Luke is 5 Years Old!

 

We had a simple little celebration just our family. We will celebrate his birthday with a big pool party when Ramadan is over. It is no fun to have a party where no cake, no drinking and no water is allowed. So for now, the big gift and cake will have to do. (no complaints from Luker so far)

The new books are here, the new books are here...

I am some body now!

Well, I am some body, alright, and some body pretty busy too. We received all our books and, wow, was that a load of books. The bulk of them came in and we started school last week.

Can I have a drum roll, please?

I LOVE our new curriculum! Sonlight is a total answer to prayer and an inspiration without all the work. It makes a difference what curriculum is chosen, a HUGE difference. So far, this year is about a thousand times better than last year. We are studying the Eastern Hemisphere. I have combined the History portion into one curriculum we can study together. Luke still has his things we work on one on one while the older two boys are doing their own Bible Study and Math. Then we all work on the History and Science together, and most of the reading too. There is alot of reading. We are all doing Spanish, Rosetta Stone, which is awesome. Ethan works on Handwriting and Grammer while Dylan is studying Analogies and College and Career Prep. It is and is going to remain a fantastic year of study for all of us. We are all so excited about it. (Well, let's be honest, Ethan and I are excited and Luke and Dylan are tolerating most of it and excited when it is over, but that is better than last year.)

We are also implementing a new writing program called Brave Writers. We started with Tuesday Teatime and we have added dictation, next week we will add Friday Freewrites and continue slowly on that one. It is a really cool program, the author of which is very inspiring. I have sparked an interest in Charlotte Mason because of the Brave Writer Lifestyle. For any more information on my curriculum see the favorite links menu.

Gearing Up for 2008-2009 School Year

My father in law passed away suddenly this summer. Thanks to homeschool we were all able to fly home to the states for an extended stay. Needless to say we are still waiting to start homeschool. The last time I checked our cirriculumn was in Paris, France. Should be here in a few days. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. We will be using Sonlight as our base along with trying some other exciting things this year. I am most looking forward to implementing the Brave Writer Lifestyle for Language Arts. See the links to the left for more on what we plan to do this year.