in pursuit of wild things

My last wrap-up was two weeks ago. This time last week I was working at the Beautiful Feet Books’ booth at the Great Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati. First of all, a huge thanks to Kris of Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for her advise on how I should approach this amazing opportunity. I was so nervous and she reminded me to pray first and remember that I am in the booth to share how I used the curriculum in my own home. Yes, it is kinda sad that I had to be reminded to pray but I am grateful (and humbled) for her comforting wisdom. I must share that I loved every moment of working at the booth and speaking with so many homeschooling families. The Lord laid such a burden on my heart for these parents that I wept and prayed over them every morning and evening. The burden and joy was so great that on the last day of the convention I never took a break or even went to the bathroom without notice to my personal comfort. I’m

not sharing that to brag about my stamina but to share how deeply I believe in the value of Beautiful Feet Books and that Jesus called me to serve his people in that time. I have felt exhausted and empty all week…but in a good and joyful way.

I did bring home with me the remaining inventory from the Beautiful Feet Books’ booth. It is currently sitting in my lower kitchen (yes, my house has two full kitchens!). There was no reason to ship all of these books to California just to ship them to Florida for the next convention. So I agreed to bring them home and send them on to Florida when needed. My oldest is just tortured by those boxes of books. He knows there are some awesome titles in those boxes and it is driving him crazy that he cannot dive in and read!!! He considers those unopened boxes a form of cruel torture. I understand but we do have some fun box days coming up next week hopefully!

Next week we kinda begin our new school year. The crew still has a month of their core subjects to complete. In math they began the year a full two years behind since we switched curriculums. They are currently only four months behind in math now. they have worked hard to get caught up to their proper grade level in math and I couldn’t be more proud for all of their hard work. Of course, they have no idea how proud I am…but maybe they should be. Next week we will begin new science and Bible studies and Oldest will begin his new history study. Since we are beginning new studies and finishing up old courses naturally, no one knows what grade they are in anymore. Does it really matter?

Our new Bible study is Danika Cooleys’s Bible Road Trip . We are tired of fluffy Bible curriculums. Earlier this year Middle Boy asked if we could just read the Bible for ourselves instead of reading kiddy versions. I thought he had a good (but kinds scary) point. We are going to read the Bible together over three years with this curriculum. It also contains a geography study, scripture memorization, and notebooking pages for every book of the Bible.

Our new science is Sonlight’s core F…human anatomy. I actually intended to come up with my own science curriculum this year and had already purchased seven books toward that purpose. My kids were asking questions about where babies come from so I thought it would be good to build a science curriculum around human anatomy.  I was totally shocked to see that Sonlight had a curriculum already written using all of the books I had chosen (plus several others)!!! I saw no reason to reinvent the wheel so I purchased their Instructor guide and the remaining books for their course on human anatomy. I’m teaching sex education this year…please pray for me. Of course, I know that children come from a Nora Jones CD and a good bottle of wine…but I’m not going to explain that to my children…they’ll figure that out on their own one day. I might be in over my head with this one…did I mention I need prayers?!?

Oldest will be using Cover Story for writing this year. He is so excited!!! He has begged for this curriculum for two years. This year he is finally old enough to use it. I wanted to wait until the middle two could use it too but decided to let his enthusiasm lead the way. He has just five more weeks on Writing With Skill left before he can dive into Cover Story. He is such a creative boy and I am excited to see what he will do with Cover Story.

Oldest has already begun Visual Latin. My middle two will begin soon. I had intended for everyone to start together but Oldest just begged and begged to begin. So I relented. He loves it. His enthusiasm is so great that the middle two are looking forward to beginning Latin as well.  I really thought I would have to fight with my crew to learn Latin but they are excited about the opportunity…I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone sometimes…

The previous week was Easter and Holy Week. Since we go to the traditional service we are the only family in attendance at church with children. All of the other families with children go to the

contemporary service. So on Palm Sunday our children got to run around the church with Palm branches. My crew thought this was great fun! Maybe a tad too much fun…On Easter we stayed home and enjoyed a quiet day. My husband hid eggs in the yard and the kids had a great time finding them. He always hides special eggs with extra screen time, money, cuddle time, and giving someone else your chores eggs. They had a great time hunting eggs. Littlest found all of the money eggs and Oldest got both of the punish someone else with your chores eggs! Still, one extra screen time egg wasn’t found. So much fun!!!! We did enjoy a nice quiet Easter at home this year.

On my nightstand this week:

History of the Catholic Church by James Hitchcock. This was a gift from my Passionist family. I would like to add a course on church history in the future…

How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture  by Francis A Schaeffer. My edition is older. I find this book fascinating. Mr. Schaeffer has completely transformed my understanding of the effects of humanism on the early church and the how the Reformation countered the influences of humanism.

Bulfinch’s Mythology. Next to the Bible it is the oldest book I own. Originally published in the 1850’s to early 1860’s in three parts. I learned from Rea Berg that we should read the old books along with newer books so we can understand the past and not be blinded by our current generation’s beliefs. She was quoting C. S. Lewis from his introduction to “On the Incarnation” by Athanasius. I’ve always felt too stupid to read the old classic books but if C.S. Lewis and Rea say it is good practice then I am going to give it a go…maybe it is time to learn on my own…

Posts I enjoyed this week:

all the wonderful reasons to enjoy music and keep up with piano lessons from CBC Music

reading aloud isn’t just for the wee ones from Just Extraordinary

wondering how my own little homeschool will change in the years to come from Joyful Hearts and Faces

a fun little quiz to find out your homeschooling style from Eclectic Homeschooling

Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

happy lotus

Littlest, Middle Boy and bunnies

a bright rainbow settling over the Jim Beam bottling plant in the distance

all carbs

he won!

out with Middle Boy enjoying our “crafted” beverages

lots of rain