Homeschool Wrap Up Week 29

This time of year, many homeschool moms start feeling pressured.  They feel like the end of the year is coming up fast and they are not where they need to be.  Or, outside activities may stop them from getting their book work completed like they thought.  Sometimes spring fever sets in and you desire to spend time outdoors, but the school books are calling you.  Don't let the pressure to finish strong on a predetermined date steal your joy!  You don't have to finish every book to finish well.  A successful homeschool year is not measured in the amount of work that is completed!

We actually had several outside activities this week and only had two full school days, Monday and Tuesday, but we sure learned a lot!

Week 29 In Our Homeschool

Bible: We started a new study from Real Life Press called The Book of Moses Part 2.  We finished Days 1 and 2 of Lesson 1.

History: We read lessons 76-78 in Mystery of History Vol III on John Milton and John Bunyan, William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania, and The Atlantic Slave Trade.  We will do the timeline and memory cards with the ones from next week :)

Science: We started a unit study from Homeschool Legacy called Weather on the Move.  We worked on the first lesson of it.  To go along with the study, we also started reading aloud The Swiss Family Robinson.  I have read it aloud before but it has been a few years and my younger children do not remember reading it before.

Art: We worked on a lesson in ARTistic Pursuits on Edgar Degas and made some clay sculptures.

Grammar/Writing/Literature: Nick and Alex finished Lesson 27 of Fix It! Grammar and started Lesson 23 in IEW Medieval Writing.  This will probable be the last lesson we complete in that book because we are getting a new review from IEW!  Christian and Anthony and I read 2 more chapters in The Wheel on the School and answered the comprehension questions.  I also forgot to mention that after spring break I started having them do some handwriting practice since I do not think they do enough handwriting.  I bought some copybooks called Pentime they are working in everyday.

Spelling/Reading-Christian and Anthony finished Lesson 14 of AAR Level 2.

Math-They only had 2 days of Math so they started a new lesson but didn't finish it.  Nick started Lesson 29, Christian and Anthony started Lesson 27 of their books and Alex started Lesson 26 of Delta.

My Father's World Creation From A to Z

Lily started and finished Unit 17: Kangaroo.  We read about some fascinating facts about kangaroos, watched a kangaroo video, and read a book about kangaroos.  She did worksheets including a picture card page, handwriting page, sound discrimination page, math page, cut and paste page, and blend ladder page.  We read the book Katy No Pocket.

Other Activities This Week:

Monday archery was cancelled. Christian did have a soccer game at 7 that didn't get started until about 7:30.  They played great and won in a shoot out.

Tuesday Lily had gymnastics and Emmie and I ran a few errands while she was there.  We headed back home and made and ate supper and then headed back to town for Nick and Alex's 7:00 soccer game.  They played great and won in a shoot out.  Nick was playing goalie and ended up with a minor hand injury but he saved the goal so for him that was worth it.

Wednesday we had our science and art co-op at Grandview.

Thursday we had a field trip to Mid America Science Museum.  They had been closed for 6 months to do renovations and recently reopened.  The changes were not at all what I expected, but we all had a really good time!

Friday we did our grocery shopping and Friday night Nick and Alex had a soccer practice.

Saturday we went to a fishing derby at Grandview.

Sunday after church Christian and Anthony's Sunday School class had a pizza party, so I grabbed some Pizza Hut for the rest of the children and we headed back to church to eat and wait on the party to be over.  The rest of my day will be spent working on my blog, cleaning, and getting ready for school next week.

Happy Homeschooling!

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The Aeneid Review and Giveaway!

One of the things that I have learned during my homeschool journey is that you don't have to be knowledgeable in every subject in order to teach it to your children.  You can bring experts into your home to teach them for you.  One way to do this is by using video curriculum.  I have found this to be especially helpful in the middle/high school ages not only because it helps me as a teacher but also because it allows the student to be able to work independently.  Roman Roads Media publishes Classical video curricula from a Christian perspective that will help to instill a love of learning in your children.

Last year I had an opportunity to review Old Western Culture: The Greeks, the first year of a 4 year program intended for 8th-12th graders.  I was very impressed with this curriculum and was quite happy when I was offered the chance to do a review and giveaway of the first unit, The Aeneid of The Romans: Year 2.

The Aeneid is a 4 DVD and workbook set that will take the student around 9 weeks to complete.  The course is made up of video instruction, reading assignments, workbook exercises, and an ending exam and term paper. After completing all 4 units the student will have earned a full credit in literature and history.  I would also award a 1/2 credit in art history. There are 12 lectures in the unit including:

Overview of Roman History
Introduction to the Aeneid
Aeneid 1: Rome is an Idea
Aeneid II: The Fall of Troy & the Wanderings of Aeneas
Aeneid III: Tragedy of Dido
Aeneid IV: The Underworld
Aeneid V: The Broken Truce
Aeneid VI: Tragedy of Nisus
Aeneid VII: Death of Turnus
Ovid's Metamorphoses I
Ovid's Metamorphoses II
Lucretius, Lucan, & Statius

The workbook contains a suggested 9 week schedule and has comprehension questions for both the reading and the lecture, and an answer key. A guide to the art booklet is also included showing a piece of full color art for each lesson and a description of the work of art.

When you purchase the Aeneid Bundle ($62) you receive a physical copy of the DVDs and workbook, plus streaming access. You can also choose just DVD or streaming option for $56.  You will also need access to the reading assignments.  Digital copies of all of the assigned texts are included with your purchase and can be read on a tablet or your computer.


I have found Mr. Callihan's lectures to be very interesting, humorous,and educational.  His love of what he is teaching comes across when he is speaking and he has a great storytelling style that keeps you engaged.  There are many visuals included in the lectures such as timelines, artwork, maps and more. The reading assignments are challenging, but interesting and the comprehension questions will help students listen actively to the lectures and better understand what they are reading.  I love the art aspect of the curriculum as well, but parents should be aware that this course is designed for ages 14 and up and some of the classic artwork and mature themes may not be considered appropriate for younger children.  The curriculum comes from a Christian worldview.

Giveaway!!!

Roman Roads Media has offered me an opportunity to host a giveaway for an Aeneid Bundle ($62 value.)  Giveaway will be open starting April 11th 2015 and will continue through April 25th 2015.  Prize will be fulfilled by Roman Roads Media.  Good Luck!!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this curriculum for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

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April Grandview Program and Art Co-op

I have taken some measures from my end to help prevent the thief from thieving my photos. It makes it harder for me to post pictures and share posts, but  here's hoping it worked!


This month for our hands on science day at Grandview, we learned about opossums.  While learning some facts about opossums, we did four different activities.

We learned that a mother opossum is able to feed 13 babies and that the babies are the size of a kidney bean.

We made a pouch to wear and filled it with baby opossums.

We colored a mother opossum.

And made a baby that was around 2 months old and ready to crawl out of pouch and onto mama's back.

It was a beautiful day and we were able to take our lunch break outside.  The children had an opportunity to run around and play too before we headed back in to art class.

Each month we feature a different artist. Our artist for this month was Edgar Degas.

We had a slide show of some of his works and learned some facts about his life.

Then we make an art project similar to what the artist would have done.  I have tried to give the children a variety of projects using different mediums.  So far this year we have used acrylic paint, water colors, made a mixed media collage, a mobile, a cut paper collage, and made a fresco plaque. This month we worked with chalk pastels and it was the first time some of the children had ever used them.  They came up with some creative art work!

Happy Homeschooling!

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Compass Classroom Spring Sale!

*This post contains affiliate links






From April 8th-15th, enjoy up to 50 % off from Compass Classroom!  Compass Classroom offers quality, Christian video curriculum in a variety of subject areas including Latin, Bible, Poetry, History, Filmmaking, Economics and more.

Some of our favorite curriculum is included in this sale!  Visual Latin, Word Up the Vocab Show and Economics for Everybody are all 30 % off.  We have LOVED all of these!

These two we have reviewed and are on the shelf just waiting for the boys to get older ;)

Dave Raymond's American History is 35% off.

Old Western Culture is 25 % off.

Plus there are several others that we have yet to try such as:

Filmmaking From the First Directors 50% off

Logic, Grammar of Poetry, and Modern Parables 25% off.

And the newest Compass Classroom product Homeschool Made Simple 50% off.


*links in this post are my affiliate links.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually can use and recommend!

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Review: The Inn at Ocean's Edge by Colleen Coble

Book Description 

" A vacation to Sunset Cove was her way of celebrating and thanking her parents. After all, Claire Dellamore's childhood was like a fairytale. But with the help of Luke Elwell, Claire discovers that fairytale was really an elaborate lie . . . The minute she steps inside the grand Inn at Ocean's Edge, Claire Dellamare knows something terrible happened there. She feels it in her bones. Her ensuing panic attack causes a scene, upsetting her parents. Claire attempts to quiet her nerves with a walk on the beach, to no avail. She's at too great a distance to make out details, but she believes she witnesses a murder on a nearby cliff. When local police find no evidence of foul play, they quickly write off the "nervous" woman's testimony as less than credible. But Luke Elwell, home on leave from the Coast Guard, has reason to believe Claire. Years ago when his mother went missing, Luke's father suspected she'd been murdered. He died never having convinced the police to investigate. So when an employee of the grand hotel doesn't show up for work, Luke steps in to help Claire track down the missing woman. As Claire and Luke put together the pieces of a decades-old mystery, they discover that some family secrets refuse to stay buried. And some passions are worth killing for."

 About the Author-  USA Today bestselling author Colleen Coble has written several romantic suspense novels including Tidewater Inn, Rosemary Cottage, and the Mercy Falls, Lonestar, and Rock Harbor series. Visit her website at www.colleencoble.com Twitter: @colleencoble Facebook: colleencoblebooks

I have been a big fan of Colleen Coble, especially her Hope Beach series so I was excited to see the first novel in a new series, Sunset Cove, being released.  The Inn at Ocean's Edge is a very well written story that will keep you up at night so you can see what happens!  It has all of the elements of a good story: great characters, great setting you can imagine yourself living in, plus mystery, suspense, and romance.  The plot is very complex and it's twists and turns will keep you guessing right up to the end, even after you think you have it all figured out!

If you have read other books by Colleen Coble, you will see some similarities between this story and a few of her others in regards to the characters, setting, and parts of the plot.  I still LOVED the story and look forward to seeing other books in this series.

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 28

*this post contains affiliate links

No photos this week.  Some of you might remember that last fall a specific website was using some of my photos without my permission.  That post was removed and I thought the problem was solved.  But recently I discovered more pictures on the same site.  After further investigation it seems that all of my pictures are ending on that website.  Every time I put up a new post, the photos show up there. Reporting them to their web hosts has been unsuccessful because they keep switching hosts.  So I am working on trying to find a way to get this stopped.  So this week at least will not have pictures which makes me both sad and mad!  This blog is my personal property. I enjoy writing it and keeping a record of my homeschool journey and I hate that someone is trying to spoil that for me.

But anyway on to the weekly wrap up!

Week 28 In Our Homeschool

Bible: We finished Missionary Stories with the Millers and have continued to read through the book of Proverbs.  We will begin a review of The Book of Moses part 2 from Real Life Press starting next week.

History: We finished lessons 73-75 on The Scottish Covenanters, K'ang-shi the Manchu and the Ching Dynasty, and Sir Isaac Newton.  We did the corresponding time line figures and memory cards.

Science: We skipped science this week.  I had thought we would go ahead and start Apologia Exploring Creation Through Anatomy and Physiology which I had planned to use next year, but we were given an opportunity to review a unit study called Weather on the Move from Homeschool Legacy.  I did not get it until Thursday morning so we will be diving into that next week.

Art: We did another assignment in our ARTistic Pursuits K-3 Book 3 book.  I am not going in order of the lessons in the book because I want to show a variety of things the book covers in my review.  So we skipped ahead a bit and did lesson 11 and used oil pastels to create our artwork.

Grammar/Writing/Literature: Nick and Alex finished Lesson 26 in Fix it! Grammar and Lesson 22 in IEW Medieval Writing.  I have combined Anthony and Christian on literature and we are reading The Wheel on the School and answering the comprehension questions aloud.  Anthony and I are still working on practicing for his upcoming Iowa test.

Spelling/Reading: Anthony and Christian finished Lesson 13 of AAR Level 2.  I had planned on Alex starting Level 5 of All About Spelling, but when I get strapped for time it seems like that is the first thing that goes and we did not get to it.  He did work on The Orphs of the Woodlands 3 days this week.

Math: Nick finished Lesson 28 of Math U See Pre-Algebra.  Anthony and Christian finished lesson 26 of Beta and Gamma and Alex finished Lesson 25 of Delta.

My Father's World Creation From A to Z

This week we started and completed Unit 16: Penguin.  The Bible lesson focused on the phrase "I show love to everyone especially my family."  Lily did a picture card page, handwriting page, sound discrimination page, math page, cut and paste page, blend ladder page, and drawing page.  She also had a story page she could read!  We read books with facts about penguins, made icebergs, and a penguin badge.  We did a little geography with a globe talking about the equator, north pole, and south pole.  We also read the book Tacky the Penguin.

Lily is also working on a review of Memoria Press's First Start Reading.

Other Activities This Week:

Monday Christian still was not feeling 100%.  So we did not go to archery and he missed his first soccer game of the season.  Art was still home sick from work.  I did take Nick and Alex to their soccer practice.

Tuesday Lily had gymnastics.  The girls and I dropped by the library while we were in town.  We headed home to make and eat supper and head back to town for Nick and Alex's soccer game but Emelia started complaining that she had a stomachache! So I stayed home with Emmie, Lily, Christian, and Anthony and Art came and got the older boys and took them to their game.

Wednesday was Christian's birthday.  My baby boy turned 8!  I made him a creeper cake and cooked his birthday supper.  He requested cheese ravioli so I made that with some homemade bread and a salad.  He is such a sweet boy and so easy to please!  He had a great birthday!

Thursday we headed off to archery.  After archery we went to Walmart to grab something for supper and then went and ate at the park.  Christian had a soccer game at 6.  After his game I headed home with the 4 youngest and Art stayed for Nick and Alex's practice.

Friday we had to go back to Walmart to have tires put on the van and do some grocery shopping.  After that we relaxed at home and took care of some chores.  That night was the 4 H achievement banquet.  Chelsea, Nick, Alex, Christian, Lily, and I went to that and Art stayed home with Anthony and Emmie.  Christian and Lily both got Cloverbud award certificates and Nick and Alex both won journal awards (Nick's was for Poultry/Rabbits and Alex for Utilizing Science and Technology)and also gem awards for 4 H participation.  They received a certificate, a 4 H snuggie, and will get trophies at the district competition in June.  Chelsea gave two speeches about the two national 4 H trips she attended last year.

Saturday we headed over to the lake for some fishing.  The children have been asking and asking when we would be able to go.  Nobody caught anything, but we had fun and played on the playground for awhile before heading home.  They are eager to go fishing again soon!

Happy Homeschooling!

*links to All About Learning Press and Apologia are my affiliate links.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend!!

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The Perfect Curriculum

I have already started shopping for next year's curriculum choices (actually I started back in February.)  I just love getting those curriculum catalogs in the mail!  In my spare time I have been searching through catalogs, looking up information and samples on websites, and reading reviews.  I do not have a homeschool convention close to me, but many homeschoolers will head to a convention to get their hands on the curriculum and talk to the vendors in person.  We all want to find the perfect curriculum to use with our family.

It doesn't exist.


Now don't get me wrong.  There is a lot of great curriculum and resources out there for homeschoolers.  I have been greatly blessed over the years to have an opportunity to use and review many different products from many great companies.  But there is no perfect curriculum and the search for it can lead to frustrated and burned out homeschool mamas.

For there to be a perfect homeschool curriculum there would have to be perfect children that all learned the same and perfect mamas who all taught the same.  Children do not all learn the same and mamas sure do not teach all the same!  Even within one homeschool family you will find that each of the children learn differently!  I have seen this to be very true in my house!

This is why when we are researching curriculum and we find what appears to be a wonderful curriculum: the samples all look great, rave reviews are given, and several other homeschool families that we know love it, but it doesn't work for us and we feel frustrated and wonder what we did wrong.  Or we see how much other homeschoolers manage to get completed in a day and feel like a failure because we didn't even get half of that accomplished!  Or we wonder how in the world we are supposed to find time for all of the homeschool work, plus take care of the house, our husband, and transport children to their extra activities, and everything else we need to do in the course of a day and we are exhausted before we even get started.

There is no perfect curriculum and we need to stop expecting there to be and base our success/failures on the curriculum we use or how much we manage to get done in a day.  Curriculum is supposed to be a tool for the homeschool mama, not a task master.  When I first started homeschooling, I did everything just like the book told me too.  Every assignment, every project, every activity just like it was written.  I only had one child to homeschool and I was VERY overwhelmed.  I could not see how people homeschooled multiple children.  And then I started to realize something.  If one of the reasons I wanted to bring her home was to provide an individualized education I needed to do just that.  Not every activity, project or assignment had to be completed and even the ones that did could be "tweaked" to fit what we wanted it to.  Since then, I have very rarely followed the book or curriculum exactly like it's written.  We use the curriculum to guide or learning process not decide it. There is a lot of freedom in that!

Just because something works for one child doesn't mean it will suit your family as a whole.  There is a curriculum that I absolutely love that was great for Chelsea, but I can't make it work for the age spans of my other children.  I would have to be teaching 3 different sets of core curriculum plus separate math, reading, and spelling.  That would drive me crazy, cause us to spend lots of extra hours on school, and I haven't even mentioned the cost!  Just because it's a great curriculum doesn't mean it would work for us.

The urge to compare ourselves with other homeschoolers is strong.  Especially when you see and hear all of the things that others are doing.  I find myself second guessing myself often when I hear how many hours people spend on school and we only spend half of that.  But every homeschool is different and we should not be worried about comparing ourselves to others but instead focus on our own homes and children.

Feel free to change and adjust your curriculum to suit your needs.  You don't have to do it all!  There is nothing wrong with skipping activities or putting them off for a later date.  There is nothing wrong with allowing children who struggle with reading or writing to dictate answers to you rather than write them themselves.  There is nothing wrong with turning a reader into a read aloud.  There is nothing wrong with ditching the curriculum for a day for a field trip or even for a few weeks or months during a life change (new baby, illness, move, etc...)  And if you buy something that makes homeschooling more difficult for you or your child, and you can't make adjustments to it, don't continue to make yourselves miserable.  Not every curriculum no matter how great it is will work for everyone.  Sell it if you can and look for something else.

Happy Homeschooling!

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