The ABC's of Homeschooling... with the Shoup's

This next month I am tickled to be going to the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati. Everyone enjoys a recharge wouldn't ya say?!

Well, in the spirit of this excitement for the convention I wanted to share some of what we have enjoyed while homeschooling through the ABC's... letter 'A' just for today.

Art.

Art usually consists of drawing whether with pencils, crayons, markers or chalk. Though painting has grown scarce with Little Man Mark around. But we make due, and then make up the difference tenfold with colored pencils and chalk as our mediums most often. Art has been a great tool in Hannah's comprehension of her literature studies... more on that when we come to 'D'.

Abacus.

We have enjoyed our journey with math and Right Start Mathematics as our course of study. The abacus has been an amazing visual and hands-on tool in understanding numbers and their values. Whether its in the car, at home or at play, you can always find that an abacus isnt far away.

Afternoons outside.

Spending the afternoons at the park, in the woods, or just exploring our own backyard, not only channels our energy, but it seems to inspire our family's imagination, happiness, wonders, and friendships (within and outside of our family.)

There may have to be a refresher as I imagine there is plenty more to be added here. So, please feel free to make a list along with us. We will be back for more tomorrow...

(Images coming soon... my laptop is acting up tonight.)

Uncovering Dinosaurs @ Danville

Parthenon at Nashville

Our Schoolgirls

Well it seems all the new-ness of home here in Kentucky has made us a little silly. Though with each new day it seems we get a little more settled. These here, are a few of the moments we shared with the beginning of our new school year at home.

Just to share our happenings with the beginning of this school year...

Our days start off with breakfast and a morning lesson/devotional with LDS Scripture Reader lessons (this teaching material was printed in 1984, and has a wealth of visual aides and activities.)

The girls each have their individual studies, it goes like this...
Sara Kate is beginning to read and is very proud to use her own abacus this year. Her studies this year include:

• Reading with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• RightStart Math Level A
• Life Science: Animal Kingdom (20 wks), Human Body (10 wks), Plants (6 wks)
• Aesop's Fables for Children
• Ballet at The Dance Centre in Elizabethtown
• Catching bits and pieces of the Middle Ages, with Hannah and Story of the World, Volume 2

Hannah is continuing to develop into a strong reader, as some days she reads excerpts to me from our third book in the Little House series. She continues to amaze me with her ability to visualize math sums, her thirst for science, and her talent of drawing. Truly, she is her Daddy's girl!!
Hannah's studies this year include:

• Literature beginning with On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Finishing up reading with Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading
• Second year with First Language lessons
• Writing with Ease, 2nd Year
• RightStart Math, Level C
• Physical Science with basic chemistry, using Books One and Two from Adventures with Atoms & Molecules
• History with the Middle Ages, using Story of the World, Volume 2
• Christian Studies, Book 1 by Memoria Press
• D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths and with Lesson Book by Memoria Press
• ATTEMPTING Prima Latina by Memoria Press... To be cont'd on that note...
• Gymnastics at Heartland Gymnastics in Elizabethtown

Much of what we read are literature based and history based books that compliment Hannah's Middle Ages history studies. As well as, readers, picture books, and youth books of interest for all of us to cozy up on the couch and read together.
Our curriculum is based in Classical studies, using literature as the basis for our studies, outside of mathematics. Along with Classical studies I am trying to develop a pattern after the educator Charlotte Mason and her methods of teaching and learning in the home. This is kind of the gist of our schooling at home, anymore mentioning of it and I may have a few more nappers on my hands.
We will be sure to share our discoveries here with you this year, and we hope to have you here again soon...
Love to all,

Our study of Earth Science comes to a close...

"By the power of the Spirit our eyes

were opened and our understandings were enlightened,

so as to see and understand the things of God..."

-Doctrine & Covenants 76:12

"Our bodies are made up

from some of the same atoms that formed

the sun and the stars and created the planets, moons,

asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.

Truly we are all children of..."

... our Creator.

-Seymour Simon, Our Solar System

"For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves

and of our world islanded in its stream of stars...

voyaging between horizons across the eternal seas

of space and time."

-Henry Beston, The Outermost House

"And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.
And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls.

Now these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me;...
And it may suffice if I only say they are preserved for a wise purpose, which purpose is known unto God; for he doth counsel in wisdom over all his works, and his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round."

-Alma 37:7-8,11-12

Book of Mormon

School of the Greeks...

(Okay, have your laugh... school of geeks, school of Greeks. We homeschoolers are proud to be fun-loving, learning geeks.)

This is our day at the theater school of the Greeks... and the puppetmasters showed up at no additional charge.

Important to note: If this were a reality show... those masks would be switched... most certainly!! Sara Kate could make a living pouting... as the kind elders of our town love to share their goods and riches for a smile from this lady.

Our moon...

I will never look at our moon the same again.... Thanks to a documentary, I now get teary eyed every time I look at the moon. Good grief!

It's been ever since Hannah has studied astronomy this year for earth science. We studied the planets, the moon, and the constellations. Luckily, her ancient Greek and Roman studies from history coincided with the constellation study in science.

Anyhow, we were able to watch a documentary of the moon, In the Shadow of the Moon (2007) about the first lunar landings with the Apollo missions. --NOW-- I am not a crying kind of woman, but I have found what makes me weep. When the verses from Genesis about the Creation were read on an Apollo mission on Dec 24th... I cried like a baby. When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon... I snorted like a baby because I cried so hard. This history is more than just history, it is a history that we are linked to... us ... here.... It is a history that testifies of worlds and creations beyond the limits of man.

Interestingly, the astronauts that served the Apollo missions remain the only US astronauts who have traveled to the moon. As they described their experiences they spoke with such reverence toward its Creator. I was able to share this and teach this to our children as a apart of their science studies this year. That we have faith, and a new knowledge, that this is the very Creator of our world, our moon, and those beyond it....

Who knew earth science could be so spiritually riveting?

And that my friends... is why... I homeschool!

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

(Genesis 1:1-2,14-18)

And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.
But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.

(Moses 1:33,35)

Classical Education Today

Ah, this time of year and season, with our children running about us, it is a time of celebration for most and possibly family vacations for some others. Even as I type, I can hear neighborhood children outside lighting fireworks in the street. Then, there are some dear friends of ours busily preparing for a family vacation to Mount Rushmore this next week. I am terribly jealous Teresa!! It all has such a patriotic theme doesn’t it? It seems as soon as summer begins to shine there is the mentioning of all things American… like apple pies and baseball games. It’s all good and fun… baking pies that is… as long as it’s not blazing hot! Uh yeah, let’s wait until fall at least.

Well ironically for me, summer is a time for me to prepare for the next school year. So while most are out celebration the independence of our great nation, and others are planning trips to Mount Rushmore... I find myself getting hot and bothered over the coming school year. For this past week I have been planning and preparing Hannah and Sara Kate's coming school year, and today I purchased Hannah's Latin curricula to continue studying the Latin language, which can be previewed and purchased through http://www.memoriapress.com/. There website is amazing, they also provide FREE online Latin games as well.



While perusing their website I was able to read some articles on Classical Education, the form of education that we have followed in our family. First let me say, I am gratefully there are many forms of education available today, so that each may choose the course most fitting to their needs. As for us, a classical education has been the most fitting. The following excerpt from an article speaks to the reasoning of why a classical education is often seen as cumbersome in such a modern age. In the end, I have found, just as in the end of this article, there is no other way I would rather encourage the learning of our family.

The Classical Education of the Founding Fathers
by Martin Cothran

Classical Education Today

To become inspired by the great deeds of great men is to obtain the motivation to do similar things. We become great partly by seeing what other great men did and being inspired to do such things ourselves. But while beholding the great deeds of others gives us the motivation to be like them, it doesn’t equip us to achieve what they achieved. We can admire other men, but that won’t necessarily make us more like them. In order to become like those we admire, we must not only admire them, we must do what they did.

It is tempting to look back on the education of these great Americans and think that what they did is too difficult for the students of today. But that would be a grave mistake. Yes, they enjoyed some advantages over us, mostly in terms of having fewer distractions, but that is something we have the power to control. The fact is that we have advantages they didn’t have. For example, the educational resources available to colonial children were not only harder to find, but of vastly inferior quality.

We can, moreover, say we lack their fortitude, but that is not something they brought to their education; rather, it is a benefit they received from it.Education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue. In deciding how to accomplish this with our own children, we would do well to see how it was done in a time when wisdom and virtue were more prevalent than in our own.

The article in its entirety can be found at http://www.memoriapress.com/ under the link Articles.

HEADLINE: Homeschool Abounds with Pumpkin Blossoms

An update on our garden that Hannah began the first of May for her plant unit- complete with pictures... would you expect any less of me?! Well our pumpkin vines have now overrun the yard. It is a very small patch of grass which we politely refer to as 'our yard', and now its grown in stature to 'THE VINE'. In the pictures here you can see the clusters of blossoms that will soon become pumpkins. And as my mother-in-law educated me earlier today, they will begin to get their orange color only when the weather cools and fall frost begins. And Paul wants to pluck a few of the blossoms so that we have fewer pumpkins on a vine, so that the plants energy can channel itself to produce larger pumpkins.

I have to say, homeschooling is as much an education for myself as for my girls (I can still say girls because Mark is not yet walking or talking... much less participating in school activities). Sometimes I become quite embarrassed at exactly how much I do not know regarding their school material. But be as it may, I do not find that a reason not to educate them as their mother, but rather the precise reason for educating them as an example of lifelong learning and the fun that can be had in the process. I must say, even as a child I loved playing school. Building stacks of books, lined up by their spines, fresh white stacks of lined paper, newly sharpened pencils... all as entertainment to a 10 year old girl. This passion to 'play' school has not cured me, but only made the experience of homeschooling fonder and more amusing as I remininsce, as I hope I have become wiser as a teacher and example to my girls.

In the midsummer heat and humidity of Kansas it can be painstaking to tend a garden. And we are surrounded by farms in SE Kansas... I don't understand how they get it done. But in the case of our garden and its vines, it has been Hannah's love for nature, animals, and the human body that has made up her science curriculum this past year. Though she has done very well in math and reading, science has come alive for her... and in turn, it has come alive for me, thus, teaching me the things I realized I never learned as a child... or I never enjoyed learning as a child. Truly, as a homeschooling family, it brings great pride to see that the knowledge and experience she gains is through our time and efforts spent together. Just to imagine that these plants are a part of her toil, energy, knowledge and faith in what God has created for us, that we may truly reap our harvest.

Hannah's pumpkin blossoms... as I see here... the closeup also makes me aware of the weeds we missed under the huge vining pumpkin leaves...

These are the pumpkin vines beginning to climb across the yard...

These are the HUGE vining pumpkin leaves and these too have crawled across the opposite side of the garden and yard as the above vines. In the bottom left corner you can see the bush beans being dwarfed and robbed of their sunshine and energy.

Hamming it up!

After a warm and toasty Sunday evening at home with the family, we awoke to ice everywhere outside. The girls have been hibernating long enough it seems, and their personalities are just dying to break free outside in some warm spring air. Sara Kate shared a bit of her own energy, which is always plentiful when the camera is around.




Aside from her beauty, the girls have built a town of Lincoln Logs and Little People this morning. We have life size paper cutouts of each of the girls to draw, paste, and color their body parts and systems onto for our human body unit, this will keep us busy until spring arrives and the green thumbs come tumbling outdoors for an exploration of plants and life in early spring. Hannah has been doing well with her reading and math, while we are endeavoring to uncover ancient civilizations after the flood of Noah. With these as our daily goals, it keeps our minds off the weather outside... as we continue I see a bit of warm light at the end of my own tunnel of education. I will be finally receiving my associates, in International Business, after being away from school for 6 and a half years since Hannah's birth. My feat will be realized March 2.... the noise makers are already poised and ready for action! As I look outside, I hope for a miracle that the ice will melt and the sun will shine.... another day I suppose...

Anticipation

With our anticipation of our third child in June the house is becoming quite the place for excitement. I have found each of us anticipating our own individual excitements... Paul with remodeling the kitchen and bathrooms, Hannah and the coming of spring weather, Sara Kate and the business of being a big sister soon, while I have found a much more calming anticipation than the growing of my stomach... Hannah's art. With all the winter weather of being couped up in the house, she has taken to drawing the most vivid and detailed drawings, ranging from animals, to her friends and her own fairy tale stories. The upcoming holiday of Valentine's Day gave her a little direction in this, and me a bit of excitement over what she would draw.


It's a squirrel...
...with acorns...
...and a sun...
... and clouds...
Wow! You are amazing my love! God has truly blessed you with a rare talent.
We thank thee each day for such blessings as this...