HI, all! I have posted pictures and lesson plans from our first week of our new summer unit.

Check it out at: http://tiwacademy.wordpress.com

Have a blessed day!

I am just writing to check in. We have had a busy week. Some days of school and some days off with Daddy. We have finally had a break from 100 degree temperatures thanks to rain this past week! Praise God!

I am working on our detailed planning for the new school year as we will start the new year officially on August 1st! I have our KONOS planned out for August (with units planned for the whole year)--just need to gather books and supplies.

We will be studying Orderliness--focusing on the Solar System and calendars for the month of August. Thanks to a friend of mine wanting to get started with KONOS this year, we will be co-oping once a week! We plan to meet on Friday mornings at least 3 weeks out of every month. It will be a fun time of learning together! A lot of great activities and discovery learning opportunities are planned for our co-op days.

I am looking forward to starting this new unit as we have taken a bit of a break from "formal" KONOS units for  most of June and July while continuing with some math and reading practice (a good thing to do when it is over 100 and too hot to be outside long!).  We will be trying to "cram in" quite a few activities and books while we study this unit.

We are using the Orderliness book from the In-A-Box set for this Solar System study. Due to time and focus, we are not going to do the Seasons part of the unit (other than some basic discussion in relation to calendars). Our main focus will be space and the solar system as there is so much to learn! I know all my kids are going to love this unit!

Well, it is late and I need to get some sleep! I will post more as we get started and I have more interesting things to share!

Blessings,

Wendy

We use the KONOS curriculum as our core curriculum. We have been using it for about 3 years now. I have tried several other types of curriculum and have found KONOS to be a great fit for any size family. The combination of great literature, hands-on activities and Bible Character focus is wonderful!

We have done many units and I will share about what we are doing as we start our new year next month. At the moment, the kids are doing individual research projects on topics they are most interested in. Bethany is learning about dolphins. Bryce is studying about rocks and minerals. Kaitlyn is continuing her study of horses. Zachary is working on an ABC book with an animal focus. These topics are all spin offs of KONOS topics we have studied or were planning to study this summer.

KONOS is an awesome resource as you can find ideas and activities to teach/learn about almost any topic! This is one reason I love it so much! I tried another unit study approach in the past where I had to find extra activities in order for my younger children to follow along. That took a lot of extra time. KONOS has been wonderful because activities are included in the Volumes for K-8th grade--you pick the ones that fit your focus and children's ages/abilities.

They emphasize doing Discovery Learning activities which help to build your child's critical thinking skills in a fun way without them realizing it! You give your child an assignment for a project with minimal guidelines and let them go at it! It may be building something, designing a prop or costume, an experiment, or making a food. We all learn the most from our mistakes and discovery learning allows a way for learning to take place through trial and error with no pressure for the product, just the process! They never forget those things they have to build or create themselves!

My children find this curriculum and way of learning fun and inspiring. They are loving learning and desiring to know more all the time!

I can't say enough about how much we have learned the past few years (even me!). It is fun to plan and carry out the activities. We love reading together, discussing the book or topic and then doing projects/assignments to give understanding to what we are studying.

It is a great program!

Blessings,

Wendy

This is my first blog and my first entry! I am looking forward to sharing what we do to educate our children at home.

I am married to my wonderful husband, Todd. We will celebrate 12 yrs of marriage in a few months. We have four beautiful children. They are Bethany, 11, Bryce, 9, Kaitlyn, 7 and Zachary 5. We also have 3 cats, a hamster and a guinea pig.

We are a Christian family and our main goal in educating our children is to teach them to glorify the Lord in all they do. Christian character training and teaching them God's word is a main focus in what we do everyday.

We will be starting our new "school year" in August. We actually school year round and are currently doing half days through July while the kids work on special projects and continue with Math and Reading practice.

We live in the currently VERY HOT Texas, so when it is too hot to be outside for long, we try to get a lot of work done inside! We will spend more time outside learning and exploring in the Fall and Spring when the weather is cooler!

That's it for now! I will write more later about our main curriculum, KONOS and how we use it!

Blessings,

Wendy