The first week of school

The beginning of a new school year is always exciting. I love reorganizing our shelves/books and making new schedules. (even brand new Crayons seem exciting)

Our family's verses for this school year are: "And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment." ~1 Jn.3:22-23
Our goals being: obeying, believing and loving

We don't have all of our books just yet...
A marine biology curriculum and dissecting kit are on the way (Eww!) and I still need to order a refill lab kit for our other science curriculum and a foreign language program. So, we used what we had so far to get back into the groove of things.

We've been enjoying our study of California.
(my kiddos want to know why I don't know all this already since I grew up there!-Good question!)
Its been fun studying John Sutter and the gold rush. (lots of life lessons there on greed!) Also, the railroad, the San Francisco earthquake, the building of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
We are looking forward to our day in San Francisco...

I use Learning Adventures: A New World of Adventure with three of our kids and it includes everything but math. I'm going to supplement the history this year with History of US by Joy Hakim because I really like it. I am also going to use another grammar and spelling program for two of the kids. Andrew is using Spelling Power this year. Nathan is going to use Rainbow Science to start earning a high school science and lab credits this year. (8th grade) He's also going to take a keyboarding class online.
Tenth grade for Zach this year will look like this:
Apologia Marine Biology w/lab
Computing for College and Careers (an online class) Semester 2 -(He's been learning Excel. Who-hoo! How timely is that for his mom the treasurer! He helped me last week and I was oh, so impressed)
Finish up Algebra I (start Geometry) with Teaching Textbooks
P.E.
Music
Spanish
English (Sonlight)


We had a wonderful visit with our evaluator, Debbie Strayer over the summer. She is such a blessing. If you have the opportunity to hear her speak, you'll be blessed. She has the gift of encouragement. I usually leave our evaluations in (happy) tears and am all excited about the year ahead. As a joke, one of my sons filled my purse with tissue before our appointment. : )
I just love her. I always feel like the Lord is speaking through her to us with divine words of wisdom. I love her enthusiasm in what the Lord is doing and how He is shaping our older boys. She helps me see the big picture! If you'd like to check out her web site it is here and she will bless your socks off! : )

Happy New School Year to all of you!

~Becky