The Moberg Family

Category: Homeschool Days

  • 24-25 Last Day of School for ALL of us!

    We actually finished school on time at the end of May! Hurrah!

    What a blessed school year. Though we have always enjoyed the friends we do “out” school with, this year has been exceptional. There is just nothing that compares to doing school with your church family.

    Recently my mom shared the hymn called Here Am I, Send Me. This stanza stuck out to me:

    If you cannot speak like angels,

    If you cannot preach like Paul,

    You can tell the love of Jesus,

    You can say he died for all.

    If you cannot rouse the wicked,

    With the judgment’s dread alarms,

    You may lead the little children,

    To the Savior’s waiting arms.

    It struck me that those last two lines–You may lead the little children to the Savior’s waiting arms–is a desire that the Lord has put into my heart from a very young age. I’ve always loved to teach children, but teaching and leading a school with Brian centered around our church family has far surpassed any teaching joy I’ve yet experienced. It feels like this is just what we, together, as a marriage team, were made for. And it’s not just leading the little children to the Savior; it’s also helping cast vision for parents to lead their own children to the King. Every other month I met with the moms and every other month Brian met with the dads. We got to encourage, exhort, and challenge our friends as they endeavor to raise and educate their children unto the Lord. I think the world, and often the church, underestimate the power of “letting the little children come” to Jesus (Matthew 19:14), but we firmly believe that this endeavor should be one of the most important values of the home and church.

    Via Bona Academy was far more fruitful than any of us had anticipated. Interdependence is a beautiful thing. Somehow our love for the children in our church grew exponentially. Somehow our own children matured and grew through serving the littler ones. Somehow our children’s friendships deepened even more with their peers. And through it all, I know my love for the Lord grew–and we hope that each child and parent involved in Via Bona grew in their love for the Lord as well. Because, of course, that is ultimate goal of education: to know Christ.

    The foundation of our days together at Via Bona centered around speaking and committing to memory many good, true, and beautiful words. I would often encourage my fellow moms with the thought, “If your children end up in prison for standing firm in the gospel, do they have enough of the Word memorized to sustain them? Do they have enough hymns memorized to rejoice in the Lord each day?” Thus we started the day with a two-page catechism, reminding all of us why we were joining together. Then the kids recited the New England Primer from 1727, mostly because we were studying early modern American history. And then we launched into memory work, which consisted of:

    • Bible work: We centered this around the Book of the Twelve, or the Minor Prophets, as that is what our pastor has been preaching through. By the end of the year, the students could name the minor prophets as well as one key idea and one picture that encompassed each book in the Book of the Twelve.
    • Scripture memory: We also centered this around the Book of the Twelve. Each child memorized at least one and up to 27 verses from each minor prophet.
    • 6 different hymns
    • 8 poems written by William Carlos Williams; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and Lewis Carroll
    • 11 Latin phrases
    • 17 grammar definitions and examples
    • 7 songs about nature
    • 3 songs about American history
    • 4-5 geography songs

    In addition to all of that, I compiled some challenges, which consisted of

    • 3 longer poems from each poet
    • 3 speech excerpts from American History
    • All 47 presidents of the United States, including a fact about each one
    • All of Micah chapter 7

    I made “Memory Passports” for each child, and once he or she could recite memory work perfectly, I would give a stamp for that particular piece. It was definitely a hefty amount of memory work and children needed to be very self-motivated to give up a few minutes of their recess to recite memory to me. I will say that every single mom started the year out very skeptical that her children could learn that much memory work, and every single mom ended the year by commenting on how amazed she was at how much even her little children could retain. So although they all did VERY well, there were 6 students who received a stamp for every single piece of memory work AND all of the challenges. At the End-of-Year Performance, we printed out all of this memory work and held it up for people to see. The audible gasps confirmed the disbelief that our minds are capable of memorizing such a vast amount of information by practicing just 15 minutes a day. I also know that memorizing in community is, indeed, a powerful tool.

    Each of these children standing up received a beautiful, timeless book for their hard work in memorizing all of the memory work. In addition, we are taking them all out for delicious burgers and high quality milkshakes for also memorizing all of the Challenge work. Bravo.

    Here is most of the crew in their patriotic red, white, and blue, minus one child who couldn’t be at the End-of-Year Performance.

    Then, of course, we had our all-church end of school picnic and the kids both played in the May recital.

    So…as far as our four remaining days at home each week… We had a very productive and fruitful year. A few highlights are that we continued, and made huge progress in, our Latin studies. Elliott and Selah also dove into beginning Greek. They took an introductory course in Logic with their dad as their teacher. We studied three different composers, three different artists, and three different poets. The kids did an excellent job with math, writing, grammar, geography, and history. We enjoyed many, many books together including Pilgrim’s Progress and, wait for it…The Princess Bride. (Note: I’m not a fan of William Goldman’s lack of moral character, but I do think the story of The Princess Bride is brilliant. So I read the book aloud to the kids, skipping over Goldman’s personal stories of infidelity and passivity as a father. I always feel like I have to give that disclaimer before recommending the book.) I’ve already checked the movie out from the library, and it is on our list this week to watch it. It will be the kids’ first time and I cannot wait to watch it with them!

    Elliott continues to grow as an entrepreneur. He pored through many books about chickens and is learning how to raise them. Last year he sent 150 letters to our neighbors advertising his lawn business. This year he sent out 927 postcards to all four surrounding neighborhoods and has picked up many new clients. If you would like to see his postcard, you should ask him to send you one because *it’s awesome.* (He may or may not have had a little help from his mama…)

    Selah has grown in her musical abilities tremendously this year, both in singing and piano playing. For the Via Bona End-of-Year performance she played “This is My Father’s World,” while everyone in the audience sang along. It was her first time playing while people sang, rather than just for a recital. She’s going to start working on a hymn once a month to play at the beginning of our prayer meeting on Wednesday nights to keep working this skill. Her sewing skills are also improving and she has made some beautiful items.

    Well, adios to our 2024-25 school year! Thanks for journeying along with us! Until next time!

  • 24-25 First Day of School…For ALL of us!

    24-25 First Day of School…For ALL of us!

    Where to even begin….

    Fifteen plus years ago when Brian and I got married? That’s probably a good place to start. {wink}

    The truth is, I remember having conversations with Brian when I was pregnant with Elliott about what “school” should look like for him. But soon, those discussions revolved around questions like, “What should EDUCATION look like?” “Who should be responsible for educating one’s own child?” “How has education changed over the centuries and what is good about that change and what is problematic?”

    The education journey for our children has been an incredible one over the years, and it is so clear that Christ has been gently and strategically guiding us through it. He surrounded us with like-minded believers who have spurred us on and encouraged us and helped cast vision for us. All in the same year, as we were really searching for how to educate our children best, God led us to the best Christian classical community as well as our church, which is filled with homeschooling families who generally adhere to the classical model of education. We believe that education without Christ is not true education; we believe that the education of our children falls solely on our shoulders as their parents; and we believe that education within community can help us see our blind spots and can balance out our areas of weakness.

    One evening, in February of 2023, I was in the kitchen of my dear friend’s home along with Brian and our pastor and his wife. We (the ladies) were in the kitchen putting the final touches on dinner and we were discussing what the next steps would be after our children graduated from the one-day-a-week Christian classical school that we had been a part of. And I said, “Why don’t we start our own school?” We threw around ideas and brainstormed some things, but truth-be-told, I’m not sure anything would have come out of that conversation had our pastor not approached Brian and me the following day at church and said, “Hey, I think starting a school is a great idea. Will you both put some thought into what that would look like?”

    After months of discussion and prayer, and hours upon hours of reading laws, Brian and I had a plan to move forward in August of 2023. We gave our proposal to our pastor and, after many more months of discussion and tweaking and brainstorming, Brian and I launched a school for our church in September 2024!

    Brian and I FIRMLY and PASSIONATELY believe that education begins as a baby. Education does not begin at age 6 when a child is required to attend school. We have long encouraged parents to think about training and educating their children as babies. (Education is so much more than simply reading, writing, and arithmetic; the foundation of character, academics, and love for the Lord all begins in those earliest years.) Thus, our school is open to enrollment for babies. We love the concept of a one-room school house, and that is generally how we have set it up, with a few “break-out” groups throughout the day to best meet the needs of the toddlers and middle school/high school students. All of the moms stay throughout the day and help–the babies generally stay with their mamas or get passed around to eager arms. We are working on stretching the self-control of those darling 2 and 3 year olds by sitting for short spurts with the big group, but they have tons of time to play.

    And since I don’t think we will ever have a website open to the public, I can share its name here: it is called Via Bona Academy, or The Good Way Academy (Via is pronounced vee-yuh). We named it straight from the Latin vulgate in Jeremiah 6:16a.

    Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”

    The Good Way–This is what we are always seeking as we educate our children, and now we get to “formally” do that in community with our church family.

    The response from our church families was enthusiastic, and there are 9 families involved in our school this first year. We have just over twenty children, ranging from toddlers to our oldest student at age 16, plus the three babies that get to join us for the day. We have a very small church, so actually almost every family with elementary-aged children has joined. Though we have been so incredibly blessed by our former school community, there truly is nothing like the community of our church body and we are so grateful!

    We meet together one day a week. During that time we work together on a hefty load of memory, we review and discuss the sermon from the previous week, and we study history, nature, and music. In the afternoon, the toddlers through elementary students have a watercolor class, while the middle and high schoolers have a Greek class and a Logic class. Brian and I are both teaching in addition to overseeing and our kids also have leadership roles as all the “big” kids are there to love, support, and encourage the younger ones. It’s truly beautiful.

    All that to say, the four of us had a “First Day of School” together for the first time ever!!

    To say it has been an enormous undertaking to get this going would be an enormous understatement. But, at the risk of sounding cliche, the joy of seeing so much fruit in such a short amount of time far outweighs the months of time we have spent on this endeavor. The joy of homeschooling with so many members of our church body has truly been a taste of heaven on earth. The joy of getting to encourage parents to disciple, love, train, and educate their children unto Christ has been so sweet. It has felt, in every way, that Christ’s wind is at our backs as so many pieces of this have come together seamlessly. Brian and I had no idea when we married that encouraging parents in these endeavors would be such an integral part of what we were made for, but I’m pretty sure God knew.

    This little lady is turning into a lovely young woman. She was asked to join our church’s adult choir even though she was still 11 (13 is usually the minimum age) and she is having the time of her life. She is definitely a “little mama” at church, where you will almost never catch her without a baby in her arms.

    And this young man is growing into just that–a man–little by little each day before our eyes. This past summer, he sent out 150 letters to the houses in our neighborhood offering to work for them mowing lawns, weeding, picking up dog poop, or any other job they had a need for. He developed a fairly decent cliental base and a good reputation, and he had steady work all summer. He was using Brian’s equipment, but was using a portion of his earnings from each job to pay for the equipment. By September, he owned the equipment outright, had bolstered up his savings account, contributed a significant amount of money to church, and had quite the cash flow as well. We think he is off to a good start learning how to make money and ultimately, Lord-willing, provide for a family one day!

    Thank you for catching up with us by reading about our latest journey as a family, and for journeying with us from afar! Love to all of you!

  • Last Day of School 2023-24

    Yes, we did finish the school year last year. No, I have not caught up with life enough yet to document it. But I’d better get it in before we start school again in September!!

    We had a very bittersweet end of our school year because it marked the end of an era with our sweet little classical Christian homeschooling community. We weren’t sure up until the Spring whether or not we would have Selah “repeat” a year as a 6th grader there just to squeeze one more year in, but by February we realized it was time to move on, simply because of all that’s in store for this upcoming year (which is very exciting, but you’ll have to wait to hear about that!).

    So she and I both finished out the year strong and with a number of tears. We are so grateful for this gift God has given us the last 5 years. We are all better because of our time there. I offered to continue my admin work for the school for one more year to help with my transition out, so I’ve been super busy working this summer on the biggest part of my job with the school, which is designing and creating an almost-200 page lesson planner book for all the moms. I finished that up a couple weeks ago and I’m officially done as an admin with them. Bittersweet.

    Two of Selah’s biggest highlights of the year were getting to play Glinda in the school’s play The Wizard of Oz, and having a solo at the end of year performance. She was the PERFECT Glinda and it was really fun to watch her shine in that role.

    She sang a verse of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” for her solo, and she did a wonderful job. She’s dressed up as Nicolaus Copernicus in her red and yellow outfit. She did a wonderful job doing a presentation from his perspective. We ended the year with a picnic to celebrate the fantastic year.

    Top: The graduating sixth graders; Bottom: the three of us on staff who aren’t returning

    Our last two official events of the year were our church’s homeschool end-of-year park celebration and the end-of-year recital. Both kids played excellently and it’s always rewarding when their hard work pays off.

    As busy as this last school year was, it was another wonderful year of learning. We were back to studying the Middle Ages; we had studied this era five years ago, and it was fun to see all that the kids remembered. Though Elliott was home full time this year, he studied right along with us but also had a lot of time working. We studied Whistler, Constable and Millet, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. We studied Human Anatomy and all kinds of plants and animals from nature. We enjoyed too many stories to count, but revisited several of our favorites such as Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Robin Hood. They memorized tons of poems, tons of Scripture, tons of anatomy, history, and geography songs. Another DELIGHTFUL year of learning in the books!

    Academically, Elliott made a huge leap this year by being able to do his very-challenging math curriculum almost totally independently. Each day he would read the lesson and tackle the problems on his own, only coming to us rarely when he needed help. He has become a fluent typer, which makes life far easier! Spiritually, he has grown in being more thoughtful and kind towards Selah and trusting us. Character-wise, he really is stepping into becoming a man more and more each day. He is truly an integral part of improving and maintaining our property. He drives big machines, keeps all of our new trees watered and helps Brian with most every property project, including spraying thousands upon thousands of cacti. At the end of May he took steps to starting his very own business!

    Selah’s handwriting and spelling have continued to improve tremendously. Her art and watercolor skills have improved dramatically every single year. As I’ve already mentioned, she did a wonderful job performing as Glinda and singing a solo. It’s been a joy watching her come alive in these areas. As far as her character, she is truly embracing serving our family with joy and going above-and-beyond what is asked or expected of her. She is building the habit of taking care of little things daily versus letting this pile up. Spiritually, God is growing her so much. This year she has had lots of opportunities to learn how to follow the Lord versus her own feelings. She is learning how to commit to prayer when life is hard, versus succumbing to her emotions. It’s a joy to watch her sensitive little soul put more and more trust in the Lord with each passing year.

    They have grown so much in their learning, as well as in their love for the Lord. And, as you are about to see, they have GROWN UP!! They are growing up so fast I can hardly stand it!!!

    I am so grateful to the Lord that we have the honor and privilege of educating our children at home. I’m so grateful for the sweet homeschooling community He’s given us for the past five years. And I’m thankful for all of the grace He has given us each new morning.

  • First Day of School 2023-24

    It feels a bit like a tornado blew in in May and has swept our little family from one month to another so quickly that I truly cannot keep up.

    There were delightful things that happened during the summer…like Elliott getting to work hard with his daddy helping his grandparents. He got to do “real” man things like drive excavators and lift steel. It was a sweet “foretaste of the things to come.”

    We planted SO MANY TREES. Over 250. Working together as a family on this huge project was THE BEST. There may not be anything I love more than working with my hands with my family by my side. As a family, we read through the entire Little Britches series by Ralph L. Moody. Said books were read before, during, and after the tree planting, which provided thought-provoking inspiration!

    Brian vs. the pollen monsters

    The kids and I went on so many walks and truly enjoyed the beauty of our property, which was finally green with a full pond! The wildlife surprises us and delights us every day.

    Dinner on the Dock

    We had delightful times with friends and family.

    But then Fall hit before I felt like we even had a moment to catch our breath, and before I knew it school was starting. The next week we had grandparents in town treating the kids to all sorts of fun. Then, the next week, tragedy hit and although the days kept coming and going, I was so broken. We all were, of course, but I was the one breaking down during math lessons. So, we took it day by day. One day at a time. One academic lesson at a time, one life lesson at a time. So many snuggles and tears.

    Then came Brian’s and Selah’s birthdays. How important it is to still celebrate life and the ones you love, even while mourning the death of one you love. Hard, but important.

    All that to say, we did, in fact, start school. And despite every unplanned (by us) circumstance, we have accomplished (what I think) is an extraordinary amount of school so far. THAT is by God’s grace and God’s grace alone.

    This is a unique school year, as Elliott graduated from our sweet little Classical Christian one-day-a-week school last year. After praying about and considering many different options, he is home with us full time this year. The goal is for him to be trained under his daddy’s wise wings, learning the real life skills of working a trade and running a business. Though we are not as far along the business plan as we had hoped to be, we feel confident God’s timeline is best. And Elliott has had plenty to do with his daddy even before the official business has begun. As for me, I still get to teach him the academic things and it has been such a sweet gift to have one day a week with him to myself. Though we have no idea what next year will hold, I am so grateful that THIS is the plan this year.

    Selah is continuing to go to “out school” one day a week and she loves those days as much as ever. At home, Elliott and Selah still learn all of their humanities lessons together, and I love this time with my children so much!

    First day breakfast: sweet potato curry hash, fried eggs, grade-level bacon, and homemade bone broth.

    Okay. This is probably a secret that the rest of the world has known since the beginning of time, but I JUST discovered it. If you try to shape bacon and THEN cook it, it never cooks until crispy because of the overlapping parts. But it dawned on me a few months ago that I could cook the bacon in strips (in the oven, which, in my opinion, is the easiest and best way to cook bacon) and then shape it as soon as I take it out of the oven–while it’s still warm, but hasn’t yet hardened into its delightful crispy self. I tried it for the first time with our grade-level bacon and it worked like a dream. Up next, I’m trying that with bacon-wrapped dates. I LOVE them, but I can never get that bacon crispy enough when I wrap the raw bacon around the date before cooking! I’ll keep you faithful readers posted. 🙂

    It was a surprise attack!!! What would he do without her?!!! He would be far too serious. We all would.
  • 2023 Last Days of School

    2023 Last Days of School

    You guys. We start school in two days and I haven’t even posted about their last day from last year. You are probably wondering if my kids actually passed their last grades. The kids had their last day at their “out school,” we did two days of exams and then had their End of Year Performance and then we went out of town for a month. We got home and still had about two weeks of minor things to finish up. Then our days were so full that I have not had time to officially “close out” our year. We had a super full year, an even fuller summer, and yes, it is true–this blog post is BETTER LATE THAN NEVER! 🙂

    To sum up our 2022-2023 school year: The kids were introduced to the study of ancient history and the world of mythology and ancient writings–all from a biblical worldview. We enjoyed many wonderful books together and had another very sweet year with our little learning community. Since our school only goes through 6th grade, this was Elliott’s last year attending. It is bittersweet, as most “ends” are. He will miss the school and his friends but is also very much looking forward to what’s next.

    Our studies included: ancient history; physical science; Vermeer, Turner and Homer; Kipling, Hughes, and Stevenson; Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms. For nature studies we focused on pond life, birds and wildflowers. They memorized Genesis 1:26-27, Colossians 1:15-20, Luke 1:46-55, Habakkuk 3:17-19, and Proverbs 2:1-10 (and tons more Scripture for church, but these were their school verses). They studied some “Ancient Civilization” countries–several from Europe, Africa and Asia. For the first time in many years I just could not keep track of all of the books that they read. I tried, lost the list multiple times, and just couldn’t keep up with the hundreds of books. I’m a little sad because I really do love noting which books we thoroughly enjoyed but this year was SO FULL and busy that it just didn’t happen. However, I can list a few of our favorites: We did enjoy children’s versions of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, The Cat of Bubastes, The Golden Goblet, The Bronze Bow, Boy of the Pyramids, A Single Shard, Where Mountain Meets the Moon, A Triumph for Flavius, and Detectives in Togas. We finished the fifth book in a series we have thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of years called “Among the (Pond, Forest, Night, Meadow, and Farmyard) People.” They are sweet little stories about animals that have great morals. The kids both performed in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. They LOVED this play! Elliott was Don Pedro–one of the leads. He had 87 lines and did a wonderful job despite being sick for the performance! He got to wear a mustache and I think that experience will leave him clean shaven for the rest of his life ;). Though Selah only had a few lines as Ursula, she hit the ball out of the park and her character truly shone through her. At the end of the year, as is tradition, the kids each studied a person from ancient history, dressed up as that person and gave a speech from his point of view. Selah was Julius Caesar and Elliott was Hannibal. The kids continued with their Latin study this year and, of course, progressed with their math curricula. At the beginning of the year we hosted a “pond day” with our church homeschool group. The kids prepared little presentations and talked about the flora and fauna that we have seen in and around our pond. They taught our church friends a song about vertebrates and invertebrates, facilitated a time where friends could place an animal or plant life where it belongs on a huge mural we had drawn of the pond and surrounding area, read picture books and then I led a watercolor lesson for the group. Then, everyone jumped into the pond to play! Pond Day was definitely a highlight of our year! Winter Market was, of course, another huge highlight. Oh! And during the End of the Year Performance, Selah was one of five kids selected to sing a solo. It was her first solo! She did very well. A couple other things that stand out from this school year–we all wrote limericks and that was a hoot. I should post those below. The kids also really enjoyed doing research papers this year. It’s Elliott’s third research paper and one of his favorite parts of school. He wrote about fish and Selah wrote about hedgehogs. It was such a special and fun year of learning!

    Here is a collage of photos from events with the kids’ classmates:

    And here is a collage of photos from the Pond Day we hosted for our church homeschool friends:

    One of the things we absolutely love about our church is the multi-general aspect of it. It really is like one big family–we aren’t segregated into age groups for events like these. The youth in our church are youth that I want my children to model after. They are strong in their faith and kind, and always take the littles under their wings. Pond Day was no exception as the big kids took the little ones on boat rides and everyone enjoyed a lovely day together!

    Here are our limericks for your enjoyment:

    I once had a friend named Pompey,

    Till he met me in battle one day.

    So Egypt chopped off his head;

    And then I found a new friend—

    Till my last words were, “Et tu, Brute?”

    (If you haven’t heard, Selah actually has a hedgehog named Jill!)

    Alright, and now it’s time for their end of the year photos and papers! This will possibly be Elliott’s last year of drawing first and last day self-portraits. I think he went out with a bang! Neither of the kids particularly enjoy drawing themselves but they also LOVE flipping back through their old ones. So I told Elliott he could be done now that he’s officially in Junior High :). The kids also complain every year that there isn’t enough space to write down all the books they love. I suppose if they’re going to complain about something, that’s a good thing to complain about.

    And now for my favorites…the compare and contrast from the first to the last day!

    Way to go, kiddos! We did it! We had another rich, fun, challenging and filled-with-memories school year! Thanks be to God!

  • First Day of School 2022

    Well, we are kicking off our last year of both kids being able to be at our sweet little classical Christian school together. When we first started this school, we bumped the kids up a grade (I’ll save the long story of why for another time). So Elliott was technically in 6th grade during the school last year. But since the school is very humanities-based (rather than skill-based) grade levels are really not all that important. Therefore, we’re having Elliott be a 6th grader at the school again this year, which puts him back at his true grade. The school is on a 4-year history and science cycle and he hasn’t had the fourth cycle yet. This year he will get the fourth and final cycle and I’m so thankful we get one more year of both kids together at our blessed little school. Oh, I wish the school still went through 8th grade! But I know God will provide for Elliott next year, whatever that may look like.

  • 2022 Last day of school

    We did it! Another school year planting seeds and building up these kids of ours in the Word of God and His truth. We studied modern American history this year and boy, oh boy, did we study some HEAVY topics–obviously. But what a gift to get to work through these wars and hard events in our nation’s history from a biblical worldview. Lots of pondering, lots of discussion, lots of ties to our current nation and world issues.

    So besides, modern history, we studied botany and zoology; Van Gogh, Cassat, and Monet; William Blake, Carl Sandburg, and Maya Angelou. For nature study, we focused on reptiles, fish, amphibians, Colorado Winter, birds, and flowers. They memorized Psalm 103:1-14, Isaiah 53:1-6, and Philippians 4:4-8 (and tons more scripture for church but I am just including school-related things here!) Selah can label all the countries in Europe and if you hand Elliott a blank piece of paper, he can draw and label all of Europe for you. The kids read well over 450 books just for school alone. We enjoyed so many together as a family, but some of our favorites were Amos Fortune, Number the Stars, Caddie Woodlawn, Elijah of Buxton, Rifles for Watie, Winged Watchman, Snow Treasure, Shades of Gray, and Across Five Aprils. The kids performed in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which, you may consider an odd choice for an elementary school play. But when you look at this great work from a biblical worldview, it’s actually a fantastic learning tool, to recognize good versus evil and to see the depravity that lies within all of us. The kids each studied and dressed up and gave a speech as a person during the historical time period we studied–Elliott was Abraham Lincoln and was THRILLED to be able to tie coins into his presentation and Selah, who was Helen Keller, really enjoyed studying Helen Keller in depth and writing out all of her classmates’ names in braille. The kids excelled in another year of Latin study, which included memorizing the Lord’s prayer, The Sanctus, the Gloria Patri and the Table Blessing. Of course, the Winter Market was one of their highlights of the year. This year they tag-teamed and designed/built these adorable little reindeer together. They sold out at the Winter Market and received many more orders!

    I’m really not sure a day goes by that I’m not exceedingly thankful for this sweet little community we have! I thank the Lord for another year with this little school and for another year of homeschooling.

    And now for all the growth that happened this year:

    Elliott. This man is growing up! I feel 100% dependent on the Lord being his mama, and seeking wisdom for how to shepherd his growth without stifling him or having “girl” expectations on him. I am learning *a lot*. He is growing more and more fond of aquatic animals and chose to do his science project on one of our new favorite animals: the tiger salamander. We have all learned so much this year about this animal, which happens to be the Colorado state amphibian! We didn’t know we had them in our pond until the end of last summer. I love seeing how the both the kids’ “want to be” sections change on the little surveys they fill out at the beginning and end of each year. This year we had several fires break out in Colorado Springs–three in one day once!–and one of them was within a few miles of our house. The kids got to watch a helicopter grab water from a reservoir and dump it on the fire over and over. So, aerial firefighter made his list of future jobs this year, along with coin collector and aquarium owner :).

    Spiritual growth: He grew tremendously in self-control and obedience this year which made for very pleasant homeschool days for all of us! He has also excelled in Scripture memory, having memorized not only the verses for school but many different whole chapters of the Psalms, including all of Psalm 136!

    Academic: He mastered his 13s and 14s in multiplication and division. I do not know those by memory so it was a lot of effort grading his tests each day, ha! His typing improved from 8 wpm to 26 wpm and he can also write in cursive much faster than he could at the beginning of the year.

    Life Skills: He excelled in shoveling driveways during the winter and definitely prefers “going to work” than doing school. I’d say that’s a pretty important life skill for a man! He also improved tremendously on doing his daily chores with excellence. And, perhaps my favorite is that he has learned how to make a pretty mean chocolate peanut butter ball. He and I adapted our original recipe to be more whole-food oriented and they are DELICIOUS.

    Selah has also grown in so many ways this year. In addition to selling the reindeer at the Winter Market, she made and sold balloon animals. It was such a joy watching her interact with the littler kids, patiently taking their requests and loving them well. She was quick to provide free replacements when a child got a little too wild with his sword and it popped. I think she just might have a balloon animal business in her future… I’m actually a *little* concerned over her total obsession with (addiction to?) reading. Can that be a thing? Addicted to reading? She has always lived all of life with a book in one hand, but this year she really got into audiobooks, so now she doesn’t even need one free hand to read. She spends hours in her room drawing, painting, building, and designing while listening to audio books. I literally can’t check them out fast enough from the library. Part of the issue is that she listens on 2x (or higher) speed, so she sometimes goes through several books a day. Well, there you have it. I’ve admitted it. That’s the first step towards getting her help, right?

    Spiritual: She continues to have a more and more contrite heart each year with a true desire to grow and be like Christ. By God’s grace, she is learning to gentle her tongue towards her brother and trust me even when she doesn’t like what I’m asking her to do. It is a true joy to be her mom.

    Academic: She mastered her 13s in multiplication and division and I finally got smart at the end of the year and started having Elliott check her times tests since I don’t know my 13s! (#momwin) Her handwriting is improving and she also can write in cursive much faster than she could at the beginning of the year.

    Life Skills: This girl is FINALLY learning how to keep her room clean!! I will not write a novel about that drama but just take my word for it–this is a BIG WIN. She is also doing her chores with much more excellence and my favorite thing is that she always sings while doing them.

    Awwwwwwwwwww!!!

    And, drum roll please…the compare and contrast:

    Some things never change 🙂

  • 2:22 on 2/2/22

    We are having a lovely snow day today. Very, very thankful for the moisture God is providing for us! In fact, our little lake is even slowly beginning to fill back up! Three cheers for snow!!

    It started off as an ordinary snow day…the kids made waffles and then went outside to make maple syrup snow candy. Brian didn’t have to leave right away so he pulled the kids behind the four-wheeler on a snow tube. Good times in the snow.

    And then suddenly, they got the idea to start shoveling our neighbors’ driveways. They have now been going at it for about 4 hours and are not interested in stopping. (Well, Selah came in for a half hour to eat, but Elliott refuses to quit working.) I think they have already done 8 houses**! But, during one of the times I went to check on them, they said, “Mom! It’s 2/2/22! Make sure you tell us when it’s 2:22 pm!!” These are the things that my somewhat-attention-to-detail children take note of.

    So I set an alarm (because, who can remember something like that?) and went out to find them just before 2:22 pm. And we took a picture. Because, 2:22 on 2/2/22.

    So there you have it. This is what was happening the EXACT moment it turned 2:22 pm on 2/2/22. Elliott wanted me to try to get it at 2:22 pm and 22 seconds, but I told him to forget about it!! (HA!!)

    In other news, this is one of the reasons I *absolutely love* homeschooling–to have the flexibility and freedom to work a different muscle of hard work! I love seeing Elliott, especially, come alive when he has real hard work to do. My son, who is sometimes in tears when tasked with drawing a picture, is refusing to stop working–even to eat–after many hours in 12 degree weather because he’s so intent on blessing and serving our neighbors. (And, I should add…they’ve already been thanked with a plate full of cookies and a few bucks in their pockets, which certainly keeps the motivation factor high!) He’s a man. He loves to be productive and take care of others. God, may this character only grow and increase in him as he ages!!! And thank you for his daddy, who has modeled this character for him all his life.

    So…what were YOU doing at 2:22 pm today?! If you missed it, you have another shot to document your whereabouts on the 22nd, when it will be 2/22/22!! (Set an alarm!!) If only we could be alive in another 200 years and take a photo at 2:22pm on 2/22/2222! I might even be willing to try to get it at 22 seconds if I could be on this earth for that!

    **They ended the day with 12 houses!

  • 2021 Last Day of School

    2021 Last Day of School

    Oh, happy summer!!!

    There is such a great feeling that comes from working really, really hard and then taking a BREAK! We all worked really hard this past year and it has been such a delight to RELAX the past couple of weeks. I love our summer-time learning…very different than during the school year. So far Elliott is learning how to break down and rebuild a cement wall on our property with Brian and Selah is taking cooking lessons from yours truly. I love these days of less structure and less pressure.

    But we had a fantastic school year once again. Although there was LOTS of hard work, we did have a lot of fun as well. We continue to be so grateful for our little classical Christian community and I LOVED having the kids home 4 days instead of 3. We refined a lot of the structure of our homeschool days and I think we’re finally finding our groove.

    This year we studied the founding of America; astronomy, geology and meteorology; ocean animals, mammals and insects; Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Van Eyck; and Christina Rosetti, Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost. They read well over 400 books relating to learn about all of those subjects! WOW!! Like last year, we didn’t even count the books they read “for fun,” only the ones school-related. In a nut shell: the kids memorized three different chapters of Psalms, tons of scripture besides that, 9 different poems, all the states and capitals, 22 short songs that tell the story of early American history, many of the presidents, the preamble to the Constitution and lots of different catechisms.  They learned how to draw the entire United States and label each state with its abbreviation. They started learning Latin and have done a fantastic job of picking it up. They both crafted items to sell at our school’s Winter Market. They learned lines for and performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They each did fun science projects and presented to their classes. Elliott did a presentation as Captain John Smith and Selah as Betsy Ross. They are making great progress with piano and choir. And this is all in addition to our Language Arts and math studies! They continue to excel in their narrations, copywork, and artwork. They are becoming truly amazing artists and becoming excellent with watercolors. We had the joy of having 3 friends join us for nature study each week, which added tons of fun to our learning. We also raised butterflies again! Whew! Can you see how hard we all worked and how much fun we had!?!? What a JOY it is to teach these kiddos of mine!! I already can’t wait for September :).

    We read SO much fantastic literature, it’s hard to select highlights, but some of our favorites were The Sign of the Beaver, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Wind in the Willows.

    Elliott grew a ton this year, and not just physically! He is growing in his faith and self-control and trust and obedience. His biggest struggle in school has always been his battle against perfectionism, and boy did he take some ground this year! I took some time to write out achievements for each kid, and here are Elliott’s.

    Spiritual: By God’s grace, Elliott was eager to be baptized this year and we’ve seen a growth in his self-control and trust to obey us and the Lord.

    Academic: Elliott didn’t miss a SINGLE multiplication or division problem on his daily times tests all year! He made big strides to complete his work in a timely manner without being ruled by perfectionism.

    Life Skills: He has been a huge help to his daddy working on various projects around the property–he is really growing into a strong, capable man!

     

    And Selah’s achievements:

    Spiritual: By God’s grace, Selah chose to be baptized this year and we’ve seen growth in her heart to obey the Lord in all things and a quickness to repentance.

    Academic: She mastered all of her multiplication and division facts this year, including double and triple digit multiplication and long division! She also made a lot of progress with her spelling.

    Life Skills: She is a huge help to me around the kitchen and is really picking up her cooking skills. Also, she has completely mastered the art of doing EVERYTHING (and I’m not kidding when I say “everything”) with only one hand, since there is ALWAYS a book in the other.

    Both the kids are avid readers, but Selah has really taken it to an all-new level. I mean, in the past I’ve found her up in trees and riding a tricycle around the driveway while reading. But, no kidding the other day Elliott came in and said, “Mom, Selah is riding her bike while reading a book–in the road.” So yeah, we still have some safety training to do. Granted, we live on a VERY quiet street with almost no traffic, but still. Once this year I caught her doing a math lesson with a book in her other hand. She unloads the dishwasher, walks around the house and outside, jumps on the trampoline, plays and, of course, eats all while reading. I can’t tell you how many times a day I say, “PUT THE BOOK DOWN!!” I suppose it’s not a bad problem to have…unless she’s riding her bike in the road, of course. Sigh. Working on it.

    How she grew into a size 5 shoe this year, I’m still trying to figure out…my baby sure is growing up!!

    And my favorite part…the compare and contrast:

     

    I am so incredibly blessed to be able to homeschool these two kiddos. Thank you, Lord, for another wonderful, rich year of growth in all of our lives!! May our learning always glorify You!!

  • 2020 First Day of School

    2020 First Day of School

    2020, a year that won’t be forgotten any time soon. And, like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going and going and going and…..

    And so, it has gone on into another school year here with us. To tell you the truth, this is actually the best school year we have had yet. For that, I am exceedingly thankful and grateful to our gracious God!! I haven’t found myself saying that about very many things this year!!

    This is our second year with our classical Christian community and so we are settling into a great routine. We also pulled back and have 4 home days this year instead of just 3 which has been GLOR-I-OUS. We finally have some breathing room and I’m very thankful for that. Our learning already has been so rich and fun and we are having a blast. We are very thankful that our very small one-day-a-week school has some liberty in making Covid decisions. Most of their day is usually held outside and they are obviously taking extra hand-washing precautions and things of the sort.

    First order of business on the first day of school was their grade level bacon breakfast. Because, bacon. Apparently this is becoming a tradition.

    I finally got smart and had the kids fill out all their own stats along with their self-portrait on the SAME PAGE…took me 5 years but I finally thought of it!!

     

    And, the goofy pic. This picture on the right just cracks me up. Selah wanted to pretend like the stick was a piece of chalk and then she wanted to point to the chalkboard like a teacher would. Elliott, however, looks terrified. Perhaps he thought it was more like a hostage situation?!!???

     

    Well happy 2020 school year to all and to all a good year!!