Well this is my first year homeschooling, and we have reached the end of our very first month! And although this will take some getting used to, and much learning along the way for all of us, we are having a marvelous time!
I am so very blessed to be using My Father’s World Curriculum, Exploring Countries and Cultures, and we have eagerly begun our travels around the world. And our first continental stop…North America! We have been studying the ecosystems and biomes of North America, including the Temperate Forest and the Desert. We have also been learning about the different animals that live in those ecosystems.
I am also very blessed to be married to a General Contractor, who created a wonderful classroom for us to spend each day learning and discovering together!
In preparing to begin this homeschooling journey, I did a lot of reading, and extensive blog-hopping, and gathered many awesome ideas from experienced homeschoolers…one of the very best of which was the concept of workboxes! These workboxes have been magical for us, in allowing our day to be very smooth and very organized! Even my littlest has some, and her curriculum, Letter of the Week, keeps her workboxes full of many busy and educational things to do! A big thank you to Erica for all her guidance through her blog!
We have been able to use the library extensively and the kids are really enjoying reading out of our book basket each week. It is full of all the MFW book recommendations, and they love to read while sitting in our big brown chair!
There are many activities the kids have really been enjoying…
Our first science experiment was a success…the study of the earthworm’s niche within an ecosystem. The kids had an interesting and unique time handling the earthworms!
Going on a nature walk once a week has been fun! They have collected leaves and begun to try to identify the trees by examining them. In fact we were at Michael’s the other day, and they took a leaf home from the tree in the parking lot, and we were able to identify it, looking it up by leaf shape in our tree classification book from the library!
They’ve been going on adventures from the book Kingdom Tales, and learning of the life of Cameron Townsend in our read-alouds.
Spelling and Math Drill have also become favorites…
We replaced Rod & Staff’s Spelling by Sound & Structure, with Spelling Power, and the kids just love it. They enjoy that it only takes 5-10 minutes, and they only have to study and do activities with the words they do not know.
And as they do math drill every day, they can see their speed and accuracy increasing!Their goal is to do the front and back of the Holey card in 2 minutes or less!
And they are looooving art! They’ve been doing art once each week with my mother-in-law…and it is their favorite part of the week!
They’ve done several projects, including…
Hands-across-the-world Paper dolls
American-Indian Thunderbird
…with glued dried beans and legumes
And leaf painting…from
the leaves we’ve
been collecting.
I am so thankful for this adventure and the time we have together! And while it is a challenge for sure, I would choose it all over again, without a doubt!
What has been the best part of your first month of school?
Wow, your room is wonderful! Thanks for sharing and linking to my blog! :o) Erica http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com
Thank you so much for stopping by…you have inspired me, helped me becomed more organized, guided me, and blessed me more than you know! Thank YOU for that!
We’re new homeschoolers too and chose MFW. We have a new homeschool room and are using a variation of the workbox system, so your post sounds all too familiar! I totally agree with your last statement—it has been a challenge but each day I see more and more that the Lord has paved the way for us to do this and I can’t imagine doing anything else right now. Blessings to you as you continue on the journey!
your home school room is AMAZING!!!! I am a bit envious! i love all of your photos… it looks like a wonderful place with lots of learning going on! wishing many blessings in your new school year!
WOW! Your homeschool room is amazing! How blessed you are! We are first year homeschoolers too, and we have started with Adv. in MFW! ECC looks like so much fun, so we can’t wait until next year! We have been homeschooling for almost 2 months, and I can tell you I have learned more about myself in the last two months than anything else! Homeschooling is going to be a crazy ride, but I am so excited to be on it!
Isn’t MFW wonderful!! And yes, it is a challenge, but so very worth every minute of time intentionally invested in them…thank you so much for stopping by, and many blessings to you as well!
Thank you so very much, and blessings to you as well!
Yay for first year homeschoolers! And I wouldn’t want to be on any other ride, spending moments by their side, watching their eyes light up in amazement of what they are learning. I, too, am so very thankful! May your year be blessed!
Your classroom is beautiful! The art work is amazing. Thanks for linking up and sharing!
Your school room looks wonderful! I also love your artwork ideas….thanks for linking up and sharing!
Thank you!
Such a privilege that you stopped by! Blessings to you!
I am trying to learn more about the workboxes system and am struggling with how to use it with MFW. I am schooling 6 children, with 3 in the 5 year cycle. Since they share quite a few of their books, how do I make the workboxes work?