Showcase Concert for Beginning music students

Brother Brass is improving in his French Horn playing, and here he is with his fellow beginning band students (and mom conducting) performing their favorite piece: The Pirate's Cave. He's in the back, to the left of the trumpets.

STATE Solo & Ensemble success!

Sister Strings performed for our state level S&E on Saturday and received a 91 out of 100 on the Proficiency I level. This level is for 10th graders, and they are required to play their prepared solo, scales picked by the judge (including minors-3 octaves!), and a sight reading piece in which they have 60 seconds to look over. She brought home a blue medal, and she's very happy with her overall performance. She was quite nervous about the scales and sight-reading part. She handled herself very well under the pressure. I think I get more nervous than she does. LOL!

Here's her solo performance, which got cut short because they are only allowed 5 minutes max per session (or something like that). There's no penalty for picking a longer piece. :) This is Haydn's Concerto in G major. Her pianist is also her violin teacher, and we just love her!

Is it right/biblical to name names when addressing false teachings?

In light of the recent controversy surrounding Ken Ham, I came across this really great article about it. I'm not going to repeat everything buzzing around the internet here.  No need to beat a dead horse.  Bottom line:  I fully support Ken Ham and his stand against false teachings.  There is a strong battle of the worldviews going on in today's world post-modern church, as the authority of God's Word is called into question.  I will stand by my brothers and sisters who unashamedly stand for absolute, biblical truth, even if it means being persecuted for it.

Homeschool Curriculum Plans 2011-2012 (Final Draft)

Sister Strings-11th grade (7.5 credits)


BIBLE:  Demolishing Strongholds (*worldview curriculum together with Brother Brass*-once/week); various Bible doctrine books

HISTORY:  ACE U.S. History ;  For you they Signed (2x's/week); Drive Thru History DVDs


ENGLISH:  Wordsmith Craftsman; CLE English Handbook Grammar Review; BJUP American Literature (online streaming); Word Roots (computer game)

 ALGEBRA 2 (finish)/GEOMETRY:  Teaching Textbooks

SCIENCE:   A Beka Physical Science (DVD course with Brother Brass)

ELECTIVES: 
FRENCH 2:  Rosetta Stone
PERFORMING ARTS:  Home school Orchestra/Violin Lessons
LOGIC (2nd semester):  Fallacy Detective/The Thinking Toolbox


Brother Brass-9th: (7 credits)

BIBLE:  Demolishing Strongholds (worldview course *with Sister Strings*-once/week); Who Am I? And What am I Doing Here? (Apologia)

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY:  A Beka History of the World/Geography (online streaming)

ENGLISH:  ACE English I;  ACE Etymology; IEW SWI-B

SCIENCE:  A Beka Physcial Science (DVD course w/ Sister Strings)

ALGEBRA 1:  Teaching Textbooks (w/ new automated grading system! :) + CLE Math 7 LU's

ELECTIVES: 
PERFORMING ARTS:  Piano and Intermediate Band (French Horn)
HEALTH:  A Beka's A Healthier You (first semester)
P.E. : Already earned .5 credits due to his summer activities in learning a variety of sports


Miss Melody-5th

BIBLE: Apologia Worldview Training vol. 1; Bible Story Book OT (Vos)


HISTORY:  A Beka's 5th grade Old World History and Geography

ENGLISH:  CLE LA; IEW SWI-B

SCIENCE:  God's Design for Science (Answers In Genesis); select chapters from A Beka Science


MATH:  CLE Math


BABY BACH-1st

A Beka online streaming for MATH, Bible, Science/Social Studies, and Art

A Beka phonics with mom (continuing the current progress-using their program loosely)

CLE LA

Curriculum Book Fair 2011

Up and at 'em bright and early...Panera for breakfast with a dear friend...good (close) parking...surrounded by the aroma of new and old books everywhere for me to look through at my own leisure (the true confession of a "book sniffer" LOL!)... also surrounded by fellow curriculum connoisseurs...followed by the conclusion of my day with a Bloomin' Onion and dinner at Outback
Steakhouse with previous said dear friend...

Does a mom's day out get much better than that? Oh yeh, my HSR (Homeschool Reviews) buddies hunted me down! LOL! Seriously, I enjoyed getting to meet in person, officially, these sweet ladies whom I now know by regular names, but for those in cyber world, we'll still call them Daisyof6 and Lappin4! :) Would you believe that Lappin4 (the one in the middle in the pic) and I are practically neighbors? ...3 miles away neighbors. Small world. Great day!

Stay tuned for my curriculum decisions for next school year. I did make one big purchase today, along with a few other little things, and I'm compiling my list of things to order within the next month or so as the free shipping offer is still available for many of the vendors that I visited today. Actually, the BJU lady offered me free shipping for "life" through her and gave me two free T-shirts and some goodies to take home. I do my thinking better at home, so I'd rather do the ordering from my home office, so as not to allow the intoxication of the book fair to get the best of my sensory overload and impulsivity. :) SO many goodies to look at today! So many big decisions toward the eternal investments of raising, teaching, and training children for God's glory!

"Legacy"..."Multi-Generational"... What to do with our youth?

If you have the time, I strongly urge you to watch these two messages by Dr. Voddie Baucham.  He's an incredibly gifted speaker and one of my favorites!  Another homeschooling mom posted these two videos on her blog, so I'm just going to give you the link and send you to her blog:

http://daisyhomeschoolblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/leaving-legacy.html

This is not fluff folks!  Watch or listen while you fold some laundry or something. :)  It'll be worth it, trust me.

Summer Musical Theater "commercial"

One more video... For a friend who didn't get to see her daughter perform this at the concert...

The kids opened up the concert with a "commercial" of sorts to entice folks to sign up for the musical theater that will be offered this summer. I allowed Sister Strings to do the commercial, but I don't think we'll be doing the summer theater. I think y'all may recognize this tune...It's from Hello Dolly.



And for those of you who attempted to watch my other concert videos that I posted, but couldn't due to the private settings, I've switched them over to "unlisted" instead, so you should be able to view them here now. Sorry about that. I'm still new at this blogging thing. How long am I allowed to use that excuse?? LOL

Music From Around the World

We had our Pre-Festival Concerts last night, in which we combined with another local branch of homeschooled music students.  The next few weeks will bring on the festival competitions.  This concert helps prepare them before they go and play before the judges.  The only exception is my flute choir.  We do that just for fun right now, but who knows what the future may hold.

This will be the first festival in which Sister Strings is the Concert Master (or "Mistress").  She's a little nervous I think, but she's doing great!  Here are some highlights of our flute choir, symphony, and concert choir from last night: ENJOY!



Part 1 of the flute choir (hubby turned the camera off before it ended)



Part 2-flute choir-yes, that's me conducting :)



Symphony playing Beethoven



Concert Choir



Just for fun! This is The Lord's Prayer in Swahili with our symphony and choir combined.