A new blog in town.

I've been silent on here. I've been changing my life. In the hopes of continuing to improve, I started a fitness blog.

You can find it at www.fitheidi.blogspot.com and I hope you'll join me there, too!!

I'll still post here from time to time.

Our Schedule

Many of you may or may not be wondering how our week works. Or, perhaps, you are looking for inspiration for your week. I hope this helps you either way.

Our boys work out three days a week and I have adjusted their workload so they can still finish by 5 p.m.

MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY: Math flash cards, grammar, spelling, science, history and fiction.

TUESDAY-THURSDAY: Math textbook/workbook, writing, vocabulary, spanish, logic and non-fiction

Please share your general week in the comments below and posts on their individual curriculums will be coming soon!

They keep growing and growing!

Fury, Dragon and Mr. Picky Pants are now 14, 10, and 3.

We had to dial back the pre-algebra to 7th grade for Fury and he is making progress in his other subjects.

Dragon has begun to enjoy math or, at least, dread it less.

Mr. Picky Pants knows his letters and numbers through 10. I think we have another early reader on our hands. Time will tell.

Soon I will post what we're using this year. Stay tuned.

Changes

As I write this, my tummy rumbles. Things are changing. We are removing as many GMOs from our diet as possible. Fury is now 13 and learning pre-algebra. Dragon is 9 and prefers language arts to math any day of the week. Since my last post, we've had a new addition to our family. Mr. Picky Pants just turned 2 in August.

Fired up! Again!

I know it's been a while since I posted. Thanks to having a connection again, I can resume keeping people posted on the goings on. There will be new copywork books hitting the scene soon on my lulu storefront.

Jesus vs. Satan (a bit of humor)

I found this joke on one of the forums I belong to. I thought I'd share it here for those may have never seen it before.

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Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, 'THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.'

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

They moused.

They faxed.

They e-mailed.

They e-mailed with attachments.

They downloaded.

They did spreadsheets!

They wrote reports.

They created labels and cards.

They created charts and graphs.

They did some genealogy reports .

They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.

Jesus just sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming:

'It's gone! It's all GONE! 'I lost everything when the power went out!'

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work.

Satan observed this and became irate.
'Wait!' he screamed. 'That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?'

God just shrugged and said,



JESUS SAVES....

Homeschool Buyers Co-op

The Homeschool Buyer Co-op is a free homeschooling organization for both new and veteran homeschoolers. Co-op membership is free and confidential, and entitles homeschooling families to discounts from over a hundred educational suppliers. They also sponsor "Group Buys" for curriculum packages that save homerschooling families lots of money. On the site you'll find lots of free information, such as databases of free curriculum, field trips, and educational contests and scholarships. Highly recommended. Click here for more information.

Spring break!

I guess most homeschooling parents would take their spring break and do nothing. I can't think of anything but using this week for retooling and rethinking.

I'm not saying that what we're doing isn't working. That's not the case at all. I gave ds9 some of the placement tests from AOP to see what he knew and what he didn't. I'm now going to go over them and figure out where gaps need filling in before we progress to 5th grade work.

I'll keep you all posted!

Do you want to change the world?

You may think that it's impossible for one person to change the world. It probably is.

Various schools of thought have different wording for this same sentiment but I think the gist of transcends all world and biblical viewpoints.

A single rope can be broken.
Two ropes together are a bit stronger.
Three ropes are not so easily ripped apart.

Now take that analogy and apply it to homeschooling and what would happen to the seriously lacking public school system that we have in this country. Imagine what would happen if you had a million or more ropes tied together?

What if every family chose to homeschool?

I want to see all of us ban together to change the world or at least the face of the U.S.

IF you feel the same way I do, then please comment below because I'd love to hear from you!

Did you know?

That most of the founding fathers of this country were homeschooled? They didn't have public schools back in the day and what they did have wasn't mandatory. Think of how brilliant our founding fathers were and what they accomplished.

If homeschooling was good enough for our founding fathers, how could any parent concerned about their child's education not want to homeschool his or her child(ren)?

I've got all kinds of things on my mind and I'm not stopping here.

To those awaiting curriculum . . .

I've gotten so caught up in the nuts 'n' bolts of homeschooling over the last few weeks, and coping with a sick 5 yo ds, that I've had to lay my project aside.

When it is ready, it will be in e-book until I've sold at least 10 copies. I hope you enjoy it when it does get here!

Until then.

Happy Homeschooling,

Heidi

Engquist Academy Press

I've got the publishing arm of my love of homeschooling up and running, sort of.

http://engquistacademy.webs.com

I invite everyone who stops by my site to take a look around and check out what's going on there. If you're interested, there's a link to the lulu storefront and a nifty little ebook there for $4 filled with spelling sheets that should work for just about any child.

These spelling sheets are meant to be used with another spelling program as a supplement. They are not a stand-alone option.

Heidi

Two weeks worth of lessons

I've got two weeks worth of lessons done thus far. Here are the links. You'll need both. One is the actual "bookwork" and the other is the story that the lessons are based on.

Language Arts Lesson 1 v2

Parables from Nature - Academy Formatting

New Forums

Hey everyone! There's new forums in town!

http://engquistacademy.ipbfree.com

Let me know what you think! They are a work in progress so may not look like much at first.

Hunting for links

I've come to the conclusion that it might be better just to put the links to the side and let folks know to scroll down. I'm working on a forum but it isn't ready yet. I'll post the link when it is and everyone is welcome to come and check it out.

Grammar: Scott Foresman Gr. 1-6

Here's the link to Scott Foresman Grammar.

This is for Grades 1-6. Enjoy!

http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html#

Welcome to the Engquist Academy!

Hey all!

Glad you could make it. At present, this is a work in progress but I plan on posting links to my favorite freebies from around the web as well as links to paid curriculum.

Eventually, I may have my own work up here for free or for sale. I haven't quite decided yet.

Check back often as this will be changing.