Weekly Wrap-up! or should I say......

Monthly wrap-up or even bi-monthly wrap-up.  I am so sorry, it was never my intention to be away for so long.  We have had an extraordinarily busy few weeks.  We moved our family to the edge of nowhere, okay not really, but sometimes it seems like a whole new world.

We had previously lived in what my family refers to as ghetto-lite.   I bought the house 15 years ago from my grandfather, with the hopes that I could raise my children there for the long-term.  It was not even really on my radar to homeschool, all that changed after my kids started school.  My sweet boy would come home crying because his name was made fun of or he was teased because he was white, this child had no preconceived notions of color.  He just wanted people to be his friend and his best friend in Kindergarten told him that he couldn't be his friend anymore because Hunter was white.  The final straw came when Hunter was spat upon on the bus, Hunter retaliated by punching the kid and was suspended from the bus.  The other child was not punished in any way.  That was it, I drove the kids for the rest of the year and they finished out the year.  The next fall we started this homeschool adventure, that was 6 years ago and I've never been happier.

All of this to say that we have moved to an area with a great school district and I'm still not going to put my kids in public school.  You see, that while I began homeschooling for one set of reasons; I will continue for a whole different set of reasons.  I'm not prepared to give my kids back into a system, any system, that teaches to the median or in some cases the lowest common denominator.  That is what the US Federal Government will do to our schools, they will continually dumb them down and weaken our children's future.  I want to empower my children to learn on their own, utilizing their own resources and not have knowledge spoon fed to them.  I want to teach my children about God and our Savior Jesus Christ, without having the ACLU poking their nose into whether or not my children pray before, after or during their day.  I am saying all of this, because I've been asked (read encouraged) to put my kids back in school.  I say emphatically, "NO!" I won't do it and you can't make me.  Real mature, huh????  Oh well, I've never been particularly mature.
 
We also celebrated 2 birthdays during the month of August, Ry turned 7 and Sissy turned 5.  My mom made some great cakes for the kids and we had a wonderful meal.  They didn't get a whole bunch of presents, but they truly enjoyed time spent poolside with their family.  Early in August all 4 kids decided to dye their hair.  I didn't get a tone of great pics, but in the slide show you can see the results of at least 3 of the kids.  Tanyn decided on hot pink streaks in her bangs and sides of her hair.  Rylan wanted all over blue, this one was a bit of a disappointment; it washed out almost immediately.  Hunter and Dakota decided to bleach their hair, thankfully their hair grows really fast and I was able to shave it off this week.  The only one I truly liked was Sissy's, the hot pink was just really fun and sassy looking.

Now on to the monthly wrap-up.  We started school 3 weeks ago and everything has been going great, no we are not doing everything I intend for us; but we are definitely getting there.

Hunter and Dakota are doing Heart of Dakota Resurrection to Reformation.  We are absolutely loving it, the teachers manual makes it so easy for the kids to work independently and check in with me when they need to do oral narrations or have any questions.  They have art projects every week that help cement their history learning in their mind.  In the slide show are pictures of their stain glass artwork.  In science they are working on Apologia Biology and Geometry in math. Not truly excelling but plugging away.  I wish they were more excited, but I'll settle these first few weeks.

Tanyn and Rylan are still working on Little Hearts for His Glory from HOD.  We love this curriculum.  They are working on place value, the tens place and the ones place. We found an easel at a garage sale and the kids have been using it on our back porch a lot.  We are reading "Grandfather Frog" and Ry and Sissy love it.  We are working right now on memorizing the Lords' Prayer, difficult;  but definitely worthwhile.  In Bible,  we are working on learning about the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We are learning about the events leading up to the crucifixion, burial and Resurrection.  Finally, Ry is continuing to work on phonics with ClicknKids.  He's not in love with it but I haven't found one he is in love with, so he'll just have to keep plugging away.  Rylan is doing great, Tan is struggling a bit.  We'll probably end up going back to the beginning and starting over with Little Hearts for Tan when we start Beyond Little Hearts for Ry.  Technically she is still a preschooler, so we mostly focus on what she wants to do versus trying to shove her into an uncomfortable mold.


Well that's it head on over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how others spent their month week.