School Plan for the 2022/2023 School Year

It is hard to believe that this is my 2nd to last year of homeschooling! And, that after 8 years of Timeline Tuesday, that will be no more...all 3 of my children have gone through all four years of the Tapestry of Grace curriculum at the Dialectic/Rhetoric level and completed a timeline of major events and people from the beginning of time to present day. So very cool!

This blog has followed me through most of my homeschooling years and I know this past year I have not blogged at all. I might keep it up with pictures of life and travel, but, we'll see... I've been working hard on priorities this past year and not overcommitting and sometimes, working on the blog, is just one too many things to add to my "to do list". For now, enjoy the updates!

Printing and working on scheduling our soon to begin school year.

First day of school will be Monday, 22 August 2022.

I always make a new sign for the year and get them their favorite candy and some new writing utensils for the school year.

Nathan's last sign while at home!

My girl, a junior in high school this year.

Gwangi, senior in high school.

All of us together.

And because Vera just has to get in the pictures...

And because we can't not include Clara, even though she shouldn't be on the table...

This school year, we are back around to Year 1 of the Tapestry of Grace curriculum for our 4th time. I have Gwangi as a 12th grader/Senior and Sissi is an 11th grader/Junior. Over at Liberty University, we have Krypto as a Sophomore and we'll start off with sharing his course load for the Fall Semester of 2022.

Krypto - Sophomore in College at Liberty University

Krypto is taking 18 credit hours this semester, which is a full load all by itself. Add to that a couple of his classes are Honors classes, his 1 credit AFROTC class actually takes 3.5 hours of classroom time, required PT (physical training) three mornings a week plus some extra personal working out time, and Liberty requires every undergrad to perform 20 hours a semester of community service and you can see he's a busy guy! 

After completing his freshman year he is still on the Dean's List and has maintained his 4.0 GPA. He is majoring in History and has two minors; Creative Writing and Military Leadership. He will be living in Commons 1 on the 8th floor, the Honors Floor, this upcoming year. He has his same roommate from last year and a wonderful group of friends that he hangs out with. He'll also be GM'ing (game mastering) a RPG (role playing group) weekly that has 8 members in it and he continues to work on writing his books and hopes to publish something new in the coming year.

His classes this upcoming semester are as follows:

1. Research 201 - 3 credits
2. Information Technology 103 - 1 credit
3. Theology 201- 2 credits
4. Geography 200 - 3 credits
5. Modern American Military History 380 - 3 credits
6. Evangelism 101 - 2 credits
7. Russian 101 - 3 credits
8. AIRS 210 and Leadership Lab - 1 credit

Krypto's Fall 2022 Schedule

Gwangi - 12th grader/Senior in high school

Gwangi is starting his last year of homeschool with us. That means all the scholarship applications and prep for college have begun. He applied this summer and has been accepted at Liberty University and will be majoring in Computer Science starting in August of 2023!

During his free time he loves to paint and play with miniature figures from the game Star Wars Legion and he also has a RPG group here in Bishkek that has about 3 or 4 players. We're going to miss him so much when he heads off to college in a year!

Gwangi's acceptance to Liberty University from this June.

His classes for this upcoming school year are as follows:

1. Calculus with Math U See
2. Accounting and Stewardship with Math U See
3. Advanced Biology - Anatomy and Physiology w/ Lab with Apologia
4. History, Literature, Art History, Government, Philosophy, and Bible with Tapestry of Grace
5. Biblical Archaeology with Master Books
6. AP Computer Science with The Potter's School
7. Analytical Grammar Review Sheets

Most of Gwangi's books on the floor, ready to go for Monday morning.

Sissi - 11th grader/Junior in high school

This is Sissi's last year of homeschool with a sibling at home and she is a bit concerned about being "lonely" next year. SO, this year we moved a few things around so that she and Gwangi could do a couple of classes together. Praying that it makes it more fun for them both and that her final year at home we can find some other homeschoolers to hang out with here in Bishkek...definitely a prayer request for this coming year!

Sissi's desire at this time is to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and work overseas. She will be doing a 4 year ungrad/BSN and then applying to 4 year DNP programs that have specialization in psychiatric health like Johns Hopkins and Duke. She has done a pre-application to Liberty University (they won't let us know about final acceptance until we have a transcript completed through her Junior year) and is looking at some other schools as well. 

Her classes for the coming school year include:

1. Pre-Calculus with Math U See
2. Advanced Biology - Anatomy and Physiology w/ Lab with Apologia
3. History, Literature, Art History, Government, Philosophy, and Bible with Tapestry of Grace
4. Biblical Archaeology with Master Books
5. Introduction to Nursing with The Potter's School
6. Analytical Grammar Review Sheets
7. Guitar and Aikido lessons

Sissi's books and bag, ready to go for next Monday morning.

First Day of School - 2021/2022 School Year

Back to school 2021-2022!

How can I do this post with any less than 3 students...well, I can't, so here we go with student #1, our college freshman, Krypto!

He was super gracious enough to use the sign I printed for him and send me a "1st Day of College" photo. I LOVE this kid! So awesome in every way!

Here is a list of his classes this fall semester:

English 101 - Composition and Rhetoric

English 215 - English Literature I

History 201 - History of Europe to 1648

Bible 105 - Old Testament Survey - Honors Course

Religion 105 - Intro to Biblical Worldview and Contemporary Moral Issues - Honors Course

University 101 - Foundational Skills

Inquiry 101 - Research Skills

AFROTC 110 - Heritage and Values I

AFROTC 001 - Leadership Laboratory

He also sent me a photo of his lunch...his first Flames Pass swipe to eat at Hey Cow! which is the local burger place, in the Montview Student Union (aka, it's not the dining hall).

If you are interested in sending him mail or packages, here is his mailing address.

It will be good for the whole four years he is at Liberty as they don't change their Flames Box number.

Caleb Stamp

1971 University Blvd.

Flames Box 162709

Lynchburg, VA 24515

This morning, we started school with our Junior and our Sophomore in high school!

Gwangi is our junior, our 11th grader.

He is studying the following courses -

Tapestry of Grace, Year 4 (the 20th Century) as a Rhetoric student. We'll cover History, Literature, Geography, Worldview, Philosophy, and Government in detail.

Apologia Physics

Math U See Pre-Calculus

Analytical Grammar review and Wordly Wise

The Potter's School - Website design and customization - HTML and CSS

Udemy computer coding courses

Homeschool Psychology 

Russian review for our return to Kyrgyzstan

Sissi is our sophomore, our 10th grader.

She will be studying the following this year - 

Tapestry of Grace, Year 4 (the 20th Century) as a Rhetoric student. We'll cover History, Literature, Geography, Worldview, Philosophy, and Government in detail.

Apologia Chemistry

Math U See Algebra 2

Analytical Grammar and Wordly Wise

Russian and Japanese

The Potter's School - Psychology and Counseling from a Biblical Worldview

Guitar

Yep! We love school and it's going to be a great year!

Back to School 2020-2021 and a BIG Announcement

What can I say, we're getting ready to start back to school next week!

It's the year of quarantine, the year of COVID-19, and all kinds of craziness in schedules and life for everyone. .. and for us, it's the year of our last, first day of school with Krypto at home!

It's true, this year Krypto will be a senior in high school...the 12th grade, the last year I'll be his primary teacher and care giver. It's emotional and hard and exciting and fun and scary all at the same time.

We have another big announcement to make - this year, all three of the kids will be in high school.

You read that correctly. After much thought, prayer, and consideration, along with talking to some specialists, we're going to do a hybrid 8th/9th grade year for Sissi and she'll be graduating from high school a year early.

The past two years she has been bored in school and quite honestly, she's been keeping pace with the boys in language study, she took Health last year (a high school level course), and most importantly, she's been engaged and involved in our Tapestry of Grace History and Literature discussions with older brothers who are doing the Rhetoric level work. She is ready, she's asking for it, and she is super interested in pursuing college and the rest of her life. This way, she gets there one year faster and they will ALL be in college one year together as well. It's another "hard and exciting and fun and scary all at the same time" part of my life! I'm super excited for her but also sad I'll be losing her a year earlier than we had originally thought.

We're calling this year a hybrid year because other than math, she is on target for all 9th grade courses. SO, she began her math book (Algebra, normally an 8th grade course in our house) a month ago and has been working 6 days or more a week to get ahead. She will be taking Algebra AND Geometry this school year. If she follows this plan, she'll finish with Algebra in February sometime and then will start Geometry and work through next summer to finish it up; this will put her on target to take Algebra II as a 10th grader, Pre-Calculus as an 11th grader, and Calculus as a 12th grader. Please pray for her to keep up her enthusiasm and excitement once we add in all the other high school level classes this year. We have discussed, that should she not complete the required work, or fall behind, then this year will revert to an 8th grade year and she will be a 9th grader again next year. She's onboard and knows the ramifications and assures us she is up to the challenge.

Without further ado...here is our 2020-2021 Falconshire Classical Academy plan...with a few explanations along the way.

Our 12th grader, Krypto

Class of 2021

He'll be studying Tapestry of Grace, Year 3 (19th Century), History, Literature, Geography, Worldview, Philosophy, Government, and Art History

He'll also be taking AP U.S. History with The Potter's School as he's decided he wants to major in History and minor in Creative Writing. We want him to have an opportunity to have another History teacher (other than Indy and I) and to earn college credit so that he can spend more time on the upper division courses in college that he is so excited about taking.

Math-U-See Calculus

Math-U-See Stewardship

Apologia Advanced Biology Anatomy and Physiology with the Virtual Homeschool Group

Constitutional Literacy from HSLDA

Analytical Grammar weekly reviews

Russian review and Visual Latin II

He's also working on writing his fourth novel, editing his third for publication this year around Christmas, and this summer he published his second book, "The Sword of Thunder", on Amazon.

He took his SAT last December and scored a 1440, so we're thankful that is high enough that he doesn't need to retake it.

He's already been accepted at Liberty University and has an outstanding application at Taylor University that we should hear about any day. There are a few other schools he is looking at and we have a pending application in with AFROTC. The big push this year is scholarship applications.

Our 10th grader, Gwangi

Class of 2023

He's also studying Tapestry of Grace, Year 3 (19th Century), History, Literature, Geography, Worldview, Philosophy, Government, and Art History

Math-U-See Algebra II

Apologia Chemistry, 2nd edition, with the Virtual Homeschool Group

Constitutional Literacy from HSLDA

Analytical Grammar weekly reviews and Wordly Wise daily

Russian review 

The Potter's School - Java Computer Programming

PSAT prep with Khan Academy and taking the test this year (should we find a testing site that is open?) - last year he got an 1140 on the PSAT 8/9 which was a full 90 points higher than Krypto had scored on his 8/9 exam as a 9th grader. We're so proud of these kiddos and all their hard work!

Our 8th/9th grader, Sissi

Class of 2024 or 2025

She'll also be studying Tapestry of Grace, Year 3 (19th Century), History, Literature, Geography, Worldview, Philosophy, Government, and Art History

Math-U-See Algebra

Math-U-See Geometry

Apologia Biology, 2nd edition, with the Virtual Homeschool Group

Constitutional Literacy from HSLDA

Analytical Grammar completed in a year and Wordly Wise daily

Russian review and Visual Latin II

PSAT prep with Khan Academy and taking the test this year, maybe?

Guitar...we'll have to find someone to give lessons when we get back to the US, but she has been enjoying playing and taking lessons with a friend since May of this year.

That about sums it up. What are you up to this year, anything fun or new to share?

I'll post again in a week or two once we start the school year and have all of our official "Back to School" pictures for posting. Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer!

Back to School 2019-2020

Are we really already back to school?!

This summer seemed to fly by and I'm kind of in denial that I have just 2 more years with our oldest, Krypto! He's in the 11th grade this year, Gwangi is in the 9th grade, and Sissi is in 7th.

We started back with our first week of school last Monday and it's gone very smoothly. We all love our Tapestry of Grace History curriculum and particularly we were all excited to get back around to Year 2, our favorite. It's a jam packed year, covering from the Fall of Rome to the founding of the United States of America. So much good literature to read from this time frame, fun philosophies and governments and worldviews to study, and it's just our all around favorite time period.

This year I have two Rhetoric students, so we're having some deep discussions and bringing in our Dialectic student (Sissi) when we can. She's doing different readings, more age appropriate for a middle schooler, but she is so smart and I enjoy stretching her.

Another new thing this year, we're all doing Apologia Health as an elective. We're going to be getting together with another local homeschool family every other week and have the children do presentations and projects together to cement what they've been learning about themselves and how to live a healthy life.

Teacher and kids, back to school photo!

Group pose with our dog, Vera.

Our 11th grader, Krypto

He'll be studying Tapestry of Grace, Year 2, History, Literature, Geography, Worldview, Philosophy, Government, and Art History

Math-U-See Pre Calculus

Apologia Physics and Health

Analytical Grammar weekly reviews and Wordly Wise daily

The Potter's School - Arthurian Literature and Composition

Russian and Visual Latin

He's also working on writing, editing, and publishing his novels

PSAT/SAT prep with Khan Academy and taking the tests this year

College research!

Our 9th grader, Gwangi

He's also studying Tapestry of Grace, Year 2, History, Literature, Geography, Worldview, Philosophy, Government, and Art History

Math-U-See Geometry

Apologia Biology and Health

Analytical Grammar in a year and Wordly Wise daily

The Potter's School - Python Computer Programming

Russian

PSAT prep with Khan Academy and taking the test this year

Our 7th grader, Sissi

She'll be studying Tapestry of Grace, Year 2, History, Literature, Geography, and Art History

Math-U-See Pre-Algebra

Apologia General Science and Health

Easy Grammar

Russian and Visual Latin

Setting up and planning for our first week of literature and history discussions. I've got my salted caramel chai in my new Disney World mug (I love it! I think it is so much prettier than the new Starbucks mugs - gasp!) and I'm all set up with my favorite purple pen and pencil and yes, I even got myself a purple mouse this year!

First day of school notebooks and candy for each of the kids.

I love to pick out new school supplies...

...and to surprise them with some neat chocolate or special treat for the first day of school.

Marzipan for the teacher and a raspberry Ritter Sport for the principal.

Krypto, watching his first Pre Calculus video with Mr. Steve Demme from Math-U-See....we've been using this program since the 1st grade. It's wonderful!

We've used a few Science curricula over the years; Answers in Genesis, Berean Builders, and Apolgia...we keep coming back to Apologia, especially in the high school years. It's just very thorough! I think their new Health curriculum will be just as wonderful.

Several times a day the kids get out and play with the dog.

We're also doing some "30 day challenges" as a family to add to our PE routine. Right now, we do them while lunch is heating up. We chose "Action Hero" and "Wall Sit" for this month from www.darebee.com

End of the 2018-2019 School Year!

What a year!

This year I had a high schooler and two middle schoolers, next year it flips on me.

How in the world am I going to have two high schoolers next year...ahhhh!?!

But, seriously, this year has been fabulous!

Lots of cool things to remember...

Krypto finished his first class with The Potter's School (TPS). He took English 2/3: High School Writing Intensive and loved it, finishing with a strong A. Next year will be English 4/5: Arthurian Literature and Composition.

Gwangi got more involved with computer coding, doing Coda Kid all school year and designing his own levels in several online gaming platforms. He'll be taking an online class with TPS next year as well, Introduction to Computer Programming with Python.

Sissi has been spending more and more time drawing and finding her "style" which is a kind of cartoony style that she says some people call "cartanimea."

All the kids did great with their memorization this year...they memorized the whole book of Galatians first semester and then Ephesians this winter and spring. We miss the opportunity to be in JBQ and BQ, but we try our best to recreate some of the aspects of it here. Next year we'll be doing the book of Mark.

So, what will we do for the summer...we'll continue with some language learning, Krypto will continue writing the 2nd book in his fantasy trilogy; stay tuned to details about us self publishing his first book in the next few months, "The Bow of Ice." Gwangi will continue some fun online coding projects, and Sissi will do art. Both of the boys will continue with their Khan Academy PSAT prep work as well.

My three kiddos, all done with school...

Krypto, all finished with 10th grade.

Gwangi, all finished with 8th grade.

Sissi, all finished with 6th grade.

And, because the kids were all standing and posing, Vera did the same thing and wanted her picture taken as well.

Our 8th grade graduate! Ready for high school!

Gwangi, all done with Algebra and moving on to Geometry.

Krypto, he completed Algebra 2 and is moving on to PreCalculus.

Sissi, all done with Zeta and moving on to Pre-Algebra in the fall.

The first shelf is just some of the books we read for history and literature this year, we have a TON more on Kindle. The second shelf is the pile of books for next year. We'll be covering the Fall of Rome to the Founding of America using Year 2 of Tapestry of Grace.

Finishing up a science experiment today. A chicken bone that sat a week in vinegar that he bending in half.

Our last official Russian class for the school year. We were re-telling the story of Noah using an online cartoon. We'll be reviewing word lists, focusing on writing and reading (something we don't do much of in the GPA method, which focuses mostly on speaking) and we'll be watching some Super Book cartoons this summer, in Russian!

Sissi working on a princess picture in her "cartanimea" style.

Krypto quoting the book of Ephesians to me last week.