Okay so here’s the long and short of it: I started off with a sewing blog about a year and half ago.  Then people started asking  me to sew things for them. This led to opening an Etsy shop. Over the course of the year, I never felt at peace about the name of my shop. It didn’t “fit” me. It was a name of my sewing blog, not a good name for my shop.

Then Etsy made the big decision of allowing shops to change their names! I was thrilled! No longer stuck with Sew Determined.

I knew immediately what my new shop name would be: Our Picket Fence. I’ve had a love affair with picket fences all my life! It fit perfectly.

Now comes the dilemma. You are supposed to have a blog, FB page, twitter, etc. all with the same name to help with Google searches, promotion, etc. Sigh. What to do? I already have an established Sew Determined name! So basically, I have decided to start over so to speak. Thankfully,  twitter allowed me to change my name without losing all my friends and followers. FB won’t allow you to change your FB page name if you have more than 100 followers. And the sewing blog? I feel like I have outgrown and limited myself with only being able to talk about sewing topics. Sewing for my shop has put a damper on my free time sewing projects. That leaves me not much to chat about.

Solutions:
1.Start a new blog where I can talk about everything near and dear to my heart and not feel guilty about not straying from the sewing topic. **Already did this! You can now find me over on blogger: Our Picket Fence the blog.  I really hope to see you over at my new stopping ground.

2.Start a new FB page eventually. Not really looking forward to that one. Took me forever it seems to get all those followers.

3. Change twitter name to Our Picket Fence.  ***Already did this too! That was the easiest. I  LOVE my twitter friends! They’re the best.

I wanted to thank everyone for being with me through this journey. I am having a wonderful time figuring out this crazy path I’m on.   I’ll be looking for you over at my new home! Come on over and sit a spell!

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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

viking long house

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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I’m going to enter to win! Thought I’d pass it along to my fellow craft-aholics. Maybe one of us might win!!

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And the funniest thing to me is, I have missed BOTH times! Didn’t even get to see my items there. They don’t stay there long, as the Etsy front page rotates. Too funny.

My hand painted “love” pillow was featured this time. I view it truly as an honor and appreciate all the love people have been showing my shop lately. Thanks!

Here’s the link to the gorgeous treasury that got me to the front page: J’Adore by Apple Daisies.

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piquantdesigns Now this just cracks me up! So funny.

miopupazzo She makes personalized wedding mixed media dolls. Super cute!

LaurieShanholtzer She paints beautiful artwork and personalizes it for you! Very sweet.

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Okay, I thought I was excited about making the Etsy kids front page, but I had an even bigger honor! My orange polka dot pup was featured on the front page of Etsy yesterday!! Exciting stuff. And guess what? I missed it! Didn’t even know! How’s that for funny.

Just had to share with my bloggy buddies.

So what else is new in my sewing world?  I’ve been coming up with a new line of items for my shop. I can’t tell you how much fun I am having in designing and sewing up new creations. It’s very fulfilling and rewarding.

Here’s a picture of my newest little friend. He’s a lamb made from felted wool and has old fashioned jointed legs.  He was so fun to make! He is now in my shop Our Picket Fence waiting for adoption.

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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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