Homeschooling for His Glory

This year's TOS crew run has been filled with great, interesting products to review. One of our latest product was an online music lessons.     MacPhail Center for Music is a community resource dedicated to providing quality Music instruction to all students of all background and abilities. This includes kids from K-12. MacPhail is one of the largest comminity music school in the USA and is a leader in the field of Early Childhood Program, Suzuki Talent Program and Music Therapy Program. Their staff is comprised of highly qualified and experienced music teachers and musicians. 85% of the teachers hold master degrees in their field of music and are accomplished musicians with ongoing professional development. The center operates out of Minneapolis but includes 5 locations in total in and around the area. They offer both online and in person lessons. MacPhail offers music education and learning in 35 instruments, including Piano, Violin, Guitar, Trombone, flute, and also

I have quite a few stuff that need to leave my house and make room for some needed cash. So here is a list of what I am selling. Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment as to what you are interested in. The prices are negociable. To note:  I am in Canada, and all the prices listed exclude shipping. Reference Books: My First Encyclopedia (Parragon Publishing)  -  $5 DK Eye Wonder Earth  - $2 The Usborne Book of World History  -  $10 A Treasury of Children's Poems  -  $3 T he Great Dinosaur Mystery  by PAul S. Taylor-  $10 The Children's Book of Virtues  edited by William J. Bennet  - $8 Devotion books: A Little Boy After God's Own Heart  by Jim and Elizabeth George -  $5 Teach Them to Your Children  by Sarah Wean - $10 Lessons in Responsibility for Boys   from Pearables: The Christian Gentleman's series -  $10 Family Time Bible Storybook (dinged corners)  - $8 Curriculum:   Evan-Moor Daily Geography Practice grade 1  -$8 Ev

The Old Schoolhouse Expo has been under way since Monday and lots of good speakers have already shared a lot of wonderful insights. We had topics such as: 5 Commons Mistakes Homeschoolers Make The Lay Child Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All day Top Ten Myths about Classical Education The Art of Reading from Suess to Socrates: Teaching the Classics at Home There is still two more days left so do not wait and get your ticket. In addition all of the sessions are being recorded, and all of the recordings are included in your ticket price. So this is a win-win situation. I myself have not been able to listen to the ones I was really looking forward to, and am certainly looking forward to the recordings to listen to at my leisure. So head on over and get your ticket now! The Price is now $17.

It is this time of year when planning is in full swing in many homeschool homes. Ours is not exempt. Tapestry of Grace is one of those curriculum, because of its richness, needs planning in order to sift through the buffet of learning it offers. Last year I tried a system that I did not really followed through, so this year I have to come up with another. Here is my attempt. The process I am presenting here will be done unit by unit. Before the year starts, for Unit 1: decide what will be done on what days: compile an assignment schedule detailing for each week:  * the readings for history and literature, * map work * timeline work * activities * vocabulary to be learned   Print out the maps needed for each week. Week before: Order books from the library (preferably early in the week or better yet 2 weeks before). Mark the pages in each books that we are going to read together. Gather supplies for projects  Our weekly schedule: Monday:  

Today I was reminded of the truth of Romans 1 about the fact that God has given every human beings a sense of His existence. " The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20   For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21   For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." So here is how a conversion with my soon to be 8 year old went this afternoon, which started out of nowhere (which is typical of him): Joho:  " How do we know that God exists ?" Me:  " The Bible tells us so ." Joho

I do not know about you, but I am really looking forward to the Old Schoolhouse Expo coming up in a couple of week. You will be encouraged, challenged and come away with new ideas and tips for your homeschooling journey, weather you are new at it or a veteran homeschooler. Have you checked it out yet? Ok, here is a teaser: Terri Johnson: Facing the Giant: Homechooling Through High School Todd Wilson: Taming the Techno Beast Jessica Hulcy :  Multi-Level Teaching Dr. Jay Wile: Texbook Myths and How to Deal with Them Kim Kautzer : The Lazy Child Marie Rippel: Effective Teaching Methods for Struggling Learners Deborah Wuehler : Prayer, Power and Perseverance Barbara Beers : Spelling, and Grammar, and Latin, OH MY! AND: Carol Topp Adam Andews Andrew Pudewa Hal and Melanie Young Malia Russell  . . .  and more Interested yet? August 19-23, 2013 1:00pm-8:00pm (Eastern) / 10:00am-5:00pm (Pacific) $24 You can register here . Don

On our last post in this series, it is now time to put things together. How can I talk about a relaxed classical homeschooling style? The way I see it, classical and relaxed can work quite well together. Classical homeschooling focusses on what needs to be achieved and sought for. It is about goals, that of teaching my kids truths, values, beauty, goodness. Relaxed homeschooling addresses the way or atmosphere in which education is pursued and done. As much as I hold to a classical philosophy of education, I do not think that it has to necessarily be done in a very rigid way. The way I make sure that my kids are classically homeschooled is in the kind of material or curriculum we use. I am very eclectic in our curriculum choices, but I usually tend to choose material that emphasizes the areas I mentioned on day 3 of this series. Materials that focus on: Language Arts skills Critical thinking and logic Good books of literature History and humanities Even as I make sur

Now that we have explored Classical Education, it is time to turn to the notion of relaxed  homeschooling. What is relaxed homeschooling and what do I understand by it? Relaxed homescholing can be understood as a way of life and a mindset toward education which really is what homeschooling is all about. In practice a relaxed homeschooling focuses on an atmosphere of learning. Education and learning does not have to be fun but it does have to take place in the context of everyday living. That is one of the reason why we homeschool. The intention is not so much to do "school at home", as much as to "home educate". There is a difference. The difference lies in the structure and form of doing school. Relaxed homeschooling is not equivalent to unschooling. In relaxed homeschooling there is structure, goals and plans. The way this is followed through is where things get different and creative. In a relaxed setting, more than the goals, philosophy, methodolog

" Christian education has become something of a lost science. Not only have Christians done very little to prepare their children to become godly intellects, but intellectual incompetence has been seen as the true helpmate of vital spirituality. A soft mind has been seen as a vital tool in the pursuit of a soft heart. In our day, mental rigor and a vigorous intellectual pursuit have became equated with doctrinal rigidity and cold spirituality . " (Fritz Hinrichs) This quote is reflective of the reason why we have opted for a classical education in our homeschool. We do not desire, nor aspire to raise kids who do not have a mental rigor and are intellectually incompetent. We have lost our way through the ages as to what we as christian should be doing. We have turned our christianity into a set of rules, into moralism, instead of the proclamation of the kingdom of God, and of a reigning king that rules and owns all things. " Until a hundred years ago, Christians

Looking for something to spice up your science, this review is for you. If you like to add videos to your homeschool, or if your kids learn well with videos and visuals, BrainFood Learning  products are for you to check out. From the website: "BrainFood Learning was started by parents of two small children looking for stimulating and interesting content that educates as well as entertains. We didn't find what we were looking for and decided to make the "Fascinating World of..." video series." Indeed that is what Brainfood Learning videos are: stimulating and interesting, content-packed videos. The company offers, so far, Fascinating World of: Birds Mammals Insects The videos are full of content, using wide range of words and concepts, and showing animals in their habitats. The images are clear, inviting and attractive with nice close-up. There is no definite target age, as these videos can be watched by a child as young as two, overt

So what is Classical Education? This question can be a challenge to answer. Classical education can be understood as a method, a school of thought or as a philosophy. Really it is all of the above.Classical education has a history, into which I will not enter in here, but at its essence classical education is a philosophy or a model of education as I mentioned in my post yesterday. Classical education gets its roots from a medieval model of education. It centers around a goal, and a pedagogy to accomplish and attain that goal. This goal can be defined in two ways: to teach children how to think and learn for themselves by giving them the tools of learning and foundations for interpretations. In this light Christian classical education wants to " produce students who have a solid intellectual understanding of the Truth, have passionate hearts to the Truth and have the ability to express this understanding and love to a needy world ." (Biola University Article).

When it comes to homeschooling, the methods and philosophies abound. That is why each family has to know for itself what they are trying to accomplish and how they intend to accomplish it. From the start Classical education attracted me and caught my attention. In order to understand where I stand I will start with our family's definition and understanding of education and what we as parents are called to do, and that from a biblical point of view, since we are a Christian family. Education : A dictionary definition would be "the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction." We all recognize that life is a learning process from the time we are born to the time we die. One is never finished learning about himself and about the world around him. Our task as parents therefore revolves around equipping, guiding, and coaching our kids in that ever ending task of learning and growth as individuals. As believers our task is even deeper than that, given that w

Have you heard? The Old Schoolhouse is having a Homeschool Expo in mid-August. In the past I have really enjoyed attending the online expos coming from the Old Schoolhouse. The speakers are of qualities, and I found that online conferences are a great alternative financially to the actual real physical ones, at least in our present situation. Date: Aug. 19-23 Cost: $24 So, go check it out and watch for a giveaway right here on my blog next week. Speaker info, here Schedule info,   here

The past few weeks have been busy for us. So, here are 5 random events that characterized our month of July: 1.   We had a wonderful Daily Vacation Bible School at our church last week. We praise the Lord for his blessings and all the fun the kids had. 2.   Hubby and I rarely go to the movies but we were able to do so in july, and enjoyed watching Star Trek: Into Darkness. 3.  We finally gave in and subscribed to Netflix. I am a bit disappointed though, that because we are in Canada, we are missing out on a lot of cool stuff only available on Netflix in the USA 4.   We also had a cherry picking / hiking in the Niagara Fall area. It was a lot of fun! 5.  My plans to doing some school this summer did not quite work out, so we ended up taking July off as we have done in previous year. School will resume on the 3rd week of August. I'll try to see if I will be able to do some of what I had planned for the summer in those first 2 weeks of August. As a e