Update....

I know, I know....it's a long time in comin'. This is a very quick update as this is vacation week! YEAH! Turns out, we're not going as far or doing as much as we were hoping, but we're still looking forward to a whole week with Daddy home, and a few fun adventures along the way.

We've been taking more breaks from the schoolwork as summer has been approaching and life has turned so incredibly busy. However, we are planning to go ahead and start up again after vacation and I have decided to give the "four weeks on, one week off" schedule a try at least through the summer months.

I have two new resources that I'd like to mention that we're just getting into, and are very excited about. The first one is a book entitled, "How to Study Your Bible for kids" by Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt. This book is probably a bit more suited to children a little bit older....maybe ages 7 and up? This is a six week course on inductive Bible study written in kids' lingo by making them detectives with M&M Detective Agency. They embark on an adventure to learn the mystery of biblical observation, interpretation, and application. We are enjoying taking Bible study to a whole new level, particularly with Cameron and Lauren. On a side note, we've recently started doing sword drills with the kids. To tell you the truth, I had nearly forgotten about these! They were a regular part of my growing up years at HSCA that I really loved. Truthfully, it's not quite the same in a homeschool environment, but our kids are LOVING it anyway! One day the memory of doing sword drills popped in my head, and I suggested we try it. Now I have to turn the kids down or they would want to do them all the time!

Okay, on to our second new "goody". I found a CD entitled, "My Favorite Opera for Children; the world's favorite tenor introduces you to the joy of opera." There is a label in the upper left corner stamped Pavarotti's Opera Made Easy. This has been a truly fun resource, that I have been surprised by! The kids have really gotten into it, even though it's so much foreign language. I read them the basic story line of what's being portrayed by the music, and they enjoy identifying how it's coming across.

So that's my two cents for this week! I think for many schools and probably homeschool families this is the time of year where things begin to die down somewhat. For us it's sort of the opposite. I feel like after vacation we're going to be a bit more revved up and ready to learn more. And it's a good thing: if you have followed this blog from it's inception then you may remember that the first portion of this school year was rather rocky to say the least. We changed horses midstream, so I feel it's very important that we continue the education process through the summer.

Blessings to you and yours!