Fall Semester

Wow, last semester flew by. We have been very busy. I set a hard pace for us to keep up this year but we are having a great time doing it. This year we are using a Unit study called History Alive! by Diana Waring. "World Empires, World Missions, and World Wars" We have travelled through time from Napoleon, Victoria, Industrial Revolution, World War I and now World War II. Every unit has had a different element of interest for each individual student. That is the joy of unit studies. Each unit covers almost every subject with the exception of Math. My students love the Art History, Architecture, Music, Cooking, Science, etc... We also enjoy watching movies about each era we are studying. I regret that we didn't do as many field trips as I wanted to in the fall. We did make it to the a few times but, really that is about it. And I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to. I just can't believe it went by so swiftly.

My sister is getting into the swing of this homeschooling life. This is her first year teaching three of her daughters. She has been through the initial zeal, made it through the confusion and first year burn out and I think now she is starting to settle into life as a homeschool family. It always has its good and bad days and sometimes you can't see how effective you are but when you look back to where you started from you realize in awe not only how much your children have grown and learn but also how much you have.

So, other than the unit study we have also been memorizing scripture. For English with the middle students I am using Shurley English. The older students are using Apologia Physical Science and Teaching Textbooks for math. Each student is also working their way through some great books. I am so proud of Julian who has enjoyed reading "The Man in the Iron Mask" and "The Time Machine" this year.