Dana has had a week's worth of writing prompts and surprise activities for...

I asked my children what they would like me to feature on Show and Tell.  They wanted me to show the unit celebrations.  Last year we started doing unit celebrations with our Tapestry of Grace studies.  We have had a lot of fun. The children like to dress up, as long as Mom dresses up too.  My parents come and my mom is especially caught on every aspect of the presentation.  My husband enjoys the whole thing.  Last year my mil flew 1500 miles to come see one.  She hopes to come out to our last one of the year this year too.  ;)  These have changed slightly from unit to unit.  Because my dc were weak in writing and speech skills before we started Tapestry of Grace, I thought I'd start small in their weak areas and have them try a new skill with each unit. 

Year 1 Unit 1 was about Egypt and the first 5 books of the Bible. 

Here is our Egyptian family, protecting the cat of Bubastees from harm.  Right before my mom arrived, my ds got the idea that we should give a little speech at the beginning to tell who we are and how we became believers of God.  What a terrific idea!   That was the only formal presentation of the whole thing.  Mom had no idea what this would be like.  Her eyes popped out when she saw us!  She asked about every single food item, project and book that had been read.  My dc had been learning to write strong paragraphs with IEW (finally, structure and style!). 

Opening with blowing the shofar.

Egypt display.

Time to eat.

 Days of creation book...

DS is quite the artist...

DD's page...

We made a model of the tabernacle...

DS made all the clay "furniture."  The dc explained the significance of each part.  This was so cool to do.  It was a lot of work, but finally we understand how this is set up and what it means.

For Unit 2, we dressed as a Hebrew family.  We had studied history from the books of Joshua to David's reign as king.  We also studied other ancient cultures during this time.  This time we each gave a speech on who we represented.  I was Deborah (Judges), dd was Ruth, and ds was a Phoenician trader of purple dye who had learned of the one true God in his travels, and now followed Him.  We used IEW's method of doing a KWO and studied that for our speech.  

Ancient India.  All of this is a lot of work. But the dc enjoy it. Also it employs a lot of SI work!

The Mayas...

Early Minoans and Myceneans...

Ancient China...

Hebrews...

Unit 3 we studied Ancient Greece...

DS made that hoplite costume!

They put on a Greek play, featuring one of Aesop's fables!  Once again, we did a KWO for the parts and practiced the week before.

We made a model of Solomon's temple.  Once again, ds did all the clay work.

The white squares are our feeble attempts at friezes.  The dc gave up on those, but they certainly appreciate them when they see them now!  ;) 

DD gave a 5 paragraph speech (using a KWO on notecards) for Greek architecture.

DS gave a speech on hoplites.  He also explained the layout of the temple.  He used a 3D site on the laptop to give us a tour.

 Unit 4 was the Ancient Romans.

Because they were all about being oratory, we did a lot of that!  DD prayed "The Lord's Prayer" in Latin. Each of the dc gave a speech of who they were. Ds was Paul and quoted his speech from Acts given on Mars Hill. 

 Ds art projects.  The scrolls are each of their 5 paragraph essays on Ancient Rome. They were read aloud...oratory. 

 DD's projects...

This year we've been doing Year 2.  Last November, our unit celebration was a Medieval Feast!  It was all scripted out to be as authentic as possible, right down to the singing birds in the pie!  For dinner entertainment, they read a sampling of their papers.  (I couldn't convince them to learn acrobats or juggling or anything.) It was soo much fun!  Once again, Mom and Dad were blown away!  Doing these have helped the extended families embrace homeschooling more and get more involved in what their grandchildren are doing!

In February our unit 2 celebration went up to the Elizabethan Era.  Each of the children gave a speech on who they were. Each of the children chose a Renaissance art piece and did a power point presentation, explaining the artistic style.  They also shared what they learned from a small, 4 page research paper, on Leonardo da Vinci. Each memorized a piece from Shakespeare. The cat even came in on cue!  

Our next unit celebration is this Sunday!  Last night they just completed a 13 page research paper on the settling of the 13 Colonies. In IEW, we used the Super Essay format. Whew!  We feel so good to have that done!  It's a real sense of accomplishment. Next we will put together a power point presentation on the colonies. My husband just taught me some of the basics of making slides. So the dc and I plan to do that today, based on the points that were in their essay. (I don't like to do double duty. I like writing about what we are already studying.  I like doing this power point based on all the history reading, which they compiled into a term paper.  It really hammers in the main idea while processing it from different angles and saves lots of study time!)   They will divvy up the colonies between themselves and take turns presenting the settlement of each one.  They will also give a short speech on who they are dressed up as.  

There you've seen something the dc really enjoy.  It's a lot of work but worth it since it motivates them to do present information before an audience.  The grandparents are more involved and embrace homeschooling more.  I am thrilled that my children are finally learning to write and give speeches!  Whew!