Summer break

What is your favorite month? Fred and the girls were asking that question. Fred says December because he loves the Christmas season. Arielle said April because she likes spring. My best time of year is not the spring, that's for sure. That's when we try to finish up school, plus work on getting the portfolio together before we meet with the evaluator, plus finish up 4-H projects for the Fashion Revue. On top of that, this year I was a census worker. It has been a crazy time.

On Friday and Saturday last week I attended our annual local homeschool convention. These two days encourage and invigorate me to keep pressing onward in teaching my girls at home. Every year there is a speaker that really speaks to my heart or I find a book or curriculum that stirs me. This time, I found both.

Andrew Pudewa lectured on teaching children to write. For me, this has been the hardest subject to teach. This man is the director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. He gave us some tools to use when we are teaching that are especially helpful for reluctant writers--those children who continually say, "I don't know what to write." I bought a book that uses his methods called All Things Fun & Fascinating: Writing Lessons in Structure and Style. In the fall, I will report on how this is working for my girls.

My other big find was Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Teen's Heart: Using Books to Communicate with Teens. Honey for a Child's Heart is the classic many homeschoolers use for reading lists, and this one has that feature as well. But it also talks about how to use good books to help us talk to our kids about ideas, values, and issues. There are even mother-daughter reading lists. Arielle is always asking me to read books that she has enjoyed so we can discuss them. Usually I just don't have the time to read all that she recommends. Maybe this book will give us a place to start.

I ran from the homeschool convention straight to the girls' fashion show. In the new profile picture the girls are modeling their 4-H entries.

This blog will take a break until fall when our new school year begins.