I have thoroughly enjoyed homeschooling this year! Thank you Melanie Hall for encouraging Scott and me to begin this homeschool journey - and thank you Scott for really leading our family in this direction. What a joy it has been to experience so many wonderful moments with my children - ones that I otherwise would have missed.
Just today, Cole and I learned together that Alexander the Great was a private student of Aristotle. And that somewhere in the 400 years of silence between God speaking through the prophet Malachi at the end of the old testament and then once again speaking through John the Baptist at the beginning of the New Testament, ALexander the Great through his quest to conquer the world ended up preparing the way for the spread of the Gospel by requiring that so many learn the Greek language. It is amazing to see in a second grade history class how so much bad is worked together for the good by God for His people not only for us today but throughout all of history. Cole said, "If I lived during those 400 year I don't think I'd stand a chance - it would be so awful not to be able to hear anything from God for so long."
And I am pleased to say that by an act of sheer grace, we will be finishing all of Cole's 2nd grade curriculum before the end of May. Having gone through public school myself, I am not sure I can even remember reaching the end of a single textbook. And honestly, even though it took diligence on both of our parts to get to this point, neither Cole nor I feel like it was terribly difficult, as it was for the most part just a whole lot of interesting fun!
So, to my friends here in Danville, particularly Jen Swartzentruber, and to those of you who gave recommendations for curriculum on this blog last year, I want to really thank you. Your suggestions were very helpful and a big part of why we so enjoyed this year. Our four family co-op was also an added bonus for our school year.
On the curriculum side, we ended up doing a Reason for Handwriting, Horizons Math, The World of Animals by Answers in Genesis for Science, Saxon Phonics for the first half of the year and English for the Thoughtful Child the second half of the year, leading Little Ones to God and Discoverer's Bible for Early Readers for Biblical Studies, The Mystery of History Volume I, and a smattering of great readers graciously loaned to me by Christian sisters who have children just a little bit older than Cole.
Although I have not finished gathering all of my books for next year, here are the curricula I am leaning towards: A Reason for Handwriting (cursive), A Reason for Spelling, (love the Biblical teaching embedded in every lesson) Horizons Math (could not be more thrilled with Horizon's math!!), the second half of the book English for the Thoughtful Child (it is a 2nd and 3rd grade book), Discoverer's Bible, and Sonlight's history and language/reading for third grade. Although I loved Mystery of History this year, I have decided to try out Sonlight's history for third grade since their readers and read-alouds coincide with what is being taught in the main history curriculum. I Still haven't landed on a Science curriculum. Suggestions?
And above all to You, Lord, I want to say thank you! Thank you for the grace to have enjoyed each day! Thank you for the times you reminded me not to get distracted and lose my peace in homeschooling by allowing my mind to wander and my heart to be divided. Thank you that all the housework, that I thought would never get done, did in fact get done, just fine, in your time. Thank you for giving me the time to invest in the adult relationships you ordained for me without me having to fret about them or spend needless time striving to maintain them. I pray that with this new baby coming and Maya now getting involved in her own homeschool curriculum you will give me the right amount of your grace and your clear guidance to continue to do and be as you ask of me for your good purposes and pleasure in this area of training up my children. Remind me Lord how quickly this time will go, so that I do not miss what you desire for me to see and experience. And Lord, if there comes a time when you call me to go in a different direction as it relates to schooling our children, help me to hear you and not be so tied to what I think is "more right" when it may not be "just right" in your mind and plan for our family!
(Don't forget to tune in to Fox - Greta Van Susteren tonight at 10pm (just after Jack Bauer's 24 Hour of Power!) to witness Jelani Freeman's live interview. )