It is so NICE to be back in a routine. I need routine. I think the children thrive on routine too….No one would ever accuse me of being “overly organized”. I’m not one with a color coded 15 minute schedule…but ROUTINE I know a lot about. We’re stifled on tight schedules but we soar with routine.
We ARE studying Year 4 of Tapestry of Grace. The NAME of the curriculum was enough to draw us to it. {g} Tapestry is great in that most of our assignments are subject specific and not book specific. This means that, other than the spine and literature books, we are free to substitute whatever books we come across. We simply need to cover the same topics. This gives us STRUCTURE (which some of our children desperately need) and FLEXIBILITY (which I desperately need if I’m to continue homeschooling another 17 years - 15 under my belt – starting year 16). In addition to our TOG studies here are a few things we’ve found this year that we are enjoying.
We continue to study the very early years of the 20th Century. I was getting a bit bored with the DK President book. Last year I broke it up by using a National Geographic book on the Presidents that the library had. I’ve found a couple of new series at the library this year. We’ve only checked out the sections on Theodore Roosevelt at this point.
The first one is titled “You’re On Your Way Teddy Roosevelt” by Judith St. George. I LOV
E the illustrations in this book, they are by Matt Faulkner. This series is “A Turning Point Series”. The author searches for the “turning point” in each young boy’s life that led him to become the President. This could easily be read alone by a 3rd grader or even 2nd grader – but we like to read together so Nolan can hear too. There were six chapters in this book. This book illustrated TR overcoming physical obstacles and really portrayed perseverance well. I have no idea how many other books she may have completed – this one was published in 2004. I plan to do a library search.
For an anthology of the Presidents for Grammar stage I really like another new series I unearthed. The series is by Kathleen Krull. I suppose it’s called the “Lives Of…and what the neighbors thought” series. I picked up two “Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame and What the Neighbors Thought” and “Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies and What the Neighbors Thought. The books are full of short biographies and great caricatures….but when I say short….I mean 2 or 3 pages as opposed to 2 or 3 paragraphs. This book on the Presidents fleshes out the men a bit more than our DK book. I’m reading the Writers book for fun….Kathleen Krull has also written “Lives Of: the Musicians, The Artists and The Athletes”. If we continue to enjoy this book as much as we have the past two weeks, we may have to eventually buy a copy. It goes well with DK – DK has REAL photos and facts…this one has anecdotal facts and caricatures. LOL
E the illustrations in this book, they are by Matt Faulkner. This series is “A Turning Point Series”. The author searches for the “turning point” in each young boy’s life that led him to become the President. This could easily be read alone by a 3rd grader or even 2nd grader – but we like to read together so Nolan can hear too. There were six chapters in this book. This book illustrated TR overcoming physical obstacles and really portrayed perseverance well. I have no idea how many other books she may have completed – this one was published in 2004. I plan to do a library search. 
For an anthology of the Presidents for Grammar stage I really like another new series I unearthed. The series is by Kathleen Krull. I suppose it’s called the “Lives Of…and what the neighbors thought” series. I picked up two “Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame and What the Neighbors Thought” and “Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies and What the Neighbors Thought. The books are full of short biographies and great caricatures….but when I say short….I mean 2 or 3 pages as opposed to 2 or 3 paragraphs. This book on the Presidents fleshes out the men a bit more than our DK book. I’m reading the Writers book for fun….Kathleen Krull has also written “Lives Of: the Musicians, The Artists and The Athletes”. If we continue to enjoy this book as much as we have the past two weeks, we may have to eventually buy a copy. It goes well with DK – DK has REAL photos and facts…this one has anecdotal facts and caricatures. LOL When our oldest three were this age and we studied this time period we did our first ever unit
study on “The Orphan Trains”. I simply HAD to add in at least one of the books in “The Orphans’ Journey” series by Arleta Richardson. We are reading, “Looking For Home”. I suspect the children are going to want me to read the other three books. I also think I’ll try to find the videos we watched all those years ago.On a side note, I’m discovering that many of our favorites now have very brittle and yellowed pages. Beware of saying, “I’ll use this for as long as I homeschool.” You never REALLY know how long that may be now, do you? :::snort:::
The older three boys continue to speed right along. Jamin is way ahead in literature. Josiah and Jared are right where they need to be. Jared is thrilled to FINALLY be caught up in math (after his real life learning experience in 3rd grade! He was laughing about that this a.m. but I’ve written about that before). He aced his first math test of the year on Friday. Jamin is polishing the first five pages of his novel to send to Christian’s Writers Guild for critique. Josiah is working like a mad man since he told his boss he’d like more hours. He has definite financial goals he wants to reach. We wholeheartedly support his forethought in determining what he needs to leave home in “good shape” and finish college debt free.
2 comments:
So he did decide to join the writers guild? Sounds like it would be a great opportunity.
You're finding some great books for TOG 4. I'll have to gla (argh cat keeps pushing the computer mouse)GLANCE back at this part of your blog when we get to that point in history.
We are definitely routine folks here too, I dislike schedules that are set in stone, those just don't work for our particlar family, but I love the way our days flow with a general routine that we tend to follow.
Jodi - Jamin is starting by sending the first five pages of his novel in to be critiqued. It really doesn't cost much and it will give him a feel for impartial editing. I think he plans to do the Writers Guild and TOG writing this year.....AND we'll throw in the books I found on editing. He'll keep working on his novel and possibly we'll submit it on our own.....so He'll get .5 credit of comp from TOG; .5 from Writer's Guild and another .5 if the hours add up for working on his novel....I will talk with NARHS but I believe I'll write it as "Write to Publish" and give one credit - roll the Guild and novel into one credit.
Someone asked me today what writing course we used and we really didn't. We've always written. None of the "courses" really seemed to "fit"...so he's written all the time and read a lot. We began using the TOG stuff last year and I like that well enoguh to be sure I cover the basics. LOL
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