Thursday, May 10, 2012

Wrapping Up



We're coming down the home stretch of another successful home school year! I can hardly believe how quickly this school year came and went. 

One of the definite highlights of our year were the wonderful pieces of literature we read in our condensed year of American history put together by Sonlight.  It was my intention upfront of buying this core and reselling it, which I still plan to do, however, I wasn't prepared for us to become attached to many of these books! 

What a great way to learn about our US history through living books, where we laugh and cry along with the characters that seem to come to life, as opposed to reading a dry, boring history textbook!




Some of our top faves were Johnny Tremain, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, By the Great Horn Spoon, Cheaper By the Dozen (minus the language),  Little Britches, and The Wright Brothers. I have promised Jared to keep our favorites and add them to our home library.

Another one of our favorites was In Search of the Source.  If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it!



This is the story of the Wycliffe Bible Translators (Neil Anderson and Hyatt Moore), who take the Word of God to Papua New Guinea.  What an adventure, as these men not only translate the Word to the Folopa people but they also must become accustomed to their culture in order to properly translate and bring understanding of the Word. 

One of the most touching parts of this story for me was when they worked their way through the gospels, explaining the death and crucifixion of Jesus. As this had never been taught to the people, they really had no understanding of what took place. The concept of being crucified is something they were totally unfamiliar with.

After the translating of the book of Luke they decided to show them a film of the gospel story, to give them more of an understanding.  As they watched the film they came to the part where Jesus was nailed to the cross. The Folopa women "erupted into excruciating wailing".  They never understood that he was still alive while being nailed to the cross and, furthermore, how He could possibly say "Father, forgive them.  For they know not what they do."

Get yourself a copy of this one! :)

Now, it's time to finish planning what curriculum to use for next year.  I'm already looking forward to digging into the stack of reading books I've selected (Sonlight's Core G of World History).

I hope everyone had a great school year...


4 comments:

  1. I would have a very difficult time picking a favorite from this year! We're moving through the readers at a snail's pace and had to skip a few but so far Xan's favorite is Old Yeller and mine is, I think, Little Britches. I love watching the character of Ralph develop and how he wrestles with doing the right thing versus what he wants to do. It's sparked a lot of discussion for us. His justification of the candy bar incident was too funny. Um, Ralph sweetie, if you have to think that hard to make yourself ok with what you are doing then that's a big clue that it's not the right thing. Xander identified well with some of the scraps he got into. Nine broken toes? *sigh* I think he and Ralph would be a mess together. lol!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're so right...picking favorites out of that bunch of books IS hard- they've ALL been so good! I actually only read the beginning of Little Britches. The kids finished it on their own, so I missed out on a lot but really enjoyed all that I did read. I guess you haven't read Cheaper By the Dozen, yet? You will LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

      Delete
    2. Oh you have to read Little Britches over the summer then. It's a must for every boy mom. Lol! We haven't read Cheaper by the Dozen yet but once we're finished we'll go back and catch the missed books for summer reading so I'll make sure we do that one either way. Is it anything like the old movie of thensame title? That's always been one of my mom's favorites. :)

      Delete
    3. Ok- I will finish Little Britches! It is like the 1950's movie (today's version has NOTHING to do with it). But, of course, the book is 20 times better ;)I love the dad in the story. He's great!

      Delete