Back to School....at Home

Today was our official first day of school. After weeks of preparation and hours of writing lesson plans, I was finally ready and Sisterwho even asked if she could do math (wait, is the sky falling??).

We are studying modern history for a term and then we'll go back to ancient history for the rest of the year. World War II is dh's favorite subject so he will be able to share his wealth of knowledge about Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Truman, etc.

We are reading The Hobbit for literature, along with Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale". I would love to find a Shakespeare play to see this fall but after looking at all of the local college's fine arts schedules, there doesn't appear to be a production.

Geography is a study of David Livingstone's "Missionary Travels in Africa". We are learning about him as one of the great abolitionists and his work among African nations earned him tremendous respect there and in the United States. My friend Kim (what would I do without you) gave me the name of a game that facilitates the learning of the geography of Africa--10 Days in Africa--and the kids have already played it several times since it came in the mail yesterday. I just ordered more of the "10 days in ______" games. Currently available are 10 Days in The United States and Europe and they are working on "10 Days in Asia" to come out later this year.

Poetry, Latin, Foreign Language, Theology, Nature Study, Plutarch, Natural History, Composer and Artist studies round out our schedule. Dd and I are also doing a bible study together titled "Beautiful Girlhood".

LittleWho is officially of Kindergarten age but school for him is pretty much doing what we've been doing for the past 5 years; reading quality literature, counting everything that occurs in multiples like fenceposts, trees, stars, raisins, etc. and spending time in nature and cultivating his natural interest in whatever it is he seems to want to know about. Reading is something he hasn't shown particularly great interest in yet, and *gasp*, he doesn't even know his ABC's but according to language expert Ruth Beechick, there is no need to know the alphabet or even the names of the letters to begin reading. She recommends working on the letter sounds first, the rest will come later. Maybe I could convince him that in order to be a Ninja, he must sit still for a few minutes and meditate on schoolwork......

The 2 big boys, Ds21 and Ds19 are in the Blackberry Hill College of Real Life. They are both reading all of the books on my classical booklists, grabbing everything they can get their hands on; both of them are such voracious readers! We are enjoying being together as a family and spending time learning from each other, working on the house and the land and, hopefully, they will carry the practical knowledge with them into their adult lives.