It has been an eventful August and September, and October is already shaping up to be busy as well. I love the new planner I bought. It has helped Mary and Bobby be a lot more self-directed in their work. We've (I've) also done a lot better staying organized this year, and keeping up with all the corrections and grading I need to do. Here is our each of us are doing:
I am still teaching all three kids at home. I also teach piano two afternoons a week, and have more people interested, so that may increase to three afternoons a week. In addition, I'm teaching two classes on Fridays at our home school co-operative, Kingdom Builders. The two classes are Expository Writing and Biology; I have a dozen students in each class. I challenge anyone who thinks home schooling isn't a full-time job to come spend a week with us!
Caroline is working about 15 hours a week now (Chick-Fil-A) in addition to doing her Senior year. At home she's taking Pre-Calculus, Advanced Chemistry, Health, and Literature/Language Arts/Grammar. Through the co-op she's taking my writing class to supplement her language arts at home, Art, and Yearbook/Advanced Photography. She is a very busy girl! She will graduate from high school next May, and is already in the process of college applications.
Mary is an 8th grader this year. At home she's studying Algebra I, Sonlight Core 7 World History and Literature, Human Anatomy, BJU Grammar & Writing; through the co-op she's taking Geography, Cooking, and Art. She's also teaching herself to write left-handed this year by using an elementary-level handwriting book to make herself write left-handed every day. She draws ALL the time, too. She has also just joined a local American Heritage Girls troop, and will begin to work on badges for that.
Bobby is in the 6th grade, and he's realizing that school doesn't get any easier as you get older. He's taking Geography, American History, and Art through the co-op; at home he's doing Math 7, Zoology (Land Animals,) Handwriting, BJU Grammar & Writing, and for Literature (the pièce de résistance) he is doing Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings. It's a great curriculum that incorporates Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Shakespeare as well as the LOTR trilogy. Right up his alley. He is also a Tenderfoot rank scout in Troop 47 and is working on merit badges for scouts.
Obviously, we are all pretty busy. Our other current events:
#1 My sweet husband will be stepping down as pastor of our current church at the end of October. He has explained this over at his blog, in the post I linked and in another called "Reasons for Resigning." We love the people at Chevis Oaks! We will continue to be friends with them and I hope we'll continue to sharpen and edify one another as Christians.
#2 We were able to buy a nice four-year-old van a couple of weeks ago, thanks to the incredible generosity of my in-laws as well as the dogged efforts of our friend Rickey Tyre, who found the van for us at an auction. It's such a relief to have an newer vehicle and not be worried about breakdowns, A/C not cooling well, etc. The van is a Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. Nice.
#3 Bobby is the Honored Hero for the Savannah Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk on October 15th. Our family has a team, creatively named Team Carpenter, and we'll be walking that night along with hundreds of other Savannahians who are trying to raise money for people with various blood cancers. Our team page is here.
#4 A month ago we bought a Wii, with Wii Fit Plus. I'll write a longer post about it later, but we are all loving getting off the couch and playing sports as well as other fitness games together. I have started to lose weight and tone up, and I feel so much better. More soon on that.
2 comments:
Alice,
Sounds like you are mentoring some bright young minds. In my philosophy class, we have talked about how over the past 50 years, we have lost the ability as evangelicals to disciple the mind. This is a tragedy because when people start to ask tough questions about faith in God, the only answer we have is "Just believe." It is so important that we love God with all our mind and that means doing the hard work to sharpen our minds so that we are able to think and give a reason for the hope that is in us. The ultimate goal in all of this is better discipleship and better evangelism for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. By the way, I hope you kept your "caution, unsocialized home-schoolers" tag for your new van.
You are so right, Micah! As you know, Eric and I believe that Christians should be able to think about what they believe, understand it, and offer a Scriptural defense for it. What I didn't include in my post, and perhaps I should, is our family Bible study time, which is actually the most important part of our children's education. I feel an UPDATE coming on! Oh, and, of course the yellow caution tag moved over to the new van! (It's a huge magnet, so it moves easily.)
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