School: January 2010

Well, we all knew it was true, but I was just in denial for a while. It is now fact that I truly am too busy to blog our school by week. Weeks around here fly past so quickly that they are gone with the wind before I even know they have began! So we will try something new and perhaps easier to keep up with...blogging by the month!

The past couple of months have seen us growing and stretching and trying to find where our heart truly is with our homeschooling. We have taken a large leap of faith in following not only our hearts but also the Spirit towards Leadership Education through a Thomas Jefferson Education.  So, what is a Thomas Jefferson Education?

"A Thomas Jefferson Education is the title of the first of three books authored and co-authored by Dr. Oliver DeMille. In it, he describes the kind of education that created some of the greatest leaders in history—Thomas Jefferson being the quintessential example. The American founding fathers, as well as many other great men and women throughout history, were able to truly impact the world around them because they learned using this educational model. This philosophy of education, referred to as Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd) has a number of key principles and characteristics" such as the four phases of learning,  and the seven keys of great teaching.    You can read all about it at www.tjed.org.   

I first learned about TJed several years ago, and it really hit home with what I wanted for my kids.  But it was hard for me to let go of what I was used to thinking about education having grown up in the public school system.  TJed always lurked in the back of my mind as something that I would try "someday".  The Spirit finally told me that "someday" was now!   The more I learn about TJed, the more I realize that a lot of the things taught are things that we were already doing and have always done.   So here we are, our 9th year of homeschooling, trying a little bit of a different path.  We are also trying hard to incorporate more gospel teaching into our days.  We have always done a bit, but I never felt like it was enough.  Now we spend quite a bit of time on scriptures stories and understanding gospel principles.  We began our new school structure in January and this is how our month shaped up.

Devotionals -

•  "Choose you this day" Mormon Messages video
• Malachi 4:5-6 (the New Era has great scripture discussion pages called "Line upon Line.  This one was found in the May 2008 edition)
• "Pull together" Mormonad poster in the New Era July 2009
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 (Line upon Line, New Era Oct. 2008)

Math - Individual lessons in Saxon; Kaiden - Algebra 1, Nic - 6/5 , Luke - 3, Afton - 1

Mom school - (where I teach them things that I enjoy learning about)

•    We finished up our unit on "Around the World in 80 Days".  We loved reading the book and learning about the geography of the world based on Phileas Fogg's travels. 
•    Now we are learning about WWII so that we can move into a study of the kid's great-grandpa, Frederick Babbel, and his book "On Wings of Faith" which is about his time in Europe after WWII as Pres. Ezra Taft Benson's companion taking humanitarian aid to the members of the church there.

Words of the week: (We do this to build vocabulary skills for the ACT) indolent, deride, quandary, languish

Family Reading - Finished "Around the World in 80 Days" and began "The Mitchells: Five for Victory" by Hilda Van Stockum

Individual Reading -
Dad - "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini
Mom -

• "Little Britches" by Ralph Moody 
• "Percy Jackson and the Olympians - book 1" by Rick Riordan (horrible, I highly recommend NOT letting your kids read this book, mine for sure won't be)
• "A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion" by Oliver DeMille, Rachel DeMille, and Diann Jeppson
• "Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning" by Oliver and Rachel DeMille 
• "Following the Light of Christ into His Presence" by John M. Pontius
• "From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out" by Nancy Twigg

At the beginning of the year I sat down with each kid and asked them what their goals are for the year, what things they are interested in and what they would like to learn out in the next 6 months.  Then we chose a few topics and headed to the library. Here is what everyone is currently doing:

Kaiden (Love of Learning phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Seminary
•    Weekly trips to the Provo temple to do baptisms
•    Learning about engineering, work on the Boy Scouts Engineering merit badge
•    Duty to God
•    Piano lessons and daily practice
•    Origami
•    Reading: "Anne of Green Gables"

Nicolas (Love of Learning phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Faith in God
•    11 year old scouts, working on his First Class
•    Astronomy merit badge
•    Reading: The Ranger's Apprentice series...I'm not sure where he is exactly, he reads a lot and he reads fast!

Luke (Core phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Faith in God
•    Working on his Bear badge in Cub Scouts
•    Learning about inventing
•    Reading: a biography of Benjamin Franklin and "The Boxcar Children"

Afton (Core phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Learning about being a veterinarian and a princess
•    Learning to write in cursive

Makensi (Core phase) - 

•    Learning about being a veterinarian and a princess