Homeschool Group Update

October 28, 2020 The Homeschool Ministry
Posted by The Homeschool Ministry on

The Homeschool Group has now been meeting for together work time for two months.  We were able to start off the school year outside in the warm sunshine.  Since it has gotten cold (and snowed) we now have the ability to use the new combined Gathering Room to meet in.  This room provides us the space to properly social distance and be in the same room together.  Thank you to the Pastors and Nehemiah who worked hard at making this usable for us. 

Our Weekly Meeting

During our time together, the kids share things they are learning through projects and experiments they are doing.  Digestion, How Sound Travels, Places to Visit in New England and the Letter “R” are examples of things that have been shared.  This presenting helps the kids learn how to speak in front of an audience.  In addition, there is a short time of reading out loud together to help with reading and presenting skills.  The older ones read through a short play while the younger ones work on beginning reading skills.  During our worktime, the kids will give each other spelling tests and sometimes practice state capitals, but sometimes its nice just to be able to do schoolwork next to a friend! 

When work is done, we end by playing a sport or exercising together.  Throughout the fall, we learned about several organized sports, such as volleyball, football and basketball.  We may be able to squeeze in playing soccer if the weather cooperates.  A dance lesson is also in the works.  The kids are looking forward to outdoor time in the snow and on the ice when we are able.

Lending Library

We are excited to announce a new Homeschool Resources Lending Library to assist parents in teaching worldview, creation, Biblical sexuality, and various other topics to their children! 

The idea of this material is to be a supplement to the core subjects that the kids are studying.  As parents, there are topics that we should be covering that are not part of our regular curriculum. This library is meant to be a resource to help with some of those topics. These can generally be covered over a few weeks.  Winter months or spring or summer break may be a good time to cover some of these topics.

This is located in Gathering Room 1 for you to browse and checkout after church services on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, and during homeschool group time on Thursdays.

If anyone, parents or otherwise, run into any resources which you feel may be beneficial to this library please send them our way.   

Here are just some of the items available to you: 
  • The Talk: Biblical Sexuality is a series of 3 books for different ages, starting at age 6 through teenagers. The author of this series also played a part in developing Covenant Eyes. The introduction to the first book lays out reasons why this topic should be covered by parents and done early.
  • Worldviews: A Children’s Intro to Missions is a workbook the compares the five major worldviews to Christianity. It also introduces several cultures and countries where these beliefs are prevalent.  There are multiple activities, crafts and recipes as well as an introduction video for each worldview.  There are two different books, but both cover the same thing.  The Jr. Edition would be appropriate for upper elementary school, while middle schoolers would benefit from the other one.  There are scans of the activity pages, please ask for them!
  • Lots of books and videos from Answers in Genesis including: One Blood for Kids: What the Bible Says About Race, Dragons, Awesome Science: Exploring The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Meteor Craters and Petrified Forests