Century Christian Academy

{I named our homeschool last year. Century Christian Academy. We don't have to name our homeschool in this state, but I had to have a name for a couple of the programs we use (an online keyboarding class, and the Pizza Hut BookIt program).}

We're 8 weeks in to our school year (wow!) and about to take a break next week, for about a month, while we adjust to Baby 4's presence (who, by the way, is taking his/her sweet time like all the rest of them did!) I am really loving the Heart of Dakota curriculum we're using, and I like the reading curriculum (All About Reading). Meredith is reading beginner books now! And Russell is halfway through the first grade reading curriculum! I am not too crazy about Singapore math, but I suppose it's doing the job okay so we're sticking with it for this year at least.

Here are some pictures of our first weeks of school:

Combining art, science, and Bible: making quails (Exodus 16) and flying them south for their winter migration!

We took a field trip to a farm and went on a 30-minute covered wagon ride to learn about the history of the farm.

Combining art, science, and Bible again: painting an oat field (Ruth 2) and talking about different types of grains and what is made from them.

Math with Dad was a nice change for everyone!

Meredith helping Paige learn about yellow:

I've been giving Russell some extra writing assignments (since the curriculum doesn't have a lot and he needs practice.) He loved drawing a dot-to-dot dinosaur and writing about it!

There are so many games/books/shows/etc about school, and few about homeschooling, so we buy them when we get the chance :) Bonus: this is obviously a Monopoly game and Jason has collected Monopolies for years!

Art/Bible: painting "mortar" on the brick walls of Jericho.

And lastly, today was the first day of school for public schools around here - so naturally we celebrated our flexibility as homeschoolers by going to Dunkin Donuts in PJs at 8 am! :)

I'm really happy with everything we've accomplished so far this school year! Even though our break is coming up, we'll still be doing a little school here, and the kids are starting their programs (Bible study, Russell's homeschool classes at the co-op, and the girls' once-a-week preschool) in mid-September, so it won't be a full break - which is probably a good thing!