School Has Started

First Day of School -- We ALWAYS take a picture on the first day!!

Well,  just like back home in Mississippi, our kids have started to school.  It looks a bit different this year, but things seem to be going very well.  There is a "school" building on the compound that is for all the missionary kids to do their classwork.  It's not actually a "one room schoolhouse" like on Little House on the Prairie -- the one room has a half wall dividing it into two spaces!  There are a total of 7 students and each student has his / her own space.

Natalie is in the same grade as Benton Hewitt.  Her classes are mostly from the A Beka curriculum and include the usual 6th grade classes:  math, science, spelling, english, reading and history.  They also have classes in art, etiquette and spanish on a rotating basis weekly.

Allie is a freshman this year and shares some classes with Emily and Abbie Hewitt.  They are all very close to the same age.  Allie is in biology, geography, geometry, health, english, literature and spanish.  She is using mostly the A Beka curriculum too, but her spanish and biology classes are being done in conjunction with her teachers in Winona (thanks Mrs. Sykes and Mrs. Wilson!!).  So she is doing the same material as her friends back home.

Evan is a senior and has all his classes by himself.  He is taking government and physics with A Beka and his calculus is an online curriculum called Thinkwell.  He is also taking english comp I online with Holmes Community College for college credit. 

They all seem to be enjoying the homeschool environment.  They still get up early -- they start school at 7:30 with a devotion time.  Evan usually finishes all his work about 12:30.  Cindy and the girls come home soon after that and we all have lunch together.  I am really enjoying being so close to them and sharing meal times together.  After lunch, Cindy and the girls go back for a short time but still finish early in the day.  Some days they stay over a while for some PE.

On Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, the students are involved in some local ministries that have been incorporated into their curriculum.  I will blog more about that later so stay tuned . . . .

All the  moms share teaching responsibilities.  We are so blessed to have such capable people that God has placed here.  Two of the moms (Hollie and Jane Ann) have education degrees, Cindy's masters degree is education (nursing) and another mom (Mona) has an art degree (guess what she teaches?).   Bart, one of the dads, leads PE and will help with the ministry as he is here as a church planter.

As you can see from the pictures, much of their education also depends on technology.  Much of the A Beka material includes classroom lectures on DVD.  So they have the same teacher and the same fellow-students every day in those classes.  Then, of course, the online classes are internet dependent.  

Please pray for:

1.  these students and teachers in this non-traditional setting 

2.  the ministry that is worked into their school schedules and

3.  particularly for the internet which has been persnickety at times

Following . . . .