Curriculum vitae

Here is some of our not-so-formal education for our children:

Timothy, now 16, is working as a courtesy clerk at the local grocers, working through Scots Worthies, and developing a new war game, with a painted board and hand-sculpted pieces. Along the way he fixes all sorts of things around the house and plays a lot with the baby, which we call getting "baby vitamins".

Nikki, just turning 15, spends her days cooking and cleaning (of course), along with

• Sewing
  
• Oil painting
• Reading all of Jane Austen's novels
• Drawing
• Playing piano and singing
  
• Babysitting for Church

Besides these things, these children also spend hours conversing and discussing all sorts of subjects, from finances to how to know if someone is God's choice in a mate.

We also currently spend up to two hours a day in Bible study with Dad, including a chapter in the Bible and a portion of the book, "Hearing God" by Peter Lord. Even our littlest children have been able to come away with vital information from this book.

I try and read a short biography from an old set of children's books we have. We have recently read about St. Francis of Assisi, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Edison, Johann Gutenberg, and Sir Winston Churchill, to name a few. Of course, then we have to get out the encyclopedias and search the internet for additional pictures and other information.

We were doing copywork every day, but I have been giving everyone a break from it. We will pick it up again later.

Our math is the applied sort--if you can imagine the sorts of math that life requires, such as reading a grocery flier and picking out the deals, etc. Some still work through multiplication tables and take fractions practice into the kitchen.

The other day we took out a high school textbook and all began Latin together. That was a lot of fun! Then today we learned about logic, both its good and bad points, and the basics of a Christian world view.

This evening, everyone wanted to learn how to type so we popped over to this site and I gave everyone a chance.

Everyone in our house draws pretty much all of the time. The subject varies from person to person, but they are all enthusiastic about it and have notebooks and notebooks full of drawings, with labels and descriptions. They have created whole families and communities that they play together in this way. Ryan, 11, and Nicole are discussing all sorts of small business idea using the skills they have built over the years. It is no wonder that we have launched 4 graphic designers out of our home so far!

We sit and talk for hours, sometimes we end up praying, other times we laugh ourselves silly. Sometimes the children learn from me, but I always learn from them.

None of this is scripted, some of it is planned, if we try something and don't like it or don't have time for it, we scrap it.