Psalm 113:3 - The Message

From east to west, from dawn to dusk, keep lifting all your praises to God!

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Spring Time, Music, and other Gifts

The sounds of Brahms are soaring through the house as Ian is blasting his music for Classical Conversations/Western Cultural History class. I can honestly say that I would never have imagined Ian enjoying classical music....ever! But this year he's been studying some art and music appreciation and seems to genuinely enjoy it!  He's got a great group of kids he's learning with at CC in Challenge II, and (much to our surprise) has asked if he can continue with Challenge III this coming year.  Homeschooling him (and the girls) has been unexpected gift this year, something I didn't anticipate. His 4 years at WPCS gave him a good break from Mom and a great additional foundation.  He and I are both surprised at how much we've enjoyed homeschooling this year. :) Grace.

His favorite activity this spring has definitely been playing golf with the Providence Panthers (the homeschool team). They've been playing phenomenally well and have only lost one scrimmage (and that by only 2 points) to a local highschool that is a 5x State Champion. Ian's learning a lot himself and loves being outside and hanging out with this neat group of kids. (He also avoids the camera mostly, so...no pictures! :)

The older two girls have been participating in the youth and children's choirs at a church downtown (though we attend Crossroads as a family).  We're thankful for the welcome 1st Pres gives homeschool students in their church choirs even if 1st Pres isn't their homechurch. They always have a professional guest accompanist with violin or cello or flute. The youth choir director is a music professor at USC, and every week the kids have a 1/2 hour lesson in Solfege. In addition to practicing for occasional Sunday morning services, the kids are also preparing an opera for the spring - Noye's Fludde by Benjamin Britten. 
We're enjoying some more time outside these days, like getting the tent cleaned out and ready for some adventures we have up our sleeves, and just enjoying the cooler temperatures before the summer heat arrives. We're looking forward to a visit from one of my highschool friends from Germany in May, and Reid is attending a week long conference in Dallas in April with some of the OGM leadership. Some family members have invited us to spend a week in Charleston at the beach with them in June. It will also be a summer of good-byes as my parents are heading overseas for a few years. Dad will be a professor of New Testament and Greek (I think!) - though they plan to return regularly in between semesters. Our family isn't known for sitting still. 

It looks like I may be tutoring Challenge B (8th grade level) this coming school year for CC, so I'm making plans to spend some time this summer studying and learning Latin and Logic in particular. We'll see how all this pans out in the end. 

That's the latest from the Dales. 






Monday, February 22, 2016

2016 so far

Sights and Sounds that have marked 2016 so far....

.....lots of tea


....lots of homework....and cleaning...


We started the New Year with a Christmas Celebration with the Brasher side...it was so warm we couldn't have a real fire so we did the next best thing ...


...play time with cousins


Caroline has some highly unusual food allergies that had us concerned, but we're figuring out what she can/cannot eat and are thankful we didn't have to see a specialist after all. We've never really dealt with food allergies before, but I guess there is a first for everything. 


First Day-Trip to Charleston for the year....windy, temperatures in the 70s on this February day. Enjoyed the pier, the downtown market, and a walk on Sullivan's Island.