My awesome friend Kim Wollenhaupt has written the following to us about resources for viewing God's vast creation (astronomy) and tiny creation (bugs and plants). Kim is a homeschool mother, an MD and science teacher for homeschool co-ops. Way to rock the science Kim!

Summer Star Gazing
by Kim Wollenhaupt

I attended a ladies' retreat for our church this past spring. While there, we looked at the night sky and several stars, constellations and planets. I had also taken my portable/field stereomicroscope (see below). I wrote up the following notes for other ladies in case you or your children are interested in enjoying God's creation even more with these resources.

Here are some links:

(1)  Stargazer web site.  At this site, you can choose either a one minute or five minute video that describes what can be seen with the "naked eye" in the night sky. This is great for just going out and looking for something in the sky with no equipment needed. The web site has a different, short video describing the "naked eye" viewing of the night sky for each week.

http://www.jackstargazer.com/JHSG_DNLD.html

The five minute episode that describes what we saw the evening of our retreat was the one marked March 17 to March 23, 2014 - "The Winter Hexagon plus Jupiter."  

http://stargazersonline.org/episodes/1411.html

You can still see this grouping of stars and Jupiter in the night sky (towards the west). In addition, a beautiful Mars can be seen in the southern night sky now (bright red colored planet).

(2)  The book that I mentioned was "The Stars: A New Way to See Them" by H. A. Rey (Curious George author). It has a connect-the-dot system of looking at constellations that I think makes looking at the constellations much easier.  It has explanations about looking at the night sky, groupings of constellations, and then star charts based on the date and time you are viewing the night sky.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Stars-New-Way-Them/dp/0395248302.      

(3)  The Astronomy flashlight that I was using is called the Astro Aimer. It has both a red flashlight for better night vision and a green laser for pointing at stars. There are several types of laser flashlights. I bought mine from a company called HoTech. They have had excellent customer service. I have had the Astro Aimer for years and use it regularly as my favorite flashlight as well.  This is the link:

http://www.hotechusa.com/category-s/27.htm    

(4)  Another site just to be amazed at the beauty of God's creation is Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) from NASA. They have a different picture highlighting something from Astronomy each day --- could be a picture from the Hubble satellite or a view of auroras from earth.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

(5)  The type of microscope that we used to look at the flower and potato bug is called a "stereomicroscope." It is different from a "regular microscope" (an optical or compound microscope). Through an optical microscope you can only look at thin "slices" of things, because you need to have light go through the specimen. With a "stereomicroscope," you can see depth of solid objects like rocks, plants, bugs, etc. The one I had at the retreat was called "Ken-A-Vision ESH200 Professor Stereo-cordless Microscope." I bought mine from an entomology company called BioQuip, and at that site the microscope is called the "Mini Stereo Microscope, 20x." It is typically under $80. 
 
I personally think that a stereomicroscope is one of the best investments that a home school family can make in their "science" education.  You can pick up a rock or worm or leaf or bug and look at it in such detail. My response regularly is "God is amazing" when I look at His creation this way! I especially enjoy looking at insects and moving creatures with this microscope.

This is the Amazon link for more info on the microscope:

http://www.amazon.com/Ken-A-Vision-ESH200-Professor-Stereo-battery-powered/dp/B005KC3TBA   

I love looking at God's amazing creation this way.  It shows some of the amazing detail God puts into everything He makes. I enjoy being amazed at God's creation with you while looking at the expanse of the heavens or the details God puts into his tiny flowers. What an amazing God.

In Christ,
Kim Wollenhaupt

Here is a summary of my family's approach to homeschooling, in case you fell asleep or had a seizure from my longer descriptions before.

Math: Saxon is my favorite. It’s not Christian but I still use it and put my own Christian spin on it in the K-3 grades. I fuss a lot about that on my math blog. You can find it and everything else under the sun at Rainbow Resource, the catalog that weighs 600 pounds.

Language: Memoria Press’s writing, grammar and language stuff is just very excellent. These people are really brainy but they make it understandable and within grasp for the student and the teacher. The materials are outstanding but not frustratingly difficult. I love their composition curriculum and it’s the first thing I’ve found that actually teaches your child to write in a structured way rather than all over the place expressing themselves. It’s very God honoring as well.

Before about 3rd grade we focus on math and language formally, and then gradually add in other subjects.

History: This is where we get most of our reading, is in history books that go with our history lessons. I am completely in love with Veritas Press and their history materials. My middle schoolers use their self-paced on-line history classes and they absolutely love them and know more history than I ever did or have. Our 11th grader does their Omnibus curriculum and it has been a huge blessing for him academically and for our relationship. The reading is excellent, tough classics with lots of essays to write. I do this with him, not online. I will start my girls on it year after next. It’s very Biblically sound and has forced me to talk with our high schooler about unpleasant things such as abortion, homosexuality and drugs, because all of those topics are in the classics. It’s fantastic.

Science: Apologia science books are excellent and I use them in all the elementary and high school grades. My children do them on their own because they are written to the student. I just grade the tests starting in high school. Our middle schoolers are doing anatomy this year and we got the activity workbook to go with it and they are constantly doing these fun experiments in the kitchen such as a model of a cell made out of candy. Our high schooler went to Landry camp for a week this past summer to do a week’s worth of biology labs to give him some hand’s on experience in addition to his Apologia course. He will go back for a week this summer for chemistry labs. All of this is extremely God-honoring and creation based. I like Answers in Genesis for extra science books just for enjoyment, to solidify everyone’s worldview about creation around here.

Logic: In high school we begin logic and we suffered through some dry stuff but I found a book I really love call The Fallacy Detective and it’s awesome. I'm not talking about mathematical logic but rather reasoning and forming arguments. Which is just what our teenagers need help solidifying...  Right?

Note: An adapted version of this blog appeared in the summer 2014 edition of Arizona Families for Home Education's magazine.

A good co-op could be the answer to someone's prayer for their homeschool. And the tremendous time and effort the leaders put into a co-op must be a blessing to many families. I love that co-ops are an option. I love that unschooling is an option. I love that private school is an option. And yes I love that public school is an option. I love that in America, for now at least, we have the freedom to decide these things for ourselves. If you are enjoying your co-op, the Lord has led you to do it, and it is working for your family, then I say:

Giddy-up.

But if you're considering a co-op or are already in one because you lack confidence in your ability to homeschool your own children at home, then I want to reassure you that you are equipped to do it yourself. If you wish you could do it yourself at home, I can tell you plainly that you can do it yourself at home.

 Please click below to read more.

Last time we talked about math. Today, everything else.

English. I can't help it, I have to tell you about my composition books because they actually teach people how to write. I'm very excited about them. Writing is taught as a disciplined skill rather than just all over the place expressing yourself. Different plot components of a good story are taught.

My oldest three children all do composition together at the kitchen table, using the fable stage composition books from Memoria Press. If y'all don't mind springing for the cashola, the DVD's have been helpful getting us used to the program, but the teacher's manual would do just fine. Our son teases the teacher a  little bit for being so sing-song basic, as the course is made for children younger than our teenage son. But we have to start at the beginning so, sing song it is. We're actually learning to write finally, in a serious course, so I can get over a little baby-ish-ness with the presentation. Our kitchen is open to our living room so I play the DVD on the TV in our living room and we all watch it together from the kitchen each day and do the writing together. I require them to write in cursive. I praise them a lot, and delight in the interesting things they come up with. Writing makes you feel vulnerable, like singing or drawing or dance. So be gentle with your children when they write. I correct their grammar and spelling but always find something to praise about the content. "Using a dead frog as your main character really gave an unexpected twist to that story." Something like that.

For grammar, that gets covered extensively with the Latin I do with the oldest three children together, and that takes about an hour a day. I sometimes end up sitting on the floor to keep the little people happy, with Cheerios spilling everywhere, while the older children sit on the couches. We have a lot of fun and we're enjoying it. I'm learning it with them. I stay a week ahead and do all the workbooks and tests myself. You don't have to get a PhD in a subject that is foreign to you before you can teach it to your children; just stay a week ahead. This covers our foreign language requirement for high school as well.

Our 5-year-old is a happy workbook kind of girl, so she loves her schoolwork. Boys can be harder at this age. They want to turn the pencil into a gun and the book into a sled. My daughter's really easy with school. We cozy up together on the couch to do her schooling. It's a happy, loving time. I'm not too spun up on goals with her quite yet, and I let her work on it as long as she wants to. She will sit there for an hour with me. We go through the alphabet as a drill for each sound each letter makes, then we do workbooks or readers. When she gets tired of it I might say, write one last letter and then we're done. So she doesn't completely get to decide when we're finished. I also have some activity preschool workbooks for her and those are full of fun and educational activities that she looks forward to and feels big when she does them.  I read to her a lot, all throughout the day. I stop and point to a word she could sound out, and let her say that one word. Not every book, just sometimes.   

History. I do a pretty awesome history and classic literature course together with our 11th grader and it requires him to do some heavy duty reading and essay writing. We also talk about a lot of important things together doing this course, things that matter to a teenager from a Biblical perspective. But my middle school daughters do a very cool on-line history course on their own. It's self-paced so they can come and go on the computer and get interrupted and it's fine. I love that my children look forward to history and think it's interesting and fun. They memorize a time line put to music. All of this is from Veritas Press. These people know stuff, and know how to teach it in an interesting way to students.

My children choose to do a lot of extra history reading on their own so I feel like I've been successful if they like history. I walked in our 16 year old son's room one day and he was reading this extremely boring 400 page book on World War II. Read the entire thing, just because he was interested in it. Our 13-year-old daughter is reading this big gigantic Book of Virtues. Carries it around the house with a bookmark in it. Our 11-year-old daughter decided to read Gone With the Wind last year, just for fun. 

I know, right?

Science. I'm all about some creation when it comes to science. Dude, we're homeschooling. We get to be Biblical if we want and not get sued. This is the place to drop the Bible bomb and really drive home the creation viewpoint if we want. Our middle schoolers are doing a Christian, creation based anatomy course this year from Apologia and I sprang for the activity books, which they absolutely love. Our son is doing Apologia chemistry, also Christian and creation based. Last year he did biology and we let him attend a biology camp to do the labs. He'll do the same thing this summer for chemistry. Our children do their science on their own and I grade their tests once they're in high school. The books we have are written to the student and can be achieved by the student. It teaches them how to study.

Logic. In high school I like my children to begin formal logic. My son yawned his way through two very dry but helpful logic courses the last couple of years. Then I found The Fallacy Detective. This book is hilarious. And very clever. It makes logic fun but not in a pointless way. I think the smart writers of this book have another logic course too, and I'm planning to use that next year. I put a lot of heavy stuff on my high schooler so, I thought this would be a good break for him but still covers an important subject. I'm letting this book count as his logic course.

Music. I decided a long time ago three things about music.

Number one, no music training for little people. And no sports! Sorry for that outburst. We did the soccer thing when our son was 6 and the exhaustion rate for Mommy was not justifiably inversely proportional to what he got out of it. Around age 10 is a rational age to start music. Anything sooner than that is going to involve an unpleasant amount of involvement (i.e., nagging) from the parents (i.e., you).

Number two, it had to be the child's idea. They had to really want it. I am not going to pay an insane amount of money for music lessons for a child who has to be coaxed and begged to practice and go to their lessons. No way. Music lessons are a privilege and we don't get to do it if we're not hungry for it.

And number three, I'm not teaching it. Music is math out loud, yes? For the teacher anyway. I've already fought my way through maintaining peace to teach math in our homeschool that morning, I know that I cannot achieve that in music later in the day as well, even though I know how to play a little piano, flute and guitar. Barely. And not all at once like Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins. So we outsource our music lessons around here and that is not cheap but we are blessed to be able to do it in our family. Our 11-year-old is chomping at the bit to start piano lessons in January. Our 13-year-old daughter asked to play violin and loves it, and has a group she performs with. She's been playing violin for three years and is in the most advanced level group now. I've never had to tell her to practice.

Math has to be one-on-one. I like and use Saxon but the lower grades K through 3 are so incredibly public school-ey that I actually offered to edit them for homeschoolers.

Saxon didn't take me up on it so I press on but it's kind of a nightmare the way they are trying to indoctrinate your child to public school, which is fine for public school, but they have stamped "homeschool version" on the cover. "Molly bought 3 pencils at the school store and 4 pens in the cafeteria line, how many utensils will she have in her lunch box on the bus ride home?" I mean it's really everywhere, on almost every page, situations that are foreign to homeschoolers and make them feel left out.

I told Saxon just changing "your class" to "your child" in their curriculum and calling it a homeschool version, is like teaching someone to water ski by going through a snow ski manual and changing all the words from "snow" to "water." They were not impressed. Oh well maybe someday I can have at it and clean it up for all of us.

Until then, I have stuck with Saxon because their books are really good academically, but I went through and changed most of the wording for my children. For example, I would change a subtraction problem about losing two dollars on the school playground (not that responsible ladies) to putting two dollars in the offering plate. They provide the math, I provide the content. The book is not in charge, people. Edit away for your own liking.

Starting with 5/4 all that public school indoctrination obnoxion is over. I've never changed a thing. We've had great success with 5/4 all the way through algebra, and our children are understanding the math and doing well on the lessons. I decided I would rather go for solid academics with math and add my own Biblical, homeschool spin on the content, rather than use a Christian curriculum that just isn't as solid academically. 

Lately I asked the Lord how to manage doing math with the older children while a one year old is in the house (raccoon). He gave me the idea to, instead of sitting at the dining room table, where Rebecca will hang on my legs and generally make a chaotic mess of everything, sit in her room and do math. Instead of having her come to us in a boring room in the house, we go to her in a fun room. The child I'm working with can concentrate a lot better that way because we have peace and quiet while she plays nearby.

We've been doing math four days a week lately instead of five because my heart's just not in it by Friday and that doesn't do anybody any good. If our daddy's deployed overseas, we take the whole time off or I do three days a week.

Speaking of daddy, he has completely taken over math with our high schooler. If I didn't have my husband to rely on, I would probably have my son doing an on-line math course. Next year he'll dual enroll in a local college and do some trig and calculus there. Better him than me.