The Hobbit

This trimester at our homeschool co-op I am teaching a literature class on The Hobbit.  With the recent release of the first movie, I thought it might be well-received... and I was right. I have six students in my class, and they are very excited about discussing the book... and the movie. Such enthusiasm makes the class a lot of fun to teach.

I've been very impressed with the Progeny Press Study Guide we are using. It's great for vocabulary development, literary analysis, a bit of grammar, and--the best part--tying in scriptural applications. The theme that it's bringing out is how God chooses unlikely, ordinary "heroes" for important "quests." My prayer is that this is a truth that will stick with the kids long after our class time is over.

Lifelong Learning

I'm blogging today on the Sonlight Blog about things I'm currently learning.

Summer "School"

My post about things our kids learn while on vacation is

available on the Sonlight blog.

The End of the School Year

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we get to set our own schedule. Some families have school year 'round with shorter breaks as needed throughout the year. We follow more of a traditional school year in our family. With warmer weather here the children are playing outside more, and are ready to be done with books for awhile!

We try to be done by Memorial Day, but since it comes early this year, I don't think we're going to make it quite. But hopefully by the first of June!

I don't know about you, but I always get to the end of the year wondering if we did enough. Did we cover everything we needed to cover? Did the children learn what they were supposed to for this grade?

But then as I pack the books away for the summer and take mental inventory of everything we did accomplish, I'm always surprised at how much we actually got done!

This is the end of our 11th year of homeschooling. I can't tell you how rewarding it is to realize that almost everything my children know academically they learned from me! It has been such a privilege to go through each level with them. And I seriously believe I have learned far more than they have!

10 Things Your Kids Can Learn While Camping

In our family we like to say that learning is not just for school time, but rather learning is a lifestyle. My husband and I take advantage of opportunities to teach our children as we go about our daily lives.

"You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

One of our favorite family activities is camping. I posted about our most recent camping trip at Ramblin' Roads... but for this post I thought it would be neat to share a few of the educational benefits we have discovered while camping:

1. Nature Studies
2. Survival Skills
3. Primitive Cooking
4. Physical Education (hiking, biking, pumping and carrying water...)
   
5. Exploration and Discovery
6. Socialization (They always meet any other kids whose families are camping at the same time!)
7. Reading (A very relaxing way to spend a lazy afternoon at the campground, when electronics aren't an option!)
8. Photography
9. Astronomy
10. Meteorology
    

And that's not mention the great family relationships we are building in the process!

What does your family like to do for fun and education?