Food Allergies and Science Experiments

In our last chapter in Science a few years sgo, we had instructions to complete an experiment with eggs.

In case you were not aware, I have 3 children allergic to eggs :/

So normally I would just skip the experiment/activity. Like when Saxon 1 calls for using peanuts... we have peanut allergies, too... obviously we just SKIP it or find a substitute (in that case we used jelly beans in plastic Easter eggs).

This recent experiment though seemed pretty safe because if it was done correctly the kids would have no need to come in contact with the eggs.  So we tried it;)



YAY!!

The hesitation (and nervous fussing) was magnified due to the eggs being present:/ And during this 1st attempt both girls (and possibly Nate as well) were WAY behind me... so they could see but not be anywhere near the eggs:)

I am thankful for my children's healthy respect of some of these food they are allergic to since they can (and have) made them ill. So they DO need to be super cautious about knowing what ingredients are in foods they are planning to eat. AND knowing what foods are lingering around them... ie, peanut shells near playgrounds, scrambled egg leftovers in the sink, or even a gallon of milk in the fridge when we have company.

But there should also be a healthy balance that I am constantly striving to model. I don't want their allergies to unnecessarily limit them! Like not going to the park because of the peanut shells. Or not wanting to touch a cart at the grocery store because what residue might be leftover from the person before us (who gave their noisy kiddo a peanut butter snack at the store).

Thankfully.... with taking some necessary precautions, like warnings NOT to touch the egg:) Or to step back, just in case the egg flies... LOL! We had a fun time with this experiment and grew a little bit with our food allergies, too.

The Perfect Purple Pencil Sharpener

In the busyness of the classroom, there are very few items that a teacher can rely on consistently to bring peace during the day. And for me there is nothing more aggravating than having students constantly sharpening pencils with the loud scraping or machine like noises. Or having the pencils that they do sharp not completely sharpen... so yes, more noise, distraction and kids off task.

In our small classroom of four, a pencil sharpener brought our chaos into sanity about a year and a half ago! Our little red beauty has served us well.... and others, too! Yes, others! We have sharpened friends' pencils to our house. Pencils from church groups. Pencils for my husband's work related events.

We were recently asked if we wanted to try out the newest color... purple!! We eagerly agreed because we know the quality of our red sharpener and the fun (and peace) it has brought into our classroom space. After sharpening the first pencil we were reminded of how much we love these sharpeners!

The biggest thing with these sharpeners is the ease of use (safe and easy for the kids to use),

The durability and simplicity,

The consistency,

And the cool colors!!!

What a great way to bring sanity saving and fun into a classroom of ANY size!

Classroom Friendly Supplies is also committed to make shopping with them simple and painless:) They have multiple of different colors and quantities available. Even a sharpener for those thick pencils for those little hands! And FREE shipping!

They must speak "teacher" !

Get your PURPLE (or red, green, blue, pink, or black) sharpener at Classroom Friendly Supplies!

**We are grateful for Classroom Friendly Supplies for the opportunity to do this review of their new purple sharpener! We have accurately shared our opinion of this product with no compensation besides being able to keep the new purple sharpener!

 

Our 2015 -2016 Curriculum Choices

One of the best (and most intimidating) parts of home schooling for the homeschooling parents is choosing curriculum! There is just soooo much out there! And each family and kid is soo unique! What are our goals? What will fit us? How can I do this for the best price;)

So I am sharing these choices as what I really have hoped and prayed will fit us this year! Thankfully, while my kids are very different, we can do (and re-use) a lot of the same materials and just tweak them a bit to fit each kids' strengths and aid their weaknesses! And I've learned through the years that sometimes a curriculum works for us and sometimes it doesn't.... just finish it, drop and replace or let it go:)

What we are doing together...

Over the summer as I prayed for our new school year and began looking through curriculum (and saw my oldest grow taller), I really began to ask what I needed to do to really give my kids a strong spiritual foundation. For years we have included devotion, Bible reading and memorization, character development, and lots of great application. So this year we will continue doing those things... like we will be reading Psalms looking for what it teaches about God, continuing to use Our 24 Family Ways as a guide to point us to better character, creating prayer cards to be more diligent in prayer and adding in Apology Who is God? as our weekly Bible Study. I am excited!

Looking through the dividers to see the world in different ways (colors) like our lesson described.

Memory Work is done together during our "together time". We began learning the verses from Apology Who is God. We are also working through the Medieval Vertias Press Timeline Cards, science facts, and memorizing portions of various Shakespeare plays using How to Teach Your Child Shakespeare.

We are using our favorite friend SOTW for history:) This year we are diving into the Medieval world with Story of the World, Volume 2. The challenge for us is making it work with 3 different levels. It's honestly our spine and then we add in encyclopedias, resource books, and projects at the kids' levels. Another challenge for me is finding corresponding literature at the kids' levels and what they enjoy; I use a couple of different lists to help, like The Well Trained Mind, Tapestry of Grace  and Ambleside Online reading lists.

For now our guide for science is Anna's science book How the Earth Works. I have divided it into 18 weeks of reading and study. Chris and Lydia will follow along with similar topics in the Usborne Science Encyclopedia and supplemental library books. Anna's book includes hands-on experiments with almost every page, so we'll pick one (or two a week). We'll follow a similar 18 week schedule/assignments with How the Universe Works and Apologia's Astronomy book after Christmas!

I am also hoping to do "nature study" once a week using Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock and the free resources for the Outdoor Hour Challenge.

Alone the older kids are going to do Daily Grams as independent work throughout the week. Together I am excited to be supplementing it with Fix-IT Grammar by IEW! We are using vol.2 Robin Hood and after our first week I feel this is a really great fit for us. Not only are we learning grammar, but applying it to passages that need to be corrected.... which unfortunately, is the way many yearly exams test grammar skills. I love fun it is to do together and so far they are asking to do their short assignment each day! 

Writing is always a challenge for us. The kids write narrations, summaries and (now) outlines as they read science, history and literature. So they are writing constantly.... it's just not in a formal manner and while I will look over their work, I often don't correct every error in their daily work. It's a record of their reading and ability to process what they've read and learned. So we needed something to push them to be better writers without being another writing assignment. I decided to follow The Well Trained Mind in using Writing Strands 3... it looks a little simplistic, especially since they've been used to IEW topical assignments. I do hope to get IEW Medieval Writings to supplement.... we probably won't do all the writing projects from there, but pick and choose what fits us best.

An opportunity came our way at the beginning of the summer, a homeschooling family with our group offered to teach some horse basics and learning to ride lessons. We were thrilled since the girls had been asking and asking. They diligently study their horse units so they can have those sections quizzed and checked off by our leader. They are working towards going on a trail ride sometime in the fall ( or whenever they are ready).

Our county home school group meets every Friday for all sorts of activities like field trips, holiday parties, service/ministry opportunities, PE, and 4-H! The kids have made friends in the group and I truly love the support, encouragement and fellowship I get to have with the other homeschooling families.

What we do individually (but sometimes together)...

Some silliness while on a nature hike

Anna (6th)
Math - Saxon 8/7 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power and Word Roots
Grammar - Daily Grams 6
Reading - Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone 

Logic - Reading Detective

Music - piano lessons

Chris (4th)
Math - Saxon 6/5 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Daily Grams 4/5
Reading -  Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone  
Logic - Think-It-Through Tiles.... eventually Building Thinking Skills and Reading Detective 
Music - piano lessons 

Lydia (3rd/4th)
Math - Saxon 6/5 with DIVE
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Daily Grams 4
Reading -  Literature suggested by WTM, AO and TOG for Medieval
Spanish - Rosetta Stone 
Logic - Think-It-Through Tiles.... eventually Building Thinking Skills and Reading Detective 
Photography Basics and enter local contests


Nate (K)
Reading - Letter Factory Set of DVDs, OPGTR and AlphaPhonics
Math - Saxon 1
Logic - eventually....Think-It-Through Tiles (totally thrift-ed these... a great find!!!)
Reliability with chores
Completing tasks
Following directions
Polite Manners
Tying Shoes

Linking up to ihomeschoolnetwork.com

Our 2014-2015 Curriculum Wrap -Up

As I am working towards putting together a new semester... a mixture of "yippeee" and "ugh"... I can't help but look back at last year.

The new texts and the very used books (thrifty to the core!).

The huge amazing curriculum that I got to borrow, that just didn't fit:/

The simple text that I really thought I hated, that turned out to be exactly what we needed:)

History
Our biggest change last year was Tapestry of Grace, Year 1 that I go to borrow from a super generous friend (curriculum and a lot of resource books). I had heard from lots of different places how great TOG was and I really looked forward to covering the same topics with the kids while challenging them at their own levels. Oh! And it's all planned out, so all I needed was to find the books and go!!!

Except...

it didn't! I mean it did have ALL it said, but it didn't. The Bible study were more readings with questions and didn't have assignments for each week. So one we we'd read a few chapters, another week there was nothing and the following week there was 20 chapters, which made planning Bible each week a challenge:/

Often you hear people calling TOG "a buffet". And while some can handle seeing all the vocabulary, topics, readings, alternate readings, and projects in front of them, it was overwhelming to see all the things that the kids and I WEREN'T going to do each week:/ Our priorities were in different areas and I just couldn't find the time or understand the need for doing each one.

So went back to Story of the World, vol 1.... sort of:) I used TOG's schedule and some of the resources, but kept SOTW as the core:/ The main reason was because TOG didn't have a single source that we could read together before jumping into the deeper resources.

One thing I LOVED about TOG, Vol 1 though was that it really did help us look into the biblical world. There were insights that really have stuck with me. And I am amazed how much knowledge about the nations around Israel that we got to explore and learn!!

And I loved the reading/literature ideas. We read a lot of the books that TOG suggested! Many of the books that were suggested for the different stages really didn't fit the kids' levels or interests... so the ones I had seen on many different "must read" lists, I read aloud:)

Honestly, I really wouldn't have known if TOG was a good fit for our family if I hadn't had the chance to use it!! Again, I found the resources they suggested to be awesome, it just didn't fit the way my brain works and the goals I have right now with our time together. Great books though! And having volume 1 during the Ancients study was awesome for us.


Science

Another resource new to us  last year was Christian Kids Explore Biology. From the description and Table of Contents it looked like it covered everything we wanted. When I finally had it in my hands I was frustrated with the simple lessons and how the human body was just a week or two of one page lessons.Thankfully I had planned to use it as the spine and then add in science books and encyclopedias (suggested from Well Trained Mind).

It ended up being exactly what we needed. It gave us structure we could do all together, but then we added in a LOT at the kids' level and different projects. With the resources and the spine it just all came together!

I am thankful I can look back on last year with relief... LOL!! We had a great year and pushed through to accomplish all I had wanted by completing the Ancients and Biology well... even with some materials I wasn't sure would work for us;) They ended up working in their own way, by us tweaking them to fit us better!!

And some memorable pictures of our year!

Trying to complete normal tasks without use of the thumb to grasp.

Dissecting an owl pellet.

Exploring a battle ship.

Listening to Nate read sight words from a reader!

Discovering planes, ships and plants at the Air and Space Museum.

Finding the different types of plant roots.... in the yard, of course;)

Lots of photography and visits to the "bird zoo" (we've been 4x since Christmas, gotta love an annual pass)!

My Students...

We LOVE starting our school year with our "Back-to-school" pictures! Eagerly the kids decorated their "grade" signs days before we actually started learning;) It's kind of a tradition now for the kids to paint/color them whatever they want:) And it's a physical sign that school is about to start.

This year we did all the prep work but didn't actually get the pictures on that first morning,
or the second,
or the third, fourth, fifth
or not even on the sixth!
Nope... on a random day during the 3rd week, we finally got it together to get the kids dressed nicely and all the smiles on;)

And honestly, I was disappointed that none of us really were ready for pictures during any of those days.... I still saw the need for them. It will be awesome looking back a year from now and being able to see how much they have grown:) Or looking back 20 years from now and seeing them all together... longing for those days to have continued a little longer.

So we did the picture thing.. a little late:)

This the crew all together (minus Jack-the dog)! They are super busy, loud, insightful, creative, interested. And can be somewhat distracted, whiny and messy! But they are my sweet little class and we have some crazy, fun and productive days, too!

 




Anna
The 5th Grader

She's our "time clock"!  Often, she will ask "when are we..." or "how much time before we...."! If I show up anywhere early/on-time/5 minutes late it's because Anna has planned our departure so we can be "on-time".

Often she is also the "guinea pig"... as all first-borns seem to be:) Thankfully she is a hard-worker and sees some of  the material or tasks I give her as a challenge and does her best to complete it.











 


Chris
The 3rd Grader

The "artist"! Chris is our resident drawing creator! He loves drawing and often will be sketching away as we read. It's always fun to listen to him explain the drawings from reading time. Often they are a narration of a part of the story.

The "distracted one". Oh Chris, my Chris! There are some days he finishes assignments so efficiently with enthusiasm. And then other days when the math lesson drags on for hours (or at least it seems). If I could just figure how to help make every day the former, we'd be good to go;)












Lydia
The 2nd/3rd Grader


The "peacemaker". I'm not sure if all 3rd borns are as peacemaking as our Lydia, but I am thankful for her personality. She balances not getting walked over with compromising with her siblings so that everyone gets a little of what they wanted. And I'm praying that this isn't just a stage:)

Lydia also pushes herself to "keep up" with her older two siblings. For her it's motivating to finish work before them or to do the same projects. Or even not get as many wrong on the spelling test. While this is a GREAT quality it's also can cause extra pressure and discouragement, especially in the afternoon following an intensive morning school. And she really is keeping up!









Nate
The Pre-Ker


The "sponge". It is not unusual to hear this little guy answer a question that was asked of an older sibling. He's heard and been around schooling his whole life. And now we know he was just hanging out to absorb it all:)


The "attention getter". The youngest of 4 has to be loud (just for survival) and Nate fits that description well. Even his normal talking voice is loud. When it's not his words getting him into trouble; it's his antics and mischief made just for some attention!










Let's just say that the school room is NEVER boring... it's lively and full of busy little kids working and playing hard!!

Yep! Another crazy year!

Weekly Wrap-Up : The 1st Week

I honestly was a little worried about going from our relaxing and unscheduled summer days into a school day routine. We did start very slowly only adding a few subjects at first. In fact, there were a few subjects like Science and Logic that I had collected the materials for but didn't really plan to teach so we could really just ease in. But the kids asked... or more like begged! So we ended up covering a lot more than I had initially planned!

Glad I was ready:)

Bible
We started with Old Story New in the beginning of the week:) We started it last year, worked on a few weeks through the summer and so it felt very familiar. We also read and discussed some introductory verses from Tapestry of Grace, Year 1.

Math
All three older kids jumped excitedly into their math:) They were sharing a computer, which I dreaded; but, it all worked out quite well. As they waited for each other to finish they worked on their own practice problems or fact sheet. Since the girls were starting with a new level they began with review, but Chris jumped right back into the middle of the 4th year... so it was a little tougher to zip through lessons, but he got the hang of it quickly!

Writing
We started with the IEW Ancients curriculum. We started on key word outlining because it matched our history topics better than the beginning assignments. The kids knew right what to do from our experience last year with IEW. It was exciting to see how quickly they remembered how to pick out the key words and then to use the outlines for their own summaries. Yipppeee!!

Reading
For our reading, we used the literature suggestions from Tapestry. Anna started the cat of Bubastes by G.A. Henty and Lydia and Chris read other books about Egypt, Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile, Deserts and Peeps at Many Lands (on the Kindle). Anna quickly lost interest in The Cat of Bubastes and Peeps at Many Lands (with all the new words and places) got "too slow" for Lydia and Chris. So we changed it up a bit in the middle of the week:) I read Peeps at Many Lands to everyone (a chapter each day), we started reading The Golden Goblet in the evenings with Brian and the kids chose from a pile of Ancient Egypt books what they wanted to read during their structured reading time:)

History
One of the reasons I wanted to ease into school was so we could figure out how Tapestry would "fit" into the school day. I've already explained a bit how using Tapestry has affected our Bible time by reading and discussing passages suggested for the week. Our readings were based off of Tapestry suggestions as well. Surprisingly our history time looked some what similar to when we used SOTW because we pulled it out to read 2 chapters for this week.

When working on our paper maps, I used some of the suggested places/regions/etc from Tapestry (TOG) and blended the two. We did most of the bigger geographical identifications by the kids finding the locations on the map on the wall. For the terms (lots of terms) we made note cards. It was kid of cool to learn the differences between seas, gulfs and bays. And then we planned our salt map of Egypt:)... yes, just planned we didn't actually get to make it until Week #2.

Part of our reading talked about the meaning of history and that everyone has events in their life that makes up their own history, so we made our own timelines.

And then another section of reading talked about archeology. Nate and I went out one morning and buried some "treasures" (plastic plates, a homemade bracelet, pencil, etc) in the sandpit. Later in the afternoon the older kids went outside to dig it all up:) They tried to made some grid lines but then just started randomly digging and still did not find all the items (even with Nate helping them)! I think they learned a few of the challenges of archeology especially earlier when they wanted to go dig but it had just started raining!

Science
We began Science with learning about the different theories surrounding the formation of the world. We read from the Bible and sources confirming creation and then found sources explaining evolution. And we talked about other theories, like "old world" versus "new world" and intelligent design. We started reading a child's biography on Charles Darwin as well. The kids really liked the detailed coloring page from a our science book.

When "preparing" science I quickly realized how different this year of science is going to be for us. The book covers a lot of topics but is merely a guide not a full teaching curriculum - how spoiled I was after using Apologia! So there is a lot more preparations that need to be done each week (but after Week #2 I'm seeing that we are being challenged, I just need to be willing to find additional resources to make it more hands-on and "alive").

Logic
They begged to pull out the Mind Benders book:) I cut up little paper pieces so I wouldn't have to copy a page for each kid and we did each puzzle together. Just two or three puzzles during each session.

Preschool Corner

Nate and I began The Story of Ping. I got a lot of my printables from Royal Baloo and Mama's Learning Corner. After reading Ping and taking about the books some he jumped into some activities.


He  worked on beginning sounds printables and a few pages from an "old-school" pre-reading book I own.

He glue ducks to make a D. And we used some toys to learn some new things about water;)

You've got to love preschool in the bathtub:) We read a book about water and some of the things it does, while Nate was finishing his bath. And we used some toys to learn some new things about water;)

 Preschool is pretty short and sweet around here;) Although he did have a few practice sessions on listening quietly during Bible Time. And learning to finish a task when ask and cleaning up before pulling out a new toy:)

Nature
A few weeks ago we were given some tadpoles. I was super excited since we hadn't done the "tadpole thing" for a few years and Nate hadn't seen it yet. One morning, during our first week, we realized that some of the tadpoles had grown their back legs, so we added some rocks to their habitat.

Nate and I also took a little break from rowing Ping to read about tadpoles. He enjoyed seeing all the stages and then finding tadpoles in our batch that were at some of the different stages, too.

One morning while walking the dog we found a visitor:) This turtle looked a little different than the normal Eastern Box or Yellow-Bellied Sliders that usually bravely venture into our yard! The kids pointed out all the differences, like his nose and webbed feet, to try to figure out what he was. We're actually still not sure but we put him near the water since his feet were webbed.

Extra Adventures
We still got to the pool a few days last week:) It was a great motivation to get all the school work done... a perk to starting school while the pool is still open:)

On Friday we began final preparations for the kids snack sale at Grammie's community yard sale. The kids sold snacks, fruit and drinks. We bought their supplies and then taught them about paying for the supplies before calculating how much they actually got to keep. I really think it was a good 1st "business" adventure and they learning a lot about giving change back and talking to adult customers!! They each got to keep just over $4! So a pretty good experience overall!

Getting Ready!!

Customers!

The snack crew...  such welcoming faces!! Don't you love the 100% little brother!

Overall a fun, busy, great week!! Things just clicked for us and we got off to a pretty good start.... don't think it's all peachy here because then Week #2 happened. The honeymoon-like 1st week was OVER. LOL!!

Welcome to the School/Play Room!!

I'm not sure I've shared our school room since moving into our house 2 YEARS ago.... crazy its been that long!!!  We are entering our 3rd year of working in the school room and I am just thankful for having this space.

When we went house hunting, we KNEW we wanted schooling space. A place to school can be just about anywhere, but each home and model was judged on whether there was a good space to for us to use for schooling. We needed 3 bedrooms and a home schooling room:)

One of the BEST features about our house was the finished garage:) Yes, totally finished... with carpet and crown molding! And so when they placed our house on-site, they raised the garage to be the same level as our main house and voila... a perfect school room. And the door to the school room is heavy duty, too... so the room is great for the kids to play loudly in, too!!

Yes, I said "play"! Our room doubles as a playroom which means often it looks like this:/

Yes, even the whiteboard gets "hit" during playtime!!

But then Mom gets in there and works some magic:) And bans the kids from re-entering until I get some pictures of it clean to PROVE it does get cleaned!

The Play and Pre-School Side
The arrangement of having the school room and playroom co-exist has been good. Some are still learning some self-control by having to complete work before playing! But overall it's worked out really nicely to have Nate playing in the same room so I can keep an eye on him, help him and guide him to clean up. And he's also listening in and picking up some of what we're learning;)

We only have a few toys in the room, mostly building, educational activities and pretend play.

Nate's work for the day is in the colorful trays. He works on those activities with me and then plays with "quiet toys"... usually puzzles, LEGOs, Play-Doh... which are stored on the shelves. 

Jack (our dog) usually isn't allowed in the room because he loves to chew the kids' toys (and he'll steal pencils, too), but since it was clean we invited him in for a bit;)

The School Side
Actually school takes place all over, like the kitchen for experiments, living room for computers and videos, the couches for one-on-one reading, or bedrooms for nightly reading together! But the school side of the school room is where everything is housed and where most of the book learning takes place!!

Besides the big front windows, my favorite school room pieces are my wooden table and our whiteboard. Our table was purchased through Craigslist, given some TLC and new cushions and is used for hours every.single.day!!  The whiteboard is a piece of bathroom laminate nailed to the wall and then edged with thin, simple molding (like totally under $20).





















This is the middle of the room!! A pulled out couch for reading (or a napping Nate!), a freezer and a old dresser that houses the kids' LEGO projects!! I really, really fought the freezer being in the schoolroom but we really had no other place for it. About the time we were getting a freezer, I was looking for a big magnetic board for Nate! LOL!! Not pretty, but it works:) And doubles for a drying rack for painted projects, too!

Our large white cabinet was a "damaged" item that we found deeply discounted!! It's a work horse for us;) It holds all the craft supplies (markers, crayons, paper, paint, etc), math and science manipulatives, games and preschool boxed activities.

I know there has to be a better way to organize it. Here is what the inside looks like today!

And last year we discovered that the inside doors make some excellent "wall space". We can have extra places for some visuals that won't clutter up the walls:)

The top is also used to house the laminator and extra school supplies that the kids don't need to be reminded that I have... like new markers, crayons,etc that I like to "save" until ours need to be replaced.





No home school is complete without a bookshelf or more:)

The shelf on the left is one that we've had forever!! Brian got it while in seminary and it was cream, then I painted it green for Chris' room when he was a toddler and now it's white;) It houses our binders for finished work, free reading books an activities and then my top row of Momma helps (my guides and binders)!

























The pair of shelves on the right were made by Brian when he was in high school!!! They are very simple and I just love how they match our table! These shelves hold our reference and resource books by subjects... our Science, History, nature guides, Bible, Art, Music, Language, etc!

Finally, we come to the kids' cubbies! We were given the little white shelves and they have been a perfect place for the kids to store their books.What they need each day is very accessible!

Last year, we moved the printer in the room with us! This is a much better arrangement since most of our printing is done for home schooling purposes;) And along with the printer came the black table;) It holds our paper supplies, clipboards and personal whiteboards.

We do really love our school room!! It's all mismatched but it allows us to have a great learning and messy space!!

We are participating in School Room Week @ iHomeschool Network!

Our 2014-2015 Curriculum Choices

I reviewed the curriculum we used last year. So this new curriculum list has been searched out, cried through, then prayed and laughed over... I feel like we are starting off "new" again with Anna going into 5th grade. She's at new stage and so I've wanted to be prepared and ready to challenge her at this new level.

What we are doing together...

We are still working through Old Story New for Bible study. I'm thinking of just sticking with it:) We LOVE it and enjoy our time together! Also the curriculum we will be using for history contained lengthy Bible study passages to read. So we'll be definitely digging into those passages.

Memory Work is done together during our "together time". We began learning the verses that make up the Roman Road. We are also working through the Ancients Vertias Press Timeline Cards.


We are doing something very different this year for History!! I've been encouraged to try out Tapestry of Grace and so a friend has given me Year1, Unit 1 to try out. We have loved SOTW (and actually SOTW is still used in the Tapestry of Grace curriculum so we're not totally abandoning those books) but with Anna at a new learning level I was lost on how to still be "together" but still challenge Anna. In comes Tapestry of Grace which contains 4 different learning levels all on the same topic using resources with lots of hands-on activities mixed in. I can already see that it will be a help (after I stopped letting it overwhelm me)! And it's not just history, it's will also help us with Geography, Vocabulary, eventually Writing and all sorts of middle and high school indepth topics.

We're going to try it! And probably like it...

After loving Apologia last year, we have taken a detour so we can cover all our biology topics... Apologia would have been 4 or 5 different books which would have been too $ and fast. So we are going to use Christian Kids Explore Biology as our "spine" for Science. There will be LOTS of extra resources added because the "teaching" part of the textbook is very simplistic. But it's going to make a great spine and has some great vocabulary and memory work suggestions;) It's just soo different from Apologia :/

Since we liked IEW's All Things Fun and Fascinating last year, we are using IEW's Ancient-Based Writing Lesson. I just finished tying the writing lessons to the weekly topics from TOG. I love how they are going to blend together. And really reinforce what we began to learn in writing last year!

We are also going into new territory with Logic! Yikes!! (I might be learning some here, too!) Together we will be using Mind Benders Book 3 and progressing from there:) I'm excited about being stretched a little, too!

I am going to pull back out Drawing with Children for art. We started it a few years ago but I had too much going on for us to really get into it. For art history we will examine art  from the Ancient time periods as we study history:)

Using some materials I had from last year, we will examine one composer a month, listening to their works and learning about their lives. Anna also takes piano lessons and Chris is wanting his momma to teach him the violin:)

The kids took some beginning tennis lessons over the summer, so we're planning to keep playing tennis together as a family:) Come September all 4 kids want to play soccer. I was soo blessed last year to have them on the same team, I've already started to pray for the details;)

Our county home school group meets every Friday for all sorts of activities like field trips, holiday parties, service/ministry opportunities, PE, and 4-H!  We have definitely missed getting together with the whole group over the summer!!

What we do individually (but sometimes together)...

Anna (5th)
Math - Saxon 7/6
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - Easy Grammar 5 with Daily Grams
Reading - TOG Upper Grammar literature selections
Writing - letters and IEW Ancients
Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Music - piano


Chris (3rd)
Math - Saxon 5/4
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - FLL 4
Reading - TOG Lower Grammar Literature
Writing -  letters and IEW Ancients
Spanish - Rosetta Stone 
Music - wants to learn the violin

Lydia (2/3rd)
Math - Saxon 5/4
Spelling - Spelling Power
Grammar - FLL 4
Reading - TOG LG (some UG) Literature
Spanish - Rosetta Stone 
Writing -  letters and IEW Ancients


Nate (preK)
Letter Factory
Five in a Row (row a book for 2 weeks)
Pre-reading activities and AlphaPhonics
Pre-K workbooks covering colors, numbers, etc
Reliability with chores
Completing tasks
Following directions
Polite Manners

We are linking up to Curriculum Week  2014 at iHomeschoolNetwork:)