Firm Foundation Homeschool

We are now "properly registered" and may "officially begin operation as of 8-11-11". That won't change much around here but it is that time. Time to register with the state. Oh and I do have to keep attendance records now and administer a standardized test to Olivia at the end of the school year.
This summer Olivia has been doing a curriculum called Who is God? It is the first textbook in a worldview curriculum put out by Apologia press. We all have a worldview and it affects our daily lives, the decisions we make and how we interact with people. We get our worldview in many ways, family, friends, school, circumstances, etc. I love this curriculum. It is intentionally laying the foundation for a biblical worldview that is solid and hopefully will not be so easily rocked by influences that she will encounter growing up and then throughout life. We used the textbook and made our own sort of journal as we went. She copied key things and drew pictures and wrote notes/letters about what she was learning. They do now make a fun notebooking journal that goes with the textbook. I got a look at one that my friend had and I would highly recommend it. It give a concrete way to process some less than concrete lessons in this curriculum.

In addition, we have worked on some math review and language arts. I am using Busy Times, from pathway, as our reader right now. We are using Language Lessons for the Very Young to teach some basic grammar, picture study, copywork and recitation. It is a Charlotte Mason style approach. We have also done more work in her nature journal. She will be observing and drawing the large dogwood in our backyard through the year. We have read a couple more of the Little House series this summer. Olivia really enjoys them. We are simply reading them and sometimes she does some dictation. She has continued to work on her knitting. She has had some ups and downs with that. There are times when she gets easily frustrated. She decided to bind off her the simple rectangle she was working on. She is now going back to try again and improve her skills. This was a bit of a hard lesson for her. I think she thought she would do it perfectly the first time. ;)

binding off

The finished product.

We will be starting Exploring Countries and Cultures by My Father's World in the coming weeks. This is the description from the company: "Take a trip around the world and explore diverse countries while learning geography and being challenged by true stories of missionaries." I am excited about this curriculum. I did get a few resources from a company called Winter Promise to add to this curriculum. It should be a fun year! :)