School Time!

   What sort of people use their child (by means of their stroller) to steal from a christian bookstore? You would think that Lee wouldn't have much problem with theft as the manager of a Christian bookstore but he loses thousands each year through theft. The most ironic, is when someone steals a Bible! Lee has Bibles in the back that he could give out if someone truly was in need but apparently these sort of people don't "just" want the Word of God, they want it with a leather cover and study notes, etc. ;). Of course, whenever someone takes a Bible you have to figure they needed it, whether they thought so or not :).

   Anyway, all that aside, I am absolutely giddy!!! Most of Bri's and Tori's  books have come in and I am really enjoying going through them! We're still waiting on English (from Rod and Staff) and Bri's copybook (from Queen Home School Supplies). We do most of our subjects together, all except math, spelling/phonics, and English. I remember reading books like Little Women, Heidi and Anne of Green Gables to Bri when she was itty bitty and feeling kind of silly, asking myself, "How much can a three year old get out of these books?". Now I realize how instrumental they were in increasing her vocabulary and reading comprehension so I have Tori sit through most of our reading whether it is for history, science, or just a good book. I don't require the same kind of focus from Tori as I do from Bri yet, Tori is free to tend to her dolls or play quietly with blocks, etc. while I read. We are using Saxon Math again this year. I wasn't thrilled with it last year but it was all because of the format. When I got a chance to look at the fourth grade book this year I saw that the format was entirely changed from the third grade book and was actually exactly what I was looking for! So, I'm willing to give it another chance. For science we are using the new curriculum from Answers in Genesis. While we haven't officially started it yet, I have looked through it quite a bit and I would recommend to anyone to check into it, I can't wait to get started! I also ordered the new Zoo Guide from Answers in Genesis and that looks really fun as well. The girls are enamored simply by the pictures and we haven't even taken it to the zoo yet! It makes me think of Pa's "Big Green Book" mentioned in Little House in the Big Woods. We're continuing in Latin with "Latin's Not So Tough II" and I got Bri a spelling book this year because the whole "check it as you go" isn't working out, I think we need some structure there. I got the book Maidens of Virtue to use as a Bible curriculum this year along with our regular Bible reading, etc. and our history will also include a lot of Bible. For art we will be continuing with I Can Do All Things, published by How Great Thou Art, since we haven't gotten even halfway through it yet, the girls are always coming up with their own projects to do. We use the Mary Francis series for a Home Ec. base, as well as what comes up in the day to day. Music is another of those things that just happens around here. We love music and we have cassettes of classical music with the composers biographies scattered throughout and CDs with pure instrumental as well as CDs with hymns and other songs of worship.

    I also got a few books for me! I am currently reading A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot, what an enthralling book! Some of the things I've come across have really been confirming to me right now. On the other hand, like all of us lowly humans, you can see in this book that Amy had a spirit of flesh to battle just like the rest of us. A couple of the others are The Harsh Truth About Public School and Genesis of a Legacy. Plenty of good books to read, I am in my element!!!

     For now, I need to go get our paperwork sent in for our home school association membership, pay some bills, answer some emails, and write some "snail mail" letters :). All of those good books will just have to wait...

*Edited February 3rd, 2007 to add~ The spelling we used for Bri and the math/spelling we used for Tori were from Spectrum, they are such a good deal!
I'm not saying any of the following to be mean but I would not recommend buying from Queen's Home School supply. They took forever getting the copybook to us, it was also very poor quality for the price. Then we found they had sent us the wrong book (a sports theme instead of a lady theme) and they would not reimburse us the shipping cost to send it back even though it was their mess up. They also held our book "hostage" until they got the one they mistakenly sent, back. In the end they said they never received the book  back but that they would send our order "anyway", reluctantly, as if they didn't believe we had sent it back. The whole thing was odd. I suspect they aren't very organized and I was not impressed by their customer service.