Preparing for the New School Year

For some time I have not been altogether satisfied with the history portion of Ambleside Online. Don't get me wrong, what the ladies of Ambleside have done is wonderful. My problem is not with what is there, but what is not there. My issue is that Ambleside begins ancient history with the Greeks which leaves out thousands of years of ancient history. Where is creation? The world-wide flood? Egypt? The Exodus? Whare are the Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes and Persians?

I had been ruminating on this for awhile and began to pray that God would lead me to the right path for our children's education. Then the latest issue of "Answers" magazine arrived and in it was an advertisement for the biblically based history curriculum by Diana Waring called "Ancient Civilizations and the Bible: From Creation to Jesus Christ". Eureka! My prayers have been answered! I ordered it and waited patiently for it to arrive. When the box finally arrived on my doorstep I was giddy with excitement while opening it. Now that I have looked it over, I am very pleased with the scope of topics covered and the biblical world-view from which they are covered. This book will make an excellent spine from which to build our curriculum for the coming years.

Mrs. Waring does an excellent job of writing in a conversational style which totally fits in with our Charlotte Mason school. My plan is to divide the book over two years. This coming year we will be cover the first six chapters, devoting six weeks to each. I will be using this as the starting point and adding other books to our readings that fall in line with our educational philosophy. Since Ambleside's coverage of this time period is nonexsitent, I will have to purchase a few books to go along with our study of ancient history. However, the following year, we will cover the last three chapters - Greece, Rome and the Life of Messiah. I will, at that time, be moving us back to many of the Ambleside books that we already own.

Be on the lookout for our schedules and progress in the coming months.

What personality type are you?

Your Personality is the Rarest (INFJ)

Your personality type is introspective, principled, self critical, and sensitive. Only about 2% of all people have your personality - including 3% of all women and around 1% of all men. You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

What I Read in 2007

I have decided to keep a list of the books I read each year. The list for 2007 is as follows:

• A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
• A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
• Abel's Island by William Steig
• Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober
• All the Way Home by Mary Pride
• Bambi by Felix Salten
• Benjamin Franklin by Ingri D'Aulaire
• Buffalo Bill by Ingri D'Aulaire
• Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt by Jean Fritz
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
• Created to Be His Helpmeet by Debbie Pearl
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Paul Brand
• How to Raise a Healthy Child Inspite of Your Doctor by Robert S. Mendelsohn
• Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
• King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
• Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
• Lassie, Come Home by Eric Knight
• Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
• Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers by Ralph Moody
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Living More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre
• Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley
• Mattimeo by Brian Jacques
• Morning Star of the Reformation by Andy Thomson
• Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
• Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
• Passionate Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey & Stacy McDonald
• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
• Physics Lab in the Home by Robert Friedhoffer
• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
• Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis
• Reclaiming Surrendered Ground by Jim Logan
• Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
• Shepherding A Child's Heart by Tedd Trip
• Teddy's Button by Amy LeFeuvre
• The 21 Balloons by Pene William du Bois
• The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack by Thornton Burgess
• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
• The Hidden Hand by E.D.E.N. Southworth
• The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin
• The Power of Motherhood by Nancy Campbell
• The Railway Children by Edith Nesbitt
• The Relaxed Home School by Mary Hood
* The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
• The Tanglewood's Secret by Patricia St. John
* The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
• The Way Home by Mary Pride
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne

Little Hobbit All-Stars

Our year-round school year has finally made it full circle. Eowyn finished her school year two weeks ago, but the little hobbits and I took a couple of extra weeks to finish. Since I previously published Eowyn's all-stars, I will now publish the favorites of Frodo and Pippin.


Frodo:
Bambi by Felix Salten
Mattimeo by Brian Jacques (not an AO book, but he loves the Redwall series)
Lassie, Come Home by Eric Knight

It's not a very long list, but then Frodo will never admit to liking any book. He was especially certain he wouldn't like Lassie due to the title being "girlie", but this turned out to be his favorite book of the year. I'm sure there were others he enjoyed, yet won't admit to.


Pippin:
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (he liked this one so much we're reading it again this year)
Little House in the Big Woods (he especially liked the little stories about when Pa was a boy)
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (he carried this book around for days after reading it)
Buffalo Bill by Ingri D'Aulaire
Aesop's Fables
The Burgess Bird Book by Thornton Burgess
James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot

Coming to the end of our first year of AO is bittersweet. Some of these books have become like friends to us, and we're sorry to be moving on. A few were so greatly loved that they will surely make their way into the rotation of bedtime stories with Papa. I am looking forward to making new friends though. Come Monday morning I will be saying, "Welcome!" to AO2 and AO5.

What's So Amazing About Grace...

...land? Apparently not much by the look on Pippin's face.

I guess if you really want to have a good time in Memphis you'd better hit Beale Street...

...for a plate of ribs. (check out Frodo's bowl of rib bones!)
And, the always entertaining Elvis impersonator!

Then it's time to head back to the hotel for some real fun...the pool and hot tub.

But, if you're from the Shire, you'd rather see wildlife than nightlife. The world may know Memphis for Elvis, Graceland and Beale Street, but the hidden gem of the city is their pretty cool zoo.

Eowyn's All-Stars

Eowyn has finished Ambleside 6 and has now moved into House of Education 7. What started out as a year of grumbling and complaining has turned into a year of joy and new discoveries. Eowyn has learned that she does like to read after all, and here is a list of her favorites from the last year:

Story of the Greeks
Story of the Romans
Where the Red Fern Grows
Call of the Wild
White Fang
The Hidden Hand
The Bronze Bow

She also learned that just because you don't LOVE a book doesn't mean you can't read it. There are other books from the AO6 list that she read and enjoyed, and some that she read and tolerated, and a few that she read and despised. Through it all she learned that she can accomplish more than she realized.

Now that she has started House of Education 7 she has already found a book she loves in the first week, The Gammage Cup. I wonder what other great books she will discover this year?

You're Never Too Old...

August is finally upon us. That can only mean one thing in the Shire...Pippin's birthday! He has made his own countdown calendar to hang on the refrigerator on which he faithfully crosses off a day each morning. Hmmm...I think there's only 23 days to go.

You may wonder why I would put a picture of Arwen up when I'm talking about Pippin's birthday. That's because, at 17, she still gets excited about where Pippin will choose to go for his celebration. Today she nonchalantly asked Pippin if he would be choosing Chuck E. Cheese's (for the fourth year in a row). He said, "Yes." At this point there was no pretext of being cool or mature; she raised her fist in the air and shouted, "YES!"