Lofty Plans...

Does anyone recognize this spectacular palace?  It is in fact Hampton Court, which was the residence of King Henry VIII.  If you read the previous post, I talked about some exciting developments for my 16 year old daughter.  This is the exciting development...this is where she wants to go to school...in this building.  Is that not magnificent???  What school could possibly be housed in a palace, you ask?  Well, it has an amazing history and it is called the Royal School of Needlework.  It has a prestigious reputation and would be a fantastic place for her to learn and be immersed in such history.  My daughter has a passion for fashion and this would be a great avenue for her to pursue.  She is going to apply for their 2 year foundation degree program once she is done with school, then if she feels so inclined, she can do a third year which would have an emphasis on fashion and textiles.   I had heard of this school before, but never had any thoughts about it for my children.  It came up again last week and I thoroughly researched it and it seems to be the perfect fit for my daughter.  She does great embroidery and this would possibly give her a high-brow entrance into the fashion world.  Once this came up, I talked about it with my daughter the next morning.  She loved the idea and then I went to my part-time childcare job and a good friend of mine just found out she's going on a trip to England with her husband.  I told her all about this place and sent her questions to take to the school because she is in fact going to visit!  She is actually in England right now!  All this has progressed so quickly...we are continually researching and my daughter really wants to pursue this!

So, I have to sit down and realize that my daughter may be going to school in England...that she has to leave home...oh, my heart!!!  We are on spring break right now and she is looking for jobs.  She actually was offered a job without even applying just because we knew the person who is her neighbor.  All of these things are falling into place and I can see how exciting the future is for her...I have homeschooled her since third grade and these are the moments we have been preparing her for.  It's a bit scary.  As a high schooler, she's been doing a dual-enrollment program at a very good charter school and I don't regret it at all.  It's a hybrid program that's been started specifically for homeschoolers.  With all that said, all I can do now is to keep helping her go in the direction she wants to go and to pray.  God has orchestrated all this up to this point and we will continue to leave it in His hands.

If you are interested in information about the Royal School of Needlework, here is the link.  How have you dealt with your children leaving the nest and going to school???  This is my first child so I have three more to go, but the first one is really hard!  We still have two more years, but as you know, time flies! 

There's been the excitement for this week...I hope you are having a lovely week!  Blessings!

Our Gingerbread Parthenon!

Yes, we are homeschoolers and what better way to celebrate some of the fun things about Christmas than to combine history with the holidays!!!  Here was our gingerbread Parthenon.  I had sworn off gingerbread for many years, but I finally found a great recipe.  Now I need to perfect royal icing.  I used powdered meringue, but the icing seized up on me so it was hard to work with.  Nonetheless, it gave our Parthenon a more authentic look (hey, you gotta look at the silver lining!).  Has anyone built anything unusual out of gingerbread?  How about some hints about icing???  I really need to take some time working on that!!!

My goal was to pipe on the column design with the icing, but grand plans usually don't work out.  Oh well, we shall try something different next year!

Nature Study -- A Dying Pond

Another book I love to use is Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study.  Over four years ago we started doing nature studies and right here in our neighborhood we have a pond.  It has been a great source of pleasure and learning for all of us.  Our very first lesson was about cattails.  We learned all about them and interestingly, cattails will inevitably be the downfall of a pond.  They will suck a pond dry and in our climate with not much rain, this pond is slowly losing its water.  It's quite sad.  We have had some great discoveries here and have seen so many birds.  Here's how the pond looks as it is slowly dying.  This picture is taken from the other side of the pond where you can now walk on what was once the bottom of the pond.

We have nesting red-winged blackbirds, the sparrows come out every spring, and there's ducks galore; it's also been a layover spot for migrating great blue herons and ibises.  We have loved this natural little spot and it's really hard to watch it dry up. What's been awesome though is that we knew this would happen because we studied it!!!  If you're looking to beef up your nature studies, I highly recommend this book.  Enjoy nature and be blessed by your surroundings!  Your children will love it!  They will learn the cycles of life and death and become acquainted with all sorts of critters.  It truly is a beautiful learning experience and is what a memorable childhood is all about!  Blessings with your study of nature!

Favorite books in our suburban homeschool...

It's another busy year with homeschooling.  My kids also have the pleasure of going to a part-time hybrid public school program where we get the best of both worlds.  They are mostly homeschooled, but they can take classes and test into college and go for free at the community college while still in high school.  Plus, I no longer have to teach high school math to them, hallelujah!!! My younger ones go to a one-day enrichment program every week as well so we are all over the place!!!

I would love to share some books I love and couldn't live without.  I also have some new favorites.  If I posted every book I loved, the internet wouldn't be big enough, LOL!!!  So I will highlight just a few of my faves.

 
These books are written by William J. Bennett.  The Educated Child is an excellent resource to see what your child should be accomplishing per grade level.  He has lots of great advice and things to look for in the education of your child.  I cannot speak highly enough about The Book of Virtues.  It is a great compilation of stories that every child should grow up with.  There are famous speeches and everything in the book deals with character issues!  We find ourselves picking this up and reading from it every now and then because it's chock full of good stuff.  I love it so much I've got a copy for each of my children!

This is another gem I turn to when I need a refreshing.  It is called A Charlotte Mason Companion.  It was written by Karen Andreola who revolutionized and brought to the forefront the teaching methods of Charlotte Mason.  I don't follow everything in the book, but it makes me sigh with relief and know that life is indeed sweet.  It is an essential for homeschoolers and educators!

We read a lot of good children's literature in my house.  I happened upon this series at the thrift store after seeing a preview for the movie they were releasing (September 24th, by the way).  I figured I would read it to see if it was worth our time.  It's fantastic!  I'm in Book 8.  We're doing this as a read aloud and finished Book 1.  It is action-packed and you will learn so much about owls.  In fact, with my two youngest, we are doing lapbooks on owls because of these books.  There isn't a bunch of hocus-pocus in this.  The only objectionable thing I could think of is that in the later books, there are owl ghosts who have unfinished business on earth called "scrooms."  They aren't evil, but I guess they aren't entirely necessary.  Also, the owl God is called Glaux...his name is used in vain just as people use the Lord's name in vain.  Other than those two points, it really is a beautifully written series and the aforementioned offenses can be discussed with your children if you find it objectionable.  The owls are noble and true and possess very good character traits.  I highly recommend this series!!!  We can't wait to see the movie which I believe is based on the first four books.

Lastly is a new edition to our homeschool routine.  This is a tall book...it's the Timechart History of the World.  It opens up and the history of the world literally unfolds before your eyes!!!  We use it with our history curriculum and hunk of burning love (my hubby, hee hee) uses it for biblical history.  It's fascinating to see how everything lines up and it gives everyone a good idea what was going on in the world at the same time!!!

I have many more books I would love to share with you.  I'll do many more posts of other books and projects we're working on.  Have a great weekend and may a story take you far away!!!  Happy reading!