Homeschooling for His Glory

A Neutral Education  : " Let me repeat: I am not saying that truth is unknowable. Instead I am saying that  we should approach claims on the part of a textbook and curriculum publisher to know the truth with great, great caution (not to say suspicion). God has not revealed His truth through publishers. He has revealed it within the context of a faithful, local worshipping community. " Incomplete Answers When you ask "How to get my husband helping around the house and with the kids?" Have you seen the Advent devotional put out by John Piper: Good News of Great Joy . It is a free download so don't miss out! Encourage Your Child to Read Flexibility and Creativity with a Classical Education There is a great giveaway going on now right now till the 6th of December which you don't want to miss: 3rd Annual Black Friday Giveaway . Make sure to check it out.

1. Our Christmas tree and decorations are up, thanks to my youngest pushing for it and doing most of the work. I got to say I am happy it is up as I always enjoy the lights around Christmas time. 2. We have been back from vacation and back to regular schooling. We thank God for a good family time playing board games together, and enjoying His creation up in Quebec. 3. We ended our fall session of electives this week. Now the boys will be looking forward to a sport/volleyball session starting in January. 4. Zach has grown to the point that he needs to get a 1/2 size violin now. 5. I was glad to hear that I get to do another year with the TOS crew. I really enjoy finding out and trying curricula.

It's been almost a month since my last 5 on Friday. We have been busy around here. 1. We had a nice family gathering on Thanksgiving back on the 14th of October with my parents, visiting all the way from the Caribbean. 3.  We got to enjoy a field trip at our new Lego Discovery Science here in Toronto.  It was small but the workshop was fun, and the boys enjoyed a shooting ride, and a 4D movie. 4.  I was pleased to be able to find some goodies at our electives' used book sale. 5.  I was able to make up a few worksheets from scratch for our school. One is an invention worksheet, the other one a biography worksheet. It is funny, the boys were quite impressed by my work. Hooray for mom! 6. We are enjoying a week vacation in the province of Quebec right now.

French Essentials is an online downloadable French curriculum with online features. From their website you can read: " FE   targets the four language acquisition skills (reading, writing, listening comprehension & speaking) in a unique way using a multi-sensorial communicative approach that cannot be duplicated by programs that use the "audio only" approach. By using both high quality audio and video, students see   French in action   and interact in a fun and stimulating way with the language." I was first exposed to French Essentials through Schoolhouse Teachers a few months back, and really enjoyed using it with my then 4th grader. So, when it came for review I was excited to be able to use some more of it. We were given for the review a full year access to the whole program, which consists of 5 modules, each in turn consisting of 15 to 25 lessons. There are 5 other modules still in the works as well. It is written by a couple living in Quebec,

We are approaching the end of our crew run and one of our last two review products is truly a gem in the homeschool community. IXL is an online interactive program for kids in grade PreK - 12 offering Math and Language Arts practice. We were blessed to received both programs to use and review. We used both programs with both the boys, grade 3 and 5.  IXL is basically a practice program that allows for the student to practice and review concepts. IXL lets you practice concepts in each grades according to the standards of each different States in the USA, and in over 8 other countries. It is important to note that the Language Arts portion of the program is only available in the USA at the moment and only goes up to grade 4 so far. More grades are to come. As can be assumed the amount of skills practiced increases with each grade going from about 41 in Pre-K to 280 in grade 10. You can see all the topics covered here . IXL is mainly a practice and drill program, so