All Is Right in My World

Here we are, already 5 weeks into school, and it feels good.

My extended family is back in their respective homes. (for now)

My house is cleaned, organized, and free from a plethora of baby gear.

I have over 3 bushels of apples in my basement and the tree leaves are slowly changing color.

My races are mostly done for the year, I completed my half in a decent time and I have had a good recovery week.

I have been able to write every afternoon this week, and I've been spending the last minutes of most of my evenings reading A Teaspoon of Sea and Earth. It is an intense read, but very well written.

My baby sister is 19 today. And my dad crested 60 this week.

My baby headed off to BSF with her aunt and cousin. I am pretty sure this is the first time she has went anywhere with out a parent or sibling. It tugged at this mama's heart.

My camera has batteries.

All is right in my world.

I thought I'd take a few minutes to type an update on school. I wrote of grand plans before we got started. But for all you know, my schemes could have blown up in my face. So, how is everything actually shaking down? Are my schemes working?

The answer to that is a resounding YES!

We fell behind in math for both Freckles and LC with our math book fiascos. But, both are almost caught up. Everyone has completed 25 lessons in all the other books-spelling, grammar, and handwriting.

So, Friday school...

Well, we love the Great Courses lecture/videos. The lecturer dresses up like a main character from the period he is lecturing on. He has been a Viking, Christopher Columbus, John Smith and Miles Standish. He speaks in their accents, wears period clothing, and tells their story. It is very riveting. After we watch the lectures, there are question in a workbook that we have been discussing orally. Which is working well.

They also have additional history textbook reading that is assigned to go with the events we have learned about in the lecture.

For fun, I had the kids make up stories of what might have happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke. They loved that. We will be making a map this week of North American settlers and where different groups from different countries settled.

In science we took up Galileo. We talked about his discoveries, and did some hands on experiments. Last week we watched a YouTube video on his life. It was interesting and I learned a lot. We start Isaac Newton today. With Newton, there are a lot of hands on experiments that we will be doing. lPlus we will look into his life.

In the fine arts, we have done an intro to Baroque and Classical music, as well as Baroque and Classical art forms. We learned a bit about John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost. We will begin reading that together after we finish Dr. Doolittle. (I know, compatible genres...snort) BMV, Freckles and LC are each memorizing a shorter Milton poem to recite at our church campout tomorrow evening. Today, they will be drawing/painting a picture to go with their poem.

ArtPrize has been a major part of our Fine Arts program, like it is every year. We have spent hours down there. It was fun studying Rembrandt last week, and then looking at more Art Prize entries. There are a few that have been painted in the dark/light style that Rembrandt employed quite often.

As far as our reading lists go, we are all making progress. I am having BMV read some books aloud to LC, and some she is reading on her own. Freckles is an island unto himself, and he is making progress. He is currently reading David Brainard's bio, which is rather heavy. We are halfway through 1776 already. I have enjoyed re-reading it. I am amazed by the youth of the players in the colonies. Quite interesting.

Musically, we are singing a new hymn a week, so we have sung 5 hymns already. A couple were by Isaac Watts. All were written between 1600 and 1800. I love it!

So, that is how it's going. Better than I could have hoped. I am enjoying learning alongside the kids.

Well, for our recipe this week, I am sharing the why's and wherefore's of Pesto Chicken. At 3 ingredients, you really can't get simpler. Combining cheese, pesto and chicken, you can't get more delicious!

Pesto Chicken
1-1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, thawed, and cut into 2-3 smaller chunks
1 cup of store bought or homemade pesto (my recipe here)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

On the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan, spread 1/2 cup of pesto.
Place the chicken piece in one layer on top.
Pepper generously. 

Spread the remaining pesto over the arranged chicken.
Cover pan with foil.
Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.

Remove foil, and sprinkle with the 2 cups of cheese. Place back in the 375 degree over for 10 minutes. Turn your broiler on High, and broil for 4-5 minutes and until the cheese in nicely toasted.

Serve over rice or pasta or couscous. Amazing!

How is your fall going? What are you looking forward to this weekend? 

Radical Changes

*Alternately titled...Barefoot Hippie HomeSchool Year 2013-2014

Welcome back to our Tuesday Home School Help series. The way this works is that there is a pre-determined topic that 5 or more home school moms write about from their own perspectives. Then at the bottom of the post, we each include links to all the other posts so you can read the other's posts if you so desire.

It has been a great summer, and now it is (sort of) time to start thinking about school again. After my school planning day out and my back to (home) school post, I have resolved to mostly put the idea of school on the back burner for another few weeks. I still have a month of freedom to live up. Don't rush me! So, excepting for our weekly posts, this area is going to be a school free zone.

School in the Barefoot Hippie is going to be radically different this year. No, we aren't going to be wearing shoes...

As far as the "R's" go, we are sticking to BJU's curriculum. It is meeting our needs, and why mess with a good thing? My kids are young enough that they still need a formal grammar, spelling, and math program. (Well, we will always do a formal math program...) The radically different approach comes from the fact that I am switching to a unit study approach from here on out.

This may not be exactly what some people think of when they think of unit studies. It is actually more of a hybrid of unit studies and classical education. Hybrids are very hippie-ish. This hybrid is very Barefoot Hippie-ish.

I love history, and I have divided world history into periods that we are going to hit over the next 7-8 years. BMV will cover all of them before he graduates, and then we will just start recycling them until Meres is finished with all of them.

The period of history that we are covering this year is 1600-1800 AD. We are looking at it from religious, historical, geographical, fine arts, and scientific viewpoints. I purchased a series of lectures on US History and world from Great Courses, that will form the historical foundation of our studies. We will make 4 simultaneous timelines covering the United States, Britain, Asia, and Europe. There are lots of things that happened globally, and I am looking forward to delving in to them. Each history lecture has a workbook page to go with it that includes essay ideas.

On the religious front, there was the KJV ordered and published and the Great Awakening. Two critical things for Christianity then and now. Something that bridges religion and fine arts is our singing of hymns every morning. 1600-1800 AD was a very key time in sacred music history. We will be singing hymns exclusively from this time. Hymns by Cowper, the Wesley brothers, Isaac Watts and more.

I am calling art, music and poetry a lump "fine arts" this year. We will cover one of these topics every week. We are studying famous baroque and classical composers from this era, and we will spend time listening to their music. I may even take the kids to an applicable symphony concert. For poetry I have listed over a dozen famous poets from this period. We will learn about their lives, and read and interpret some of their poems. Some weeks I will have the kids memorize a famous poem. Some weeks I won't.

We also will cover some great artists and art forms from this period. And we will practice doing still life's and scenery and portraits. I may wrangle some of my artist friends to teach a class occasionally.

Scientifically, I have made a syllabus of scientists and their discoveries in this period. We will do experiments that tie in with what was learned. And we all love experiments. I have not planned the experiments yet, but I will plan a few weeks up to a month in advance so I can gather supplies.

I have put together reading lists for all 3 kids encompassing authors, classics, biographies, and historical fiction or fact based in this period. This will be key to the understanding of this period-especially on a global level.

Whenever the boys have a writing assignment in grammar, they will base it on what we are learning this year. This will incorporate the unit study idea even more into our schooling. We are going to draw maps and measure things. We are going to study hard, but it will be fun.

Anyway, to say I am excited about this up and coming year would be an understatement. The really cool thing is that the kids are excited as I am. I always have been geeked about big picture concepts and the idea of connecting the dots. So much happens during a historical period and a whole lot of it is connected. This year we are connecting the dots of the 200 years from 1600-1800 AD.

What's new in your curriculum this year? Are you excited for changes or are you looking forward to keeping a good status quo?

Now, head over to the other girls' posts to see what each one is doing differently this year...
Nicole, Chareen, Julie, Savannah, and Lucinda.