Curriculum for 2008-2009

I thought I'd share what were studying this year with everyone... so here it is.....


A Beka Math K for Emily

A Beka Math 4 for Jordan

A Beka Math 5 for Jake


A Reason for Handwriting Cursive (E) for Jake and Jordan Manuscript (A) for Emily


Apologia Science- Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day (we do this together as a read aloud, all experiments are done together as well)


History- American- A Beka. We are also doing a lot of notebooking with this. Anytime Emily can participate she does. Jake and Jordan will be memorizing: The America's Creed, The first portion of The Declaration of Independance and some other documents as well.


Reading- (Jake and Jordan) We have no particulular curriculum...just lots and lots of reading. Among the books on the list this year are Little Women, Captians Courageous, Story of My Life by Helen Keller, The Hobbit by Tolkein, The Story of King Authur and His Knights, Swiss Family Robinson, Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula, Florence Nightingale by Ruth Hume, Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne


Reading (for Emily)- anything she wants to read basically. Our main focus with her is teaching her to read and reading a loud with her as often as we can. We are using Phonics Pathways and we absolutely LOVE IT!


Grammar: Gworing with Grammer for Jake and Jordan; Language and Thinking for Young Children (for Emily)


Writing Strands for Jake and Jordan and the LOVE IT! They ask to do it! Its really a wonderful program in my opinion.


Commnication and Interpersonal Relationships (same publisher as writing strands)- has some great lessons on improving your communication skills.


Abeka Health 4 and 5 for Jake and Jordan


Art--A Beka Art 5 for Jake and Jordan. They love it! Also we are doing Drawing with Children as a family.


Bible- So far I have been doing some character lessons I got the ideas from daniellesplace.com. In a couple of weeks we'll start a 5 year Chronilogical Study of the Bible we downloaded from the Embry Hills website. Emily will sit with Jake and Jordan for some of these lessons but she has her own Bible too. Right now for Emily we are doing Rod and Staffs "Bible Stories" to read and color. They are short lessons that explain things just right for her.

I would like to highly recommend starfall.com for anyone just teaching their children to read. We love Star Fall. All of my children have learned a lot of their phonics from the site. There are print offs available as well. Star Fall is something Emily does everyday as a part of her school work!

RYC 2008!!

Russellville Alabama is home to Rustic Youth Camp (RYC).

Below is a picture of the group of kids I spent the week with. Of course my children were in that group as well, minus Emily. Emily went to "granny-maw camp". The kids had a great time. I had been sick and some other things were on my mind that week that kept me from being myself. When I look back at the week I wish I had laid those mental burdens aside and enjoyed the week more.

Here is a picture from the first day. Jordan and a couple of the children from the 3rd and 4th grade class found a beetle they were very interested in. The area around RYC Camp is home to a lot of animal and insect life. I promise those are NOT shorts Jordan is wearing. They ar culottes. She just wasn't being very good about keeping modest in the picture. I didn't notice until later how much of her leg was showing in this picture!

Here Jordan is holding on of many lizards found during our week at camp. This wasn't the prettiest one, but its the one I got a picture of! My Jordan is some what of a "tom boy". I am working very hard to may her more "girly". I am glad she enjoy's God's creatures as much as she does though.

Here the children were playing a game where they had to take cards with books of the Bible on them and put them in order faster. It was boys against girls.... I think the girls won, but I don't remember for sure.

This picture was taken of the children playing a water ballon game. Notice the beautiful backdrop.

To me this was on of the funniest things all week. The man in the picture was turning a year older this day. His grandson was there staying in the bunkhouse. The boys in the bunkhouse all cut off some of their hair (this is what I heard anyway) and glued it together to make side burns and hair for the man's "birthday gift". It was quiet funny!

Ahh... my sweet little Jake is playing in the infamous goldfish pond. There were no fish in the pond, instead it was home to many, many tadpoles. All the kids would save their cups at snack and catch tadpoles in them. It was a hot spot for most of the week. The camp owner came back and just smiled saying "at least they were having fun".

The last night, Friday night, all age groups compete in differnt relay games. After the games the parents and children enjoy a meal before the children perform the skits they have practiced all week. Here is Jake passing of a baggy of water to the next child in line.

Here is Jordan holding up her culottes getting ready for her turn at using her toes to pick marbles out of a 10 gallon bucket filled with ice water. HE HE!!

This group was not our group. It is the kindergardent group. I just couldn't resist getting a picture if their version of the Muffin Man! SO CUTE!

RYC camp is not only a lot of fun and games for kids, but it's a great opportunity for them (and adults) to gain new Christian friends and deepen the bond with old ones. My children and I are always encouraged to know that there really are other Christians striving for "the mark". Each morning the whole camp met for singing, devotionals and the Pleadge of Alligence. Each meal and snack was preceded by prayer. Every class had Bible study once or twice a day. The Bible and God's word was the center focus of each day. The "fun" was just an added bonus. I just hope that someday my hubby will get to enjoy the experience with us.