Jul. 9, 2009 Tapestry of Grace Binders
Last school year I created binders for the Student Activity Pages for our Tapestry of Grace Curriculum. Because TOG is such a "buffet" the publishers do not make student worktexts. Each family uses the curriculum differently in the way that meets their family's needs for that school year.
I created one binder for each of the kids for each unit. That would be six student binders for each of the four units. I included in the binders the reading assignment, writing assignment, map work and student activity pages for the books we were reading for each week. There are typically 9 weeks to each unit. Here is what some our binders looked like:
This week I have been working on putting together binders for the 09/10 school year. I have a ton of copying completed and am now working on putting the binders together. This year I am using white card stock on the covers so I could print the TOG Cover artwork. One of the moms on the TOGLooseThreads list created some great weekly dividers with artwork and shared them with the list. (Thanks to the person that did this!!) So I am using them for the first Unit. I really like the artwork and my 5 year old got excited because he saw the knights and castles and it started a conversation about what we would be learning about this year. He can't wait for school now. I have to admit though, that I'm not sure I will print out the remaining 26 weeks X 6 students just for the artwork. But Unit 1 looks great. :) Here are what they look like so far. I still need to apply the adhesive tabs to show the weeks like the binders above.
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Jul. 9, 2009 08/09 School Projects
Here are some of the projects we completed over the last school year. These projects were from our studies of Creation to the fall of Rome and Life Science.
Cuneiform tablets
DNA Model - Heidi taught Life Science to the elementary aged kids.
Display board on Ancient Rome - Timothy
My Body - Kaitlyn & Ian's
My body - Timothy & Jonathan
Display Board on Ancient Rome - Andrew
Display board on Ancient Rome - Ian & Kaitlyn's - Note the addition of pink. :) |
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May. 21, 2009 Flat Stanley Doing the Gardening May. 21, 2009 Ha....From February to May...all in a day!!
I started an entry in February and never published it so....there...it is now published. Here it is already May, though. :) Thank you, Marcia for encouraging me to keep writing.
We are finishing up school this week. We finished our Tapestry studies about two weeks ago and we are just finishing up details on math and english. The tutoring went well and we've made great progress on math. I look forward to starting next year with several of the kids ahead in their math studies instead of behind. I've included a picture of Flat Stanley. My neice's class in Massachusetts is participating in the Flat Stanley project where they send Flat Stanley all over the country and have his hosts send him back with details about their area of the country.
Our family does not school year round like some do. We do have some educational goals for the summer, though. Along with lots of regular summer activities like swimming, vacations, camp, etc. we would like the kids to work on some skills that they do not normally have time for during the school year. We would like them to work on typing, word roots software, study skills, and speed reading. At the annual SHEM conference this year I purchased the College in a Bag from College Plus. It has a study skills course and a speed reading course included. I hope to squeeze these in for my high schoolers (of which I will have two this coming year! Andrew is entering his freshman year and Heidi will be a junior.) I hope to set aside time for the younger kids to continue reading, especially Ian. He did great with phonics this year and can read his phonics readers. I don't want him to stop and then by August when we start up again, have forgotten everything he has learned.
We have a small garden planted, as of this week. (Thanks, Kim!) We have regular, roma and cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, green bell peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash, cilantro, and cantaloupe. We also have some watermelon to plant but need to find another place outside the garden because they take up too much room. The kids blessed me with lots of flowers to put in my planters for Mother's Day.
This week we also poured a concrete slab out off the north side of the house. The economic downturn has made it so that bartering is back. That means we are being reimbursed in concrete. That's okay because we've traded drywall for a number of things over the years...even braces for one of the kids. The concrete is where we normally put up our pool so the kids have been anxious to get this project finished so we can get the pool up. It will be great for basketball, rollerskating, etc.. in the winter.
Heidi has been making some progress on working toward her driver's license. Over the school year it is hard for me to take the time to bring her driving. Now that summer is here I hope to get her out driving more. Kimberly has been taking her out over the last couple of weeks, too. So she's on her way.
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Feb. 23, 2009 February 2009
A lot to catch up on!! We had a great holiday season and I can't believe it is already the end of February. In December we were blessed to receive a beautiful, new, grandchild. Elianna Hope Cardoza was born on December 16. She is so sweet. Older siblings, Hannah & Jeremiah, love her.
We started up school again in January and have been making good progress. My older students were a bit behind in math, recovering from using another curriculum that wasn't a good fit for us. We have been having a friend do some math tutoring for us and the kids are really being immersed in math for the last week or so. It has been good and I can see the progress they are making. I don't know how long the tutoring will continue but it has already been a great boost.
History and Science have been going well. Heidi is teaching the grammar students Life Science this year as supplementation to her own Biology studies. You learn a lot when you teach others and this has cemented a lot of the concepts that she had learned in her curriculum. In our Tapestry of Grace studies we have combined a couple of weeks in the study of Greece in order to move along at a little bit faster pace.
One of the reasons for combining weeks was a visit from my brother and his two girls, ages 11 and 7. What a great week we had with them! We didn't get out and do lots of touristy stuff because the girls were having such a great time just playing with my kids, especially Kaitlyn, who is 7. Kaitlyn had not met Angela & Jenna before because the last time my brother and I saw each other, I was pregnant with Kaitlyn and Janet was pregnant with Jenna. The girls are only 10 days apart. It was funny to see they both had the same front tooth missing. :) Just minutes after they arrived Kaitlyn invited them up to her room to play. Within a very short time the three of them became inseparable. It was fun to watch them together. We did get to do a few things while they were here like bowling, visiting the Bass Pro Shop and visiting our church. We were all sad to see them go. Guess a visit to Massachusetts will be on our agenda sometime soon.
Justin moved out into his own apartment this past week. He is excited to be venturing out on his own. Over the holidays we were blessed to be able to purchase a home in our neighborhood. We have turned it into two apartments, one of which is his new apartment. The other apartment is being rented by Lydia's two sisters and a friend. We like our new neighbors. 
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Nov. 3, 2008 November Video
| I've added a link to a stirring video that I watched yesterday. I encourage everyone to watch it. The link is located to the right side of this page, down at the bottom under links or you can copy this link into your browser: http://tinyurl.com/6qjzak |
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Sep. 10, 2008 Come What May
Justin just came back from Virginia to see the premiere screening of "Come What May", a film from the new film company, Advent Film Group. AFG is working in association with Patrick Henry College. They did a great job with this movie. It is the story of a student attending Patrick Henry so that he would be able to compete in the moot court competition. Here is a link to the trailer: http://www.adventfilmgroup.com/Home.html
Justin had the privilege of meeting the cast and crew and then spending some time Sunday with the director at a film class. He is excited about the possibility of an internship in a few weeks with AFG. The first segment will be in marketing and distribution. He would go for training and then work from home. |
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Aug. 27, 2008 Gone to Egypt!
We're on our second week of school and we're off to a good start. We've been accomplishing a lot every day and yet some of the kids are still finished early. Hmmm...maybe I need to add some more... or just let them enjoy a sense of accomplishment for a change. We've gone back to Tapestry of Grace Year 1 Redesign which starts with Ancient Egypt.
We've hit the road running on writing. Because we were part of a co-op last year we did limited writing at home because some of them were involved with writing newsletter articles, working on the yearbook and creative writing at co-op. We are using the Tapestry of Grace assigned writing assignments along with Writing Aids this year. We've already done the assignments for week 1 and week 2.
We've also done some fun hands on activities. Jonathan, Kaitlyn & Ian made Egyptian paddle dolls last week. On Friday we made cookie dough maps. The object of the maps was to show different landforms. Heidi, Timothy & Kaitlyn worked on one while Andrew, Jonathan & Ian worked on another. Some of the landforms included volcanoes, rivers, waterfalls, canyons, valleys, plateaus and lakes. We used a sugar cookie dough. Chilled it, then formed the maps. They used icing and sprinkles to color lakes, deserts, and forests. We took pictures before putting them in the oven because baking them alters the shapes. The high mountains looked like eroded hills after baking. Of course, the fun part is eating the maps after we show them to Dad.
Heidi and Andrew are going back at Spanish this year. They started Rosetta Stone Spanish Level 1 last year so they are continuing on with that. It would be nice if we could practice speaking it more.
Heidi and Andrew are also going to be blogging on a weekly basis. So far they don't want the blogs open to the public but we'll see. I would like their writing assignments to get posted on their blogs along with their comments about their school progress. Just setting up blogs was educational for them because neither of them spend much time online.
My camera is being held hostage by the office people in the basement. Seriously, the camera is in use by the drywall business for the time being so I lack pictures to put up. |
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Aug. 11, 2008 Busy Summer Activities
The summer has gone by so fast! The kids have had some incredible opportunities this summer. Justin and Heidi are part of our church's student choir. This year the group went on choir tour to Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City. Choir tour gives them opportunity to sing at different churches and events but they also do outreach work. They had the opportunity to participate with Rock the Block Teen Challenge outreach in Queens. See more at http://www.rocktheblock.org/ They had an amazing time getting to know the staff and working together on the outreach. Along with singing and ministry they took some time to have fun and sightsee. They got to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. In New York, they saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero/Twin Towers, Trinity Church (National Treasure ), Central Park and prayed in Times Square. I'll try and upload a few pics.
Beth went to the National Home School Alumni Reunion in Kentucky. This year she was the sole representative of the Cardoza family. She carpooled with friends and had a good time. Earlier in the summer she was a counselor at Camp David of the Ozarks which provides summer camps for children of inmates. She had a great bunch of girls to work with and had a good week.
Kimberly's summer consisted of Stained Glass Theatre, health issues and surgery. She had her gallbladder removed on the 8th of August. It was an outpatient surgery so she was home Friday night. She came through it well and is still recovering.
In March, Justin competed at the Assemblies of God District Fine Arts Competition. He received invitation to go to Nationals in three categories, Human Video Group, Large; Songwriting; and Graphic Design. The National Fine Arts Festival was just last week in Charlotte, North Carolina. He went with a group of students from our church and they had a great time. Just to participate on the National level means that the students ranked in the top 10% in the nation. Justin ranked Superior in all of his entries. We're proud of him. |
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Jun. 21, 2008 TWO broken arms!!!
My grandson, Micah, fell/jumped off the trampoline last night!! His arm is broken, too. Thankfully it is a small break at the wrist. His trip to the doctor only lasted one hour. Two four year olds with broken arms!!! Ian is Micah's uncle. : ) Ian will be 5 in August and Micah just turned 4 this month. |
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Jun. 13, 2008 Bria & Justin Jun. 13, 2008 Bria & Justin at Jesse's wedding. Justin was videographer, Bria was a bridesmaid. May. 29, 2008 Waiting in ER May. 29, 2008 I went to take a picture before he got wheeled off into the OR and the anesthesiologist ran over and said, "Wait, he needs to have his hat that is just like mine for his picture." May. 29, 2008 Dad is ready to bring him home. May. 29, 2008 Ian's broken arm
Saturday evening we heard a scream and a cry from the library. We ran in to where the boys had all been gathered on one chair at the computer. Ian, 4 years old, had jumped off the back of the chair. It was obvious to us that he had broken his arm.
We brought him to a walk-in clinic after first calling to be sure they could do x-rays and set a broken arm. When we got there the staff was great and gently took x-rays. The x-rays showed that he had a broken elbow that would require surgery. They placed his arm in a hard splint, gave him a shot of morphine for the pain and sent us off to the ER.
The poor little guy had to have *closed reduction surgery* which means that they had to manually arrange the bones and the fragment and hold it all together with pins. His arm was put in another hard splint and he was kept overnight for observation. He had a lot of swelling the first couple of days but it is gradually looking better every day. The doctor is a little concerned about possible nerve damage. He has not been able to bend the first joint on the index finger yet. The doctor said there isn't really anything to be done but it is a little too early to tell. We are praying for full function for the entire arm, hand and fingers.
Now that he is feeling better and a little more like himself, the trick is to keep him from climbing things or hanging precariously by his good hand or getting rough with his brothers!
Observations and comments from Ian:
I asked him why he jumped off the chair and he said rather sadly, "I thought it would be cool."
We got in the car to take him in and told our two older daughters to take good care of the other kids, we didn't know how long this would take. Ian said, "Yeah, don't let them jump off of any chairs."
As I was buckling him into his booster seat in the car he said, "I hate it when I break my arm." As if this was something he did all the time! |
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May. 14, 2008 Astronaut Ian, asleep before he could get his burger May. 14, 2008 serving our customers May. 14, 2008 Cool hippie beads. (Okay, cool hippie string) |
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