Homeschooling for His Glory

      What is Kinderbach ? Kinderbach is a piano curriculum for preschoolers . It is comprised of 6 levels,  each with 10 weeks, which in turn have 4 lessons. Level 7 is being created.  From the website: "The KinderBach curriculum is a proven teaching method which gives children a solid music foundation, aligned with the  MENC National Standards for Pre-K , that can translate to any instrument.  Basics are basics and KinderBach covers them using language children understand.  Youngsters will learn music vocabulary, note reading, rhythm, physical technique, ‘do, re mi’ singing, listening skills and music composition plus the joy in making music. " Kinderbach is available as an online curriculum that can be used on any computer or portable devices such as Ipad, or Blakberry playbook. No download necessary. Kinderbach is geared towards kids ages 3-7. Kinderbach is available for   music education in classroom setting  or music education at  home. For

So here we are at the last week of The Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts and Minds. This week we are invited to share how we fit everything all together. I think, according to my readings, very few of us homeschoolers actually fit it all together. We certainly do our best though. So, what do we do? For us, at our house, we try to keep focussed on the goal, and I mean the end goal. We want to raise children who love the Lord and who love learning. We want to equip them to be life-long learners and thinkers. So to this end we: Try to do some degree of classical study, grammar, and english studies Try to make sure they get educated properly in Math Enlarge their world and critical thinking through the studies of the humanities We make sure they get spiritually fed and theologically educated. We try to have good examples before them I want to make it clear that I use the word TRY because this is not always consistent or to the degree we wa

1.  This week the boys started volleyball lessons with our homeschool group and it was a lot of fun. 2.  Science experiment, courtesy of one of Zach's christmas gift: 3. How a lesson in perimeter became soccer matches on the board: 4. Mama's heart is happy, her 2 boys picked Hardy Boys Secret Files to read and are enjoying them. Zach read one of them in less that 2 hours. Next, the real Hardy Boys . 5. Team work for Pizza making: 6.  The kids and I are liking the new TV show on TVO Kids (also available on the net),  Finding Stuff Out. 7. I survived 2 weeks without my hubby around, as he is away to California for school (Dmin program). Praise God! Routine had gone out the window, but we did manage to accomplish some school and keep the house in order.

It is the 2nd to last week of the Virtual Curriculum  Fair . I have to say it has been fun. This week we tackle the topic:   Seeking Beauty: the Arts and Everything that Brings Beauty to Our World Well, here in our home, art is certainly present, but in a very informal way. My boys love to draw and do crafts. They both have a very good imagination and come up with ideas out of the blue, or get inspired by their obsession of the moment . Zach loves to draw and often do just that when he is bored. He has even endeavored to teach his brother to draw. This has been ongoing. They love watching shows such as Artzooka and Mister Maker. Of course doodling on his worksheets is a standard for Zach as well. Where does it Fit They are both in music lesson: Zach in Violin and Joho in piano. They love playing on the piano and they both love to sing. It was so much fun to hear them singing the songs they sang at our Christmas Cantata weeks after Christmas , while paying in

It's week 3 of the Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted @ Homeschooling Hearts and Minds . It's time to talk Social Studies and Science, you know History, Geography etc... Well, here in our homeschool, we love Tapestry of Grace . Tapestry of Grace is a History Curriculum that follows the classical way of studying the humanities: 4 year cycle that you repeat 2 or 3 times at different levels of learning: Grammar stage, Logic stage and Rhetoric stage. So far we have done year 1: Ancient Time, and are doing year 2: Middle Ages to Early Modern Time, and love it. What we love about TOG: The buffet of books to read in history, literature, geography, and Church History. The buffet of hands on activities to choose from: salt dough maps, helmets, viking ships etc.. The reformed biblical perspective from which the author wrote, without it being overpowering. It covers geography pretty extensively though mapping, vocabulary, and exposure to cultures. The emphasis on interaction and

God of Ages By Hillsong God of ages bringing glory here You are good, You are good Son of righteousness You are all I see With all my heart PreChorus: Giver of life hope for the lost is in You All of the earth shines with Your light Your glory Chorus: You are the God who lives, You are the God who heals Who are my hope my everything You brought salvation to us offered your peace to the earth You are my Lord my everything Verse 2: In Your promise and Your faithfulness I will trust all my days King forever great in majesty Be glorified Bridge: I'll trust in You, i'll trust in You I'll trust in You with all my heart

1.   We HAVE SNOW. Hooray! Can you imagine this our real snow fall of the season, and we are in the middle of January. 2.   We bought a new car (well not so new, it's a 2010), since our car was written off after my accident around Christmas. We don't have the car yet but hopefully soon. 3.   Praise God for another year. It was my birthday today. My meal (courtesy of hubby): My gift: 4.    Found out the best way to see if your child understands a concept, have him explain it to his sibling (especially to one that is younger. It's great! 5.  Joho started his piano lessons this week. So far so good. Can't wait for the 2 of them to play together. Joho at the piano and Zach at the violin. 6.  The boys learned how to play Backgammon this week, thanks to a free app on my playbook (Have I mentioned how much I love my playbook!!!!!). 7. Joho learned division this week, at his request. At devotion time when it was time to say something you are thankful for gue

When we think of homeschooling usually we think Grammar, Reading, Math, Science, History and such. Often time, subjects like Arts and Music get pushed to the side. Well, really it does not have to and in fact shouldn't be. There is lots of value to teaching art and music. It develops the brain in many different ways but especially in the area of creativity and enrichment. That said I was quite excited to have been chosen to review a product from Maestro Classics. We all love music at our house. My 8 year old has been learning violin for the past 2 years, and my 6 year old just started piano this week. So I much anticipated this CD. What is Maestro Classics you may ask? Maestro Classics is a company that produces stories in music on CDs, for children ages 5-12.  The CDs are entertaining and educational. They have won over 45 national awards.  The CDs alternate music with talking, explanations with musical adventures. It includes information about the life and times of t

This week is week 2 in the Virtual Curriculum Fair Hosted by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts and Minds , and it's time to talk about Math. Math in our homeschool is not so much of a headache, but does take lots of re-evaluating. Both my boys learn differently but I can't afford to invest in 2 different curriculum. When we first started I picked up Horizon K. I liked it but my oldest, then 5, did not think much of it. For him it was too much writing. In grade 1 I switched to Singapore and it was a good fit until grade 2 when he started complaining again about too much writing. Since I had noticed that Zach did not know his facts I experimented with Professor B (which two years ago was the choice if you wanted to later on move on to Life of Fred). This lasted for about 4 months. The boys really did not like it, even though I thought the concepts were well taught and the drills and exercises would indeed help them master their facts. It was a bit overkill but I could antic

I find it always interesting to see or hear what others use in their homeschool, and how they make a certain curriculum work for them. So,when I heard about the Homeschool Curriculum Fair over at Homeschooling Hearts and Minds  I thought this would be great to participate in.  Every week in January we will let you in on how we tackle a different school subject in our respective homeschooling homes. The first week of the fair, which is this week, is dedicated to Language Arts. So, I'll tell you a bit of how I do Language Arts at our house. First off when I think Language Arts I think of Reading, Literature,  Phonics, Spelling, Grammar, Writing, Vocabulary and Comprehension. Now, my boys are 6 and 8 and not all of these subjects need to be taught at that age level, so I don't. Both my boys read early without formal training except for Starfall (after I noticed that they actually sight read). When they were preschoolers they watched lots of Blues' Clues and Super W