School 2010/2011

SCIDES for me was a bit of a disappointment. It was basically a brick and mortar school with out the brick. We are registered this year with CHES-estream aka Christian Homelearner's e Stream. I'm very excited the teacher seems lovely, helpful and very open, offering suggestions and she has a good idea about most of the curriculum available.

We decided to use Sonlight, core 1 this year; we are using with Saxon Math, Handwriting Without Tears (HWT)and Explode The Code online. I'm also considering at home violin lessons using The Violin Book. For Bible lessons I'm using Leading Little Ones to God which came with my core 1 package and the Children's ESV Bible

One of the reasons we choose this program is it seemed suited to teaching both children; they will be doing language arts, history, geography, and science together. The only material that they are not sharing is Math and HWT. This past year was difficult having to do to separate programs for kids especially considering they are only 19 months apart and are at the same level in so many areas.

I'm starting this third year of homeschooling with more confidence then I've had in the past but I know this is what God wants for my children and family. I see the fruits of homeschooling daily. One of the sweetest thing is that I have an almost 8 year old son that will still hold his Mom and Dad's hands in public.

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An eternal question about children is, how should we educate them? Politicians and educators consider more school days in a year, more science and math, the use of computers and other technology in the classroom, more exams and tests, more certification for teachers, and less money for art. All of these responses come from the place where we want to make the child into the best adult possible, not in the ancient Greek sense of virtuous and wise, but in the sense of one who is an efficient part of the machinery of society. But on all these counts, soul is neglected. - Thomas Moore

How to find inexpensive books

Our library has books sales yearly where they get rid of there older books. They are in pretty good shape and for .25 a hardcover kids book they are a steal. I've gotten many of my favorite titles this way.

Another good place to find books is garage or estate sales. This is usually the cheapest way to buy encyclopedias. Another great place to look for books and get rid of your old ones is Freecycle. Free cycle is a site where you find yahoo groups of people who are giving away for 'free' unwanted and useable items. You can also ask the groups if anyone might be interested in giving away the items you are looking for, children's books is one of those things that people are usually trying to find new homes for.

Second hand book stores are great there are some to that have a really cozy set up so you sit and read a bit if you time to hang out. Amazon.com is another place to look for used books.

If you don't live near a library you could get a group of friends together and start a little toy & children's book lending library. I've lived in a community that had a toy lending library and my kids loved it. You can never have too many books in my opinion.

These are a few ideas if you have any other suggestions for find cheap/free books please comment.

Blessings~

Homeschooling Week One Completed

I'm feeling pretty good this week, we've been working hard and getting good results with homeschooling. I think we are getting more output from Henry at home then he was able to do at school. At home there is less distraction and we are able to give him breaks every 15 mins or whenever he needs them.

We've been doing Saxon Math, Handwriting With Out Tears (I love this program), and a phonics program called Sing,Spell; Read & Write Another prephonics program we are working on is Earobics which is academic software to help sturggling readers. Henry loves the games and they are helping him to learn the sounds both single and mixed.

I was talking to a girlfriend today she was saying that a lot of her friends homeschooled but this is in the town she used to live in. She recommended the book, "Hold On To Your Kids" I've seen the writer of this book, Gordon Neufeld at a public conference on attachment parenting if I remember right. That was along time ago but I remember enjoying his talk and getting good information from it.

We also started working on Dad's Christmas present this week, it's a box that he's painting and then he's going to be using Mod Podge to glue on some feathers. It should also strengthen the box somewhat. Evamae will help me choose the book that will go in it from her. We are going to be looking for a book on edible wild food of BC. I've seen some in a book store in town so we be going for a drive early next week.

There is so much to do I need to finish the scarf I'm knitting for my Dad and get his package sent off. I'm so close to being done I can taste it. I should be knitting right now! I hope everyone Christmas plans are going well.


Blessings