It took about 1/2 hour + printing time to get ready for school next week.  We're starting our mini-unit on the Civil War, and my son will be reading A Nation Torn.  We're finishing up Uncle Tom's Cabin for literature.  Meanwhile, my youngest son is at quite a quick pace through Algebra II.  I keep wondering when he will feel that math is a challenge.  It hasn't happened yet.  

I'm still pondering and praying over his options for next school year.  He is to the point where he absolutely will need someone to teach him Physics.  I can teach Trig/Calculus, but maybe having someone else for math would be a good idea too.  Maybe I can switch out teaching Year 4 of Tapestry for science and math?  I need to keep praying for God's answer in this regard.

In other news, I'm almost finished with my part of Year 1 Redesigned.  I have more proofreading, but that's about it.  My faithful assistant and I will probably go out to eat to celebrate!  We've started Year 2 Redesigned and have learned to much about managing our time, who is more gifted in which area, and how to make our product more appealing.  God has been good to lead us through this journey!  We pray that God will be glorified and that many families will be ministered to!

 Oh my goodness...where did all of the cool emoticons go?  And...what's going on with the spacing?  I can't get it to space between paragraphs. 

Deuteronomy 23:14 (NIV) says:

"For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you.  Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you."

Amazing.  What a promise from God.  He will protect and deliver us!  My thought on this first day of 2007 is that my "camp" must be holy.  I must fulfill the requirement that God states in this verse.  I need to examine my life in some areas:

*Have I pitched my tent in the appropriate place?  Verse 9 says to stay away from everything unclean.  Do I need to move my "camp" elsewhere in regard to friends, books, movies, etc?

*Have I promised something to God that I haven't fulfilled?  Verse 21 says that to not fulfill my promises to God is sin.

*What do I need to rid myself of that is not holy?  This promise in verse 14 is so beautiful, yet it says that God will turn away from  me if my camp is indecent.  What sin is lurking in the recesses of my heart and needs to be removed?  Oh, God, reveal any wicked way in me.  (Psalm 139:23-24)

The fact that I am a "treasured possession" (Deut. 26:18) gives me the impetus to clean up my camp.  And when my camp is clean, then I can praise Him. 

He is good..all the time.

"He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord."  (Psalm 40:3)

Let's see...we're doing Week 15 next week.  So, Week 18 by Christmas break is do-able.  Praise God!  It is good to feel like I'm not behind too awfully much! 

In other news, I'm almost done with Christmas shopping.  Of course, I've only stepped foot in the mall once...all else is done online.  Many stores had free shipping if ordered by November 27, so I took advantage. 

Does anyone know of some good, relatively inexpensive online colleges that accept students for dual enrollment?  My oldest two went to the local junior college, but I'm hesitant to put my youngest in.  He's young for his grade, and I don't feel good about releasing him into that environment yet.  However, he needs the challenge, especially in the math/science area.  I'm exploring options for next year.

Have a great week!

Yes, I'm ready for a break!  Typically we do school 2 or 3 days during Thanksgiving week, but this year, I'm off to visit my brother and sister-in-law.  I'm really looking forward to the change of pace and getting to visit my little nephew.

I'm leaving instructions for my 10th grader for Monday and Tuesday:

*Read ahead in Les Miserables

*Do 2 pages of grammar (Analytical Grammar)

*Study Latin flashcards

*Listen to Schubert CD

I will take my laptop and continue working on Tapestry Redesigned.  If you think of it, please pray for my clarity of mind.  If you can only imagine how confused I sometimes get:

*I'm working on Year 1 Redesigned.

*I'm picking out and reading books for Year 2 Redesigned.

*I'm teaching Classic Year 3.

The good thing is that connections between past events and 1800's events is in my brain.  I'm learning a lot!  This information also reveals quite a number of gaps in my own education, resulting in "I've never even HEARD of this!" moments. 

That said, if you have good book suggestions for Middle Ages, feel free to let me know.  Lower grammar books and rhetoric books seem to be in short supply.

When death or illness invades an academic calendar, it isn't always easy to know what to do in order to still cover "all the bases."  One school year we had four deaths in the family.  Another year my dad had pneumonia which required two extensive hospital stays.  Last week we had a death in the family and we were out of town for two days. 

When students are young, it is easy to just skip assignments, knowing that everything will eventually get covered.  Think of it.  Grammar, history and science take the same body of knowledge and, basically, add more details each school year or rotation through a particular learning cycle.  Math seems to be an exception in that beginning skills must be mastered before moving on. 

With that in mind, when my boys were younger, and there was a family need, we did math when we could.  If there was extra time, we squeezed in history read-alouds and/or science videos.  Our real learning took place in ministering to those in need.  I believe that the teaching of priorities went a long way in making my boys sensitive to the needs of others.

Enter the high school years.  How can a student obtain a credit if the work isn't done, no matter how important or time-consuming a particular event is?  This is where my summer planning comes into play.  During the summer, I planned our school year calendar, trying to put at least two weeks in for the "unknown."  This particular school year was a little tight in that regard, so the less I can grab into that chunk of time, the better.  

We had a couple of days in which we were made aware that death was imminent.  Therefore,   I knew that my mind-set, in regard to academics, should be flexible.  Thus, as I looked through our Tapestry week, our Latin, math, etc., I asked God to show me the high points...where I should spend our time and still cover the material adequately.

For Tapestry, I assigned a short reading about John Quincy Adams.  We were back in town on Thursday, which is when our discussion time is regularly held.  The discussion turned out to be more of a lecture, but that's okay.  We're moving on to Week 13 and Andrew Jackson. 

Sometimes (as in the case of my dad's long hospital stays), two weeks of flex time isn't enough.  I was out of town for 2-3 weeks at a time, twice between January and March.  I had two students in high school, and one a couple of years younger.  Again, I had to ask God for direction in regard to what was important academically.  The general instructions were "do what you can"  and "help each other."

The boys had their assignment charts, and we took two laundry baskets full of books and related paraphernalia.  I was often preoccupied with activities in which I simply couldn't walk away and help a student with a math problem, or help interpret an historical event.  Thus, they asked each other, or left problems blank.  Each day I tried to fit in a half hour in which to answer questions or give explanations.  This wasn't always possible.  Most of the time, it seemed to be easier to simply remind the boys of our focus for the week, teach them that God is sovereign, and leave it in God's hands.

When we got back home, we always had a catch-up day or two.  Lectures filled in our blank spaces in history and science.  We took the time needed to make sure that math was understood.  All in all, within a week, we were back on track as if we hadn't been out of town.

God knows what's going on.  He knows what our kids need for the future, both spiritually and academically.  I think it is important to keep this focus when outside events threated to ruin our organizational scheme.  HE is definitely more organized and goal-oriented than I am, and knows the GRAND PLAN.  It's good to be able to rest in Him.

The picture above was taken at my dad's retirement reception last weekend.  In the picture are my mom and dad, me, and my two brothers.  *Our academic week was only four days, but we squeezed it all in.

Week 10 is definitely more on the crazy side of things.  My oldest two sons are on their college fall break...one at the beginning of the week, the other at the end.  As a result, we don't want to do our normal school load.  So our schedule has ended up looking like this:

Monday - Read from Pride and Prejudice

Tuesday - Lecture from Week 10 (President Monroe, Monroe Doctrine, Missouri Compromise), read more from P & P, abbreviated Latin lesson, catch up on a reading from Pageant of Philosophy

Wednesday - Read more from P & P, abbreviated Latin lesson, unit review

Thursday - camping preparation and menu-planning

Friday - leave for camping trip

We'll be back to our regular routine next Monday! 

...and I thought I'd share how I do it, step-by-step:

5:58 p.m.

#1:  Look at family calendar to see if there are appointments which could interfere with our academic week.  There are.  Tuesday is the day for photos for our homeschool annual.  My middle son is a senior this year, so we'll be there longer than is typical.  I need to be sure and adjust for this.

#2:  Look at Reading Assignment Chart to see which books I have.  After about two minutes of looking on my shelves, I've spotted The Great Little Madison.  I'm putting it in the milk crate by my desk.

#3:  Earlier in the summer, I printed up maps, worksheets, etc.  Now I'm taking a look at them to make sure that this book answers these questions.  I'm not going to read the whole book to see if the War of 1812 is covered adequately.  However, a quick glance in the index assures me that there are enough pages.  Fine.  If he can't find the answers in the book, he can look online.

#4.  Glance at the time line dates.  There are a lot this week and I'd like to see if any can be left out.  Yup.  We're going to leave out about 7 of these, which will give my son a few extra minutes for something else.

#5.  Oh, I see that dialectic students are assigned The Bounty Mutiny.  If we have time at the end of the week, we may watch the movie.  That would be fun.  I've written this down on a post-it note. 

#6.  Writing Assignment:  I've been doing Level 9 with my 10th grader because he needs extra work in this area.  This week we'll start on essays.  Should be interesting.  Time to print an "Essay Planning Worksheet" from Writing Aids.  I'll also print up the "Talking Points" for his Grammar and Composition Notebook. 

#7.  Since we've got a full day Tuesday, I believe we'll omit Vocabulary this week. 

#8.  Quiz or no quiz?  In looking at the one available for free under Year 3 Evaluations, I see that it looks good.  I'll use it!

#9.  I nearly forgot Government.  From summer printing, it's already taken care of.  This is more of a mental note for me to remember to make sure he does it.

#10.  We're reading Pride and Prejudice.  Last week we got a jump start on it...we actually found Faust to be quite boring, so I shortened that assignment by a week.  Thus, we are ahead a bit, which works out nicely with our schedule this week.  Since I'm now incorporating recitations, I'm doing a google search on "quotations from Pride and Prejudice."  There are quite a few to choose from.  No problem there.

Well, it's now 6:27 and I'm done.  I do still have to plan for Biology, Health, and Latin, but the bulk of that was done during the summer also.  It's more a matter of gathering resources and photocopying pages if needed.

So, around 1/2 hour, and that counts printing up the Writing Aids documents and evaluation, as well as typing all of this! 

Have a great week!

Since Week 3, we've been watching 10-15 minutes of Scarlet Pimpernel...every once in a while.  Today, during lunch break (and beyond!), we finally sat down and watched all of the rest of it.  My 10th grader found the dialect and mannerisms quite amusing, but I thought it was a good movie. 

As a result of finishing the movie, we didn't get Faust read today, although we have already read a sizeable portion.  Well, and to be totally honest, we woke up late, and so didn't get reading about the Constitution done either. 

Therefore...tomorrow promises to be a busy, busy day.  I'm not overly concerned about finishing Faust, but I do want to spend some focused time on the Constitution.  This is our last rotation through Year 3, and this one is an important topic.  Likely something will have to go in order to get this in, so I'll cross that bridge tomorrow.

  Need to go ride my new Schwin Airdyne.  Love it!

Last week we finished Week 3 ("Napoloeon:  The Man and His Career).  It was a FULL week, with lots of reading.  As far as my teacher prep time, I only ended up having time to read about 3/4 of the Teacher's Notes and one chapter of The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier.  However, on my previous rotation through Year 3, I had highlighted what I deemed were important points.  This has proved helpful now, on a week like this one. 

I was *very* pleased with how well our discussion went.  This year I'm not requiring written answers of *all* of the Accountability and Thinking Questions.  Instead , I've told my 10th grader that a large percentage of his grade will come from his participation during discussions.  He just has to be prepared:  either sticking a bookmark where an answer is, jotting a note to himself, outlining, mindmapping, etc. 

When I was teaching three boys, I did require written answers to the vast majority of A & T questions.  I felt I had to have a measure of their progress, and that was my way of keeping up with all three boys.   Plus, our discussions were more difficult to keep on track, as 3 teenage boys' minds found historical events often-times rip-roaring hilarious.  Why?  I'm really not sure.  It's one of those things that God used to help me learn grace.

Last week we also began our 3-week overview of Romantic poetry.  Typically, my boys have just grabbed the book or online link, answered the questions, and then we went over it for our discussion.  I've learned SO much while working on Year 1 Redesign, and have begun to incorporate a few of the ideas into my Classic Year 3:

*Weekly recitation of some portion of literature...this week it was a poem.  The student knows up front what the recitation will be, and practices (I don't require memorization, although that's an option) his voice inflection while reading it aloud to himself.  At the end of the week, he reads it aloud to me and/or the family (depending on who is at home).

*I'm really trying to make sure that understanding is taking place.  Answering questions correctly is not an "end-all", but it just one step in the process toward more learning about literature and worldview. 

*I'm trying to show my pleasure in working with my son one-on-one.  Literature is so delightful, and I understand that, but 10th grade boys don't exactly find delight in reading Wordsworth.  Words are SO powerful, and I'd like him to find joy in the artistry.

Monday is Labor Day, which means a shortened academic week.  For Tapestry, this means that I've shortened the reading assignments by one book, but added in a DVD from the Learning Company (Learning and Understanding Great Music, Lecture 30, which is about Beethoven, Romanticism, and Napoleon).  I may have to fill in a few blanks during discussion time, but that's okay.  My husband will be home from work, and we really need some family time. 

Well, that's it.  Can you figure out what's next on my agenda? 

Our second day began as my 12th and 10th graders spent the morning mowing lawns for widow ladies from our church.  Afterward, we had lunch and then started school around 1:30. 

I'm just doing math and Bible with my 12th grader, so we did in about an hour.  My 10th grader and I did the normal things...Algebra II, Bible lesson, health, etc.  For Tapestry, we did timeline review and read-alouds.  By Monday of next week, we should be in the full swing of things.  Well...sorta...my 12th grader starts dual-enrollment at the end of the month, so that will change our schedule too.

  Where do they get these emoticons?!