Happy Sunday!

Happy Sunday everyone. We had a marvelous time at church this morning. Since we didn't have school today, I thought it was the prefect time to post Deacon's journal entries so far. I hope you can read them. He has learned about more than just Christopher Columbus, but you can see what he likes to put in his journal. I'm glad the unit theme is something he enjoys. This year we will go through all kinds of themes relating to adventure. We will have the Pilgrims at one point, Lewis and Clark, Squanto, and Daniel Boone. Each year through 5th grade this curriculum set builds off of history and continues up to World War II in the 5th grade. We chose Trail Guide to Learning and Horizons Math 3 for curriculum this year and I have to say we are quite pleased with our choice. I'd say Deacon is pleased as well. I'm still having a little trouble with the teacher handbook of Horizons Math, but his work is pretty obvious to me what he needs to do. I think with a little more study, I will have the teacher's handbook figured out soon.

For all the Scouters out there, I found it quite impressive that the Boy Scout Handbook of 1910 is part of Deacon's curriculum this year. It hasn't called for us to use it yet, but we both look forward to it. If it turns out to be too hard for him to accomplish we will substitute his Bear Cub Handbook instead. That's right, I can't believe he will be a Bear this year! Only 2 more years after this year and he will be a Boy Scout! Another thing I really like about the Trail Guide to Learning is that science is nature based. We have two handbooks for science that are all about nature. Birds, plants, fruits, flowers. That ought to keep his interest and mine as well. See you all again tomorrow with the next installment of the homeschool journey.

August 6th and 7th.

August 6, 2009 - Day 1

Deacon is really excited about homeschooling this year. I admit I'm a bit nervous myself. I hope he continues to keep his enthusiasm for it and God gives me the strength and knowledge to teach him and raise him properly. Today was our first day and it took almost the whole four hours to cover everything and make sure he will retain it. I thought it would take much longer than that and the four hour guideline was just that, a guideline. We learned a lot about Christopher Columbus today and all of his lessons except for math follow a unit theme. This unit is on Columbus. I learned that Deacon really doesn't like subtraction. I think he may actually hate it with a passion. I almost dread division. He also isn't a big fan of having to write neatly, as his previous teachers didn't enforce penmanship. I'm hoping it will become second nature to him before long. He can write very neatly, but he is still in "hurry, hurry, hurry" mode and wants to rush through writing things out. Commitment....I pray that God helps us to stay committed to this course and to excel in it throughout the year and the years to come. P.S. Deacon loves his independent reading time and the books about Columbus in this unit. I think he may end up taking after me in that respect. I'm not a huge fan of math, but I love anything to do with literature. And if you were wondering, he has chosen Junie B. Jones smells something fishy as his independent reading for now. Between you and me, if Junie B. were a real person I think she would be Deacon's best buddy.


August 7, 2009 - Day 2

Second day of school and all is well. I just have to keep reminding myself and Deacon that we aren't in a hurry, that there's no rush. This isn't homework that is due tomorrow. We can take as long as we need. He gets frustrated very easily, but I hope we can work that out together. He drew a rug in art today. You should see it. It looks like a box of Crayola crayons and he is very proud of it. That is what he had chosen to sell in the bazaar. We learned more about Columbus and our spelling words with a long i sound. He amazed me with his spelling today, he was able to spell everyone of them without looking! We added telling time and rounding to the nearest 10 in math today. He loved the rounding, he said it was his favorite. Our bible verse for this unit is commitment. We are learning how Columbus and his namesake Saint Christopher showed their commitment to God and how Columbus wanted to be a Christ-bearer and take the word of God to those people across the Western Ocean who had never heard the good news before. Saint Christopher was a Giant Syrian who a hermit lead to God. The hermit had told him to build a home by the river and because of his size and the raging waters of this river, he could carry people across on his shoulders to keep them from drowning and God would be grateful and smile down on him. He did this and one night a child came to his home and asked to be carried across to the other side. Saint Christopher got his staff and started carrying the child across, the further they went across the river, the heavier the child became until he felt like he was carrying the whole world on his shoulders. When they got to the other side, Saint Christopher told the child that his weight had nearly drowned him and that he had felt like he was carrying the whole weight of the world in that one little child's body. The child told Saint Christopher that he was indeed carrying the weight of the world and the Christ child as well. The child told Saint Christopher to plant his staff in the soil by his home for proof and in the morning it would bear fruit and flowers. When Saint Christopher awoke the next morning a date palm had grown where he had planted his staff. Saint Christopher showed commitment in continuing across the river even when the burden became too heavy to bear. We are trying to be committed in our lives just like Saint Christopher. Commitment to God above all else.

Deacon is also keeping a journal. I can't wait to re-read it when he is grown. His even has pictures he has drawn in it.

2009-2010 school year. Deacon starts third grade

I decided to keep a journal during our first year of homeschooling. Since this is such a new and exciting (and completely terrifying) endeavor for both of us, I want to keep an account of its ups and downs along the way as we learn together this year. I may not update this everyday, but I keep a written journal and will update this blog from my written journal as often as time allows.

A little about me and my family:

I'm a married mother of 3 boys, aged 8, almost 4, and 2. I have been married for 5 years this October to the best man on this Earth. God has truly blessed me in this life with so many people to love. Deacon, my oldest, has spent the last 3 years in a public school. The reasons for pulling him out are many, but the main ones were because they did not follow my wishes on him not celebrating certain holidays with his class, lack of communication, and my not being allowed to take his brothers with me to accompany him on field trips, even if I drove us myself. He has done well in public school and I have nothing against it as a whole. I think his teachers have just been overwhelmed with such big classes. He was being picked on, physically picked on and the teacher wouldn't or couldn't do anything about it because she didn't see it happen any of the times it did. I want my children to know values and morals and see them implemented in everyday life.

I will admit, one of the reasons (even if it is just a small part of all the reasons) we chose to homeschool is because of the time constraints forced upon us by a typical school day. Each day was rush, rush, rush, hurry, hurry, hurry. Get it done, come on, come on! No time to waste! Deacon was not doing well under the time pressure of getting work finished, getting dinner eaten, getting a bath, and still having some time to play before bedtime. Also along the lines of time constraints, I had a 2 hour block right in the middle of the day where I was unavailable for anything and everything except picking him and his cousin up from school. My husband is a good man and he works hard on a midnight shift, but it has gotten to where only one person working with a family of 5 is just not feasible anymore. With homeschool our school day is flexible. We can have school bright and early, or in the afternoon. It doesn't matter what time of day we choose to learn, as long as we learn. So that takes a lot of pressure off of all of us.

Another reason, and perhaps one of the most important, for our choice to homeschool is the hope of our son going above and beyond what he can accomplish in a public school setting because we don't have to slow down for others or speed up even though he hasn't grasped the concept. He can learn at his pace, no matter how slow or fast it may be. He gets to decide. I won't say we do it for purely religious reasons because we can teach him about our Father and Christ even with him in a public school, but it is nice to have more time to teach him about our God besides just on Sunday during Sunday school.

This will be a learning process for both of us, and if you have chosen to join us on this journey then you might want to brace yourself in advance, because I can't tell you how this is going to end. *smiles* Take Care and God bless!