Oh, yeah, homeschooling... :)

It might seem that this is not at the forefront of my life because of all the non hs'ing pictures, but it is, indeed, one of my passions. I wholeheartedly believe this is God's Will for us. Our son, Cristian, is a remarkable, unique, high energy young child, who's curiosity for God's world has often found him trouble in a conventional school system. With much prayer and what we feel is direct mandate from God, we launched into our homeschooling journey.

Last year we used Sonlight Curriculum. We have an affinity for Classical Learning, particularly Charlotte Mason style. A child is exposed to very classical literature, some Caldecott Honors, and is invited to explore nature heavily in order to enjoy it and understand it. More info on Charlotte Mason's style can be found at amblesideonline.org While I can truly appreciate Ambleside Online and Well Trained Mind, I didn't feel like it was structured enough for us. Soon, we found that much of Sonlight was not going to work for us. We stuck to some of the History and Science, but Cristian learned to read rather proficiently in a very short time. Truly, at the beginning of the year he was learning letter sounds, by May he was reading books well. It was amazing! We also used Math U See, which we love.

This year we tried to order My Father's World First Grade Curriculum ( www.mfwbooks.com ), but found that much of it was not conducive to where we were at with Cristian. We are now using the 2nd and 3rd Grade materials studying the history of the United States. We have used it the past week and it's great! Cristian is a bit disgruntled with the copywork, but we're working through it.

Socialization? We have an amazing group of Classical HS'ers as well as general HS'ers we frequently with whom we spend a lot of time. While I had always thought that Cristian was a bit eccentric, I find that many of his HS'ing friends share the same qualities and it makes for a great time. We have done hikes, art projects, free play, park days, explored local ponds, and learned about local creatures, all here in beautiful Colorado!

So, this will definitely be a mix of the struggles I enjoy with my garden, the adventures we take as a family, and the wonders of homeschooling. We welcome another year of learning!