first step to knowing

I hope you will check out the May issue of WNC Parent. My column on learning to be still is running, which sounds ironic, right?

women who encourage

Ladies, I hope you will visit these women online. I am privileged to call them my friends.

Amy and Judy at Kardia Ministries are doing great things. Amy’s latest blog entry, “I am strong? I am invincible?” is a must-read.

Kipra Anderson of Let There Be Mom continues to make an incredible difference in the lives of terminally ill parents and their families. You can support Let There Be Mom through the end of June by hosting a group for Dine In for Mom. Click on over to learn more.

“michael, we are not a codfish”

What a teenager looks like when she realizes her dad is dangling car keys in the background…keys that go with the (used) car parked surreptitiously at the neighbor’s house…and that we still have dad’s truck and mom’s van parked at our house…and that she really needs to drive herself to school next year.

But we are not a codfish.

homeschool: the sixth grade version

(This is a note to self. Apologies to those who don’t homeschool. You will be bored to tears. I’ll try to make up for it later. Here – I’ll post some sleepy dog photos to ease the pain.)

Fifth grade wraps up soon and while we still have ITBS testing next week and the glorious end-of-the-year paperwork extravaganza to look forward to, sixth grade is on its way.

Here’s what we have on the agenda:

History (Social Studies): Sonlight Core 6 with hands-on enrichment

Literature: Sonlight Core 6 (I bought stronger reading glasses. No joke.)

Writing/Composition: Sonlight Language Arts 6 (but I am looking at IEW Student Writing Intensive B – It’s pricey, so I’m looking for it used. And maybe it’s boring, I don’t know. Thoughts?)

Grammar: Grammar Ace (mainly as reinforcement and review)

Math: Math-U-See Pre-Algebra

Science: Prentice Hall Science Explorer: Weather and Climate, Animals and From Bacteria to Plants; TOPS Science Electricity.

Spanish: Taken at co-op. We will also use Rosetta Stone for our regular classes at home. I have the workbook and textbook for Destinos, which we will eventually do. The boy is freaked out by total immersion, so we’re going gently into that goodnight with Rosetta Stone.

Art and Music: Taken at co-op – guitar at home, as well as Drawing: The Complete Course.

God's Love

I feel like I need to go see what kind of battery I have in my car.

back in time

(Scroll down for the HOTM curriculum sale info. Thanks!)

Another wonderful field trip – This time to the Mauldin Cultural Center and the Gosnell cabin. This cabin (in some form) was originally on property now owned by our local Boy Scouts council. (The property is the site of Camp Old Indian, the subject of lots of previous posts here.) When the cabin was donated to the city, the good folks who moved it did not number the logs, so we don’t know if the reassembly was accurate. We can safely assume it was frustrating. :) In any event, there were quilts and a butter churn. Need I say more?

The Gosnells are pictured below. Sorry for the cruddy photo. It was way over my head (literally), so I couldn’t do anything about the weird light.

I bet the Gosnells were not nearly as angry as they appear.

homeschool book sale at HOTM

Time to clean the shelves! Heart of the Matter is facilitating a used book sale today. My listings are here. Visit Heart of the Matter for more links.