Today was the first day of our school year for 2006-2007.  Nothing monumental at all.  In fact, our academic day lasted about 2 1/2 hours! 

My 10th grader did the following:

*read the World Book encyclopedia article about Charles Dickens,

*read out of Story of Philosophy,

*did an Algebra II review lesson,

*did a Bible lesson

*read out of his health book

*had a short discussion about "Why Study History?", along with an oral review of geography terms.

That's it.  Tomorrow we'll do timeline review and add in read-alouds. 

When we were done, he had an orthodontist appointment and got his braces off after 6 years!   He's doin' the happy dance!

It only takes minutes to plan out our yearly schedule.  This school year will look like this:

Begin August 14.

End of first semester is December 22.

Total:  18 weeks

Begin second semester on January 9.

One week off for spring break in April.

Last day of school:  May 24

Total:  18 weeks

There is one more week in May, so I may cull the time in November for a Thanksgiving break.  If that's the case, we'll end on May 31. 

Most years we officially begin the first Monday in August, but this year we're taking a family break together...not a full-fledged vacation, but a break nonetheless.    Those years, I have a two-week lag time in order to finish by the end of May.

Since my youngest is in 10th grade, I don't use all of the vocabulary words listed each week in Tapestry.  However, he certainly doesn't know the meaning of *all* of those words, so I went through the whole Year-Plan, noting which words I would assign.  Just a little tic mark beside the word is all it took.

He'll make the cards on Monday, study them through the week, and have a quiz on Friday.

Yup!  All 36 weeks in about 20 minutes. 

Today I spent about 30-45 minutes looking through the government assignments for the first semester.  With sticky notes, I made comments such as "History/Govt count double this week" or "Use Internet links" or "Focus on x." 

Easy peasy.

I'm pretty much ready to begin.  I haven't even looked at Latin or Algebra II, but plan to once each week. 

I also still need to make up our annual schedule...starting date, when breaks will be, and finishing date.  Typically I plan 37-38 weeks to cover unforeseen things that come up...that way I don't have a little coronary when things don't work out the way *I* want them to. 

Between now and our start date I need to finish reading A Tale of Two Cities and any other rhetoric assignments that I can squeeze into my days. 

I love these emoticons!    And now, I'm off to do you know what.

That's what I did today.  Well...in regard to preparing for next school year.  Why do I tell you this?  Because I want you to know that, truly, I don't just sit around preparing!  Whew! 

If you want to know what I *did* do...it's nothing much different from what you did, probably.  I woke up with a headache, so decided to "sleep in" just a bit more.  Between then and now, I've run errands, cooked, cleaned dishes, done laundry, instructed teens on chores, and answered the phone.  I also did my Tapestry job for a bit, and have begun the packing process for one last homeschool convention.  I still lack paying bills and cleaning the bathrooms. 

Never a dull moment!

Today, I made out a loose weekly *teacher* schedule:

• Composition lessons, when necessary, will be done on Tuesdays 
• History/Government discussion on Wednesdays
• Health/Biology discussion on Thursdays
• Literature discussion on Fridays
• Grammar will be done twice each week
• Logic will be done twice each week
• Latin and Algebra II will be done daily
• Quizzes in any subject will be given on Fridays

On another note, everything I need for the first semester of Tapestry is printed up and neatly put in the student binder.   Well, not the assignment charts...that will come later.

I've also gotten all of the Biology worksheets printed up and in order.  I haven't done the Health ones yet. 

Thanks to those of you who have sent me encouragement emails!  I really appreciate it!

Today I put the previously printed pages into my student's new binder.  The tab dividers are labeled by week (1-36), and I simply put the pages behind the correct tabs.

This is the first year that I've done it this way.  Previously I placed the printed pages directly into *my* Tapestry binder.  If we didn't end up using them, I just left them there.

We'll see how this works.  With just one student this year, I thought it might be a bit easier.

It took less than 5 minutes. 

Yesterday my middle son and I went to the junior college to get his dual enrollment paperwork dealt with.  Unfortunately, we're still lacking a few things, but we did get some work accomplished.

Today I worked on coordinating my youngest son's Biology and Health so that the topics match up.  I thought that would be easier in the long run for both of us.

After doing Tapestry for years, I've learned to take the approach and apply it to other subjects.  We also have weekly discussions in Health, Biology, Economics, and other classes.  Things like Latin and math we still do on a day-to-day, as-needed basis.

Ah.  This next school year will be an adjustment for me.  I will only have one child still homeschooling full-time.  Hmmm...mixed emotions. 

Hi all!

Today I've taken another hour and printed up more Student Activity Pages.  This is such a delight because I'm getting a good glance into next school year, with minimal effort.  I've now printed all material that I need for Tapestry's first eight weeks.

One thing that I've learned after years of using Tapestry, is that I don't *have* to supplement.  I tend to think that "this looks good to add in", or "wouldn't that be fun?"  I have ended up adding to my workload, which isn't very smart on my part.  I imagine that by the time my youngest son graduates, I'll have this lesson under my belt!  I guess I have a hard head. 

Last night, I read the first three chapters in A Tale of Two Cities.  It took...hmm...less than 1/2 hour.  It wasn't difficult reading, and became a bit easier as I turned each page. 

I spent about another hour preparing for the upcoming school year.  All but about 5 minutes was for high school biology.  For that grand total of 5 minutes, I photocopied worksheets about the Constitution from Our Living Constitution.  No biggie, but I won't have to do it later!