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Power House

This year seems busier than the last. And if you are a home school family, you know first hand how this happens. So many great opportunities to learn, you just have to try them all. One such opportunity this year for us has been putting together a science kit called Power House. With Power House, you put together a Styrofoam house that comes with solar panels, wind mill, green house, and desalination system. My girls will be learning about regenerative energy sources, something that they should know about for the future health of our planet.


Right now we are studying passive solar heating, by taking the inside temperature of the house in different lighting and insulating situations. It has been a great hands-on learning experience that will take us a year or more to complete. I'll be updating periodically as to how we are progressing. If you would like to do this together with us, I've put a link below where you can purchase your own Power House.


More power to you!

Equine Curriculum for Home School

Christine taking the pulse of her pony, Reba

Being able to study what you want, when you want to, is the beauty of home school. My oldest daughter studied Swahili after a trip to Tanzania last year (not something that is usually an option in public school). This year my youngest daughter wanted to learn more about horses...she is thinking of a career as an equine nurse. I found the Young Equestrian Series curriculum for kids ages 13-15 years (can use with younger students with adult help) at New Horizons Equine. They teach young equestrians:

Equine Ancestry
The Power of Instinct
Horse Buying Tips
Caring for your Horse
Tack Selection
Equine Behavior
Costs of Ownership
Terminology
Conformation

She has a year to finish the curriculum for a certificate. She will take tests and mail them back to New Horizons to be graded, and when she is finished there are some adult (16 years old +) courses she can take to further her knowledge of horses. If you have a young equestrian, you may want to look into this further.

Our Homeschool Curriculum for This Year

Yes, I know it's been awhile since my last post. We started school at the beginning of August and here it is September already. I wasn't quite prepared as I thought I was at the start of school, so it has taken us awhile to get back on track...much of that consisted of wading through our curriculum options. For now this is what we are doing...

For my 1oth grader :
Saxon Algebra 2
Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry
Bob Jones Writing and Grammar 10
Spelling Power
English from the Roots Up Vol. 2
The Easy Spanish by Great Commission Languages
Larry Burkett's Money Matters for Teens
Exploring America History, Literature and Faith
Alpha Omega Health
Volleyball

She is also taking an AP English Literature class with our homeschool group, so she does Bob Jones Grammar when she is not working on her English Lit. class. I like that she is able to experience a class setting and is able to use her note-taking skills that she learned last year.

For my 8th grader:
Saxon Math Pre-Algebra
Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science
Bob Jones Writing and Grammar 8
Spelling Power
English from the Roots Up Vol. 2
Rosetta Stone Swahili
Larry Burkett's Money Matters for Teens
Abeka's American History 8
Volleyball
Write at Home - online writing classes

I'll be doing some product reviews on these choices in future posts.

Our Top 5 Curriculum Choices for Homeschool

After purchasing our new curriculum for the new school year, I thought about all the books that I've ordered the past five years that we have used and loved...as well as those we never really got excited about. I'm not sure exactly what it is that we liked about some curriculum and not others. It seems to be a combination of hands-on activities, our love of the subject being studied, and the ease of use by student and teacher.

I thought that I would list our top 5 favorite curriculum choices and why we've liked those materials in hopes of helping some homeschool families make their curriculum choices. I love reading reviews of curriculum as it gives me a better idea of how it is used and if it will benefit my family.

1. My Father's World Complete Curriculum. This was by far the easiest curriculum to use. We used it for three years until my oldest daughter started high school. At the time, the high school version was not complete, so we started to piece our curriculum together ourselves. My Father's World is great for first time homeschool moms who need help with scheduling their days and the year. It comes with daily activities already outlined, notes of specific instruction for each day, as well as a book list to choose books from your local library for the reading portion that complements the lessons learned for the week. It is easy to add or subtract activities whenever you as a teacher feel the need to slow down or speed up. I was able to use the same curriculum for both daughters at the same time. Each of my daughters used their own grade level math and language art books, but everything else was done together easily. We started with the One Year of Geography, "Exploring Countries and Cultures", and then did "Creation to the Greeks", and "Rome to the Reformation".
   
2. Spelling Power - My girls loved the idea of doing spelling only fifteen minutes a day and not having to study words that they already knew how to spell. It was a little complicated at first to get the system down as to how to use the book, but after awhile we got the hang of it and even adapted it for our own use. It has worked well for us the past five years and we continue to use it today as one book covers spelling instruction to adulthood.
   
3. Saxon Math - We specially loved the third grade curriculum as it was more of a hands-on curriculum with manipulatives, a clock, a thermometer...We've stayed with Saxon from the beginning as I liked the spiral method of learning and the review and drills that it provided. The third grade year took a lot of teacher involvement, but it gave my daughter a solid foundation for the subsequent years. Today, eighth grade, she does most of her math on her own.


4. English from the Roots Up Volume I and II - We've used this for four years now as our vocabulary instruction. Learning the Greek and Latin root words has helped them to interpret the meaning of words they come across everyday. We do one root word a week using the root for different activities each day, including making a flash card for each root word. At the end of each week, we review all roots covered so far that year. We review previous years periodically so that they retain those root word meanings as well.


5. Apologia Science - My husband and I are both schooled in the sciences. I love that my girls love apologia science. Jay Wile has a way of capturing the attention of my girls in the area of science, and I love that I don't need a lot of complicated stuff to be able to do the experiments. My oldest daughter did the Biology last year, she had a blast dissecting the specimens. Well, maybe mom had a blast watching as she dissected the specimens.

Back from Ecuador

My oldest daughter, Kayla, and I had the opportunity to travel to Ecuador with Christ in Youth and our church youth group this past two weeks. It was such a great learning experience for both of us. Our team was there to do construction work on some churches, help with Vacation Bible Schools for the the children, and to do street evangelism and home visitation. The above picture shows us in clown make-up. Part of the Vacation Bible School and street evangelism consisted of clowns and puppet presentations for the young children. We worked in the towns of Guayaquil, Baba, and El Recreo.

We learned a little Spanish while we were there, but most of our communication was through body language. The people of Ecuador are very loving and welcomed us with open arms. Many responded to the message of Christ and His gift of eternal life. Many who had little hope have found hope and love through Christ.

More Living Without

In June a storm took out my computer, phone, wireless internet, TV, and garage door opener. I had been disconnected from the world for about a month...did I miss my computer, phone, wireless internet, TV, and garage door opener? A little, but the time that I gained from being without those things were a real blessing in disguise.

I actually got some things done around the house, sorted mounds 0f clothes for the Zimbabwe, Africa shipment, ordered my curriculum for homeschool this fall (actually we will start in the early part of August), weeded the garden, and spent quality time with the family.

My doing without has changed the way I'm using my time now. I've cut back on some online activities; trying to simplify things that devour great amounts of time. I feel freer for cutting back and will be cutting back on more things in the future. I feel that I had lost myself in all the busy-ness of life and was going through the motions out of habit. I hate doing things out of habit without giving thought to why I'm doing something.

Well, enough said...I will not be blogging for the next three weeks. My oldest daughter and I will be on a mission trip to Ecuador doing Vacation Bible School with children and some street evangelism. The street evangelism will be pushing me out of my comfort zone, but knowing that I may be giving hope to someone without hope, compells me to sacrifice my comfy-ness. So for three more weeks...I'll be living without.