Category: Homeschool
Hands-On Activities with Tapestry of Grace Homeschooling
| March 15, 2012 | Posted by Karen under crafts, Homeschool, Tapestry of Grace |
Our first unit with Tapestry of Grace homeschooling curriculum has been an amazing adventure! Hands-on activities abound with this fabulous curriculum.
So how does this curriculum work? Is it hard to do with multiple kids? Just a few questions I had when researching; so I thought I’d share a bit of what I’ve learned in these few short weeks.
First off, out of the several things I’ve tried, this by far is the best laid out and organized curriculum I’ve used. I have 3 children ages 11, 13, and 15 using it. Being a classical approach you don’t put your kids so much into a specific grade while teaching this, but rather it is broke into stages, lower elementary, upper elementary, dialectic and rhetoric. My kids are in the UE, D and R levels.
I LOVE how the manual is laid out!! Can’t say that enough. It’s so easy to see what each level needs to do for the week at a glance. It is all color coded so I can quickly see what level I’m working with and that makes it easy for the kids to find their own pages. The teacher notes are fabulous. With 3 kids it makes it so simple to have great discussions and really get the most out of your learning. Plus, I am learning more about history and literature than I ever did in school! And it’s all in one place! No juggling 3 different teacher manuals. It includes literature, history, fine arts, and church history. You add the math and science you prefer.
Now onto the good stuff! The hands-on crafts and activities!! Each week, your child is assigned a project that goes along with what they are learning. While they are making this craft, they research, read and really learn all about that time period. It’s a wonderful way to soak up all the information. My 13 and 15 year kids love the crafts my younger daughter has assigned so much, that they make them too! Who knew?? It’s wonderful that everyone is learning the same thing and we can all talk and learn together as a family.
I thought I’d share just a few of the things we’ve done so far with Year 2 Unit 1 to give you a glimpse of how fun homeschooling with Tapestry can be!
Viking boat
The girls looked up several different Viking boats and each decided on how to make their own boat. One used poster board and cut it out by looking at pictures. The other decided to use Popsicle sticks. I love how they are encouraged to think and use creativity to come up with their projects. It’s great to see how each student comes up with unique and clever designs. One interesting fact about the Viking boat: The scary head was removed before coming ashore so as to not make the gods mad! Vikings were pagans and very superstitious.
viking long house
I can’t imagine living in a Viking long house. I think it’s bad enough to have one stinky dog, let alone ALL your livestock under one roof!
A fun catapult! The girls loved this and had fun figuring out ways to make it stronger and throw the “rock” the furthest. (note the reinforcements my 11 yo put into the base!!) This project really got them to thinking like little engineers. 
Geography is super fun with TOG. My girls love maps, so making the salt maps were a real favorite. Each week we also do transparency maps and my oldest is working on memorizing all her maps.
salt dough map
4 Alls
My youngest had the best time making the Four Alls. She was like a talking encyclopedia as she worked on each medieval scene. Love that!
One thing I quickly found out is that TOG offers a TON of books to read. Many could feel overwhelmed by this. But you don’t have to read or buy every single book! You make what works for your family. I slimmed down the reading for my youngest, who struggles, kept all the reading for my middle school aged girl and slimmed down the reading for my high school daughter who already has a full plate with her science and Algebra 2. It’s so easy to tweak to your needs. Love that!
I hope this post helps anyone who might be curious about this wonderful Christian curriculum or someone pondering how to possibly home school multiple children. It can be done, and it can be done while having a wonderful time!
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The Dark Library
| February 29, 2012 | Posted by Karen under Homeschool, Tapestry of Grace |
Have you been to your local library lately? As a homeschooling mom who uses a classical curriculum, we spend a great deal of time there. Though I’m starting to wonder why I even bother. I usually end up having to buy the books I want.
Why?
Well, lets start with a trip down the aisles in the children’s room. Row after row is filled with dark magic, witch craft, and sorcery fiction. Oh sure there is a sprinkling of historical fiction thrown in and a few classics to dust off to appease us old fuddy duddies, but as a whole it is primarily dark literature.
Does this not bother anyone anymore?
Let’s now journey up to the “teen” section. Uh, on second thought never mind. Might as well rename that the lust room. My poor children have to weed through smut to find the books they are looking for.
Does this not bother anyone?
Our young people are filling their hearts and minds with darkness and smut. They are devouring it.
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:12
So how bad is it really? Well I gave my kids this list from 1000 Classical books to find books from. It is set up by age groups; so they had 3 long lists. My kids were not able to locate very many. But they were able to find how to cast spells and seduce your lover.
I am thankful for sights like My Audio School who continue to find us great literature for our kids to read and listen to. I’m thankful for companies like Tapestry of Grace, Sonlight, and Veritas Press that provide great literature for homeschooling families and help us not have to journey down the dark aisles of the public library.
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Winter Break equals Re-organize My Homeschool Mess
| February 28, 2012 | Posted by Karen under Helpful Tips, Homeschool, Ideas for small spaces, Tapestry of Grace |
Most of the schools around here are off for Winter break. We don’t usually take this break, but this year we are taking a short breather to re-sort, de-clutter and get our stuff back on track!
With 4 in basketball this year, our lives have been extremely busy! I feel like I’m on the road more than home sometimes. Anyway, our school area had become a chaotic mess. The 3 girls work at the dining room table. What ends up happening is they all just stack their books in the center in tall piles and heaps. Very cluttered and messy. A real eye sore!
Since I know this is what is going to eventually happen, I have decided to quit fighting an uphill battle and help those heaps become manageable.
Yesterday, the kids and I headed off to Target and found the cutest fabric crates to hold their books. And boy do we have a ton of books! Classical education is all about books! Each girl has her own crate and when company comes and we need to use the dining room table, we just grab the crate and stick it in the cabinet.
We have 2 built in book shelves that hold all the books we will read for the year, and then we keep out the ones we are reading currently in the green crates. I even got a cute green basket for my books I use while teaching. Now I can easily grab all my read-aloud books, teacher notes, lesson plans, etc.
The kids all love it! 
Ready for a Tapestry of Grace update? Yes, still absolutely loving it! Here is a project Olivia has been working on over the past few weeks. It’s called the 4 Alls. We are studying the Feudal system and she built a scene from each of the 4 classes that she studied. She really put her heart into it and created everything herself and loved every minute of it.
Church scene
Royal world
Knights world
Peasant scene: A hovel and cart with hay
Now that we are all organized and clutter free, we can enjoy the rest of the break! So what are some of your organization tips? I’d love to hear them!
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Our First Week with Tapestry of Grace Curriculum
| January 20, 2012 | Posted by Karen under Homeschool, Tapestry of Grace |
I thought it might be fun to share how we survived our first week with Tapestry of Grace. I have to say, it went much smoother than I anticipated. I think the hardest part of switching from Sonlight to TOG was getting my kids to work on their student activity pages. They were not accustomed to this and took a bit of coaxing. They really started enjoying the work though, once they got the hang of it.
The big hit was the making of salt maps (home made play dough)! In fact they are painting those right now. Olivia had to make a map of an imaginary land, using all her geography terms she had to learn. She LOVED doing this. Emmy and Lauren’s map are of Europe and all the geographical areas that make that up. Huge hit with the teens!
They also loved starting their transparency maps. Super fun for my map loving girls. They first draw their base map and each week they will add a new transparency map over the base to show how the boundaries of countries change with different wars, etc. Very cool.
The other big change was the type of literature read. The reading selections for my older girls were harder, and it took one of my daughters a bit of an adjustment to accept.
The biggest hurdle was the “planning” of the week with my kids. They had never made out their own schedule before. I had always done it for them. With this, we sit down together and plan out which books we will read, projects to be done, activities, etc and they write it in their own planners. I love this. It helps them take control and see how their week will look.
After lunch today we get to sit down and discuss all the interesting things we read. I’m really excited about this. It’s where I get to show the kids how God’s hand was in it all. It’s a time where they get to talk about the things they learned and really think about it! I can’t wait!
What about my oldest some of you may ask? No I haven’t left out my big guy. He’s a senior and his year is all set. Plus, he has asked me not to include him. He’s very private and I want to respect that. So that’s why I’m not going to be putting much about him on the blog. Although there is tons to talk about……Hopefully as he finishes his Eagle project he’ll let me talk about that!
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Excellent Audio Book Site!
| January 12, 2012 | Posted by Karen under Homeschool |
Today while on Pinterest I stumbled upon a fabulous audio book site called My Audio School! I just had to share! It has the option to sign up for an account for a full list, or you can use the free selection. The free selection is filled with excellent books. The link is to the Middle ages book selection, because that’s what we are studying. You have to go see all the audio selections. You’ll be amazed. So even if you don’t home school, you and your children will love the wide selection of classic literature to feed your mind.
Source: myaudioschool.com via Holly on Pinterest
After much decision and prayer, my kids and I wanted to try out a new curriculum. We had been using Sonlight for our History, Geography, and Literature. We love Sonlight, but we were feeling a bit frustrated with having to do 2 Cores and my son doing something completely different to fit his needs. We decided to try out Tapestry of Grace. What I like is that I can use it for all my children from grammar to high school. We all cover the same time period, but each child is assigned different books and activities according to their level. It is wonderfully laid out and organized. The teacher notes are excellent! Which is great, especially for people like me who got the typical sad public school history/literature.
We received our TOG books and the kids are dying to get started. We are starting out in the Middle Ages since that is where were in Sonlight, and will be studying history, literature, fine arts, government, philosophy and bible together. I saw several of the books we are going to be reading on the My Audio School website and that will be great for my youngest who struggles with Dysgraphia.
I can’t wait to share with you our journey as we try it out. I love how it all is Christ centered and points back to God’s hand in everything, thus the name Tapestry of Grace.
*Note I have not listened to all of the audio selections, and cannot verify each and every book on the audio site. The selections I have listened to were excellent though. Have fun listening!
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The Adventure of Getting a Homeschooler Ready For College
| January 6, 2012 | Posted by Karen under Homeschool |
Adventure would be an understatement for sure. I’m not sure who is learning more, my son or me! The past few weeks have definitely been a learning curve and I’m truly thankful for those who have paved the road ahead before me.
I thought it might be nice to share a bit of what I’ve learned:
- Starting the Freshman year, keep a detailed log of every book read for school, interesting projects, and extra curricular activities.
- Keep a detailed account of grades and how you graded each subject.
- Get active! A nice full “resume” really helps your student stand out when applying for those scholarships. Plays, joining sports teams, Boy Scouts, church activities, volunteer work, all contribute to a well rounded person.
- Start preparing for the ACT/SAT tests early. The higher the score the better!
- Start looking for and applying to scholarships as early as your Junior year.
My son just had an interview yesterday to apply for a full ride 4 year scholarship. He had to have a Scope and Sequence, which is a detailed list of all his school course work, every book read, etc. and activities through his high school career. He had to have a professional looking transcript, which I was able to do with great help from a free form at Patrick Henry College. They have several great helps for homeschooling families.
Doesn’t sound so bad, but I had not been a good girl and didn’t have all his Scope and Sequence ready to go…Can I go collapse now?
So those are just a few things I have learned on this graduating adventure. I’d love to hear your experience and tips too!
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Corn Maze Field Trip
| October 25, 2011 | Posted by Karen under Field trips, Homeschool |
A few weeks back our homeschool group took a field trip to an amazing corn maze. Each year the maze is in a different shape of an animal. To find your way out of the maze, there are mailboxes at various intersections and within is a question about the animal. Answer correctly and you know which way to go!
My team obviously didn’t know much about turtles……last again.
We went round and round and finally after what seemed like forever we escaped achieved victory!
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A Collection, an Experiment and Exhaustion?
| September 13, 2011 | Posted by Karen under Homeschool |
I woke up to a nice surprise today! My ruffled linen pink tote was featured on the front page in a collection on Artfire! The collection is titled “Hot Pink.” Okay, I’m done jumping up and down. Those things just get you excited every now and then and I had to share with my fellow sewists.
So, I’ve been a bit busy lately. Just started the second week of home school. And guess what? My schedule I had worked up in my head actually works! Whoohoo! It’s one thing to dream up this fantabulous schedule of all the things you want to do, and it’s a whole other thing to actually accomplish it.
Today, in Anatomy, Olivia looked at her “embalming” experiment on her apple she started last week. Super cool stuff. I’m telling you, Apologia science is simply amazing. She also made an edible cell out of jello and candy, since she started her study of cells. She absolutely loved doing that and is jumping up and down waiting for the “cell” to be done. I keep telling her it will never be done if she keeps opening the fridge every five minutes and she’ll never be able to eat the mitochondria or Golgi bodies!
Emmy and Lauren are sailing along great and love how everything is tying together. Emmy’s favorite thing is geography. We are memorizing geography facts along with our history and then we map them. Our goal is to be able to draw the maps of each region from memory at the end of the school year!
Poor Nate is consumed with his first online college class, English Composition and finishing up his Eagle project. He pretty much works from sunup to sundown. He’s exhausted, but this too shall pass.
Note how he has set up two monitors so he can multitask! He can write and research at the same time. Smartypants.
What else is happening at our house? I have been sewing like a mad woman trying to get a nice stockpile of items for my very first craft fair! I also have started a new collection to put in my shops. I can’t wait to show you all. I’m super excited about that. I just wish there were a few more hours in the day sometimes.
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Where in the World is Karen? Turning the House into "School"
| August 20, 2011 | Posted by Karen under Home projects, Homeschool |
Sorry I have been M.I.A. lately! It is that time of year again. The time my children run in fear from. It’s get the house ready for homeschooling time! Do you hear the groans of anguish from my children?
It all innocently started a couple of days ago when I mentioned I would like to rearrange the furniture. I got looks of fear instantly. I don’t know why…..
I then decided, “Wouldn’t it be fun to switch the furniture?? You know move the living room furniture into the family room??” From which load groanings commenced. And my very practical son says, “Why would you want to do that? It looks fine where it is.” I then put on my cheerleader voice and actively tried to convince the kids how great it would be. It did not work. I just don’t understand why they don’t want to move heavy furniture for fun??
Well, 3 days later, two large heavy couches, pinched fingers, squashed toes, one smashed face, several large chairs, lots of “things” and massive amounts of cleaning later we are ALMOST done. Whew.
“Wasn’t that fun?” ;0
Rearranging your furniture is a bit like starting an avalanche. At least in my house it is.
I have to say, now that my back has recovered and I can feel my toes again, I love the new look! It’s amazing what a little rearranging does for the ol’ house. First off I should explain, we have a “cozy” house. That’s code for small.
I even got my school area set up. This year we are using the dining room table as headquarters. Dan got me a huge sheet of tile board and put it on the wall for our white board. The kids already love that. It cost under $13!! We put up our maps; we’re studying world history this year. Organized folders, etc. etc. There is still a ton to be done, but I’m getting excited about a new year of learning.
I also turned my formal living room into my sewing studio/reading room. I even added an extra sewing desk for the girls. That’s so we don’t fight over who gets to sew! ha ha. I think it makes the living room more usable. It has a nice comfy couch for reading and relaxing. A cutting area, and two sewing stations.
Now my family room has my pretty living room furniture. It looks so different! I feel like I’m in a new house. Sort of…
Once I started homeschooling, I quickly realized it was way more important to have a “schooling” friendly house, instead of a showroom. So now we have a well-loved, well-used HOMEschool. I love it. Oh, and by the way, the kids all love it too.
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A Few Fun School Projects
| May 20, 2011 | Posted by Karen under Family fun, Homeschool |
One of the best things we ever did this year was to switch to Apologia science. Wow! Is an understatement. The whole approach is different. Instead of blasting kids with little bits of info on a ton of topics for half of the year, they dig deep and spend the whole year on a specific area of study. Olivia studied Creation with Botany. She used to dread science, but this year she did it all on her own with no prompting. She now loves science.
One of the experiments she had to do was to build a light hut out of a cardboard box. This was one of the first experiments. Then as the plants grew, the experiments dealt with her growing plants! So much fun. She made it entirely by herself! First she lined the box with foil. Then cut a hole in the top, cut a hole in a yogurt lid, then put in a light bulb.
From her plants, she’s made soaps, pressed flowers, dissected flowers, studied different types of leaves and seeds…. the list goes on and on. It’s so neat how the experiments all build on each other, linking all the information studied. It was so much fun. These plants all started from seed just a few weeks ago! They are going into our garden. Yummmm.
Who knew school could be so much fun!
Oh, some “fun” things her and Lauren also grew in the light hut were these cute sock grass people! They filled socks up with soil then sprinkled grass seed on top of the socks and watered. In a couple of weeks they had hair! In this picture, the girls trimmed their “hair” into wild styles for fun. Silly girls.
