As we walk by the way

Our School Year So Far

2009-08-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a good job of blogging about our school work so far, but as we get into a routine, I'm hopeful that I will also get into a school blogging routine.

In looking at where the children are in their Math progress, Jonathan and I realized that we need to play catch up. So this school year is going to be much more focused on Math than usual. Davey, Barak, Ellie, and Josiah will each be doing two lessons per day in their Ray's arithmetic. Katie is on track with her Ray's arithmetic, and will also be doing two math lessons each day, and working the Ray's work for third grade.

We started math the week of July 20th, and the children are getting the hang of it. We had some breaks in our schedule in July, but August so far as been steady at least 2 hours per day, 5 days per week. I expect that to continue.

Some special highlights from July:
Independence Day gave some good opportunities to discuss and learn about our founding fathers and the roots of the United States.
Our trip to the Creation Museum chalked up at least 8 hours of science learning, and during our time at Ozark Family Camp we were blessed with over 13 hours of great Bible teaching!

June thus far

2009-06-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a good job of consistently blogging about schooling, but the kids have been doing a great job of get school work done with Katie, which is our main goal for the remainder of this school year. I just counted up her hours this month so far, and we only need to log 16 more core hours for her.

We'll continue to do some schooling, even after Katie's hours are done, especially math. And I'll be working on constructing a plan for this next year for everyone as well.

Prospectus

2009-05-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I finally got a couple more months of hours added up and confirmed that the four older kids have well over their 1,000 hours for the school year. Katie...not so much. However, getting everything added up made it possible to come up with a plan for the remainder of her school year.

So, while the older kids continue to do math each day, they will each also have a task that they help Katie complete for her school progress. There are also a couple of independent/mommy supervised tasks that she'll have each day. Even with time off for a much anticipated visit from Aunt Beka and the Cousins, she should be done by the end of June.

May 17-23

2009-05-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I didn't finish this post and post it at the end of the week of May 23rd. I was attempting to create a post throughout the week to publish on Saturday, because that seemed like it would be an easy way to do it. Not so sure about that method now, but I'll try again when we really get going with school again (probably August).

Sunday -
We enjoyed being at BBC for Breaking of Bread, the coffee break prayer meeting, and the teaching meeting. Jim Price shared some fascinating historical accounts of events in the 40 years following the death and resurrection of Christ.

The Week that Was

2009-05-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try updating during the week but just accumulating the week's account in one post to be published on Sat. or Sun. I liked doing it that way this week; we'll see how it goes.

On Tuesday, we were able to visit Grant's Farm in St. Louis with Mama Byrd, Dad & Mom Smith, Aunt Joyce, and Sarah & Blessings. It was a fun, relaxed excursion. The bird show was particularly educational, and it was neat to see the birds at such close quarters. There was one owl who got very stubborn and didn't want to leave the stage, providing us with several extra informative tidbits as the MC tried to fill time.

Wednesday, we enjoyed Jonathan reading to us from Prince Caspian after supper.

Thursday, the older kids enjoyed a game of Farkle with Gramma Byrd (on Papa and Gramma's last day to visit us). There was also lots of extra reading time for Kate, Grace, and Stephen with Gramma.

Saturday was a day of room cleaning and relaxation. The kids enjoyed Georgia being over for several hours and getting to play games with her.

The only day we missed our math and reading summer routine was Tuesday.

Monday Gardening, etc

2009-05-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

We got 49 tomato and pepper plants planted in the garden yesterday. Josiah was a big help with the tomatoes, and Katie pulled weeds for me. Later in the day, Barak helped me break up the ground and make hills for planting the winter squash.

All five older kids helped with caring for the chicks and ducklings we got last week. This will be a steady thing.

We're to the point where we're doing Math and a couple hours of Reading each day for "core" school work. Katie and Grace also did some phonics card review yesterday.

Mother's Day and week recap

2009-05-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

This morning at church, we watched a Moody Classics Science video on the properties, effects, etc, of water. Lots of great information and photography!

3rd meeting message was on 2 Cor. 6.11 - 7.16. Good discussion on the way home, due to some questionable hermeneutics in the message.

Last week, we did math 3 days, and had reading time at least 4 days (2 hrs). Lots of game playing, too (at least 2 hrs each of Thinking-Skills-worthy playing). A week full of exceptions, due to a welcome visit from Papa and G'ma Byrd.

An afternoon at Shaw

2009-05-09T21:33:00.001-07:00

We had a terrific afternoon at Shaw Nature Reserve today - had a great walk (about 3 miles) with the Papa and Mama Byrd and Mom Smith. Then, frozen pizza, apple salad, bacon/cream cheese/jalepeno things for supper, and a fun game of Farkle after the kids went to bed. Whew!

We took quite a few pictures that we will be identifying this next week. It's neat to see the kids paying attention to the details in nature, noting the number and shape of leaves, flower petals, etc.

I'll post pictures soon.

Introduction

2009-05-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

As Jonathan and I have been reviewing the actual text of our state's home education statutes, we have decided to make some adjustments in the way that we keep our school records. This blog is part of those changes, and while its purpose is primarily for the purpose of recording the day to day activities of our home education journey, any blessing and enjoyment that you receive from it will be icing on the cake.

The verses in the header express some of the most important of our goals in choosing to educate our children at home. Sometimes, though, it is easy to miss the value of the teaching that happens along the way. Our hope is that this blog with serve both as part of our record keeping system and as a tool to capture important memories and moments.