We have successfully completed one full semester of school here at home. Well, actually, we have completed 19 weeks. Overall, despite a number of bad days (we had good ones too!), I would rate our first semester a big success. The girls are working really hard and above their level in several subjects. They only have one lesson left in their math books (so we will move on to the next level) and a few lessons left in their grammar books (so we'll move up a level there also). Morgan says that her favorite subject is now math and Marissa is really learning to enjoy history.
Recently, Marissa asked Noel to teach her how to play chess. They played a few games together...
...and then Marissa taught Morgan how to play. We had a couple of mornings where they played a few games of chess before heading downstairs to do our "real" schoolwork.
Another advantage of homeschooling is this ~ being able to chill out on the couch on a day when you wouldn't have felt well enough to get dressed and head off to a school building. Morgan was able to keep up with her work by doing it on the couch and then taking breaks to nap when she needed to.
This most recent week, we put away our traditional science books and played with some "goop" instead. We tried to make invisible ink one day (to go along with our history unit on WWII and the use of spies). 'Good thing no one was really relying on my invisible ink skills because it was NOT a success!! On another day last week, we made our own clay. The first recipe was a bust as the girls didn't like the feel of the clay and refused to knead it. (It was a mixture of glue, water, and bread). We tried a second recipe that they liked better and we used that to roll out our dough and then shape it into bowls or clay animals.
On Thursday we made up our own homemade window paint. (You just mixed corn starch with dishsoap and then added food coloring to get the desired color.) It was fun making and fun decorating...
Unfortunately, the longer it was on our windows, the more it ran and pretty soon you couldn't even tell that what the picture was suppose to be. Oops. At least my windows were clean when I washed the designs off!!
As we talked about WWII and American civilians making sacrifices back home to help the soldiers overseas, we made our own "ration cakes". They used honey instead of sugar, butter and milk. The girls didn't really like the taste of them but Noel really enjoyed them. He said he would enjoy having them again.
We learned that the bikini came about because designers were rationing material and we made our own Victory banners in honor of family members who have served in the armed forces. Not everything we did was fun however. Talking about D-Day at length was a tough one to cover, especially looking at the pictures of soldiers lying all over the beach. The Holocaust has been another tough subject to cover. I try to talk about it enough that the girls understand the horror of the event as it's part of our history; but I also try to protect them as I know Morgan really struggles with nightmares after discussing things like the Holocaust and War. We were reading Corrie Ten Boom together but it became too much for her and she asked if she could substitute a few other books instead. I did agree to that and she read some others that weren't quite as intense and "scary". I never imagined having such deep conversations with the girls about the evil that exists in the world and yet it has been so good for us to talk about these things together and then thinking about them in light of God's plan and God's desire for his people. They asked really good questions too like whether it's wrong for Christians to fight and kill others in war; or would it be right for a mother to poison her children and then commit suicide in the name of "protecting" them from the Nazi soldiers. Is it our right to kill ourselves rather than face denying Christ? Should Christians have done more to protect the Jews? Is it right to lie in order to protect others for the greater good. Can this ever happen again? Why is it happening again?
Wow! There were days I didn't know how to answer them and there were days when we all ended up emotionally drained after our lessons. I wish that I could protect them from what has happened in the past and what is happening all around us today. I can't however. Evil exists and that's why we need a Savior to redeem us and to rescue us. And in addition to our normal studies this month, we have read through an extensive Advent study that speaks of our need for Jesus....how it started back in the Garden when Adam and Eve first sinned against God and our need has continued to this present day. What a blessing to be able to share with them all over again that our God has it all in His hands and this is all part of His plan!
