School 2012..

We are continuing with our second year of  My Father's World and loving it!  I have 2 in High School and they are doing MFW World History.  Julia is a Junior and is doing Apologia Chemistry and Teaching Textbooks Algebra II, as well.  She is also working about 20 hours a week.  Alicia is a Freshman and doing Apologia Phys Sci and Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1. ( I love homeschooling High School and wouldn't have it any other way.)  Katie is in 6th Grade and Garrett in 3rd.  They are doing MFW  Creation to the Greeks together.  Thomas is doing MFW 1st grade and Anna is doing a variety of Preschool activities.  We don't do any extracurricular activities.    We like to do family activities and try to do things that don't send the family to different places.  Jesse has a really weird "swing-shift" schedule, so we need to be available when he is off work, which is usually not on weekends.  We do all go to Awana on Wed nights and love to go hiking and have picnics when Jesse is off.  Also, taking care of our place is a major endeavor, lots of mowing, trimming and weeding this summer plus, taking care of the critters.

I recently read a great editorial in my favorite Home School magazine "Home School Enrichment".  The editors discussed reasons for Homeschooling and I agreed with all 3 of them.  The first thing listed was that "God meant for parents to play the primary role" regarding education.  We are homeschooling because "It's our Job!'.  Secondly, they said that "Christian Education Still matters".  "We separate God from our children's intellectual lives at our peril and to their detriment".  Thirdly, "Our Children Are Individuals".  I love the flexibility and pace that I can work with each one of my children.  Thanks HSE for the great editorial and wonderful reminders of why I am Homeschooling my children..

Homeschool 2012

Another year of school has begun......Here is our class of 2012-2013

 David-the Baby Meister

 Anna-the Preschooler

 Thomas-1st grader

 Garrett-3rd Grader

 Katie-6th Grader

 Alicia-9th Grader

 Julia-11th Grader

Carlina-graduate/homeschool helper and taking college classes online

Colton-sophomore at a Bible College

Garden!!

Loving the first watermelons of the season and watching a gorgeous pumpkin turn from green to orange!

Great schooling post from Gwen at TtT

Making it work with a big family

Black Hills 2012

The Black Hills, SD is one of our favorite vacation destinations.  We haven't been this way since 2003 and decided we were overdue.  We also decided that we would tent camp, which we haven't done in awhile.  All in all it was a great trip!  We had thunderstorm scares every night, but made it through without having to abandon our tents.

Summer!!!

Summer has hit *full force* with temps in the upper 90's.  We are loving our pool!!!  We recently celebrated 3 birthdays... Thomas turned 6 on June 26th, Colton turned 20 on July 2nd and Baby David will turn 1 on July 18th (we celebrated early).  We've had fun outside, trying to keep everything watered and playing with the chickens and llamas, too. We made it through a very hectic VBS week and went to Adventureland in Des Moines on a 100 degree day.  We also had fun hiking in the Loess Hills.  July 4th was a blast because our house is right across from the football field where they light the fireworks...as a result, we had a crowd that night.  Here are some recent pictures of our summer fun:

Memorial Day 2012

Jesse's Dad is buried on a idyllic piece of ground bordering a cornfield.  It is a pretty spot.  The headstone was recently completed and looks good.  Jesse's little brother (who died a day after birth) is buried right beside Jim, but the plaque was taken down when Jim's stone was put in and hasn't been reattached yet.  There is an angel statue to mark his grave right now.  There are many Beem's buried in this plot so we enjoyed walking around and looking at the graves.