homeschooling howsitgoing: week ?

Since people often ask "how's it going" related to our homeschooling adventure, I figured I'd attempt to do a weekly/bi-weekly/at-the-very-least-monthly recap. Plus it will help me remember everything once I need to prepare our portfolio for assessment.


The theme for most of the past two weeks would be: Doubts and Discouragement. Last week was harder than this week as I was questioning the wisdom of doing homeschooling and was toying with the thought that maybe a charter school would be a better choice. I even did a "pro" list to see if one option or the other would rise to the top as the wisest. Both side came out about even.

My conclusion - keep praying for God's guidance on how He would choose to educate our children. For now, I feel like homeschooling continues be the path to follow. I think part of the reason I went through all this doubting was because God wanted me to look at our curriculum and our schedule.

After much praying, I saw that I needed to "step it up" in the math department and adjust my approach in a couple other areas and God revealed how I could carve out two times in the day for one-on-one time with Luke (which had been a concern for me). While I hate doubting myself, but I love how God uses it for His good by keeping me from becoming prideful and thinking I "know it all" when it comes to teaching our children.


On the activity side, here's what we did the past two weeks:

• Completed our study on insects. Went on a hike with friends to find insects - God obliged by sending us a grasshopper, literally right at my feet. We also saw some fuzzy caterpillars, bumblebees, moths and a toad (though not an insect it did provide 5 minutes of amusement for us).
• Started a study on trees for this month. Focused on identifying deciduous vs. evergreen. Went on two separate walks to spot trees and had Brie complete bar graphs representing the tally of d vs. e trees for each walk. Read several books on trees. Watched a Bill Nye DVD on forests. Attended a program on leaves. Did leaf rubbings and bark rubbings.
• Continued studying about Canada by reading books, drawing a chalk map of Canada on the driveway and quizzing the kids on the province and territory locations and checking out Sitka spruce and the Vancouver Island rainforest on the Internet.
• Watched the final stages of demolition of the house next to our church.
• Brie was able to go to work with Dave last Friday and see the Red Jacket Ceremony they do for corps members, got her picture with Cleveland's mayor (okay, so only half of her was showing as she was hiding behind Dave), and helped perform community service at a Cleveland school.
• Brie attended a "Missionettes" class at Lauren's church which she enjoyed and so we're praying about her involvement in the class for the rest of the year.