Everlasting Life Academy of Excellence

Tomorrow officially we start our new school year! We’ve already started our read aloud for this unit (which is 2 mini units) and taken 1st day of school pictures tonight since we’ll be starting bright and early tomorrow before I head to work!

This year we have a junior, freshman, 6th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader and pre-kindergartner. We’re going to start our year studying about US History as we journey to a new world, studying indigenous people and early settlements in our history. Our oldest 2 students will also be taking college courses through the local community college, Intro to psychology for both and Emma will also be taking Criminal Justice course.

Here’s a few pictures of our students and the units with added extras to help enhance our education.

We officially started our next unit today for school! We will be studying Botany! And creating our garden. Planning, developing and organizing the seeds to make sure we have the best place and time to plant them, was project 1 today. The next project will be creating an organized garden area (free from dogs!) to plant our seeds.
🌾🌳🌽🥦🥬🥒🍅🫑🌶🍎

We are still continuing on our journey learning all about Ancient Civilizations, today’s lesson was all about China Rises. For an added bonus activity, the students are practicing their hand at Chinese calligraphy, we will be enjoying some Chinese food for lunch and watching Mulan (and maybe Kung Fu Panda).

In other news our oldest student got her driver’s license on Saturday and completed life skills task yesterday of completing a grocery trip (with a supplied list) including purchasing, bagging, loading and unpacking groceries. She also has filled the gas tank, navigated driving to running club, dance and home.

Life is learning and everyday might not look the same but we are learning and growing together

We’ve been busy finishing up one unit (farming and food) and starting a new one! We’re excited to learn about ancient civilizations and the history of the world! Today’s lesson was learning about the Sumerians (the first civilization) and their contributions to society and the world. Students got to practice writing in Cuneiform and decoding cuneiform! I may be more excited than some students are about learning this

Today’s adventure in Christmas learning involved learning about the Krampus and other Christmas Legend Monsters, a total of 8 in all. Then each student was tasked with creating their own, giving them a name and giving them a story of what they do, when they are active and where they originate.

What we discovered about these legendary monsters is: take away bad children who don’t listen to their parents, most originate from Germany or Iceland, and many are connected to either St. Nicholas or Santa Claus.

Moral of these legends, Children listen to your parents or you will be kidnapped and taken to an awful place or beaten, or murdered! 😬🫣🎄🎅🏼

Today’s learning adventure was all about coffee plantations! This was a lesson my children loved! Our oldest student may or may not love coffee so much, and must get a cup anytime we go to out it seems!

Tomorrow we are going to begin our December lessons focused on Christmas traditions that each of my students want to learn more about including learning history of gingerbread, history of decorated trees, Krampus and other Folklore traditions, Snowman history, Reindeer and how they became part of Christmas traditions, and looking more into the Nativity Story and Census (each topic was picked by students)

We have been very busy in our school lives recently, and have continued learning all about farming and food! Today’s fun will be learning all about goat farms. For an added learning bonus our students will have the opportunity to try Goat’s Milk and sample some goat cheese (with cranberry and cinnamon flavors).

Today in our schooling adventure we did a lesson on poultry farming and even had a special guest appearance from one of our very own hens! The joy of homeschooling is adapting schedules as needed, adjusting lessons, etc.

Tuesday is a fairly busy day for us in general as we run a running club for fellow homeschoolers (evening dance classes). Our oldest student desired to create a group where she could run, and out of her dream came Lillian’s Homeschooler Running Club. It’s not only a time for teens/kids/moms to run but also a casual social setting, where week after week several people are staying late at the park to just be with friends.

I’m often asked when talking about homeschooling what about socialization. Anyone who has ever met my kids (or me or my husband) would tell you we are very social people. As we have been on our journey with homeschooling, my children have blossomed in friendships and have so many opportunities to be involved and activities to do. I would say our calendar is full of quality time with amazing friends and adventures, which I’m so thankful for.

As today we didn’t hit all of my goals I set for us in school today, I’m reminded that honestly what my hope is to raise kind humans, who are able to grow and learn, appreciate the beauty in this world and to love God above all else. And I see that kindness shining through, whether it’s in my girls inviting lonely people to join in, or my 5 year old excited to make friends everywhere, or my 3 year old thanking a mom for giving him new clothes. There are more times in the day that I feel as though I’ve failed with my patience, and had a too intense reactionary response, where I have taken on too much, but then I stop and see in spite of my failings my students doing amazing things and ultimately know that this life, our journey, my children are all in God’s hands and He will direct their paths.

We have finished Europe and are now onto Farming and Food! Where today we learned all about Dairy Farms and made our own butter! 😊 enjoy some photos of our butter making process

Today’s country is France! So for lunch today we are partaking in French baguettes, croissants, brie cheese, French preserves, grapes, Madeleines, French onion soup and Ratatouille 😊 last evening we watched ”The Three Musketeers” today we plan on watching several movies including The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast. Our European adventure is almost over and our next unit will be farming and food! I have loved exploring all these countries and histories with my children. Learning together, gathering ‘round the table is what education is about! ❤️

Today’s Country on our European Adventure is Ireland (Republic of Ireland not Northern Ireland) for an added assignment for Lillian and Emma for language arts, I will be having them read Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” And then we will discuss it this evening. They also have their student note booking pages to do.

They are also going to watch The Secret of Roan Inish. And do math facts review (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) while I’m at work today. Lillian will be continuing geometry and adding in a consumer math course this year.

Tonight also begins our Dance Year with both Josiah and Ava starting, Samuel and the big girls go tomorrow.

Hello August and fully back into the swing of school! We have been doing school sporadically throughout the summer, taking breaks for camps and life, but as well know living is learning and everything counts as school!

We are finishing up our Europe Continent Study, doing math review and watching shows to immerse ourselves in these last few countries. Today’s country was the U.K. We plan on watching the Great British Baking Show, What a Girl Wants and a documentary about the Royal family. For my older children, we may watch Outlaw King in Netflix which is historical fiction movie based on the struggles Scotland faced with England.

This week also found us signing up for our fall classes at our co-op:

Lillian’s courses: World War 1, Gym, Spanish 2, Fast Fitness

Emma’s Courses: World War 1, Gym, Jr/Sr high Art, Fast Fitness

Ava’s Courses: Gym, Junk Box Wars, Fall/Winter harvesting, Around the World

Josiah’s Courses: Life Skills, Junk Box Wars, Kids Cook, Gym

Samuel’s courses: Learning Lapbooks, K-2nd Science, Gym, K-1st Art

William’s courses: preschool sensory play, gym

Veronica will be teaching at co-op the Life skills class and Intro to Psychology (high school level), she will also be taking the Fast Fitness course 😯

Big world here as Samuel will be an official kindergartener in our Academy and be learning all about letters, sounds and reading. He’s pretty good at basic math concepts, but we will be learning more about them too.

Lillian will continue this fall term in college as well taking Intro to Personal Fitness Concepts and intro to sports and exercise studies. She also will be completing her online and in-person driver’s Ed courses, because in October she can take her test!

Here is our unofficial official school photo:

Lillian 10th grade
Emm 8th grade
Ava 5th grade
Josiah 3rd grade
Samuel kindergarten
William preschool