Broken Nets Academy

     For the past year our homeschool has gone simply by the name "Turner Family Homeschool"  It was not for lack of wanting that we came up with no other name, but rather lack of finding a good, meaningful name that really fit--really summed up what we wanted our school and home to be about. 
     These past few weeks of our new school year I have done a lot of thinking about and praying about what God would have for us to learn this year and how our days should be ordered.  As I have been pondering these things I have also been trying to sum up all these ideas into a "simple" name.  While reading the scriptures I turned to Luke 5 and read this:

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the
people crowding around him and listening to the work of God,
he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen,
who were washing their nets.  He got into one of the

boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a
little from shore.  Then he sat down and taught the people from
the boat.  When he had finished speaking,he said to Simon,
"Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and
haven't caught anything.  But because you say so, I will let
down the nets." When they had done so, they caught such a large
number of fish that their nets began to break.  So they signaled their
partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and
filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter
saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said "Go away from me Lord;

I am a sinful man!"  For he and all his companions were astonished
at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon,
 "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."  So they 

pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

     Aha!!!!!  There was the name for us--the name that I so longed to have for our school!!  Dustin and I want our school and our home to be a place where knowledge is actively sought after, desired and treasured.  We want our children to be so full of love, our home to be full of knowledge, comfort, security and creativity.  We want our children not only to seek after academic knowledge, but more importantly, a knowledge of their maker--who He is, what His plan is for them.  I want our family to be willing to give up all of our doubts (not catching any fish so far) in order to obey and reap the blessings of Broken Nets.  We now have a common goal, a reminder, a guidepost to aim for in our school--we want our home and our school to be marked with Broken Nets!

1st Day of School!!!

1st Day of School 2010!!!

School is now in session!!!  We began our second year homeschooling on Monday and have added a new student.  Addison is now joining her brothers at the kitchen table and will be working on a mix of Pre K/Kindergarten materials.  We tend to be a bit eclectic in choosing our homeschool curriculum as we have 3 very unique learning styles to teach to.  We are primarily using Sonlight Core 2 for both of the boys. (The Core includes our Bible lessons, history, geography, poetry, read-alouds, and child-readers.)  Tristan and Kaelan will both be working on "A Reason For Handwriting Transitions"--although they are starting at different points in the book based on their skill level.  Tristan has started Horizons Math 2-2 and is loving the challenges found in the second half of the book--he really loves math! (I have no idea where he gets it from!!)  Kaelan is starting out with Horizons Math 2-1 and I think it is a pretty good fit for him.  It has plenty of review from last year, but then it takes off pretty quickly into new concepts.  Addison is so excited to have her very own "real" math book--Horizons Math K.  She is currently doing 2 lessons a day, primarily as review, until we reach more difficult concepts.  We have devised our own spelling program for the boys to work on while Addie works on spelling/writing her whole name.  I have also coordinated a individually tailored reading program for Kaelan with books that pique his interest in order to foster more of a love of reading.  For Addison's reading, history, art and science we are using the "Five In A Row-Vol 1" curriculum and are currently working through "The Story of Ping." 

Everyone in the Turner house was so excited to start school this year and get back into the swing of things.  We have been perusing the books that we received from Sonlight earlier this summer--I had to go retrieve some of them from the boys room!!!  Dustin and I feel so blessed to be able to have our children home with us--to not only teach them, but also to nurture their relationships with God, eachother and us.  I am so thankful for the way that God has worked through circumstances and in both my and Dustin's hearts to make us desire this plan he has for us.  As I look around our almost too small kitchen table every morning, I can't believe that we could have missed out on this!!!