Homeschool Blog

Creating Independence with a planner

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:36:35 -1000

Tapestry of Grace is the curriculum we are using this year, and we are really enjoying it. I needed a reliable way for the older two to figure out what they need to do and how to get it all done in the week. I also was struggling with where to keep everything, and how to organize it so that the work is easily accesible when needed, but also put away.
The Organized Student (shown at the left) has saved my sanity. In it, it suggests each student using a teacher’s style planner, rather than a timer, for assignments. INGENIOUS! Each week I print out the Tapestry of Grace Reading Assignements, Weekly Overview and the Work Pages. Austin and Nathan then go down through each section and figure out how they are going to get it all done in the allotted time. We have our discussion time set for Friday (which is a cool idea, I really love this discussion time), so they have up until Thursday to get everything done. You can see a picture of Nathan’s planner above - complete with color coding that matches his file systems, too. They also put other things in their planners. Things that will effect the school day, like on Thursday mornings we are out of the house form 8-noon... that gets written in the planner so they remember to not overschedule on Thursday. Also, any ‘after school’ activities are written into the bottom section of the planner - so they can remember those things, as well. For longer term assignments, we use coordinating colored sticky notes places at the top of the planner in the week when the assignment is due.
The planner flows seamlessly with their accordion folder that is used for the day to day work. The accordion folder has places for each subject’s work for the current unit. They have ONE notebook which is held inside the binder, and that notebook is used for everything. Then they tear out the page they wrote on and place it behind the appropriate subject’s tab. The notebooks we are using are simple legal pads. They are able to use as many sheets as is needed for a subject or assignment. This has also helped with the misplacing of notebooks and lost in progress work.
At the beginning of their week, all assignment sheets, reading lists, etc are placed in the front file so they can each schedule as they wish in the planners. Completed work goes behind another tab, and work in progress is placed behind a 3rd tab. By the end of the week, when we have our discussion time, the work to do file SHOULD be empty. The completed work is quickly gone over (things that need graded have already been graded as they were completed), and the completed checked work is placed in the proper file. Any work in progress is looked at, and is placed back in the work behind progress tab.
At the end of a unit (9 weeks for most of our subjects), the folder is cleaned out, some work samples are kept and filed in a working file at the kids’ desk. They each have a hanging file system, again color coded to match both the planner and the accordion folder.
I see a lot of value in this. Austin and Nathan are learning a lot about how much to schedule in a certain time. They have also discovered through trial and error that if they don’t follow through, then on our Friday discussion time, I get a little upset, they don’t have a clue what is going on, and they lose out on some activity so they can get caught up.
We are enjoying our year! Right now we are on week 16... almost half way done with our school year. I have never had a school year that I felt was THIS on track. I attribute that to the curriculum (can’t say enough good about Tapestry, it was written for us!), and also to the organization strategies I learned and put into practice from the book, The Organized Student.

Week 2 - Pharaohs and Pyramids

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:57:58 -1000

On the agenda for this week is some pretty interesting stuff. Austin and Nate will be publishing their second week’s worth of blog posts... and I am still trying to convince them that spell check is a GOOD thing. Once I check this week’s entries, I will post a link here so you all can see their hard work.
Yesterday I realized that most of our library books are past due. I went online to renew them, thinking they were due THIS Wednesday only to see that they were due LAST Wednesday. So, I can’t renew them online. This is what I get for putting off the start of school for 2 weeks. oops.
I gave Shawn his assignment this morning - to listen to the Dad’s CD and look at the question cards. My biggest goal for this year for the family is this: speak intelligently to one another. I hope that by giving them interesting things to talk about (ie Tapestry) then they might actually talk about something other than Pokemon, and also in words rather than grunts, groans and screams.
In order to do that, Dad needs to be on board, which is why I ordered the ‘Pop Quiz’ set from Tapestry. “What is Pop Quiz?” you ask? Well, Pop Quiz is a set of CD’s with about 15 minutes of background into what the kids are learning about in a given week. It is broken down into a summary section, which is an overview of what the whole family will be learning. It is further broken down into age/learning ranges. Adam and Lauren are in the grammar stage while Austin and Nate are firmly in the dialectic (or logic) stage, so Shawn will listen to those sections of the CD each week. In addition to the audio, he is provided weekly cards that have specific questions for the kids to answer. It should make dinner time conversation a little more interesting!
Although - one of the questions this week asks the kids how mummies are made... not sure that is good dinner talk!

Craft Day #1

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:06:24 -1000

One thing that I like about Tapestry is that it includes different craft ideas for different ages. There are a lot of ideas, and I am by NO MEANS ever going to do every one. But, this first week of school, I needed to figure out which crafts will work, and which won’t... and also which of the kids will actually enjoy it, and which ones will bail out on me half way through the activity.
I had the kids set up a 6’ table out on the front yard, in the shade. I put 3 crafts on there for them to do. One was a paddle doll. Lauren and our two little neighbor friends did that project. The little girls next door are 3 and 5.... and I was reminded why I really did not enjoy it when I substitute taught in the Kindergarten class. Cute, yes. But - just not my cup of tea. I am more of a middle school age kind of girl... kindergarten was pushing my limits seriously. :)

Austin, Nate, Adam and another one of our neighbor friends worked on making a pectoral. I don’t know who ever came up with this craft project, but I think they are whacked. Seriously. The book says it is geared to kids ages 9-12. ONE of my children was able to make it well, with time and patience... but the other two, um, not so much. Nathan took his time and even stopped and started over when he figured out a better way to do it. The project requires tons of taping, manipulating strips of cardstock, and then pouring... PLASTER OF PARIS! Of course, the outline of this figure (made with the taping of many strips of cardstock) has to be pressed into clay of some sort so the plaster won’t just leak out the bottom of the figure. Let’s just say, that should have been the project to pass. Not sure I will be using plaster of paris for anything like this ever again. Lesson learned.

I still have one more craft ready for the kids to do. It’s painting a ‘throwing stick’. Not sure if my children need more incentive to throw items as weapons.

Please leave me a message, I’d love to hear from you!

The First Day

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:21:43 -1000

This is a little pictorial of how our first day has gone...

Adam (9, 4th grade)...

Lauren (7, 3rd grade)...

Nathan (11, 6th grade) Austin (13, 7th grade)...

First we read about what the plan is for the week...

Adam and Lauren did some map work...

Notice the heart over Ethiopia on Lauren’s map....

Austin looked up definitions....

The dangers of scented markers...
(mmmm, lime)

Lauren did spelling (so did Nate and Adam)...

Adam went to the livingroom to read a couple of chapters...

And they are still working. :) A good start to a wonderful year of learning!

Mitchell Academy of Order and Chaos is now in session!

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:18:49 -1000

The scene is set. I look ready to the untrained eye. I have a neatly set table, ready for working. There are boxes of files - files filled with meaningful work. A large baskets holds books that will be needed for our first 9 weeks session. So, I look ready!
Why are we starting our school year before the middle of July? Well... the answer is this - so we can take breaks and not feel guilty. This coming school year has much in store that could possibly mess up a typical school year schedule. Shawn and I both are having surgery - most likely in August (his is set, mine isn’t yet). I am praying that I will be able to travel to Ethiopia in November or December to pick up our baby girl (read our adoption blog to find out more about that!). Shawn will be going to California to the National Training Center in February of March for something like 4-6 weeks. Soon after returning he will be on leave for about 4 weeks, block leave, in preparation for a June deployment back to Iraq. Sooo.... as you can see, a typical school year just would NOT work for our family this year - nor any other year as recent years have shown me.

Set down the middle of our table (which I absolutely love for our larger family, btw!) are multiple glass jars filled with school supplies. This year I broke down and bought new supplies, rather than reusing old markers and crayons. I plan on adding some pretty ribbon to the jars, but didn’t think about it in time to get that done before this morning. Some things that the jars hold: Crayola washable markers, Crayola colored pencils, scissors (I even got a couple new pair of larger ones, my big boys are getting too big for the little school scissors), dry erase markers w/eraser, pens (we LOVE the Pilot G-2, I got a large pkg of black and another pkg of assorted colors - the reds ones are ALL MINE!), clickable Sharpies in assorted colors, highlighters, assorted paperclips (some are shaped like a thumbs up! cool), and some laminated reusable ‘sticky notes’. On the bar that runs along the one side of the table I homed the laminator, papercutter, 3 hole punch, and other assorted supplies.

Under the bar area we have the baskets and crates. The basket holds all of the books we will be using for the time-being. We have lots of library books in here, too. The top green crate is MY crate of files - the bottom is extra supplies. Behind the green crates are 4 black crates with folders. Each child has a crate with 12 folders. I had planned on filling each of these folders every day - but I am not sure that is really realistic at all.

Our basket o books. This is most of the books we will be using for Tapestry. The Grammar Grabbers books are for Austin and Nathan.

This is inside my green crate. Nine weeks wroth of files are here for each child. I think I am going to have things to add along the way, but most of it is done. Tapestry has a student guide for each week which includes questions for the students. I took many of those questions, and made worksheets/activity guides for my kids. I really am trying to figure out ways to help my kids LEARN the material this year, rather than just listen and regurgitate. I put a lot of thought into everything that went into these file folders, seriously considering whether it was busy work or meaningful, helping them learn work. If it was busy work - there is no need... there is always enough housework to do if they need busy work. And believe me, there is PLENTY of work that is meaningful in helping them gain an understanding of the materials, and in creative ways. For instance - my older boys will have blog assignments every week. I will link to them once they publish their blogs.

This is the last part of the homeschool room I want to show you. We have the whiteboards for each kid - ok, 2 of them share the larger ones. The whiteboard calendar is in the middle - topped with the all important clock. Below the calendar is MY whiteboard and corkboard. I have already posted the activities we can choose to do this week and also instructions for a dice game I used to play with my Grandma Shamp, called Ten Thousand.
I’m really anxious to get this school year off to a good start. Lauren has been up since about 6 am, and she’s been helping me get everything prepared this morning. Yesterday she insisted that she was NOT going to be doing ANY type of school work today... so her helping is a bit of a surprise to me. A good one, though.
It’s now just after 8 am. Lauren and Adam are eating breakfast with Shawn, Nathan is in the shower, and Austin is just getting up and around. We will be sitting down at the table around 9.
WISH US LUCK!

The Plan

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 18:28:07 -1000

Our school year will begin on Monday. Yes, Monday. As in 4 days from now. I think I am about 80% ready. I hope that by Monday I will be 99% ready. Being 100% ready is just not realistic, and I know that all too well. I thought I would post a couple blog posts before we start our school year that detail some of the preparations for the year.
All four children will be home this year, again. Departing from last year’s plan (using K12 on 4 levels is NOT a good idea, btw), we dove in and purchased Tapestry of Grace. We’re starting at the very beginning (a very good place to start...) with the ancients. I have hemmed and hawed about buying ToG for a couple of years. It seemed so expensive. It seemed so confusing. It seemed really confusing.
In the spring (right around tax return time), I came to the realization that I needed to find something that would allow our family to learn together. All of us really felt the need to be together learning. We knew that had to be top priority. I also knew that I needed something that addressed different learning levels. I have 2 kids who are solidly in grammar stage, and 2 who are entering/in dialectic. Grammar stage teaching came easy to me, but this new territory, this dialectic stage is new stuff - and I really didn’t realize how different the brains work! It’s amazing and scary all at the same time. Another requirement for me was it needed to be Bible based. I really never thought I would say that, but I have been feeling a strong need for a curriculum that incorporates the Bible - using lessons, complete with references. What we chose also needed to keep the kids’ interest, and be a whole lot more than reading and writing. Learning needed to be multi-sensory and multi-disciplined. And the most important requirement was that it be flexible yet planned out.
So, after much thought and prayer and searching - it was Tapestry of Grace. I included their writing program, because it’s fully intertwined with the suggested readings and it is thorough.
Tapestry will cover the following: History, Bible, Geography, Writing, Literature, Fine Arts.
To round out the schooling, I have needed to find Math, Science, Grammar and Handwriting.
Math. Nathan and Lauren will both be working online with Stanford University’s EPGY program (Education Program for Gifted Youth). Austin will start pre-Algebra this year using Life of Fred books. Adam will be reviewing multiple digit multiplication and division, then starting the Life of Fred series.
Science. All of us will be going through Jeannie Fulbright’s Exploring Creation with Zoology 2:Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. The boys will also be dissecting! Austin and Nate will be working through another book for middle school students,
Grammar. I’m still not sure what I am going to do. Decisions, decisions.
Handwriting. All but Austin will be practicing handwriting with Handwriting Without Tears.
In my next post, I plan to show you pictures of our homeschool areas, and our planning. We’re using a very very modified version of workboxes - using file folders for the work pages. I’ll probably do a whole post about workboxes and what we think will work for our family in the space we live.
Til next time!