Veritas Press - Online Classes

We have had the joy of using Veritas Press as our curriculum provider for the last number of years.  I love the recommendations they make for reading, they have wonderful literature guides, and I appreciate how I can pay them to plan my year of academic work for me! (Bless them!)

This fall they offered us (and anyone else, for that matter!) a chance to try out their online Scholars program of classes, for 30 days.  We took them up on the offer, so my 1st and 2nd kiddos worked their way through the self-paced courses.  L did "Explorers to 1815" and E did "OT and Ancient Egypt" online. 

What we found was wonderful.  The videos were entertaining and attention grabbing... the course was full of stories, quizzes, games, and a ton of review.   They used all types of interactions between the material and my children - and they drew so much more from the history (and Bible, too!) than I can with my limited time and knowledge.  I loved it when I had to fold laundry and got to listen in!  If I had the $250 to enroll my children in the courses I would do it.  If you are in need (or just want) some more support - these online courses are wonderful and I have to recommend them.  For those of the classical/chronological history persuasion, these courses are ideal.

 They are self-paced.. which was great, but meant my kids just wanted to do history all the time for the 30 day trial!  (How many things can you say that about?)

I have to give Veritas Press 2 thumbs up for these courses.  I look forward to seeing what other online offerings they plan for the future! 

Sweet Things - Thankfulness...

It is this time of year that we all begin to think about what we are thankful for.. in our house that means we cut construction paper into strips and begin our Thankfulness Chain.  I place our basket of supplies (pens, pencils, stapler, construction paper strips) in the middle of the dining room table and we all take a little time each day to write some of the things we are thankful for, on the strips.  Then we make our chain and the color and the thankfulness decorates our home.  It is a gentle reminder of all the blessings we have - from our pets, to each other, to a place to sleep and food to eat.. the list is endless and I am so grateful that we have saved the chains from previous years to read.. It is such fun to read about the baby being thankful for her bottle, or the big sister being thankful for her dolly... In all of this thankfulness I love that I pause and consider the many ways that God has blessed us.  We have a home.  We have enough to eat and a warm place to stay out of the cold.  But in the middle of all of the "things" we are thankful for, I am reminded again of the simple gift of walking with God.  That simple gift cost Jesus so much - and it is a blessing I am thankful for every day.

The chill in the air and the color of the leaves....

I went back through my photos to see what exactly DID happen to October... and it is clear that we were so busy ENJOYING ourselves that we just didn't stop to record what was happening.  There was a ton of fun.


L made her own (very small) Native American Long House! 



E and A were busy learning about Hatshepsut - the first female Pharoah... they think she was the one who found Moses in the bulrushes and brought him to a life of priviledge.... They made Hatshepsut hats and wore them everyplace! 

The girls also studied the Code of Hammurabi and practiced making their own cuneiform  writing with playdoh "tablets"...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch, too!  The weather was beautiful! 

Then we made Egyptian Paddle Dolls (they were named Julianne and Emma!)... and L made a horn book!

Finally, we studied Moses and made baskets...

Lest you think all we do is have fun around here (and we try to have fun, believe me!)... we did get some meaningful study in...

So now you know what happened to October!

What happening around the happiest house on the block...

I just realized my last post was in September and here we are in November.  I don't know what happened to October, but I sincerely hope we did something good with it!   I just had to share about our new friends here in NC where we have been for the last about 12 weeks (give or take a week... see, that's how October got lost!). 

We are so grateful for our new friends the Gould's.  They moved here about the same time as we did and have been finding their way through the maze of moving into a new location, almost in tandem with us.  They have 3 sons and 1 daughter and their kids are about our kids ages.  We had a wonderful dinner with them last night - potato soup, salad, bread and pumpkin dump cake - YUM.  In a time when we have felt like we are the newbies everyplace we go - they made us feel like friends and we so enjoyed them.  I hope I can extend that same hospitality and kindness back in the near future - we enjoyed them so much!