“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1

I want my children to see Him everytime they look at creation. I want them to marvel at His handiwork and be in awe of His power when they look at the mountains. I want them to see His beauty when they pause to look at a flower or a sunset. I want them to love and praise Him for all He’s made.

In our My Father’s World Curriculum, we are encouraged to go on a Nature Walk once a week. For anyone who is not familiar with Charlotte Mason’s educational theory, she strongly believed that children need to spend time in nature. Based on a suggestion from a friend, I purchased My Nature Journal: A Personal Nature Guide for Young People. The journal encourages children to explore, study, and learn about bugs, birds, animals, tree, plants and other wildlife. They are encouraged to draw what they find, write stories, poetry and enjoy the wonders of the outdoors. The journal is divided into five sections: the woodlands, the meadows, ponds and streams, the coast and twilight. It includes a variety of activities that is sure to interest any child.

My son and his brother went on a scavenger hunt in our yard, searching for items listed in the journal. He has also enjoyed collecting leaves and doing leaf rubbings. We have really enjoyed the Nature Walks so far and I’m hoping that once it’s not so hot outside we can explore God’s creation more than just once a week.

Linking up with Hip Homeschool Moms

This week starts our first week of homeschooling! My youngest slept in late yesterday so Ethan and I were able to get a head start without much interruption.

Our weird word of the day was “prius.” The logic riddle for the day was: The more and more I dry off, the wetter I get. What am I?

Most of our time was spent introducing Ethan to all our subjects, setting up our history time line and getting a taste of what our school year will look like. Our Bible curriculum will focus on the names of Jesus. The curriculum has us talking with our child about the meaning of their name and why we chose that name. As it turns out, because our devotional the past couple of months has been focused on the names of God, we already did an activity based on Ethan’s name. I did write a letter to him, as the curriculum suggested, explaining why we chose his name and gave him a written “blessing” of our love for him and anticipation of all God will do in his life. We are using Singapore Math, which he zoomed through. We also started First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 1 (Second Edition) (First Language Lessons), Handwriting Transition Student Worktext (Reason for Handwriting), and Spelling by Sound and Structure, Grade 2 (For Christian Schools). This week starts off easy to help transition children into the school year. That means he had lots of extra free time!

With our “My Father’s World” curriculum, we are learning about U.S. History. We’re starting with the Vikings this week and moving on to Christopher Columbus next week. During his book basket reading time, he read Time Traveller Book of Viking Raiders (Time Traveller Books), lent to us by a history teacher friend of mine. He spent a good half an hour drawing a picture inspired by his reading. I think that was his favorite activity of the day:) (probably because it was a picture of the Vikings attacking a village, swords and all)

My favorite school find: a spinning pencil caddy

I’m so glad we did a unit study on geology this summer in preparation for homeschooling this year. It helped me get a feel for what it will be like this fall and get an idea of what it’s like to work with curriculum. It gave us structure and prepared us for the year ahead. We learned a lot about the world God made and enjoyed crafts, experiments and even yummy recipes. Assuming we complete our My Father’s World curriculum by the end of this school year, I’d like to do a unit study again next summer. It was Ethan’s choice to learn about geology this summer. The options are limitless for what we can do an unit study on next summer.

sedimentary layers dessert

It was very exciting to get all the boxes of curriculum in the mail. As well as the bookcase and table I ordered for our ”school room.” Our third bedroom is now a den/guestroom/office/school room. The bookshelves on the murphy bed, the shelves in the closet and the new bookcase all house our books and supplies. The table I purchased folds up for storage when the murphy bed needs to come down or when we want to play wii. The couch is still there for watching movies but is also nice for read aloud time. The chalk board folds up for storage as well. And my husband gets to keep his little desk in the closet for his computer. Who knew one room could serve so many purposes?

Our curriculum. Most of it is from My Father’s World. I also purchased some additional items to supplement the curriculum as well as a few workbooks for my three year old.

So now that we are gearing up for homeschool, I have more questions spinning in my head. I’ve read whatever I can get my hands on about organizing and now I can’t decide what I want to use! There are so many free printables out there for weekly schedules, daily schedules, attendance taking, etc. I’m hoping that the schooling we do this summer to get us in gear before the school year kicks off will help answer at least some of those questions.

But here’s a few more for my homeschooling friends to answer:
1. Do I need to take attendance?
2. Do I need to do a report card for a first grader?
3. Should I do a weekly lesson plan and then a separate one of what we actually accomplished?
4. How far in advance should I have all the preparation done for the lessons? Weekly, monthly?
5. Would it be a good idea to do a binder for each subject?
6. Where am I going to put everything???

We’re doing a geology unit this summer. This is all the books and activities we’ll be using. Can only imagine how big the pile with be after I order everything for the school year!

I found the unit study on geology from this great site: www.oklahomahomeschool.com Week number one focuses on the earth’s composition. In week two we get to break our own geodes as we learn about rocks. The following week is on minerals (have a fun sticker book for that week) and week four is on crystals. I got a crystal growing kit which looks like it will be a fun activity. Mountains and caves come next for which we’re planning on a caving expedition next month, assuming we get our oldest’s cast off in time. After that we get to make volcanoes and learn about earthquakes, fossils, dinosaurs and more. One thing’s for sure, I will learn more than my son!

Each morning I wake my son up for school and he cries and begs not to go. I count the days until the end of the year.

I look forward to homeschooling in the fall,yet I know it won’t be easy. Some have been concerned about our decision because of the sacrifice it would be for me. I do understand the concerns and it will be a sacrifice. A sacrifice of my free time, of mental and emotional energy, and it will mean much more work for me. I think this has been a big part of my husbands hesitancy for us to make this decision. And it’s a legitimate concern. I know my limitations and with my ongoing struggle with depression, I know there will be tough roads ahead. But God is stronger than my weaknesses. In fact one of the many paradox’s in scripture is that when we are weak, then we become strong. (2 Cor 12:10) Our babysitter has asked to help out with our homeschooling and she will probably take over science for me which will be a big help.

We are going to practice doing homeschool this summer by doing a unit study on geology (a current interest of my son’s). I’m also hoping to taking him caving to get a first hand look at what we are studying. I don’t have an extra room to turn into a school room. I decided my best option is to turn my desk into a desk for my son to work on and if we need to spread out, we can use the kitchen table. My husband’s task is to find another place to move the fax machine-the huge monster that it is. I haven’t figured out where to hang all the posters, timelines and projects that I know we’ll have to find a hanging spot for. And I have no idea where I’m going to put all the things on my shelves and on my desk:) I’ve mentioned to my husband the other option is to turn our third bedroom into a school room. It currently functions as a guest room/office/playroom. It already has three jobs, why not add a new one? I also need to get advice from other homeschooling moms on good organizational ideas for all the papers, books, supplies, etc. Anyone have ideas to offer?

I’m planning on using My Father’s World curriculum. It’s a unit study based curriculum with a history focus. It was the closest I could find to what he is doing in his gifted class-all the work they do in class centers around their theme of the year, this year being world geography and cultures. I did find a gifted curriculum that is unity study based but decided to stick with one that is based on scripture instead. Stanford University has an interesting online program for gifted kids that I might explore with once we get into a groove. I found an art class to send him to once a week as well. My hope is to not get over involved in too many activities and keep a balance to our days.

Only six more weeks…