We made it! It took quite a bit of motivation to finish the last few weeks of school, but I am so happy and relieved to say we completed 180 days of school, finished all of our curriculum and did so before Memorial Day! (No one wants to be doing school in June.)
For Bible this quarter we studied the book of James using Kay Arthur's Inductive Bible Studies for Kids. While the information was good, I felt like there wasn't as much content as some of her other Bible studies. However, from studying this book we learned about faith that is real and how to be a doer of the Word. James wrote about the "Royal Law" which teaches us to put others first. We saw that God is sovereign, in control of everything that happens to us - good or bad; and that it is through the difficult things that our faith is tested to make us perfect and complete. We read about why we are to pray and that we can go to God and ask for wisdom and how to avoid temptation (there is always a way out). We discovered how to handle anger and our tongue. We learned what sin and worldliness are and most importantly were reminded that Jesus is coming back again. At the end of last quarter I had the kids begin a journal on what they were learning during Bible time. They wrote a verse that stood out to them and a short sentence or two about what it meant. I pray this will help them learn to be doers of the Word and not just hearers only.
The kids finished up their IEW lessons with a final two paragraph essay from their personal "brain
inventory." Ellie wrote about Disney movies and Josh wrote about the Scratch coding website he and Ellie enjoy. This has been a very valuable piece of curriculum and I highly recommend it. Next year I plan to do the History-Based Writing Lessons Volume I to go along with our American history curriculum. In Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Ellie's last unit was on research. She chose to write about the TV show "I Love Lucy." She could have included more information, but since she did it all on her own, I showed some grace and accepted it. Her writing was very good and I made sure she implemented at least one of every "Dress Up" from IEW in her paper. Josh did his final book study on the book "Caddie Woodlawn." He gave a speech on how to make a paper airplane and ended by learning about "The Star-Spangled Banner" and writing an essay on why he was proud to be an American. He also included the "Dress Ups" from IEW in his work.
Our history ended with what the author called "The Age of Resolve." We saw the resolve of the Jews and the Scottish Covenanters who both withstood horrible treatment and persecution. There were individual men of resolve like George Fox and Jacob Amman who broke away from tradition to start their own faith movement. We learned about K'ang-hsi of China and Peter the Great of Russia, both determined leaders abroad. We saw how Thomas Hooker and William Penn helped shape the core of the United States. We covered the sad opening of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and saw how England suffered turmoil over politics that ended with the writing of the English Bill of Rights. Our book ended with a lesson in Isaac Watts, hymn writer. I loved the final words of the author: "When you consider history - the good, the bad, and all that's in between - it makes more sense in light of the cross. By God's design, man is so obviously wretched on his own. . . But in the hands of a forgiving, merciful God, man can be redeemed through faith in Christ." (
The Mystery of History Volume III; pp. 407-408). May we be good stewards of this mystery (1 Corinthians 4:1).
We only had two units to complete in science this last quarter - the Lymphatic and Immune Systems and Growth and Development. We learned that God has designed our bodies with special mechanisms to keep us safe from diseases and pathogens. This is what we call the lymphatic system. We also discovered that God has given us many innate defenses to protect our bodies such as our skin, mucus and cilia in our noses, and helpful bacteria in our intestines. We also gain acquired immunity when our system is exposed to and responds to specific threats such as chicken pox and we can receive artificial immunity through vaccines. Our final lesson revealed to us that life begins when a mother's gamete and a father's gamete merge to form a single cell that contains all the DNA that makes a baby the person he/she will become. We discussed how we grow and develop, how we get the genes that affect our hair and eye color, how we are different from animals, that God made man and we did not come from animals, and most importantly that God has a special purpose and plan for each of us. What better way to end our study than with a reminder that God is our Creator and Designer!
We did not go on any other school field trips, but we plan to do some educational things on our family vacation in June.
We celebrated Mother's Day with the Henry family. . .
and the Davis family
Ellie went to her first junior high camp at Mile High Pines. This was the same camp where we took the 6th graders when I taught at Calvary Chapel Downey. She had a great time! And I didn't cry when she left!
Josh took golf lessons.
Ellie played basketball for her third year with CYAA.
We celebrated the end of the school year by seeing "Captain America Civil War" and stuffing ourselves at John's Incredible Pizza Co.
The final school event for the year. . . Promotion Night.
We now officially have a 6th grader and an 8th grader!
As I said, it was tough to get to the finish line this year. For me, it wasn't just about finishing the curriculum (although I do like to check off ALL of those boxes!), it was about finishing strong. The state requires so many school days per year; but the Lord requires that we be good stewards of those days. I know that you can work diligently everyday and still not finish all of your curriculum, but I feel it is important to give your best effort each day to try to get as far as you can.
What we do today, affects tomorrow. Yes, things will review at the beginning of the next year, but it's more than that. It's setting the expectation for ourselves and our kids that education is important. Maybe not the accumulation of facts, but the discipline of doing the work everyday, of completing the lesson, of persevering through the difficult assignments. I am pretty sure our kids will face harder things in life than finishing a math lesson or writing a report. Someday our kids will have jobs, marriages, kids and trials of many kinds to face. Do we want them to persevere in the face of difficulties or think they can just quit?
What example as moms and teachers are we setting for our kids? Are we persevering in the face of difficulty or are we closing the book and saying we just can't do another day? God's Word is full of verses that tell us we are guaranteed to face hard things; and that it is through difficulties that God tests our faith and helps us mature. I know that I want to grow and not have the Lord find me lacking anything. I want the same for my kids. So if you find yourself and your kids feeling weary, look up those Scriptures or sayings that encourage and inspire. Write or print them out and post them where you do school to remind yourself to keep on. Don't let the enemy have any victory in your life, the life of your children or in your homeschool. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." -Colossians 3:23
