oopsies accidentally deleted post 3 for the Not Back to School blog hop

well if you're looking for it-it is gone and I dunno how to get it back...but that is OK, it was just showing my students and that one wasn't getting the hits like the classroom area and the curriculum choices...so I won't bother redoing it.

Sure hope your new school session is going well...once I get things settled down I will try to get a post for ya .  Until then-happy schooling.

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Week 4 - A Day in the Life

This is the hardest post to write for the Blog Hop.  Honestly, each day around here is usually different than the one before or the one yet to come. When the kids were little, we did our best to maintain a regular schedule but since they became teens/adults (say for our youngest), that went out the door.  And since my husband travels for at least 12-14 days per month-things can get nutty. Sometimes when we can, we'll tag along with him and car/hotel school.  We have to be very flexible and we have been doing this for so long that it is second nature to us now. Generally I shoot for the basics and get ecstatic when we go beyond that.

My general schedule:

This is to be read in a somewhat joking manner as I truly love being a mom and having the privilege of being their main educator. It is truly a blessing and one I wouldn't trade for the world...but you have to have humor when you homeschool, so here you go...

-Spring out of bed all chipper and ready to tackle the world (boy do I wish. Sometimes I pray for a 'school closing' [and actually call one when need be] and at times I get up hoping that it is the FUN DAY I have some great situation/field trip planned that will whisk us off our 'normal' and refresh us with a "Wow that Awesome!" kind of a moment." Otherwise, I will trudge head downstairs then

-Check my mail/FB and other 'puter things (I can do this in 15 mins or less usually) and slug back a cup of coffee to start my morn.

-Stuff workboxes (if I haven't done that the nite before) and look over the general plan to see if I need to have any other supplies, books, etc. ready to go for the day's lessons.

-Eat breakfast (I need to wait for a bit before eating due to the thyroid med I take) and pray.  Yes-gotta pray people-I am telling you our days go so much more smoothly and without as much 'drama' if I pray for willing/content/right-hearted students and for me to not want to run away...so that requires patience, love, kindness and fortitude.

-Ring the bell (aka: in mom talk that means to shout out to the kids upstairs to get moving and get down to start). This indicates it is time to get up, take care of personal biz, eat and be all excited and ready to tackle the day's schedule.

-Once we have settled, we do a morning prayer, then we start up.  The workboxes are a life saver here because they can start on their work immediately and I don't have to have my brains explode trying to answer a zillion questions in regard to what they are suppose to be doing. Helpful hint: I put the stuff in the first two totes that can be done without my help so that I can gather my marbles together before I start losing them.

-Then I work with the student who needs direct instruction first to get them started to I can move to the other one(s) on a rotating basis. OK this will be different this year. I will only have the boy-so I guess my rotating days have come to an end...for now.

-End whatever we're doing by lunch and feed the troops (who can really do this themselves) and this is where I try to catch up with the hubby (when he is home) or I just 'zone out' for a bit (usually means getting some chores done or checking the 'puter or hiding away in my room for a moment of solitude).

-Wrap up whatever we didn't get done in the morn right after lunch so that the majority of the afternoon is 'free time'.  Especially since I need time to work on some projects that need to be completed (scrapbooking/sewing/creating material for the boy to use for learning, or for writing blog posts such as this.) Weather permitting, I have the kids get outside or go do something (like bike).  This is a very Charlotte Mason moment.  One I love and will cling to with all my might.  All of it people-unless I need them to get some cleaning done or assist me with some project-then they are called to duty first.

-Declutter school area/any project areas and set up workboxes/material for next day (if I am not doing errands or have other things to attend to). My main goal this year is to definitely have this done each afternoon.

For the Student

We're using the Heart of Dakota study this year, so it is pretty much laid out for us.  I just have to decided the order we want to tackle the material and to avoid boredom or burn-out I try to vary the order a bit a few times per week.

One thing I found is that the study has science almost 4x per week and that is just too much.  I feel like I am rushing thru the material and he is not getting the main gist of it. SO, I am moving it back to what I have always done and we find best suits us-2x per week only. This is a general listing of what I like to get completed:

Math: 4-5x per week

Science: 2x per week

Language Arts: HW 2x per week, reading 5x per week, copywork (depends) but usually 2-3x per week,  dictation 1-2x per week, notebooking (depends) but usually 2-3 per week. LLATL-prob'ly 3x per week depending on what the lesson requires and our schedule.

Bible: 5x per week

History:  4x per week

Fine Arts: 1-2x per week for Great Artist study. 1x per week for Great Musician study [these fall under a 6 week long study].  Varies on art activities which are based on what is going on with the history/science studies. Nature study depends on the weather and my motivation-goal for this year at least 1x per week.

Lapbooking:  1 per semester. This is usually an on-going process related to the science or history. At times, I also will add a shorter lapbook study in sometime during the semester, if the boy asks for a particular one.

No foreign language this year (at least not this first semester) because he needs to get more fluent in his reading which is our main goal for the year.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you around this year! Blessings for a great new school adventure!

You can link up to the blog hop here:

Not Back to School Blog Hop - Week 2 - School Room area

Week 2: The Education room
First I need to point out something-I have been (officially) homeschooling about 18 years now and well-you have to understand-this is a process [getting a room like this] and in no way, shape or form did we always have an area solely dedicated to our schooling stuff.  We usually (depending on where we lived) just had totes with books crammed in them, stuffed where ever I could tuck them and a few little book shelves with the current material on them.  We worked at the dining room table, the couch, the floor, their bedrooms (usually on their beds), out on the deck or even up in the play structure's loft area (oh how I miss that thing as we moved and gave it away).  It is not about where you homeschool, it is about homeschooling period. Keep that in mind as you go thru all the wonderful posts and pictures from other homeschooling fams. Everyone has different budgets, and space to dedicate to this stuff.  Remember that whatever works for you and your family is all that matters.  

Links for each week

As for us this year-we are down to one student. So I have not made too many changes since last year-say for rearranging a desk and putting the workboxes closer together.  I have to get the rain gutter book shelves up (still have to get the supplies) to go over where the workboxes area and then I am calling it quits.

And yes-I cleaned the room prior to taking pictures

-it never looks this tidy-ever 

(outside of this photo shoot).  

 View looking directly in (this is the 'library/office' area of the house)-you see right upon entering so I try my best to keep it cleanish and all-but honestly, we are busy learning and that can get messy...

I have the desk that backs up to the white board. I also have two totes loaded with the main books/supplies I will need (to carry out his education this semester) sitting on the window area by my desk for easy access.  Obviously, a lot of it will go into the workboxes but I need a 'home' for those so I can keep track of them. The other desk will be a 'carry over' spot and right now I have the (SL) laminated map there for him to write on as we go thru our world geography.

Finally got the rain gutter shelves up. This is one 10' piece cut into 2. I only put 2 holders per length [not cheap] and have it so they are in somewhat from the edges-so I will only put lighter books on the ends to keep from stressing the shelves out.  The kids keep laughing at me about these [which is their humor and I am not taking it personally and neither are the shelves]. They say if we ever need a spare gutter they know where to go, or if it starts to rain in the house they can grab these to help...but honestly, I don't think they look goofy or cheesy and they hold a lot of books, so I am quite pleased with the results.

And that is our school room area.  We still migrate to the kitchen for science and art projects and the couch serves our main area for the much of the history and bible lessons-so we do some work here and move around during the day.

Not Back to School Blog Hop -week 1- Curriculum choice

Not Back to School Blog Hop link up

Curriculum Picks:  2012 

Approx. 5th/6th grade 

on most stuff for our son
(our last student of 4-first time in
 over 18 yrs to have only one student!)

We are continuing on with the Heart of Dakota: Creation to Christ program that we started this past spring. We made it to week 8, so we'll do a quick review the first week, then move on to week nine's lessons.  I have several posts referring to our experience up to about week 6 so you can check those out too, if you'd like.  I have those links at the bottom for ya.  

HOD C to C covers his science, history, geography and Bible.  I chose to do my own math, Lang. Arts and writing programs over what is listed. Well I will use a bit of the writing b/cuz I have the material from reviewing it a few years back but he simply is not ready for much of this....

Math is a mix up this year, as he'll wrap up his Abeka 4th grade math and then most likely I will switch him into the Saxon 54 that I have or I may be able to put him in the 65-I will know once we get to that point.  It all depends on his progress.  This age is tough because I do not want to skip over the building blocks for the higher math-just to say we're at a certain grade level.  I want to be sure he knows those basics inside and out before moving on. 

Language Arts Mix and Match:  I am doing a mix of a couple things for his lang. arts this year.  I usually hold off on formal lang. arts until the reading skills are sufficient but due to my son's dyslexia, we're a bit behind.  He will still be working on his reading comprehension and fluency (we'll prob'ly keep using the Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading level 1 flash cards and word lists until he has a much better recall of what the sounds are). Anyway, we'll be using these goodies (and I may be able to jump him into the purple after we touch upon some of the subject matter in the orange) for his lang. arts-

Learning Language Arts Through Literature-Orange, 

Italic Handwriting D* and  Italic Handwriting F**
*linked to my Amazon Affiliate link

Additional goodies:

Keeping with our Charlotte Mason methods-we'll also being doing Nature Study (using all the guides/books I have already), hopefully 2 artists and 2 great musician studies (we need to do Renoir because we simply didn't get to him last semester, still undecided about the other artist), and I haven't figured out the composers yet but will probably do Brahms and Mozart because I have the material sitting on the shelf and am trying to not buy more than I have to. 

Science is covered in the HOD study, and originally he didn't want to cover the human body, but I am going to go ahead and cover what the study does. In addition to the Apologia Land Animals (set with ST and NTBK) study, we'll continue using the rest of the snippets from the Considering God's Creation workbook (notebooking pages and some mini-lapbook components) to add in some hands-on activities which relate to the critters (and I have some things I have made which will also be another post down the road).  I will also use the Great Science Adventure Human Body and Senses to create a nice lapbook to go with the human body study.

  

Considering God's Creation image from Eagle's Wings Website

for typing skills-I am pulling this off the shelf for him to use.

Dr. Fry's Computer Keyboarding

Copywork will be a part of the LLATL and poetry from the HOD study but I will also have him work on the 

Nature lessons for Copywork

(which obviously will be a part of his NS)

Extra Geography:

the states are done, so we're moving to world geo

I revamped the geography center board from the states material to world continents/countries. We'll be starting in Asia/Europe due to the connection with the HOD C to C curriculum.  The science work I made to match the animals of the world will also be a part of this since it requires placing critters on the continents they are most usually found (I hope to have the specifics are posted on my What's in the Box? blog soon but the geo board post is up)....and BTW, I have oodles of ideas and other links on this blog-you don't need to be a workboxing fam to use these ideas....:)

OK, well this is really long.  I will do more posts on what we're using as the year progresses.  Here is the link to the 3 other HOD posts for those who are interested.

Links to all three of them

Thanks for stopping by!

**And yes, some of the links are affiliate links to Amazon.  Not all are.  Anytime you purchase thru our affiliate link-we earn a wee bit and will take that $ and donate it to an orphan/their forever family. Thanks.

   

     

          

Sonlight VS Beautiful Feet and another option tossed in for good measure

Amy asks:
Hi Sheri, I have twin 12 yr. old girls and am undecided between Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere core (which has been overhauled this year) and Beautiful Feet (probably the Medieval Period). I just stumbled on BF. Seeing that you've done both, do you have a suggestion? 

Here are the programs she is asking about:


Sonlight Core F: Eastern Hemisphere*

(image from Sonlight website)

Core F: 3 Wk Sample request page

*I am basing my opinion on the older version that I own.

The updated one offers 3 weeks to look over and appears to easier 

to read/use.  I won't have access to the updated version until late June when

it is available. Please keep this in mind when pondering this info.

VS

Medieval BFB History Guide *    

(image from BFBooks website)

Sample pages can be seen by scrolling 

thru the cover image on that page.

*I do not have the updated version so all of my opinions are

based on the old one but by looking thru the samples,

I see they have vastly improved the look/layout and

it is much more appealing to the user

And just for giggles-let's toss into the bunch the 

Heart of Dakota Resurrection to Reformation  or the HOD Revival to Revolution *

   

(images from Heart of Dakota website)

*I have not used either of these two guides, but am currently using the

HOD Creation to Christ one. The layout is the same, the subjects 

covered are the core plus a few extra just like the C to C guide.

I tossed these two in because they hit the era that you mentioned

you'd be interested in for the Beautiful Feet choice. On each page

with the description you can download a sample of the pages for a

better look at what they offer.

There are obviously many more history program choices, but the reader asked specifically about the SL or the BFB so that is why I am focusing on them.  I added the HOD because the layout and coverage is quite similar.  Remember, it all depends on what best suits your family and their current interests. We use them all-mostly because of the eras they touch on and sometimes due to the amount of time I have to put into preparing the material and teaching it.  

Factors to consider:

*The era you want most to cover 

*The manner in which your child(ren) best learn

*Literature vs textbook or unit learning-which best fits your family's style and preference

*Your pocket book-these can be spency unless you do what I do (I will write another post on how to save money on books later)

*Your life right now-is is crazy busy?  New baby?  Family situations that are demanding more time that usual?  A recent or soon to be move?  Any big events that can change the amount of time you have to invest in the planning/gathering and subsequent tutelage of it to your student(s) should be taken into consideration so that you choose a program that is easiest for you and your students to work through without causing undue stress and possible burn-out (for/in you or your students)

Now that you have pondered those factors-you can turn your attention to the program's strengths and weaknesses.  Mind you-this is my opinion and experience noted from this point on.  What worked for us may not for you and vice versa. You ultimately need to decide on what you know will work, take a bit of a risk to test something you never have tried before and just roll with it.  Some of the programs I thought would never hold my kids' attentions or work for them-did. Others I thought were just "perfect" for us went over like a lead balloon.  The nice thing about the above programs is they all hold good resale value and some even offer money back guarantees....so take it with a grain of salt and for those who believe in this-PRAY about it first.  It will make a huge difference in how things go.

They are all good programs in their own right.  All use literature as the foundation of the program and all have some type of layout to follow (which remember-you do not need to do everything!).  All adequately cover an era/time frame so that the child will have a good grasp of basic history in those areas.  Some include additional subjects already figured out in the plan (math, science, lang. arts, writing, etc.) others have a bit of it and some only offer the history with some vocab/writing assignments (BFBooks).  It all depends on what you need and are looking for.  I strongly suggest going over each site and reading through all their information to get a better grasp of what they offer. I also strongly suggest downloading the samples, and asking your dear daughters to look over it too so they can see which program best matches what they like.

Here is the chart you can go over. It is not extensive in all areas-but a brief (personal) overview of them.  I am basing this on my guides and how they worked for us. Right now we are using HOD's Creation to Christ program so I am basing the info on what I see on the site and what we have experienced by using the C to C guide.  I hope this helps by offering some 'real world' opinion/advice.

Odds and Ends

We wrapped up another unit in the HOD Creation to Christ study.  So far, so good-the boy seems to like it.

We have done a few projects covering poetry (which I am sadly not real keen on-I dunno why poetry is not my thing but it isn't).  Thankfully, HOD's C to C covers Robert Frost who is one of my favorite poets (well just about only poet I truly like) so I am glad we're covering him. We have done a couple copywork lessons from some of his poems, to which my son is required to paint a page to paste it one.  The boy has done this without complaint and that makes me happy b/cuz he is not really my artsy child. Now personally, I would like to see some variance on the techniques and mediums used for these projects (but seeing how we've only done 2 of these I can guess I have to wait and see if other ones change up a bit) because too many similar styles will lead to boredom and I don't want that for my son...so I will get back to you on that...but here are the two we did...

The glare from the flash makes it hard to read...but the goal was accomplished.  Those are suppose to be sticks in a stream (blue one) b/cuz the poem talks about cleaning one out.

Maybe we should have glued a bunch of sticks on it instead to give it a more realistic feel...maybe we will still do that. :)

In the history section, we have had a project involving salt dough.  Now thankfully, this recipe didn't require baking it (you can read my salt dough fiasco post here) so that was good. What we failed to do is read ahead and clarify the directions because we messed up a bit.  But hey-that is what makes it truly our project!  LOL...

So we were suppose to make a cylinder shaped thing that had our names on it in Cuneiform. What we misread/misunderstood was that it was suppose to be in reverse relief. That means that whatever we wanted to have impress images onto something else, we had to cut away from to make those images stand out-we did the opposite instead. Our cylinders are marked into and cannot leave an impression. 

these are kind of blurry but I tried to get close so you can see the Cuneiform writing on them.

Son's on left, mine on right.   

The Cuneiform cylinders on left, building on right

We also had extra dough (yes, there is a story for this too). Now I should have read ahead to see what we'd be doing with it, but the boy was enamored with brick building parts of the stories we were reading and begged to make his own. So we did.  We got quite a few and then once they were dry, he created a small foundation of a building (like we'd find in an area of ruins)...we glued them together with flour/water paste and he happily built an old house.  What we were suppose to make was a clay tablet with writing and then use our cylinders to impress our name stamp on (like they would have done back then). So again-we proved ourselves to be rebels.  

View from the side, you can see the "mortar" that was used to hold these together. It is kind of fragile but I have a picture of it now, so if it collapses or ends up in the trash [which it will], I still have a photographic record of it. Helpful tip: taking pictures of all those projects your kids make is easier to store and keep than actually holding on to every single thing they create. Save the best ones and take a pic of the rest.

That said [that we're rebels], it also is my point. We took something and made it more personal to us (my son had much more fun and learned more by creating his project than if he had done the one assigned)...and since the brick making/building went hand in hand with what we had been reading about (tower of Babel, jobs of some people, etc.) I let him do it. That is the beauty of homeschooling-the project fit him, not the other way around. Years ago I would not have dared to overstep the guide's assignment. I am so over that now because life has taught me to adjust, personalize and focus on the child's learning style/interest, not what any particular lesson/program says they should/must complete. We learned, we laughed and we didn't burn any projects. Life is good.

Dinosaurs study for HOD Creation to Christ study

So as a part of the Creation to Christ curriculum, dinosaurs are studied. But not as in depth [of a study] as I want-so I am adding in some goodies for the boy and we'll just mosey along at our speed covering a bit here and there from the resources and activities I have, as well as the study in the guide.

I was looking through my shelves and found most of what I was searching for.  I have to hit the stash in the basement for a couple books (including the dinosaur joke book my hubby had as a kid) but for the most part,  I will use what is shown in this picture.  I am sure I will add a few more notebooking/lapbook components as we go through the unit but this is a good start.

I was just drifting off to sleep the other nite when my brain snapped on and reminded me that I had a set of dinosaur pictures [bulletin board set] that I bought eons ago when the two older kids were very young.  I have not covered the dinos like I have had wanted to with the boy, so I am excited for this unit.  He has always enjoyed dinosaurs (those Jurassic Park movies are on his top 10 list-even tho they are gross) so this should be fun!

We have very, very limited wall space in the education room, so I had to put these puppies up on the entrance walls [which is kind of angled, hence the two pictures to show all of them].  This spot is actually good b/cuz the boy sits so he can look up at them, at any time.  I DID NOT put the evolutionist time line up-what I want to do is put up a couple note cards highlighting a few Bible verses that mention the leviathan.  The little people are to show the scale (although this is far from being accurate) of the dinosaurs to humans.

Resources:

Answers in Genesis Magazine (love this site)

(you can get the Answers books there too)

Dinosaur notebooking pages

Lapbook components from Homeschool Share

the other books I probably got from Amazon

I have no idea where I got the dino bulletin board set-

it would have been from a teacher's store/catalog

The Adventures in Science: Dinosaurs booklet is 

probably out of print-it came in a group of activity books

 that I also bought years ago.  It has a bunch 

of activity pages and such...so I will just pick and choose

 what we want to do.

OH YEAH!  I just remembered I have the 

Dinosaur and Things Game by Aristoplay!

I bought this when my oldest was about 4/5 yrs old!  By the looks of the box, you can tell it's been played with a lot!  :)  Even tho the boy is on the outer age limit noted on the box, we'll still play but be sure to add those question cards to make it a bit more difficult. And yes, we know this shows millions of years as the dates-we simply ignore them.  

Heart of Dakota: Creation to Christ curriculum for the boy

So after much deliberation, examination, ponder-ation, and prayer-ation:  I took the leap and bought the guide to use with the boy.  We have been skimming along with history this year because we simply didn't have the cashola before the start of this school year to purchase much material.  So we made do. Which is totally acceptable, esp. when I have a boat load of books on the shelves. We wrapped up a few snippets of American history from our previous study...but it didn't last long.  So we've been lacking in that subject for him for the most part! Ouch!  That is not acceptable for this history loving mama!  So I debated. I am was sadly devoid of early/beginning times to ancient civilizations for my elementary age kids (well now it is just one kid) and so I wanted to find something-something that would hit that era with good coverage but not be so in depth or overwhelming that he'd run in fear every time we did our history lessons.

image from Heart of Dakota

So after reading my good friend Lynn's 4 posts on the Heart of Dakota curriculum....and after all those "ation" thoughts noted above...I felt good about purchasing the guide which covers creation to Christ.  I already have most of the books needed on my shelves or in my 'puter (as eBooks) so it wasn't hard to make the final decision.

Anyway-I received the guide today and I will start to get a handle on what I need to do [read thru it to figure it all out], wait for a couple books I had to order and get him started in another week or so.  We'll just keep on with it until it is done (probably sometime next spring).

I do love how the Charlotte Mason style is integrated into the whole enchilada.  With HOD (Heart of Dakota) the plans cover Bible, History, Science, Lang. Arts, Narration, Copywork, and she has math (Singapore) scheduled in it too.  I use Abeka math for the younger years, so (as noted in the guide) we'll do our own thing.  I will also throw in a bit of my own ideas/plans for lang. art stuff (I am not using their Reading Program) and am changing the science up a tad (he doesn't want to cover the human body so I will do a more in depth study of dinosaurs since we haven't really had the time to do that. I may be able to toss in a bit of the human body stuff later).

What is missing is the study of great artists/musicians and nature study.  So maybe when I get some time I will write a complimentary guide to go with it on those very things :) But that is OK, I do my own thing with those anyway and I enjoy coming up with my plans for it. Actually, I have decided to continue on with the Impressionist artists and plan on adding in a bit of a mini-study on Egyptian art and poss. Roman/Greek art too. The musician has yet to be determined, and nature study is always a breeze to include.

So there you have it-our new way of doing things for the boy this year and next.  I will try to post some updates as we move through it but until then, take a look see at what my pal Lynn wrote (some great, thorough posts) about HOD.

(about the Preparing Hearts for His Glory but the layout is the same for the other guides and it gives you a good glimpse of what the goal/layout is)

From my pal, Lynn's blog:  Ladybug Chronicles

Post 1: Lang. Arts

Post 2: Science

Part 3: History

Part 4: Poetry and Bible

Medieval History

So we are doing a condensed version of Beautiful Feet Book's Medieval History (but I have the older teacher guide that has the younger guide section [grade 6-8] and the high school combined in it-they now sell them separately).

image from Beautiful Feet Books

Anyhoo, we're just picking and choosing the books we want to cover so we can wrap this up asap.  My teen sort of did the Medieval era a couple years ago but didn't finish it-so since she had no other history program she was working on...we decided to pull this off the shelf and do a quick wrap up of it.

We chose to just watch the A and E version (2 disks, at about 2.5 hours each) of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.  It was not too shabby.  We simply didn't have the time to read it all and we kinda touched on it prior, so it was just an intro to the study and a mini-refresher.

Then we moved right into Marco Polo (completed just yesterday) and are working through the huge The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter.  I am reading this aloud (so even the 10 yr old is hearing this story) and all I ask is that she listen (and pay attention) whilst I do so.  My dd will simply narrate back a bit of it so I am sure she gets it (and believe you me...uh, this woman [Jane Porter] was long-winded in some of her sentences so it is easy to start drifting off).  Fun fact: the Braveheart movie was spawned from her book/story line.

Anyhoo-it is taking some time to read through but I must say that the way this was written only confirms my feelings about having good literature for our kids to read-it is a must.  I wish I would have marked some of the lines that just jumped out at me because they were so eloquent and lively. We were able to imagine ourselves there with the characters and could "see" what she was describing.  Most of the junk on the market is completely devoid of such things...but alas-I digress.....

Scottish Cheifs*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate link

It is easy with the BFB study guides to pick and choose and still walk away with a decent understanding of the era you are studying.  Even when in a pinch like we are. :)  So if you are looking for a different history program, I have always touted and will continue to do so, the Beautiful Feet Books line.  I have used them pretty much since we started homeschooling and have thoroughly enjoyed them with the kiddos.  It fits the literature/CM way to educate. The emphasis is mostly on American history but there are the Medieval and Ancient study guides too.  Lots to look at on their site-I recommend heading there to see for yourself. :) 

Before you think I am a total devotee-let me just say-I have also used Bright Ideas Press (All Am. History, which was a review item and my teen loved), and Sonlight (Eastern Hemisphere and 20th Century World).  We will be venturing into the Heart of Dakota (Creation to Christ) for my 10 yr old as soon as I order it and have a chance to go through the guide to get acquainted with it.  

It is all about using what fits our needs, the era we want to cover, and changing it up a bit to stave off boredom.  :)  

Hope this gives you some history program ideas!  Feel free to ask questions about the above curriculum (except HOD b/cuz we haven't started using it so I am new to it)....I will do my best to answer them before you make a purchase for your family :).

It's all about Emma

Emma by Jane Austen that is.  So my teen is mid-way through the book (which I love) and I have discovered some interesting things and thought I would share them with you.

Emma (Fourth Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate link

1. When a teen balks at a reading assignment-say because it is not an era nor anything they thought would be "interesting"-persevere.  I wasn't expecting my teen to go all Jane Austen nutty on me, but I had hoped she would at least walk away with a broader sense of what good literature is, and perhaps a wee bit of "love" for Jane's writing style.  I wouldn't back down when the initial complaints started and I very glad I didn't. [I will get back to this in a moment]

2.  Austen's writing is still touching her audience generations later.

3.  There is something to be said about well-structured sentences, and delightful circumstances in one's writing that instantly draws you into the story and the time period. [and no I do not pen my blog posts like I would if I were writing a paper, etc.]

LLATL-Gold Brit Lit*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate Link

 Our oldest daughter loves, loves Jane Austen. In fact (this may sound odd to many) but she requested all the novels for her birthday last year (and she is 23)...she also read Emma in her literature class (I used the Gold Learning Language Arts Through Literature series) which I am betting started her love for Austen's writings.  Well that and the Wishbone episode where they did Pride and Prejudice (which is adorable-I miss that show. We watched it regularly and the kids were first exposed to Austen way back then)....anyway,  my heart is overjoyed to see my children actually want and request these "antiquities" because it points out the fruit of feeding our children good literature during their school years.

I am against giving children junky, poorly written, twaddle-type books (mind you I am not talking children's books that delight, or having a few fluffy pieces here and there. I mean for their main diet in their education, I am not a super purest but I do feel care should be taken in keeping the main course to good literature).

What is alarming to me is the destructive thought of "who cares what they read, as long as they are reading" which plagues the educational realm so much today. It does matter! The decline of our nation's children in regard to the exposure and knowledge of excellent literature is alarming and has great consequences-some of which are already rearing their ugly heads (have you looked over the national test scores lately?). I am speaking generally, as there are always exceptions within the PS/PS setting. Sadly too, even some homeschool families fall victim to this thought.  But if students are [continually] reading the hastily penned books that contain nothing more than "dumbed-down" sentence structure, poor grammar, weak plots [or no plot] and so forth-then more likely, that is how they will write and express themselves. They will be devoid of the skill because they have not had a solid foundation laid for them.  Charlotte Mason has a lot to say about this very subject-and I strongly urge folks to take the time to read her thoughts, and books from others who have studied Charlotte and her methods.  Even if you choose to not incorporate much of her style into your educational plan-this is one area that you should strongly consider adopting.

image from Wikipedia.com

That said-and back to what I mentioned in #1-my dear daughter has now been drawn into the world of Miss Austen. She delights in narrating to me the happenings of Emma and has even picked up a couple lines to toss around in every day life ("Badly done Emma." is one of them. When someone does something in error she'll [or actually any of us] will throw that line out but replace Emma with their name...it is funny). The key to my post here is that she has a new appreciation for this writing and has discovered a liking for this era and for the author. What a loss it would have been if I had caved and not asked her to stretch herself to discover Austen (and even if she walks away not totally enthralled-she still has been exposed-and that is important). I don't think she'll be quite as enamored with Miss Austen as our oldest, but she definitely has a new love for her and her writing.  Actually, this daughter loves The Great Gatsby [she likes this time period better] and has requested to read other books by Fitzgerald.  That again is testimony to my point here-"feed" them great literature and you will reap a harvest of a love for the well-written word.

Emma (2009 BBC Version)*
attached to my Amazon link-
but this is spendy. Check your local library!

And for an extra boost-we have watched 3 versions of Emma now on DVD.  We have found the BBC [2009] version to be the best.  It stayed the closest to the story line, and had the most believable actors.  I love it when she can say, "Hey, that isn't in the book." or "They skipped a lot here." and so forth too.

Also-a visual way to help out:

One of the difficulties in reading the "literature of old" is the complexities of them.  Lots of characters and situations abound in Miss Austen's stories-so we decided to use the white board as a diagram station to note the different (main) characters and situations in the story line.  If you need a way to help your student figure out the plot or to just simply follow the intricate craziness of it all...this is a good visual option for you and your student.

You can see how we put Emma in the center and branched out the family members and suitors, while adding little symbols to highlight the love triangles or should I say none love triangles?  LOL.  It is definitely helping in keeping everyone straight.  The pictures are for our Renoir study.  :)


Ah yes, "Well done Emma, well done."

Cross post from my CM blog-Our little art section

So I took down the poster above the white board and taped up these 5 pics the kids have done.  These are my favorites ones from their projects so far.  I will hopefully find some white frames to really draw attention to them and also, as ya know-we have to be matching with the room decor-LOL...

Oh, the writing on the board is for my teen's study of Emma.  We have so many characters and crazy love triangles that we figured it best to plot out the story characters and some interesting facts on the board to make sense of it. :)

Left to right:  the two Renoir mixed media paintings (DD decided not to add lettering to the can), the Pointillism project my DD did a couple years ago and the two 6 step paintings the kids did with our CM co-op. 

I love how the kids art makes our room so cozy and personalized.  I love being able to look back at what they have done too.

Art project-Renoir inspired

To go along with our Renoir study, we did a Mixed Media Still-Life art project found on page 45 in the book: Discovering Great Artists.

For those of you who do not have access to this book, I will give you the directions for completing it. :)

Gather your materials:

for each artist you will need-

*cardboard or matte board 

(size up to you-I used the cardboard backings from some

yellow note pad pages-those were pretty good-altho, having something

 slightly thicker would have been best-

but look at those cardboard backings under

your paper pads-good way to recycle them!)

*white tempera paint (I found white poster paint and it worked)

*painters tape 

(get FROGTAPE by Shurtape (green), if you can-it works better than

the blue painters tape-I found mine at Home Depot which seemed

to be the cheapest I could find. It was about $4 which is the same price
 as the blue tape. THIS IS THE BEST tape for painting-

it does not leave those little boo-boos like 

the blue will-let me tell ya...

and yes, we have used both-will not use blue again)

*pencil/eraser (altho try to not erase if possible)

*paint brushes, water container 

*water colors

*real or fake flowers/twigs/etc. for your still life 

(be creative-look around your home for fun things to use)

*type of vase

(again be creative-I used a tea pot and a container for coffee)

Process:

1.  Tape the cardboard to something-painter's board, drawing board, etc. I used two pieces of white board. I had extra from when we cut down the large piece we bought/used for the classroom. Maybe even a clipboard will work-anything to secure it to so the cardboard doesn't slip.  Yes, you can just place on protective cover/paper, paint it and then just do this, but I find that you'll get a better result when the paper/board is secured to something larger and hopefully, waterproof or not so absorbent as the paper. 

2. I like to create about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch trim-depending on how big your project is.  Will this show when I frame it? Probably not on this one because it is an ugly brown cardboard, so I will try to cover it with a matte...but with a white board/paper it looks very pretty when you have an edging.

3.  Paint the cardboard white (tempera/poster paint).  I did this twice to be sure the cardboard was covered nicely.  The poster paint may not have given us the result the lesson wanted (for it to bleed with the watercolors) but I wasn't about to drive to the mall area to just buy one bottle of paint...so we used what the local Meijer store had and it was just fine.  Let dry before you begin the drawing/watercolor part.

4.  Set up your arrangement, and have student lightly sketch the image.

The boy was more focused on creating a background, and I think that jetting out image on the right side is a window sill, I think. :)  This just goes to show how everyone sees/does things a bit differently. :)

5.  Use a light color to wash color into the background coming close to the image.

6. Use watercolors and paint-try to let it bleed/blend together.

  

7.  When dry, have the artist sign their name and frame it.  

The teen still needs to put the writing on, but we had to let it dry first and then she had to leave to babysit, so once I have these framed, I will post them (and obviously, there will be their signatures and the writing on the can in this picture).

And there you have a Renoir inspired art project-and hey-you don't need to be studying him to do this.  It is just a great, fairly easy project to do with your kids.