El Shaddai Academy
Homepage

About Us
Welcome to our
homepage!
We are a
homeschooling family of five living
in the Southern
California area just north of L.A.
My name is Shelley,
and I'm the
mother of 3
children.
Eric is my oldest,
he is 17,
and he is in his junior year.
Monica (check out her webpage) is my only girl.
She is 14,
and she's in the 8th grade.
Justin (he has a webpage too ) is my youngest. He
is 8, and
he's in the 3nd grade.
*(Highlighted words
through out this site are links to corresponding sites!)*

About Our Homeschool
In California, we
have the choice of filing an R-4 affadivit every year and
becoming our own private school. That is one of the four choices
offered, and the route we decided to take. The name of our
homeschool is El Shaddai Academy.
El Shaddai is one of
the names of God in Hebrew.
It means "All
Sufficient One".
Our first
priority in our homeschool is
character
training and
teaching our children to walk in the
ways of the Lord.
And
these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine
heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when
thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou
risest up.
Deuteronomy
6:6-7

Our Curriculum
I use a variety of
curriculum. I try to tailor the
curriculum to each
child's needs.
I prefer
"living" books over text books for History, so I
prefer to use Sonlight, Beautiful Feet Books, Greenleaf Press
and Five in a Row (FIAR). In the past we used Sonlight
with only Monica
and FIAR with
Justin. We
broke World History
(SL6) into two years, so we could enjoy it fully without
being rushed!
Either
make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree
corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his
fruit.
Matthew
12:33

Eric
For
9th grade Eric used a combination of Alpha Omega Lifepacs for History and he also sat in on
our read-alouds for Sonlight and pretty much kept up on what we
were studying as well as his own assignments in AO. I
want more than just pouring facts in his head and being able to
answer quiz and test answers. I want him to love learning, not
just regurgitating up the facts when quizzed.
For
Science he used the Alpha Omega CD Switched on Schoolhouse , This is nice in the fact
that it is interactive and has a lot of action and pictures, but
it still is reading the facts and answering questions. I will say
that it is very convenient for the teacher because it grades and
assigns the work for you with very little input from the teacher,
except when they need help on a question or printing off the
lesson so they can read it off of the computer screen. So I would
recommend it for a very busy mom that doesn't have much time to
teach certain subjects, such as Science.
Powerglide tapes for Spanish (even
though my husband speaks fluent Spanish) :-) other people have
raved about this program, but I did not see the progress from
my son what I had hoped to see. This is for the motivated student.
We will use a different program in the future.
Sonlight for Language Arts and Saxon for Algebra 1.
He
used Mavis Beacon for typing on the computer
and the
Spell-it Deluxe CD for Spelling review.
He
learned to play the guitar also.

Monica
In seventh grade, Monica
used Sonlight for History and Language
Arts. Monica learned to love reading using the books from
Sonlight. We only buy the teacher's manuals from SL and get the
books from the library. We have bought several of the books to
keep in our personal library because we enjoyed them so much. She
was studying World History, so we learned a lot
about Ancient Greece and Egypt.
Abeka for Science, and Saxon for Math. Saxon is a good program, but it is
not for every child. Monica is a hands-on learner and needs more
time on a new concept when it is introduced. We are looking into
a different Math program for her in the future.
Mavis Beacon CD for typing.
Spell-it Deluxe CD for Spelling. I had
listened to a Neuro-developer (I think that is what she was
called!) speak and she recommended this program for children of
all ages that have problems with Spelling. I have seen great
improvements in Monica's spelling since we started using this CD.
It is fun and interactive and reviews the spelling words in
several games and puzzles. It can be used for all levels from
beginning to adults. I highly recommend this!
She
is learning to play the piano this year.
Monica
is learning to cook, planning meals and we hope to add on sewing
skills. She is also involved in the local Star Spangled Twirlers
and performs baton routines at parades and special events. She has started competing and is doing quite well. We
call her Twirly Girl! :-) Go check out her webpage - just click
on her highlighted name at the beginning of this webpage and it
will take you there.

Justin
In second grade, Justin
learned to read using
Teach Your Child to Read in
100 Easy Lessons.
He
used Sonlight for his Language Arts and
Five in a Row (FIAR) for Social Studies
and Science.
He
used Math-U-See for Math along with
worksheets from Worksheet Factory.
Health
, Safety and Manners is from Abeka.
He
has a webpage too, click on his name at the top of the page and
go visit him.

My Favorite Books
About Homeschool
Since
Eric is in High School now, these books have been quite helpful
to me since they are full of information for structuring your
high school student's learning experience and for making sure
we're not missing anything important!
The High School Handbook by Mary Schofield
/Christian Home Educators' Curriculum
Manual for Jr/Sr High by Cathy Duffy
Senior High: A
Home-Designed Form+U+la by Barbara Edtl Shelton
These
books are for all ages of children, for the beginning
homeschooler as well as the experienced.
The
Big Book of Home Learning Vol.1 by Mary Pride
The
Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Dr. Raymond &
Dorothy Moore
A
Survivors Guide to Home Schooling by Luanne Shackelford &
Susan White
For
the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
The
How & Why of Home Schooling by Ray E. Ballmann
Language Wars and You
Can Teach Your Child Successfully by Ruth Beechick

My Favorite
Homeschool Message Boards
CHFWeb (Christian Homeschool Fellowship)
Message Board
Homeschool@Crosswalk.com
Five in a Row (FIAR) Message
Board
Sonlight Forums

My Other Pages
American History for Homeschoolers
Creation Science Links
Lesson Plans for Homeschoolers
Links for Homeschoolers
Ancient History for
HomeschoolersThis isn't my page, but I added it in because it's great!



My Webrings