Our Homeschool is Humming Along

I guess it's time for a homeschool update.  Even though we have been sick off and on since December we have managed to do at least a half day of school every day. 

We just started using The Mystery of History and we are all enjoying it.  My main students are in 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades and I wanted something we could all use together.  It is nice for all of us to be studying the same period in History at the same time.  We are also studying U.S. History at the same time.  I'm using the series A History of US for my oldest student.  He reads two chapters a week, narrates what he has read and then writes an essay on one of the topics from the book each week.  I'm using A Child's Story of America as a read aloud with the younger students.  I go to the Library every other week and find lots of resource books to go with our main books which the children can read during their quiet reading time.

We are reviewing All About Reading.

Nathan(7th grade) and I are reviewing Latin Alive book 1 together.  I decided to study along with him to help him stay motivated and to hopefully, someday, give him someone to talk to in Latin.  We found a few apps for our ipods which we have fun using.  His favorite is Cool Latin Phrases.  I wish I could find an app that says the words so we could learn proper pronunciation faster.

For science Nathan is working through Apologia's General Science on his own and he uses Saxon independently for math.  I read aloud from a science book to my younger students and they read books from our collection during quiet reading time.  They have to write a notebook page each week on science which they mostly narrate to me as I put it on paper for them.  The younger students are still learning their math facts so they do flashcards for math.  My goal is to have the 3rd and 5th graders start Saxon 54 by June.  

My five year old loves this program!

I'm going to plan out Nathan's school career from 8th-12th grade so I will be doing some research on how to handle English, History and what electives he should take.  I don't know if he will go to NMMI for some of his High School so I'm just going to plan a course of study all the way through so he will be on the right path no matter how he finishes.  His plans are to serve in the Army as an officer.  Previous plans were to join the Coast Guard so we may see another change or two as he watches his big brothers go out into life on their own.

It feels good to be on the right track each week with school!  How is it going in your homeschool?  If you have any suggestions for High School History and English, bring it on!

Be sure to check out the newest issue of the Christian Home Magazine at The Legacy of Home.  I'm going to go back later today to read the articles when I have some free time!