Bible Verse Monday

Here is our Bible Verse for this week:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! Luke 2:14

Religious studies

Our religious studies consist of daily prayers, Bible readings, and the study of the Lives of the Saints. One of our resources that we use for our Bible and Saint readings is Ancient Faith radio.

FJ is also studying Church History from the book The People of God by Presbytera Roberta Carras. We have found this to be a valuable resource and highly recommend this book. It is great for middle schoolers who want to know more about Orthodox Church History.

The kids also receive a Bible verse to memorize each week. The following is our verse for this week:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

I will post our memorization verse each Monday.

So, What Have We Been Doing This School Year?

Since I didn't start this blog at the beginning of the year as I intended, I thought that I would try to catch my blog up with a short version of what we have been doing. Since I have 3 kids in 3 different grades (1st, 4th and 8th), there is a lot going on at many different levels. We try to combine areas that we can such as History, Science and Literature. In History we have been studying New World Explorers. Here is a picture of the project we did when studying Coronado:

FJ has a pretty full course load this year with Pre-algebra, History, Science, Logic, Greek (level 3), Literature, Writing, US Government, Religion, Art, Music, Typing and Horseback Riding (yes, this counts for PE). Her favorite this year is Literature. She really loves to read.
JC has been working hard on Religion, Grammar, Spelling, Reading/Literature, History, Science, Math, Writing, Art, Music and PE. His favorite is Science.
JP follows pretty much the same schedule as JC, but on a smaller scale. The main goal right now is getting JP to read and he is doing a great job.
In addition to our schooling at home, we had our co-op classes this Fall. The boys took PE, science and Colonial America classes and Felicia had Drama, Southern Hospitality and a communication class.
One thing that I did find is that I need to take more pictures of the kids doing their work, as I don't have any others to post to this blog right now. I will try to remember to take pictures daily, so that we have more to share.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday was one of those home school days where signing the kids up for school elsewhere sounds like a really good idea. But today was one of those days where I couldn't imagine things going any better. The kids were up on time, we had a healthy breakfast, we got morning prayers and chores done, and best part, we finished all school work by 3pm and that was with a fairly long lunch break!!! I am so happy right now, because I am able to sit down and share my joy with you all. On the bad days, it is hard to remember days like today, but I am thankful that we have persevered and that God gives us the strength and courage to get through each and every day. My children are a blessing and being able to stay home and learn with them is incredible.

My Reason for Blogging

I am very new to this blogging business, but after seeing a couple of friends venture out with their own blogs, I decided to write my first post. I set up this blog during the summer months so that I could start writing on a daily basis (or more likely a weekly basis) in order to show our friends and family, who live out of state, what we are doing in school. As you can see, I didn't get started at the beginning of the school year. I am a little nervous about blogging. However, now that I have started, I believe the direction of this blog will be a predominately homeschooling blog and I hope that our family and friends will enjoy seeing pictures of the kids working hard!! In addition, I hope that I can offer up ideas, encouragement and hope for other moms (homeschooling or not) out there. In addition, I look forward to being blessed by my readers with ideas, encouragement and hope as well.