365 Days of our Homeschooling Days - Day 01

It has been a looong time since I last blogged and the simple reason is that our lives are very busy. We are out and about every day, adventuring, socializing and learning. Who said that homeschoolers are not socializing? (rhetoric question!)

So I came up with a plan to get me on this site a little more often. One point on my Lifelist is to plan and execute a 365-day photo shoot. Until now, I never knew what to photograph to keep it interesting enough for me to shoot and for you to look at. But now I found it: I will take a picture of our homeschooling life for the next 365 days.


Now I know, some of you are absolutely not interested in following us on this journey, and that's okay. But for those of you that do, welcome and I am glad that you are here. I will try to keep it engaging and entertaining. A warning before we start: these photographs will most likely be snapshots, I am not trying to win a spot in the next exhibition at the Met.

So I started a few days ago, but have not had the time to download the pictures onto here. (surprise, surprise) Let's get started before something else comes up:

Here is a picture that just says it all about homeschooling for me: the youngest with the oldest, learning together. Even though the baby doesn't understand much yet, she is still getting some info, and, what is more important, she is getting the bond with her big brother.

Our First Salt Dough Map

As we are continuously studying Ancient History, we included some Geography as well. And which continent is perfect when you just studied Ancient Egypt, Joseph, and Moses: Africa.

Here is a picture of the final map:

The kids had so much fun making this, they didn't realize that they were learning and applying what they had learned previously. I think it came out really good.

You will need a pizza box (old or new), a printer to print the maps, a sharpie, the ingredients for the salt dough, paints, and

I found the recipe for the salt dough online. They are many out there, but we used this one - their Africa map looked intriguing enough for us. Before we could start, we needed to find a map big enough for our outline, I printed it on four pages from this website. Then we needed a physical map of Africa, which I printed from this page. We cut out the big map, taped it together, and then traced the outline onto the pizza box. We tried to be as accurate as possible.

Next, we mixed all the ingredients together:

Coqui really doesn't like to get his hands dirty! He is still smiling here, but soon he had enough and Peanut and I finished mixing it all together.

The next part was so cool: to see Africa take shape in front of us.

Honestly, they did all this by themselves, they just needed some help with the rivers.

 When the map was done and some dough leftover, they wanted to add some African 'things', so they sculpted a pyramid, a snake, and a volcano.

 The map needed to dry for at least a day, but we had to wait for two days to get back and paint it. The weather was nice, so we headed outside for this.

We really enjoyed this and can't wait to make another salt dough map of a different continent.

Draw and Write through history

We have been studying Ancient Greece since mid November. It's taken us a long time due to a vacation, the holidays, and the new year; there were a lot of school-free days. Lol. So here we are, almost done with this unit. Coqui loves history and art. It was a cold day, so we gathered around the fire place in the living room and spread all over the floor to do our learning.

I recently found out about these books called Draw and Write through history.
They are similar to the Draw Your World books - also called Draw, Write, Now. My history lover and I feel in love with the book that we bought, which is of course about Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. We used it before, but today was a great day to pull it back out. So Coqui and I sat down and drew this Ancient Greek soldier below.

Can you guess who's is who's?
OKay, so the original is all the way to the right, that is pretty clear. No one can draw this well in our family. I did not bad, but some of my lines were off. I did not correct them to show my trying-to-be-perfect perfectionist that it is okay to mess up. Of course, he hated his picture. But I am proud that he persevered through the end, even though half way through copying the drawing he wanted to give up. I think he did a fantastic job, but I am also a little bias.

Does every friendship have an expiration date?

Friendships.

God tells us to have fellowship, as in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:  If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!"
Life is honestly better and easier with other people around us, says Galatians 6:2 : "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

There is a season for everything, right? The Bible says so in Ecclesiastes 3:1. But is it true for every relationship we will have in our lifetimes? Just a season?

Does every friendship have an expiration date?

I have had many friendships myself, but most of those relationships only lasted for a season. In some instances, I was happy about that, in others rather not. Mutual agreement of ending a relationship can certainly be like 'lifting a burden' and we will likely just walk away and never look back. However, when special people depart from our lives, they leave a much bigger impact and it is a lot harder to forget about them. And in a few rare cases, we might wish that we had never met a person in the first place.

Nonetheless, I kind of see a frightening pattern in our world today. Every relationship seems to end sooner or later. Who has a best friend that they had since childhood, or at least a few decades long? Why are relationships not lasting anymore?

I believe only a few of us can say that they have a long-lasting friend in their lives. I have had good friends and external circumstances separated us. I have had a best friend but it did not last for reasons I don't want to discuss here. Also I have long distance friends that I have had for a long time and we have seen each other grow. But something was always missing.
Consequently, I have come to the realization that my best friend really is my husband. We talk about anything and everything. We comfort each other in good times as well as through trials. We know we can count on each other. And it is beautifully freeing.

Though I am still looking for that cup-of-coffee-friend that shares life with me, during any and every season of our lives, I  am not that desperate anymore. It would be nice to  have that friend that I can call in the middle of the day to discuss my recent failure in parenting, or my success in sewing a pillow, or just talk about books we just read or movies we've seen. Simple stuff, but stuff that makes life better and more meaningful.

And it's not that I don't have that - many of these things I do, but with different people. Now I would like  that person to be the SAME person each and every time. I don't want to be replaced by the next new friend found in a new playgroup, or at the dance class. I don't want to be replaced due to an argument we've had over which noodles taste better. I don't want to be replaced by someone else because they have a nicer house. I want consistency. I want to be valued as a person that brings meaningfulness to someone else's life. I want to be irreplaceable.

What I have seen and the excuses I have heard personally, people replace people more and more frequently, due to silly things as 'lack of time' or 'inability to cope with recent events'. I have heard it all. And it is stupid! Just say that you don't want to hang out anymore, or you make time, or you get over that inability. "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17) We are on this earth to grow TOGETHER as 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says so well: "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up."

People, where is your perseverance? Isn't a "friend to love at all times, because a brother is born for adversity”? (Proverbs 17:7) Where is your love? Your iron-sharpening rebuke? Your counsel? Your encouragement? We are FAILing each other for the sake of SELF-indulgence! This society has become 'all about me'! We don't care about others anymore. 

Yet, if we want to become more Christ-like, than we ought to "do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than us. Don't let each of you look only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4 ESV) Yes, we need to trust, compromise, communicate, and be honest. There will be conflict and trials. But if we go through them together, than we will GROW together. The result is a respectful, but also safe relationship. Wouldn't we all want that? Trust can only be earned. And it will take a price, the price of being vulnerable. We will have to start admitting that we do need help and that we do need each other. I just want to scream: it is so worth it.


I am calling Christians and others alike to make a point in being more Christ-like. Do good, with actions. Don't hurt others with words or absence. Embrace the chance to change a life from worthless to enjoyable. Take time. Make an effort. Step out of your comfort zone. Sacrifice. It is our earthly duty to LOVE one another unconditionally.

This year's curriculum for Coqui

I kind of forgot to post about our curriculum. As the summer proceeds, so do our studies and it slipped my mind. We finally have all our stuff together and I am here to share.

Coqui is kind of between Third Grade and Fourth Grade - we stopped thinking too much about it. So here is his list:

* History: we are still working on volume One of the Story of the World

* English: we really liked BJU, so we are doing Bob Jones English Grade Four

* Spelling: I did say in my previous post that we were a bit tired of list spelling, but I bought the Bob Jones Spelling book for Fourth Grade anyways. It was more than half price and I couldn't resist.

* Math: we did not like Math 3 from Abeka but we stuck with it for last year. When I decided to switch, I wanted to make sure we covered everything, so I order two Math books, both from BJU, Bob Jones University.
The first one is a review book for third grade, the second is the regular fourth grade math book. But we are using the second edition because I found it somewhere for real cheap.

* Science: we liked the Apologia book last year, we just got stuck somewhere and never finished the book. So I ordered a new book to start fresh this year. It's the creation of the fifth day, so all flying creatures, Zoology 1.

* Cursive Writing: we loved the Abeka writing book, just that it was a bit much. But I got the chance to look inside the grade 3 book at a conference and loved the concept of it: Cursive Writing Skillbook.

* Latin: we are still working on English From The Roots Up volume one, and like it enough to learn a new Latin or Greek work each week.

* German: I finally decided to teach the kids some German, but I don't want it to feel like I force them, so this book: German in 10 Minutes a Day sounded like a good start, especially for Coqui.

* Art: we still love Mike's Inspiration Station and will do those lessons over and over.

* Music: I bought these Maestro CDs to listen to and maybe I can build my own curriculum around them.