2018 school year

It's hard to believe another school year is approaching fast! Asher will be in 7th grade (or M2 in Bermuda) and Asa will be in 1st grade (P2 in Bermuda). Here's what we'll be studying this year:


Asher:

In addition, Asher will be taking his writing class online and Spanish 1 online, both through The Potter's School. For Bible, he will continue going to his weekly Bible Study Fellowship class and participate in our church's youth group. For music, he'll continue in piano lessons and begin steel pan drum lessons this year. For P.E. he will continue swim club. Also, Matt will be teaching him Economics on Thursdays.


Asa:

For music, Asa will complete his final year of Kindermusik. For P.E. he will continue with his year-round swim lessons and Running Club. Asa will also continue to attend our church's Olympians program.

Because of the large age gap between the boys, it's tricky combining many subjects. However, this year the boys will both enjoy studying art and Bermuda history together:

Also not pictured are the countless books that will be read independently or read aloud throughout the year.

Remembering the NICU, 11 years later...

Being told that our baby might look grey or even blue when he's born was not the birth story we had anticipated. Learning he might have serious medical conditions as a result was even worse.

Eleven years ago I had already been in an unfamiliar hospital for two weeks in a city far from home. At just 28 weeks pregnant, Pre-eclampsia was cause for my Bermuda obstetrician to send me off to a hospital in Boston that was better equipped to handle my imminent premature delivery.

Those two weeks were filled with card games and reading and TV, bruised arms due to blood draws every six hours, daily ultrasounds and non-stress tests, and visits from NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) nurses who tried to prepare me for my premature baby's arrival by giving me worst-case scenarios: Your baby might be grey or blue when he's born. He might not cry. You may not get to see him before he's handed off to a NICU doctor. He might have brain bleeds or problems with underdeveloped organs. He might need to be resuscitated.

It was pretty much the opposite of how I'd thought the birth of my first baby would go.

This was the farthest along I got in my pregnancy. 

It's been almost five months already!

It's been almost five months since arriving in Bermuda to live (again). During those months a lot has happened. Besides the general work of an international move, we also sold our house in Virginia, endured a tropical storm, and started our 7th year of homeschooling. We unpacked two 20-ft containers' worth of boxes. We reconnected with old friends and re-involved ourselves with the local homeschool network. We opened new accounts and closed old ones. We memorized new phone numbers. And we have readjusted to driving on the other side of the road. Again.

It's just completely, utterly, overwhelmingly... wonderful.

Things I learned after moving my family to America

I'm American. I grew up here and had a wonderful childhood. I lived in an old house in the suburbs, feeling safe and happy. I had a great experience in both private and public school. I went on to graduate from a prestigious four-year university in my home state. During this time, I met the man I would eventually marry. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Bermuda, the tiny island where he was born and raised. After our wedding and honeymoon, we moved to Bermuda to begin our life together. Ten years and two babies later, we finally decided to move to the U.S. where my family lived - something I always dreamed of.

Why we homeschool

During my last seven years of homeschooling I have been fortunate enough not to encounter any major discouragement from non-homeschoolers. Most people are interested when they find out, and many ask questions out of genuine curiosity. I always enjoy talking about homeschooling, and it doesn't at all offend me when people want to know why or how we do it.

Ninjaschool homeschool

Our first week of school in photographs

We had an amazing first week of 4th grade and preschool. Here's a little bit of what we did!

Preparing for another school year

We're all geared up to begin our 7th year of homeschool next week! I know it's early by most public school standards, but we like to start early in order to have more flexibility to take time off throughout the school year without falling behind in our schedule. It's important to me that we completely finish our grade level by the time we take a summer break.

So I've finished my planning and organizing in preparation for school on Monday. We will again employ a 6 week on/ 1 week off schedule this year after having great success with it last year. So, the first thing I did before I even started my subject planning was print out a 2015-2016 school calendar and figure out, roughly, when we would take our breaks over the course of the next 10 months.

Savoring the season

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

-Ecclesiastes 3:1

Lately I've realized that I'm in a pretty great season. 

There are many seasons in a person's life, and I'm currently in a season of motherhood that's really, well, nice. I'm a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom, which is not easy but is also completely wonderful. I have my boys with me all day, every day. And at this point in their lives, they still really, really like me.

Some presidents had mutton chops (and other things I learned in homeschool this week)

Nothing can make an 8-year old boy cry like some good dictation work.

Instilling character is a lot harder than teaching any academic subject.

Sometimes your child will say things like, "We're reading poetry and discussing rhyme scheme today? YES!" or "Hey! I can use this math in real life!" and your heart melts just a little bit.

Martin Van Buren had some pretty impressive sideburns. Go ahead, Google him.

There is some really fantastic children's literature out there. This week I read Holes by Louis Sachar (ages 10 and up) to judge its content before passing it on to Asher. I could not put the book down.

There's something exhilarating about opening a textbook and realizing you have fewer pages to go than you have already done.

Homeschool planning

In my five years of homeschooling, I'm still constantly modifying my methods. That's one of the things I love about homeschool: you stick with what works for you, and if something doesn't work, you can change it! I love not having to be married to one specific method of teaching or planning or organizing.

That being said, I thought I'd share my current planning method. It's a conglomeration of several years' worth of different ideas, keeping what worked and ditching what didn't or what was too time-consuming. I'm quite happy with where I've ended up.