Under the Tapestry

Aug. 1, 2006

Our First Day of School!

Went very well. Well, not without some gliches--dd didn't want to sit down and kept interrupting, but I expected some attention problems right at the start.

We worked for just over 2 hours, and had some good discussions. Mainly a review of where we'd been last year, and where we are going this year in history, and why we study history. Read a bit from our literature book. Then the dc filled in blank maps of the continents and oceans. They each had a bit of independent reading to do too.

I found some glitches in our new assignment sheets from Edu-Track, so worked on revising/adding to those this afternoon.

A friend came over to peruse some of my homeschool materials this afternoon--she and her dh will begin homeschooling their oldest 2 boys this year--YAY! another hs'er in the ranks. This is actually our Pastor's wife--so now we aren't the only homeschoolers in our church! Oh, and another young mom is starting her dd3 on the path to homeschooling because she's very advanced and begs for school. She's been asking me for advice on materials and methods as well.

I love influencing others to this wonderful way of life!

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Jul. 31, 2006

Finally - my dc's Course of Study for the coming year

Posted in Homeschooling

I've been working hard to get this finalized, and here it is! We will be starting school tomorrow, but only with the assignments that come from Tapestry. We will add in a couple of other subjects next week, and then be up to full speed the following week.

DD8 – 4^th grade 2006-2007

Language Arts:

Spelling: Spelling Power

Grammar: Shurley grammar Level 3

Writing: Tapestry Assignments using Write Away handbook

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Reading/Literature: Living Books from Tapestry

Critical Thinking: Building Thinking Skills Book 1 - finish

Math: Math U See Intermediate (finish)

History/Geography: Tapestry of Grace Yr 2

Fall of Rome – American Revolution

Map work with history studies

Which Way USA state books

Science: Considering God’s Creation

Farm work

Interest Led studies

Art: Art History, hands-on projects with Tapestry

Crafts, Artpak 2 (finish)

Cooking: Help in the kitchen

Music: Gift of Music; composers

Recorders

Maybe piano lessons

DS11 - 6^th grade 2006-2007

Language Arts:

Spelling: Spelling Power

Grammar: Shurley grammar Level 6

Writing: Tapestry Assignments using Write On Track handbook

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Reading/Literature: Living Books from Tapestry

Upper Grammar Lit. study guides (maybe)

Latin: Matin Latin II

Math: Saxon 76

History/Geography: Tapestry of Grace Yr 2

Fall of Rome – American Revolution

Map work with history studies

Science: Apologia General Science

Art: Art History, hands-on projects with Tapestry

1-2-3 Draw

Learn to Draw Now

Music: Gift of Music; composers

Recorders

Typing: Type-it

Computer: Computer Basics

DS13 – 8^th Grade 2006-2007

Language Arts:

Spelling: Spelling Power

Grammar: Parsing and diagramming sentences from Latin work

Writing: Tapestry Assignments using Write Source 2000 handbook

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Reading/Literature: Living Books from Tapestry

Critical Thinking: Critical Thinking Book I and II

Latin : Wheelock’s Latin

Math: Math U See Algebra

History/Geography: Tapestry of Grace Yr 2

Fall of Rome – American Revolution

Map work with history studies

Science: Apologia Biology

Art: Art History, hands-on projects with Tapestry

Music: Gift of Music; composers

Recorders

Typing: Type-it

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Jul. 20, 2006

It's that time of year

Posted in Homeschooling

Time to start doing some nitty-gritty planning for the upcoming school year. I will begin on Monday laying out the first few weeks of lesson plans for each dc. I got a new planning program (Edu-Track) this year, and I'm anxious to see how it helps. Up till now, I've done everything by hand, and it's very time-consuming. With one approaching high school, the promise of easy transcripts was a key selling point, as was the automatic logging of hours, and grade computation.

My plan is to start school on July 30, at least our Tapestry of Grace subjects. Usually, we wait until later in Aug. But with the baby due in Dec, if we start early, I can get the first 2 units of Tapestry done by the end of Nov, allowing me to take all of Dec off if needed for recuperation from birth. We will then add math, grammar, science, etc in the week or 2 following. I like starting slowly and ramping up to a full schedule over a couple of weeks. Not such a shock to the system that way (mine or theirs).

Most of the other subjects are done by the dc rather independently, so they can start them later, and continue into Dec since any input needed by me is minimal. With this schedule, we can still finish up by the end of May next year.

I started a painting project this week (the dc's bathroom), that I will finish tomorrow morning. Then I have 1 more dc's schoolwork from last year to finish going through, sorting and filing away. That's on the list for tomorrow afternoon.

I'll post our curriculum plan for each dc next week.

Hope all of you are getting excited for a new year of learning!

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Jul. 18, 2006

Adventures in Unschooling

Posted in Homeschooling

Let it be said upfront, that we are not unschoolers. I have nothing against unschoolers, in fact I admire them greatly. But my dh prefers a somewhat more traditional approach, and I do better with more of a schedule/routine as well. We typically follow a traditional approach to math, language arts, Latin and the like. Yet use a living books/literature/classical approach to history using Tapestry of Grace (which is really so much more than just history).

But, we received our new microscope yesterday, and it's been like Christmas! DS13 will be using Apologia Biology this year, so we invested in a GOOD quality microscope. We've had for years a cheaper 'toy' version that is so-so, and therefore rarely got used.

Well, after setting it up and looking at a few of the prepared slides with the Biology kit, the dc decided to collect their own "specimens". One neat thing that came with the cheap scope was some great side pieces for collection purposes. So, out they went to scout the farm for things they wanted to see close up.

Some things they learned:
-Pond water has critters in it
-Pool water doesn't (thank goodness!)
-Crickets have hairy legs
-whole insects don't work very well, but parts of them do
-dryer lint looks grayish blue when it's in a bunch, but you can see the individual fibers and colors up close.
-Mom's gray hairs are coarser than dd8's brown ones
-salt and sugar are crystals, but pepper isn't

They repeated the activity this morning. So, all told, they've probably spent 4-5 hours on science in the past 2 days, without any prompting from me at all.

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Jul. 2, 2006

Back from the homeschool conference

Posted in Homeschooling

I attended a conference/curriculum fair in the city we used to live in (where my mom still lives) this past week. Not only did I get the benefit of the conference, I got to visit with my Mom, as did the dc. They always enjoy this week with Mema--she takes them lots of fun places, and they get to swim in her pool.

I didn't attend a lot of the speaker sessions--seemed to be a lot of repeat of things I'd heard in previous years, but the ones I did go to were good. I was able to buy most of the materials I need for next year (always a great savings on shipping--although the gas to get there really negates that, if it weren't for the side benefit of seeing Mom and lots of old friends).

But most of all, it is a time of refocus for me--of gearing up for the new year and getting excited about what is to come.

We have a traditional summer break around here (I need it and look forward to it as much as the dc do!). Once school is out, it is so nice to just put it all away and not even THINK about it for a bit. But, there comes a time (usually before I am ready) to pull stuff out, finish up last year's filing, and start planning for the coming year.

The conference seems to be that mark for me. Since we'll be starting earlier than usual this year (to allow time off for baby in Dec), I have the month of July to wrap up last year, set up my new computer program for next year (I bought Edu-Track to help with the recordkeeping), and plan the first few weeks of Tapestry. The plan is to do a little each day to avoid the last minute all out push at the end of the month.

We're planning to start the first week of August. Tomorrow I get busy!

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