our dozen beautiful feet

After taking a look at ancient Egypt for three weeks, we went back to the very beginning in week 4, and began to study the "books of Moses" after coming to an understanding of his own upbringing and life in Egypt.  Starting with creation, we studied the Biblical account of how the world came into being, and paid particular attention to the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the genealogy up to Noah.  We spent a lot of time understanding the flood and reading about Noah's life, before and after the flood.  in our co-op this week, we went outside and measured how long and wide and tall Noah's ark would have been in real life.  It was way bigger than any of us had ever imagined! We started here, and stepped off the length of the ark... You can hardly even see where we started! It was so far! We went back inside and got to work on making timbrels, which were a simple instrument similar to a tambourine the Israelites used.  This is a gre...

Every year, I have these grand dreams of blogging each week about what we did in school. I usually make it about 10 weeks before I fall off, if even that.  So this year, I'm not having any expectations of myself, and maybe, ever few weeks, I'll get around to re-capping what we've done. The first three weeks of Year 1 are an in-depth look at Egypt and the context in which Moses grew up and was educated, learning about the Israelites in slavery, their exodus, Egyptian religion and mythology, mummification and pyramids.  Egypt is such a fascinating place, and we have so much evidence of their lifestyle that it's a fascinating thing to study! Here's some highlights from our last three weeks! Handwriting! Luke working on math! We started a timeline this year.  I am loving this, and so are the kids. I wasn't sure if they would enjoy it, but they really have gotten into it and are starting to make some connections as a result.  Math studies... ...

Summer is over and school is in full swing!  I admit, I am a planner. I love to plan.  I love to plan maybe too much. I spent a ton of time this summer pouring over articles and lectures, trying to glean a lot of wisdom for this coming year. I also wanted to be well-prepared in hopes that it would reduce the time spent each week on getting ready for school.  The past few years I found myself spending 1-3 hours each weekend printing out sheets, reading notes, getting ready for school the next week.  I wondered if I could save myself time by doing it all over the summer.  It was a lot of work, but just in the third week of school, I'm already glad I did it. : ) Here's what I did that is saving me a ton of time. 1.  I made a spreadsheet of my typical day and my typical week, and blocked off the times that were not able to be spent doing school (meal times, Bible study, co-op, gymnastics, etc.)  Then I knew what I had to work with when it came to our ...

This year, we are starting a Memory Index!  Over the past two years, the kids have had some memory work, but it has mostly been Bible verses, math facts, spelling facts, Presidents in order, states and capitals, and their catechism.  This year, we are ready for more.  I created a Memory notebook this summer, similar to the Simply Charlotte Mason system, to help us stay organized and regularly review the things we're memorizing.  I couldn't believe it could be as simple as reading each piece everyday, and then reviewing.  But two weeks in, I'm a believer.  Here's how it's working. First, in the binder are the things we are actively trying to memorize.  For us right now, that is The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7), The Happy Farmer (poem), the first part of the Timeline Song, the Books of the Bible, and our catechism.  We are also memorizing insect facts and Latin vocabulary/conjugations in those subjects, but I'm not keeping them in the ...

A couple of years ago, I realized it was time to move from phonics, handwriting and spelling, to learning how to really write for my oldest student.  Finishing up second grade and having a confident reader and good printer, I didn't really know what the next step was.  I began to do research on writing curricula, not really having any idea how to evaluate them or what I was looking for!  I was very quickly overwhelmed.  At the same time, I was digging deeper and deeper into understanding classical education, and it's a good thing, because identifying myself as a classical educator saved me from drowning in writing curricula. Because there's one classical way to teach writing, the Progymnasmata .  And a few years ago, I could only find two programs based on it. ( here and here ) That narrowed it down a LOT! Looking at both those programs, I realized they were long-term investments, and you must start on time, or you're forever behind.  Ideally, you'd sta...

I always like to think of summer as our 'off-time", but this summer it's been my work-in-over-drive-time.  I've been busy making Year 1 Tapestry flash cards, researching Memory work and making Memory work binders, cataloging and organizing our library, reading The Liberal Arts Tradition, which, trust me, was work. :)  But, I believe all the work will pay off when we start school this coming Monday! I hope I have made it easy on myself to plan and be prepared to make the most of each week! Here are a couple of little tips for getting ready for school that I do each year! 1.  Did you know the UPS store will bind your books for you?  All those paperback, gum-bound workbooks and teacher's manual that never seem to make it through a semester, let along a full year, can be cut and spiral bound!  I take all the kids notebooks and any teacher's manuals I have, because they do it for around $3 a book!  This includes a nice clear plastic cover front and back to ...

I have tried all kinds of different things when it comes to weekly planning.  Each year, I make my own planning sheets, tailored to what we're doing that year.  I have tried programs like Olly, Google calendar, using my iCalendar, and more. I usually settle on a homemade planning sheet I print each week and hand write the assignments on.  But it was getting tedious for me this past year, AND, there was little record at the end of the year of what we'd actually done.  Keeping grades has not been a real priority for me yet, but in the coming years, it will be.  So that's been in the back of mind as well. Sometime in the fall, I read about Lessontrek. I've always avoided those monthly subscription kind of planners where everything is online, but they were offering a four month free trial, so I figured, why not? I can get a good feel for it in four months, and for nothing! I've gotta tell you, I love this planner.  It makes it so easy to create classes and...