Dec. 30, 2008 - Updates
Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since I updated this blog. The library has taken a great stance in the homeschool situation and allowed homeschool teachers to hold a Teacher Library card. This is a great step in the right direction for our town... Whether or not a homeschool teacher has a certificate or degree, which some of us do, should not impact this decision. We check out around100 books per week from the libraries, some we need to keep for several weeks, some we only keep out for one week. Having a teacher card really cuts down on the numerous trips to the library as well as worrying about renewing books repeatedly when we are using them for a unit study. THANKS to our wonderful library staff!!!!
Things are going great with our second unit of Tapestry of Grace Year 2. We LOVE this curriculum. I don't know who enjoys reading the books and doing the maps more, the children or myself! We are also using Math U See for the first time this year and LOVE it as well. This has most definitely been our best year of homeschooling yet! I was thrilled when my husband bought us the RosettaStone Spanish levels 1,2,&3 homeschool edition! We are all enjoying the lessons and looking for local friends who speak Spanish so we can become friends and PRACTICE! Right now we are even preparing and planning for our next Unit End Celebration which will be the R & R Night, Renaissance and Reformation Night. I have finished two costumes and still have to make at least two more...
God has blessed us with a church we all dearly love. It has been so wonderful to finally be going to church again. Although, I did enjoy homechurch, going to church and worshipping there has also been nice for a change. We still continue to listen to "extra" sermons at home throughout the week and of course we still LOVE our Scripture Songs CD's.
For the new year we are planning a little family party where we plan to stay up all night playing games and exchanging gifts for the new year ahead. We are also planning to watch the first sunset of the New Year, a tradition I plan to start. I almost always see the sunrise (due to the fact that I am an early riser, and my children have followed suit).
Thankfully, we have had a few sunny days which has really gotten us moving around here. I even washed some of my grubby windows. (very long overdue)
I hope that all my buddies and friends out there are having a great last few days of 2008 and are gearing up for an even better 2009.
Comments
Dec. 30, 2008 - library card
Posted by stampingsam
Hi, I read in your blog that you were able to get a teacher library card. May I ask how? I wasn't even aware they had special cards for teachers...
Also, I was looking into Tapestry of Grace for next year as my son will be starting school and I thought it may be easier to teach he and my older daughter from the same curriculum. Could you share what you love so much about it? I've heard its pretty teacher intensive. How much time would you say you spend preparing for each week? Sorry about all the questions... Thanks!
www.homeschoolblogger.com/growingpains
Dec. 30, 2008 - Tapestry of Grace / Library Cards
Posted by rebeccahuff
Where I live, you need to show proof that you are a teacher. In my case that was a certificate from my CRS (Church Related School) that my children are enrolled in (basically an umbrella school.) The benefits are that you get to keep the books out longer (say 4-6 weeks instead of only 2-3). The best benefit is that there are no library fines for teachers (at some libraries...all libraries have different rules).
As for Tapestry...how do I love TOG...let me count the ways
1. We are all on the same subject at the same time, just at different levels... (TOG has 4 levels).
2. We can all share books (that we get from the library)
3. The "planning" is mostly done for you.
4. There are "cheat notes for busy moms"
5. You can pick and choose which assignments you want or can do, you don't have to do them all, but if you want you can stretch one week into two weeks and do every single assignment!
6. I never learned much church history and it is actually very interesting.
7. I love, love, love geography.
8. I love love love love real life books as opposed to "history" books.
this is getting too long... I may continue it as a post...