It's the day after Orthodox Christmas! Having returned to the Antiochian Orthodox Church, this is our 2nd day of Christmas today, of 12 days total.
I've not been too focused on anything related to homeschooling lately. The only updates are that I have completely abandoned all things Lifepac, and will not trying that brand of curriculum again. I thought I could keep using the science, but it just didn't work in our house either. So Lifepac Science 6 and Lifepac History and Geography 6 were a complete bust in our house. I replaced both with Christian Light Education and those are working out so much better!
For better or worse, my son is a very independent learner. He wants to get his work done fast and move on with his life and CLE does the job. (The CLE Sunrise Edition only though...) When he is interested in something, he can go very deep and focus intensely. However, that just doesn't happened often for children of his personality type when it is required for school. I know, because I was the EXACT same way with my studies and approach to learning.
Lastly, I wanted to share about a great new online art resource. Ancient Faith Kids has very short drawing lessons that are perfect for homeschooled children. The Matushka who makes these videos is so gifted. I cannot believe how much she packs into these short videos. Not only is there a great drawing lesson, but also exposure to quotes from Saints, or Bible verses, in addition to narration connecting us to seeing God's beauty in nature through beautiful photography and science facts. We have only watched two of them, but I was so impressed! We are not a huge screen time family, but we have used these videos later in the evening to calm down our boys when they were too hyper, and I'm sure we'll get through all of them eventually. There are two playlists on Ancient Faith Kids, one is Discovering God Through Nature and Art and the other is Drawing Furry Friends of the Saints.
There is also a playlist of a new Sesame Street like show called "Rocko's Music Factory" which reinforces teaching on virtues such as patience, kindness, etc. I highly recommend this show! (There is only one which we didn't watch because there was a character imitating Elton John. Even though my young son has no idea who Elton John is, he immediately felt weird when this part came on too! It's all right, the creator was probably just thinking about a song they liked by him...but my son was creeped out enough by the puppet's wierd glasses.)