Back to School

It's hard to believe we are nearing the end of our 5th week of school! My weekdays are so incredibly full, and yet somehow it seems we are always neglecting or forgetting something, lol. One of my prayers is from Isaiah 54:13: "All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children's peace." Oh, Lord, teach my children what YOU want them to know! Because their human teacher is so very, very inadequate!!

It blows my mind that we are in our 12th year of homeschooling. When our oldest children were wee babes, Ted and I knew that we wanted to homeschool, but in my mind, it would only be through the elementary years, because...why would I want to do more than that?! How in the world could I possibly teach my children ALL those subjects?!

Clearly God has shown that the path He desires for our family is to continue homeschooling. There are days--trust me--when I wish His plan included something different! But His grace is sufficient and His mercies are new every morning. We love learning and growing together. I wouldn't trade this life for anything else, even though it is one of the hardest things we've ever done.

At almost 16 years old, Charis is a busy 11th grader. She is counting down the days until she gets her driver's license (so am I, ha) and working on Sonlight's 20th Century World History core along with chemistry. She is taking a speech class once a week, and though it keeps her busy with a lot of extra work for the apologetics portion that she chose to pursue, she is looking forward to learning and preparing for some competitions! Charis is also keeping busy preparing for the National Bible Bee competition in November and continues with piano and violin lessons.

Eeeek! We have two kids in high school now! Tobin is so excited about his 9th grade year! He is loving American History and excited about participating in a debate class for the first time ever. (Look out, world, lol.) Both he and Arden love their computer programming activities on Khan Academy as well. Tobin's spare time sees him fiddling with a variety of Rubick's cubes--he blows my mind with how he can solve them so quickly!

Arden is in 8th grade! We've chosen to split him and Tobin for the first time ever--Arden is doing the Eastern Hemisphere core with the new history book that Sonlight is using in place of the World Book Encyclopedia CD that we used the first time around. Since he was only in 5th grade at the time, he is really enjoying the chance to delve deeper and work independently. He says his favorite subject is "reading;" I'm not sure if that's reading history, science, or his literature, but I'm just happy he loves to read, lol. He is also enjoying a Lego robotics class at our homeschool co-op.

Kenna is in 4th grade! History is her favorite subject--she is doing the first year of Sonlight's 2-year American History tour and reads most of the books on her own. (I have to hide them so she doesn't go too far ahead!) She is also taking a writing and beginning sign language class through a homeschool co-op twice a month.

Lucan is in 2nd grade! He started piano lessons over the summer and continues to enjoy music. He says math is his favorite subject. He and Zaden are doing the Sonlight Year 1 of World History core. He is in Kenna's co-op classes with his best friend Zach, 

Zaden is in KINDERGARTEN! He is eagerly breezing through the 100EZ Lessons (reading) book and plowing through the Math-U-See Primer. He and Lucan are doing the Sonlight Year 1 of World History core. His co-op classes include making musical instruments and a young scientist's hands-on class.

Seanin is 3 years old and recently passed his Potty Training Class so that he could attend Cubbies at AWANA this year! That was a huge motivator for him, lol. Whatever works!

Rhema-Roo is over 14 months old now and not yet walking...seems we breed slow walkers, lol. She is fully capable but not convinced in her own mind yet! Rhema is thoroughly doted on and an awfully adorable interruption in our daily routine. She truly is a little ray of sunshine in our lives.