into the Woods ". Lastly, today we decided to kick off the baking season.  

We are still doing school at the Umandap's homeschool. Given that we were away for almost 4 weeks right in the middle of this first semester, I have a lot I want to have done before Christmas comes along. We are still running on a 4-day week schedule, but making progress. The plan is to do school until the 14th of December. So what have we been doing: History of course: We have tackled a 3-week study of South America with Tapestry of Grace. Zach also enjoys doing his president card activity very much and adding to his state map as we go along. Math: we have continued mastering long divisions. I think he's got it now since he can do a 3 digit divisor and 5 digits dividend almost without any problem. I started long divisions with Joho and it seems to be going well. English: We are finishing up Grammar Town, but since I find that the abrupt introduction of verbal phrases was too much, I am taking a break to teach Zach about the 3 verbal phrases (infinitive, gerund and...

So, we are back from our vacation in the Philippines, visiting my hubby's family, and enjoying some rest and beaches. I thank God for smooth traveling and a good time over on the other side of the world. As some of you have already seen, Zach got a nice souvenir from his trip. Hopefully it will fade away eventually. The kids are still adjusting to the jetlag. We have been back for a week and they are still flat out by 6 or 7:00 PM every night, and up by 5 or 6 AM in the morning. I actually do not mind this schedule for them. It gives us quiet date-like evenings. Hubby and I are still adjusting too as we get pretty sleepy in the afternoon, but we are able to hold on and get a good night of sleep (at least I am). This week was all about unpacking (forgot to take a picture of the mess we created when we came back), tidying the house, do some grocery, laundry and getting some school done. I managed to fit in some Math, English, History, handwriting and spelling, not bad I thi...

I know it has been ages since I wrote anything about what is happening at our house. I hope you have been enjoying my reviews from TOS, and have found some helpful info on homeschool resources out there. Our life here has been going business as usual, it is just that I have not been taking the time to come here, and update everything that has been going. I find that time goes by so quickly, and to be franc, my writing and sharing impulses have been lacking. Anyway that said, I just thought, for my own records, it would be a good idea to document what we have been up to in the past couple of months. I guess I will go month by month, starting with August since my last wrap-up was at the end of July. August: Summer was marked by some schooling and some outing. In August the major one was our 4-day long church family camp. The boys really enjoy camping. Us, the parents, only started venturing into this camping thing since we joined our new church 2 years ago,and are still developi...