Michelle's Family

"The greatest gift a church can receive is to have a group of families who take their responsibilities with such Christian seriousness that they are

willing to completely alter their lifestyle to raise up disciples for Jesus Christ." 

I am adding this because the really cool website that I mentioned before is no longer free.  So I decided to just add the books we were interested in listening to here so my kids and me can enjoy it. These are all public domain audio books.  You can get listen to these books and others on the LibriVox website.

Most of these are books that I thought would enhance our study of American History. 

American History Stories Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt.

American History Stories Volume 2 by Mara L. Pratt.

 Hero Tales from American History by Henry Cabot.

Four Great Americans by James Baldwin.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

American Indian Fairy Tales retold by William Larned

Short Story Collection

African-American Collection (includes Frederick Douglas)

St. Bartholomew's Eve by G.A. Henty

Okay, I'll be adding more of these I can see.  I love this...

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

A woman in our home school support group has put together a wonderful website with free audio books.  She actually has the books set up chapter by chapter, which is great since not many people could sit down and listen to an entire book in one sitting.  We are currently studying American History, so we are using one of the books she's set up called American History Stories Volume 2 by Mara L. Pratt.  Anyhow, this is an excellent resource and extremely well put together.

http://myaudioschool.blogspot.com/

We just survived our Holidays and it was wonderful.  However, we've had a nice, long break to enjoy each other and to worship our savior.   But break is over.  Back to the school grind. 

We got a cool new school toy for Christmas.  Okay.  I bought it for me.  I loved my sister's Eye Clops, so I bought one for myself....er....the family.  It's a really neat magnifying thingy that you can save the images onto a computer thumb drive thingy, and then look at the images on the puter.  OR you can hook it up to the TV, and look at the images on the TV.  It comes in 100x, 200x and 400x magnification.  Very cool.   Here a few of the cool images we took pictures of with our Eye Clops. 

  This was hair on someone's arm!    This was the back of one of the kids hand.

  This was ???  hair???  eye lashes????  doggy fur???? 

We can also make videos of what we're looking at!  Check these out: 

 This was a stick that Michael was looking at.

This was actually the bottom of Timmy's foot.  Disgusting! 

What else are we doing...besides playing with our magnifying thingy? 

Well, we've been reading a novel for history named, Sarah's New World:  The Mayflower Adventure.  This book is historical fiction and is packed full of FUN history.  Michael is doing Exploring America for this subject.  He's choosing to not do his work.

Math update:  Timmy has finished his 3rd grade math, and has finally started his 4th grade math, complete with D.I.V.E. cd.  However, I discovered yesterday, that he's not been doing his lessons as he's supposed to...and lying about it.  I'm so dissappointed in him.  Sarah is doing fine in her Saxon math.  Stephen is doing well with Teaching Textbooks.  This is an expensive curriculum, but very good. Michael is using TT also, and I hope he'll finish his Algebra 1 this year. I can't determine if he's having an issue understanding this subject or if he's just lazy.

English/American Lit update:  Stephen, Timothy and Sarah are really learning LOTS  with our English grammar this year.  We are using Shurley English and I must say, I'm remembering/learning lots too!  However, next year I'm not sure we'll be using it again because it takes too long for me to teach....and I have too many children to teach to spend this much time on one subject.  So I will at least be looking for another English.  Michael is using Exploring America for this subject.  He's choosing to not do it consistently as well. 

Science update:  Stephen is working on Apologia's General Science.  It's a great curriculum, however, he doesn't like parts of it.  No fault of the curriculum, he just doesn't like certain sciences.  Sarah and Timothy love their Apologia Botany curriculum. We're about to start growing some seeds...and the kids are so excited.  LOL, seems kind of boring to me.  Michael has decided that he's finished enough of his Algebra 1 to start his Apologia Chemistry. 

Bible update:  We have been studying our catechism-like questions each week and Stephen, Timothy and Sarah have been memorizing them weekly.  In addtion to that, the kids listen to a Your Story Hour bible story each day.  They are truly learning more about God's word this way this year and I've seen consistent growth and progress with them this year.  Michael is supposed to be doing Exploring America for this subject.  Life is about choices and he's not making such good ones now.  He is, however, reading his Bible daily and for this I am thankful.  I'd rather he do that than just about anything.  He keeps me on my knees.

Piano- Stephen and Sarah are making marvelous strides, thanks be to God and their instructor.  They are playing so beautifully.  Sarah asked today if she could quit because she doesn't like practicing.  Nope.  She can't.

Art - Timothy and Mandio have started art lessons.  They both love art and are my very talented artists.  I think this will be very good for them....especially for Timmy. 

Soccer will start soon so we have to sign Stephen up for that.  I'm looking into some activities that Michael can participate in....probably Karate. 

Dance classes.  Sarah and Jasmine would like to take dance lessons, so I am looking for classes for them now.  It's hard because so much of the dances are very provocative...and my girls will NOT participate in such.  Nor will I allow them to dress immodestly...not even in the name of "costume".  I've had several great leads where the girls dance to Christian praise music and are taught that dancing is to worship God.  I love that but they are all far away and/or on Wednesday night when we have church. 

That's it for us!  Academic progress for most of us.  Life lessons being taught for others.  Question is, are the ones being taught the life lessons listening?

I've spent a considerable amount of time looking for a list of free, simple, Bible memory verses for my preschoolers on the internet and finally realized it'd be quicker just to write my own.  So far I just have one school year's worth (one a week for 36 weeks).  So if you are interested here is my list of Preschool Bible Memory Verses.  I plan to have a full years worth eventually (52 weeks) so there are some blank spaces for the other weeks that I haven't gotten around to yet. 

On another note, someone mentioned to me that preschoolers are capable of much more most people think when it comes to memorizing scripture.  I agree completely.  However, I wanted to explain my thoughts on the matter.  I have 7 children,  ages 1,3, 5, 8, 9, 12 and 15.  With all of these kids, they have brought different gifts and talents to our family.  For some, memorization has been simple.  However, for most it's relatively challenging....not extremely, but just enough to make them have to work at it.  In the past, my kids have been involved in AWANAS and won awards for memorization, memorized the 10 Commandments from the Old Testament, and other looonnnnggg passages of scriptures .  I know it CAN be done. This being said, I also have noticed that memorizing small bits of scripture with my preschoolers is much more productive most of the time (at least in my kids case).   They understand more when it is a short well-chosen verse.  So with that being said, I deliberately chose very short and simple, but powerful verses.  My goal in having my preschoolers memorize scripture is:

1.) To establish the habit of memorizing God's word

2.)  Help them hide God's truths in their heart

3.) Teach them self-discipline. 

 For my children, I think that's best done with short, poignant scriptures. Slow and steady wins the race:)  So if you find yourself feeling the same and can use this simple list, please help yourself to it. 

Preschool Bible Memory Verses

Most of my friends have already picked their highschool history for next year.  But just in case you haven't, I think I love ours.  We haven't officially started it yet, but as I'm reading through it, I just like it more and more.  It will cover 3 credits next year for Michael: Bible, American History and English/Literature. 

We are going to be using Exploring America: History, Literature, and Faith by Ray Notgrass.  Because it covers Literature, it came with the Literature recommendations.  Admittedly, I've not had time to read most of the books, so I'm going to have to trust the author on his choices, but considering his conservative Christian views and Michael's age, I feel very comfortable with this.  So if you haven't picked an American History curriculum, I'd recommend you look into this one. 

My disclaimer:  I always discover more about curriculums as we go...this one will be no different.  We've not even begun this curriculum yet, so proceed with caution.  I can't give a full, uninhibited recommendation until I do go through the curriculum completely.

This year, I've decided to start things out a little different than normal.  We usually start school back the first Monday after Labor Day.  This year, we started the day Mando started, however, we are easing into it.  After Mando leaves, we finish breakfast and hygiene.  Then we start with Bible.  We do our bible study and devotions.  I'm using Kids4Truth as a guide for our Bible, and I've been taking our devotion from Oswald Chamber's, My Utmost for His Highhest.  I'm thinking I will probably switch different devotionals throughout the year.  I like Keys For Kids a lot also.   Sometimes we do the online devotion, and sometimes we read a written one from one of our KFK devotion books.  Sometimes, I just read a Proverb or Psalm.  I'll mix that it up throughout the year. 

After Bible, I am doing History with Sarah, Timothy and Stephen.  All of them are really enjoying this alot so far.  We're using Time Travellers History, New World Explorers right now.  We will study American History all year long, using other history topics from the same company. 

That was all we did for the first 3 days last week.  This week, I have added math to Stephen's day, and Explode the Code to Sarah and Timothy's day.  Oh, and Timothy is having to complete LAST years math.   He thought he had gotten by with it, but WAHAHAHA, WAAAHAHAHAHA (my evil laugh), he did not.  He's very upset that he doesn't get to start his Saxon 5/4 WITH a d.i.v.e. cd yet.  I'm not sympathetic.  That's part of my evil side.  No sympathy.

Still working on my schedule and calendar. 

School is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to another school year.  I always get so excited about school starting back.  I'm totally dreading the day that I will no longer be homeschooling.  I learn as much as they do, and I will not have any excuse to buy history curriculums once my kids are done with school.

This year has been particularly expensive for us though.  We don't usually spend this much money, and I doubt we will spend this much for a long, long time.

This is what I have purchased.

2 laptops $1200

1 printer  $150 (with $75 rebate)

HSLDA membership fee $180 for 2 year membership

Rosetta Stone Spanish $480 (3 years worth)

For English:

Shurley Grammar 3 homeschool set $56, plus extra workbook $10, plus (2) extra practice books  $14 (for Sarah and Timothy)

U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons Volume 1 $50 (for Stephen)

Daily Grams (bought last year) (for Stephen and Michael)

Exploring America $150 (for Michael, this course is a history, bible and english course combined)

various literature books ($100)

For Math:

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 $185 (Michael)

Teaching Textbooks Math 7 $150 (Stephen)

Saxon 54 w/D.I.V.E cd $95 (Timothy)

Saxon 3 Workbook, test book and meeting book $20 (Sarah)

For History:

Some of the other subjects are going to be cross studied with History, like Stephen's English curriculum)

Time Travelers History Studies, 4 volumes on CD, basically the American history set from explorers to the early 19th century $120 (for Stephen, Timothy, and Sarah)

Timeline figurines $30 (all of the kids)

Exploring America $90 plus the Literature books (for Michael.  Includes three subjects in one, English, US History, and Bible)

For Science:

Exploring Creation with General Science and the science experiment kit $83  (for Stephen)

Exploring Creation with Chemistry and the science experiment kit $102 (Michael)

Exploring Creation with Botany and science kit, bought last year (For Sarah and Timothy)

Handwriting:

A Reason for Handwriting books C & D  $26 (for Sarah and Timothy)

Draw Write Now several books!  (this is a cross curricular subject...they will be drawing and practicing their handwriting with subjects related to American History.  I only bought 1 book, had 2 already) $11 (For Sarah and Timothy)

Phonics for Sarah:

Explode the Code book 6,7,8 $26

This is not a complete list...or all the curriculum I plan to use.  I love homeschooling!