Weekly Wrap-up (our first 3 weeks)

It’s Thursday evening here, and man I am SO glad tomorrow is Friday! I haven’t posted any updates yet to share how the new school year is going because I have been so busy and just plain worn out!

I am amazed at the difference one more student in our homeschool makes. The fact that she is almost a high-schooler and has never been homeschooled makes things that much more interesting (and challenging). But I’ll share more about that later.

In the hustle and bustle of getting adjusted to new curriculums and new ways of doing things, we haven’t been able to enjoy a whole lot of the “fun stuff” I always try to incorporate into our days. The few projects we have attempted failed miserably. For example, our ming bowls…

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Although the kids did a very good job molding them and thoroughly enjoyed the process, the clay we used shrank up while drying. This resulted in a few cracks. Ok, I thought, no big deal. We can use fresh clay to patch them up! Then this curious little monkey came along…

Since we had our projects drying on the table, right at his eye level, he just couldn’t resist touching. Long story short, the cracks became complete breaks that were beyond repair :( We had planned on redoing them, but we just didn’t have the time. Which brought a thought to mind: We definitely need a high up, out of reach shelf hanging on the wall to keep things like this safe from exploring hands. The kids were pretty bummed we didn’t even get a chance to paint and glaze our creations.

One fun activity we did get to complete was trying to reproduce different forms of Chinese pictograms. The kids each chose 3 characters and painted both the early and modern forms on page.

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Now I think it would be nice to share a little bit about each of the kids’ studies and how they are doing so far.

Isaiah – 8

Isaiah has gotten to the point with his reading where he is hitting a wall, actually it’s more like a plateau. So we have been doing things other than our BJU Phonics and Reading 1 program. the first new thing we are trying is ETC Online. This is working out pretty well, and I am seeing improvement with his basic phonics skills. The second part of our new approach is using Rocket Phonics. At the HOTM conference last week, Dr. Guffanti (the creator of Rocket Phonics) shared a lot of great info about Kinethetic learners, and I got to ask him some questions about reading. So after listening to him talk about incorporating games and motion into your curriculum, especially when a subject is tough for the child in question, I decided to give it a try. So we started working through the lessons and games in Rocket Phonics this past Monday. So far, we are mostly reviewing the skills he has already learned. But he is really enjoying it and is able to actually sit and “do” reading for about 30-40 minute sessions daily without losing focus or getting frustrated. I think we have a winner! Isaiah is doing a lot more things on the computer now as part of my attempt to make his learning more engaging and exciting.

Drew – 10

Speaking of reading, I’m just dying to share a little Mommy brag. Drew has always been a pretty strong reader, but has never really enjoyed the process of reading. I have purchased any number of highly recommended books for boys his age, but none of them have really produced the enthusiasm I have been working for. The other day we went to the bookstore and I allowed the boys to choose a book. Drew recently read a few superman comics, graphic novels actually, and kept bringing me these $20 books. Of course, I was not planning on buying him a $20 book, so we went over to the young reader’s section. I happened to see the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, which I have heard lots of good things about. I talked him into it and we left to go get dinner.

This child read the book through dinner, on the way home, and for an hour after we got home! He kept giggling and rereading parts to me and his brother. He went to bed soon after, and I looked where he had placed his bookmark – he had read 65pp in just a few hours!! he read more today and is now over halfway through the book. It was a beautiful sight to come downstairs after waking up this morning to see both my boys, not vegging on the couch watching cartoons, but READING!! I am LOVING it!

Besides the reading progress, we have also changed latin programs for Drew. I realized, halfway through level 2 of Latin’s Not So Tough, that it was teaching him whole-to-parts latin instead of the parts-to-whole that the WTM recommends. So, we are now doing the Big Book of Lively Latin, and though it has been a bit more challenging for him, we are both learning way more from one week of this program than we did in 2 months of doing the previous program.

Drew is also really enjoying doing Logic stage Biology ala TWTM. He has not complained once about a single Science assignment, even when he is required to read and outline (he dictates, I type or write) from the Usborne IL Science Encyclopedia. I was worried about that being too challenging of a read for him, but he is grasping the material beautifully this far!

Jasmine – 13

Overall, Jasmine is doing well. We are having some issues with breaking some of her public-school, one in a classroom of 30 students mentality. She has shown at times that if something is too hard or takes too long, she won’t finish it. She has had a few days where she has had double assignments in a subject because she neglected to finish the work on the day it was originally assigned.

She does, however, take great notes for her notebooking pages in History, although I think we are going to be working on learning some outlining skills as I think she is being a bit too thorough and missing some of the key information. My goal is for her notes/outlines to be all she needs in order to study for an evaluation at the end of a week or a chapter. So far, she hasn’t done well on tests.

She has really been enjoying doing the transparencies for her TOG atlas assignments, though I am disappointed that she isn’t enjoying doing her timeline activities more. I am hoping this will change as she continues to adjust to homeschooling. Her writing thus far has been really good, and though she needs to hone her grammatical skills, her creativity is inspiring. She does a great job of getting her thoughts down onto the paper.

We also started our formal Latin and Logic studies this week, using materials from Classical Academic Press: Latin Alive level 1 and The Art of Argument. She seems to be enjoying these and while the Latin is pretty intense, between it and Lively Latin, Mom is getting a crash course! We are still wading through the introductory material from AofA, but she seems very pumped about learning how to argue logically and identify fallacies. I am really glad we are going through this program together, cause I have a feeling she is going to be pointing out the shaky arguments of everyone in the house. I will be prepared!! LOL

So I hope that gives you a decent idea of what’s been going on the past few weeks around here. As for me, this post has taken much longer to write than I had anticipated, and it’s now very much past my bedtime! I hope you had a great week and an even better weekend…

Blessings,

Why Classical Education?

Being a curriculum junkie and always looking for the next best thing means we have tried lots of different ways to homeschool. When we started out in our journey, I didn’t know anything was out there besides textbooks. Our first few years were filled with textbooks and lifepacks. But man were we bored! Over the years, being the researcher I am, I have learned that there are sooo many more options out there for homeschool families, and I have tried many of them,. But a few years ago, I heard about a book called “The Well-Trained Mind” and went to my local bookstore to purchase it.

TWTM (as it is affectionately called by die-hard fans) opened up a whole new world for me and my children. Through it’s pages, I learned how we can use non-fiction, living books instead of a boring, dry textbook to make learning more interesting and engaging. But more than that, I learned how to do this without neglecting important topics, eliminating the possibility of those much dreaded learning gaps. TWTM not only defines exactly what a classical education looks like, but lays out grade-by-grade, subject-by-subject HOW to cover all the needed material for a complete, rigorous home education!

By using the Trivium, I have gained more insights into how my children learn at different stages of their development and how to encourage and challenge them each and every day. I have learned how to eliminate the needless busywork and incorporate methods that make every teaching moment valuable. I have discovered ways that turn dry facts into adventures my boys can’t wait to begin! Not to mention we have added some wonderful projects and books to our repertoire.

I find it important to note at this time that I do NOT follow the recommendations in TWTM word for word. I do not feel the need to do everything suggested, rather, I use it as a resource to guide my curriculum choices and chosen topics of study. For instance, I combine the suggestions in TWTM with Tapestry of Grace’s curriculum. Especially in the grammar stage, TOG is a huge help by laying everything out for you. I find as my kids get older, I take more from TWTM’s suggestions and mesh it together with what we are doing in TOG. So far, this is working out beautifully and we are really enjoying all of the books, projects, and discussions that have resulted.

In certain subject areas, I have strayed at times very far away from the suggestions in TWTM. Some of these ventures have worked out just fine. But in other areas, I continually find myself cracking open the book again to re-evaluate, and many times going back alongside it’s suggestions and methods.

Many people, especially new homeschoolers, think a classical education requires a parent to have been college educated, or at the very least to have read many of the books from TWTM’s Great Books List. And while it is true that having experienced some of these great works yourself will give you an advantage in discussing them with your own child, there are many resources out there that will help you do this without having read the entire work on your own (TWTM talks about this very topic in-depth). The truth of the matter is simply that any parent who is willing to do their homework can give their child the awesome gift of a classical education at home!

I am aware that there are many books out there that claim to provide the same guidance for parents, and I have not read them. Nevertheless, TWTM so thoroughly covers every aspect of a classical home education that I have never felt the need to read these other books. It just works for us! In addition to the wealth of information and guidance found within the pages of TWTM, there is a blog (written by Susan Wise Bauer herself) and a forum available for those who desire a bit more. You can also find a wealth of information by visiting Peace Hill Press’s YouTube channel and watching some of the very informative videos listed there.

Please do not misunderstand, I am not writing this in order to try and convince you that a classical education is superior or even that you should run out and buy this book. My purpose is merely to introduce the concept and encourage those considering homeschooling classically that YOU CAN DO IT! And whether you find your confidence to do so through reading TWTM or another source, you will be so glad you took the time to do so!

Blessings,

More about starting a new school year – part 2

Tonight I thought I would share a little bit about how I plan for a new year, or rather how I am currently planning (it changes every year). I shared some basic info on how I was handing planning in my previous post, but I thought I might use this time to share with you exactly how I am getting things done right now.

As I stated in my first planning post, I am planning in 6 week terms. My goal is to start the year with 3 terms worth of lessons mapped out, as well as all the papers, copies, etc. organized into term folders for future use. It’s all about simplification folks! I am not going to lie, it’s been a lot of work. But it is going to save me so much time weekly/daily and that’s a good reason for me! I would much rather plan and prep for a week every 6 weeks than every single weekend. I started out with a form I found at Donna Young’s site and tweaked it to fit my needs and preferences.

Anyhow, here is an example of the form I started out with:

^ week Lesson plan Log -

And here is what I ended up with:

Math Lesson plan term

Unfortunately you can’t see my beautiful font on these pages, because it did not transfer when I uploaded the document, but you get the idea. SO I go through each book and lay things out with a daily schedule. I then print these pages and put them behind the correct term’s tab in my record binder. I also printed off a copy of the first term’s plans to place in my son’s binder. This is what he will refer to when he looks through his binder and fills out his daily assignment sheet at the beginning of the day. (You can find that form in my previous post, More about starting a new school year – part 1.) So I have done that for each and every subject we are doing this year, except Tapestry of Grace, which I made a custom form for and has both boys’ work on one page. I am still trying to decide how I am going to work with the TOG plans for their work binders, since we do a lot of our Tapestry activities as a group. Oh yes, and I still have to make a spelling lesson plan for Drew, then I will be done with this phase of my planning. In case you were curious, here is a blank form I made to use for TOG lesson planning:

TOG Weekly block planner

I have made lots of forms in my homeschooling journey, but this has to be one of my favorite so far. It is typeable and has all the info I need in one place. Anyhow, this is what I use to plan all our TOG related work for every week. There are 2 pages because we are doing the curriculum half pace for now, so I stretch 1 week plan out over 2 weeks.

I plan on writing another post this week on how I go about planning my TOG in such a way that I don’t forget things or schedule too much work in one day, so stay tuned for that!

Anyhow, after going through this process with all our subjects for the coming year, I have a great road map that shows me exactly what I need to prepare for the coming term and put into the kid’s binders for them to work through. I will also be using the plans on these pages to pre-prepare (is that a real word) by getting papers ready and organized for upcoming terms.

Just a few sidenotes – in case you were not already aware – I love forms!! But I am never happy with just using someone else’s forms as they are, so I tweak and I modify until they are exactly what I want. Yes, I waste spend a great deal of time doing this. It makes me happy, what else can I say?

Secondly, this is my first time ever attempting to plan so far ahead. Mostly just because I am not a schedule-it, plan-it, prep-it ahead of time kind of person. I like to fly by the seat of my pants whenever possible. But I am become painfully aware that when you homeschool, and have 4 kids, this is not always the best way to do things. It’s not an easy change for me, but I know it will be worth it. The hardest part will be sticking to the plan as much as possible, at least when it is in my control to do so. Life happens!

So I hope I haven’t bored you to tears with all me detailed explanations, or confused you. I just thought it would make for an interesting read. I really enjoy reading how other homeschool families make it work and I hope you will, too!

See you soon!

Blessings,

Another school year is over…

which means planning time for Mom! Man have I been busy, busy, busy. I am attempting something I have never attempted before, I am planning out our year a semester at a time. Why? There are several reasons, but the most important one is this: it’s time for an overhaul! (I know, I know, I am always changing things up.)

Hubby and I were talking last week about the state of our little homeschool, and there are some things that we are both unhappy with. So after talking about these things and throwing out some ideas, we have a new plan for this year.

First of all, workboxes are out. Too much weekly/daily prep for me, too little time and energy actually spent on getting things done. We have slowly been falling behind for the past 2 years and enough is enough! We have to get back on track and QUICK.

I am also concerned that I am not giving my boys enough opportunities to be responsible for their own work. Drew is 10 now and there is no reason why I should have to babysit him through every assignment. He can read well and should be doing the bulk of his work independently.So out with the workboxes and in with a new system that will allow the boys to go off on their own, materials in hand and do what they can on their own. With the help of a good friend, I have tweaked my old binder system to help meet our goals for the year.

I am in the process of making lesson plans for every subject for our first semester. I am almost finished with this part of the process. These lesson plans are broken down by subject into 6-week terms, one term/subject  to a page. Each boy’s binder has a tab for each subject they are doing this year. Behind some tabs I have minioffice printables in page protectors. These hold things like a multiplications table for math and an editing checklist for composition. Then behind these I have placed the 6-week lesson plan for that subject. The only dates on these are the dates of the term, so they can work ahead if they want or do 2 assignments every other day. This will enable them to have a bit more control (and responsibility) over their work. Most importantly, each section has all the work they will need to complete for that term, so they can just move through the stack of pages, paper clipping the pages together as they finish them.

The front of the binder also holds a calendar of the current month and a calendar showing our entire school year mapped out. In the front pocket are a stack of copies of daily assignment sheets. I custom made these:

Daily Assignment Grid

I actually made one of these for each of my boys with their subjects typed into the boxes. But you can use this one if you want to. When they start school for the day they will take out one of these sheets and fill it out buy going through each section of their binder and finding that day’s work. Since all my lessons plans are undated this will be an easy way for them to see all their work for the day in one place and check things off as they go through it.

My hope is that our days will change a lot with this system. I will set aside an hour or so each day to work one on one with each of them, covering new concepts and the items they can’t do independently. When I am working with one, the other will be able to take his binder into another quiet area of the house and go through his independent work. Then we will still have an hour set aside at the end of the day to cover the material we do together such as some of our Tapestry work, devotions, projects, etc. They will have until this time to complete their other work. Then after we finish our group work, the school day is over! However, if they have not used their time wisely and have not finished their other work in the allotted time, they will go back and finish it before they are given their free time.

The other very important component of this system involves a file bin and lots of hanging folders. My goal is to have 2 terms ahead planned and all of the papers printed, copied and torn out and stuck into a folder. I have labeled a folder for each of the boys for each term, and the work will go into those. This way at the end of the term, I just have to get out the stack of papers and new term lesson plans and stick them in the proper section of their binders. Their finished work from each term will be put back into that folder when we start a new term,

I am also setting aside separate folders for each week of Tapestry to hold all the printables and worksheets we will need for each week plan. I want to have these done for the entire year. Why? I am always finding useful links and printables on things we haven’t started studying yet. I end up bookmarking them or printing them off and loosing them, and then we never get to use them. This way I can put things in the files as I find them. Then they will be there waiting when we get to that week plan.

Wow, what a long post this has turned out to be! I guess I should wrap it up and get back to work :)

Blessings,

Curriculum Plans for Next Year

Anyone who knows me well knows tax season is full of business for me. We filed a lot later this year than we typically do, as W2s were lost in the mail and we had to wait for new ones to be sent. But we got them done and received our refund last Friday. Because of hubby’s long stretch of unemployment last year, we didn’t get back as much as we are used to, but we did get enough to do what needed to be done and a little extra, so I’m not complaining!

I always plan our curriculum for the following year and purchase what I need with our refund. We are going to be doing some new things next year that I am really excited about!

• Latin’s Not So Tough Level 2 – I think next year is going to be a good time to start formal Latin study for Drew. I looked at a lot of programs, but I chose this one because of all the awesome reviews, ease of teaching, and the fact that it used the classical pronunciation.
• Critical Thinking – I purchased some material from Critical Thinking Company (again, for Drew) to prepare him for logic studies in a few years. They have so many awesome books, we are going to start with Building Thinking Skills Level 1 and Reading Detective: Beginner.
• Saxon Math 5/4 – I’m a little nervous about switching math programs, but I think this is going to be a good choice for us. We have used nothing but BJU math since first grade and we really like it. But as we are delving into harder concepts, I am noticing Drew’s homework and test grades slumping a bit. I am hoping the review cycle with Saxon will remedy that. the big selling point for me was the Saxon teacher cd-rom. This little puppy is going to save me LOADS of time everyday! And I won’t have to worry about confusing my kids on the more difficult subjects as the cd lessons will cover how to do the problems. The only thing I am worried about is that the BJU math has not prepared him enough to move into a more advanced program, but we will just take it slow and review, review, review!
• Lessons in Responsibility for Boys Vol.1 – I have had my eye on this for some time now and I think this book will be a HUGE help to my boys. They are getting older and it is becoming extremely important to me that they begin to mature into responsible adults. I am hoping this series will spur on some great discussions in our home and help them to understand the importance of responsibility in every area of their lives.

In addition to our new things, we are continuing with TOG and I will be purchasing units 3 and 4 of year one, along with the lapbook templates. I already have all the other materials I will need to get us through year one. I don’t see us finishing year one until Fall 2011, since we are going half pace for now.

I also purchased BJU Reading 2 and 4 (mostly used) for next year. I went back and forth on this and was seriously considering using MCP Plaid Phonics and Reading A-Z, but especially since Isaiah was a late reader, I don’t want to make any mistakes with this subject! So I decided to keep using the BJU reading program for both boys. I am hoping next year will be the last year I feel Drew needs a formal reading program. Depending on when I feel he is ready to move into Dialectic level work, that’s when we will nix a reading curriculum and focus more on literature and reading from TOG. So we may end up doing BJU Reading 5, too. Time will tell. I am also thinking about ordering the Phonics Review workbook to go along with Isaiah’s reading, but I will wait until I have a chance to dig into the curriculum before I decide. I learned the hard way with Drew that phonics is so very important and shouldn’t stop after they learn to read. Especially if it doesn’t come easy to them.

We will be continuing with Easy Grammar through next year also. Right now Drew is about a quarter of the way through EG 3, and Isaiah recently started EG 2, so I am getting EG 4 from a friend later in the year since we won’t be ready for it for a while.

Isaiah will continue with BJU Math through 3rd grade, then I will switch him to Saxon 5/4 also. I had already purchased an additional 3rd grade math worktext last year, so I had no need to purchase anything for his 3rd grade math.

Hmm, what am I missing..

Oh yes, I also went through my TOG booklist and picked out a few of the books that I thought would be worth it to buy to add to our library. A couple of these were selected because I can not find them at my local library, others because they are used in several week plans, and others just because I thought they would be nice books that we would get a lot of enjoyment from. All of our other books we will get from our library. I will continue to purchase books for units 3 and 4 as I can throughout the year.

That pretty much covers our plans for the 2010-2011 school year. I put a lot of work (as I always do) into choosing curricula that would be a good fit for my kids. I am relieved it is all ordered and now I can stop stressing over it, LOL! Now all that’s left to do is wait fro my boxes of books to arrive, which is my favorite part next to opening the boxes and pouring over the books for the first time.

Have you started planning and purchasing for next year? What things are you excited about using? I really want to know!

Blessings,

Weekly Wrap-up – January 9, 2010

 

I used to do these homeschool “Weekly Wrap-ups” on a regular basis and have gotten away form doing them. Since I have a renewed blog and a renewed drive to write more, i thought I should get back into participating!

This post will be short and sweet, as I was sick for the first half of the week and we had a light week of school…

This week we finished up Y1U1 week 4: Creation Through Noah in our TOG curriculum. Our next 2 weeks we will be covering week 5: Babel to Ur: Early History of Ancient Mesopotamia. I already have our activities all planned out and scheduled. All that’s left to do is print our pages and fill the workboxes!

The planning for week 5 went very smooth today. Up until now, it has taken me the better part of a day to get everything figured out and scheduled. I think I am now getting into my own “niche” and have a pretty routine way of going through the curriculum and transferring it into a weekly lesson plan. I am glad I decided to go back to TOG, it has been such a fun journey! I will definitely be staying with TOG this time for the loooong haul (meaning someday I will be doing it all over again with Joey)! I can’t wait til we go through the cycle again when the boys are HS aged and see how much deeper we can go.

We also had a good snow this week so the boys got to bundle up and play outside one afternoon. You can see pictures from their fun here.

We got to read some really great books this past 2 weeks and I want to recommend some to you:

I am not sure if you find this one to purchase (unless to happen to find a used copy) but you may look for it at your library. Here is a review posted on Amazon:

“In Yellow & Pink . . . Steig has created a pair of characters who seem the embodiments of his bright esthetic. Named for the colors of their freshly painted costumes, Pink and Yellow are wooden dolls left out to dry in the sun. They are odd fellows, bumpkins, incorrigibles, clowns, countrymen of Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, Laurel and Hardy. Philosophers both, they no sooner ‘awaken,’ come to life, than they begin to ponder by what means they might have arrived in this world. ‘How,’ Yellow demands . . . ‘could anyone make something like me, so intricate, so perfect? Or, for that matter, like you.’ . . . One marvels at the expressiveness, the nearness to animation, of Steig’s vibrant drawings.” – Leonard S. Marcus, The Washington Post Book World
-- Review

We really enjoyed reading this book and I loved the creative way the author addressed the question of where we came from.

We could not find this book at our local library, so I purchased it from Amazon. It is the most thorough, accurate children’s book I have read about Noah’s Ark. It is full of extra information in the back and includes a panoramic, pull-out illustration of the inside of the ark. We spent a lot of time just looking at the pictures and noticing all the little details the illustrator included.

The kids also go to design and paint their own coffee cups yesterday. We had purchased the little kits as Christmas presents and had not yet had a chance to paint them. They really enjoyed them.

As I said, it was a light week and we pretty much treated it as a catch-up week. We have much more planned for the next two weeks. I am totally ready to get back into full swing!

Click here to see more Weekly Wrap-up posts. See you next week!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Ancient Mesopotamia/Sumeria Study Links

We are getting ready to study Ancient Mesopotamia this week and TOG, so I went lurking around the web to find supporting materials. I found some really great links that I wanted to keep a permanent record of and share with you! Enjoy!

Great page about Sumerian Art and Architecture

Printable PDF file - Make a Model Ziggurat (print on card stock and color, then assemble)

Link list for PowerPoints about Mesopotamia/Sumer

National Geographic Kids – Video

Site about Hammurabi's Code (with translation)

Complete Unit and Lesson Plans

Happy studies!

: ) Cassie

Workboxes and Efficiency

I have been using workboxes for several months now and I have learned some useful things along the way. I thought I would take the time to share a few observations with you about what is working for us!



I have seen from a lot of mommas say that the time it takes to plan and fill the boxes can be overwhelming. I felt the same way the first few weeks we used them, and I am pretty sure most workbox mommas would agree that's the norm! But as you determine to stick with it (because your kids are enjoying school and getting tings finished in record time) you will find that you develop your own system of filling the boxes and getting ready for your school day.

A few weeks after implementing the workbox system into our day, I decided to change up our curriculum. You can read more about that whole process here.

Now that we are using Tapestry of Grace, and several other classical resources, planning kinda took a quantum leap for me. Instead of just planning out lessons by numbers and pages, now I found I had to dig a little deeper and think a little harder about what each day of our week would look like. So, I developed my own little system, using my own version of TOG's daily assignment grid. Yes, I made yet another custom planning form, but we can talk about my paperwork and forms obsession another time. Any how, I made a custom form for each boy, as they are doing different levels of work (Drew is doing UG, and Isaiah is doing LG) and different types of subjects. I would love to share with you, but I can't get them to upload correctly to scribd.

Anyhow, I plan two weeks out at a time. There is a good reason for this other than the fact that I am killing two birds with one stone. Since we are doing TOG at half pace, what the curriculum lists for one week of work, we actually do in two! It's much easier to just split it up and plan the two weeks at the same time than it would be to plan each week separately. Anyhow, that's my first step, filling out those assignment grids.

The second step is to make a to-do list as I am going through my lesson planning. I list all the copies I need to make, resources I need to find/get, craft and projects preparations, and anything else I want done ahead of time. After I am all done with my planning, I go through my to-do list and complete each task, placing any of the weeks necessary paperwork in my TOG binder in the correct week's pocket.

Now comes the third step, which to many seems like a daunting task, but if you plan ahead and prepare, it will be a breeze! Now it is the night or morning before school and you have to get those workboxes filled and ready to go! This is what I do:

First, I do only one child's boxes at a time. I take all the boxes and spread them out on the table in numerical order. I get out my TOG planning binder and open it up to my assignment grids, which are freshly printed and in the front of the binder. Then I get my stack of papers for the week, and I go through my page and place each subjects work into it's box. I also have in a nearby rolling cart for easy access: glue, scissors, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, etc. That way I can just grab whatever I need for each box as I am filling them. Then I put the filled workboxes back onto the cart and start over with the other child's boxes! It takes me about 10 minutes per child to do this UNLESS I have forgotten to make a copy or I have to find extra goodies to fill empty boxes. That usually doesn't slow me down too much though.

So you see, it's all about your method! It's all about planning ahead! Want proof? Go ahead and do this with your curriculum, tweak what you need to, and see if it makes a difference in your day-to-day prep time. YES, it takes a little more planning and attention to detail ahead of time. YES, things don't always go along with "the plan". BUT it is worth the extra effort! Your daily prep time will decrease and so will your stress level! GOOD LUCK!

PS - If you tried this, or do something different that helps you, please share in a comment!

Blessings,

Cassie :)

The Queen of Last-minute Overhauls Strikes Again!

I know I said I would update you before now about our last minute change-of-plans for the school year, but I have been sooo busy planning and doing our first week of:

Yes!! We are doing TOG again. We tried it a couple of years ago, when redesigned was still pretty new. Soon after starting it, I got pregnant and lazy. And after they raised the year-plan prices, I decided there was no way we were going to be able to continue using it in the future. At that time, I was buying all of my books.

Fast forward 2 years to now. We have been doing the textbook thing for a while now. We changed back out of necessity. We weren't getting much done doing unit studies because I was taking care of a baby and that didn't leave me a lot of time to put studies together and organize materials. So I figured a pre-planned, step by step boxed curriculum was our best bet. That way I had a scope and sequence and wouldn't have to worry about any "gaps" I might overlook.

We have been bored stiff. There are subjects I don't want to even teach because the books are so boring. So I started looking at some different unit study, multi-age curriculums on the net. I checked out My Father's World, Time Travelers History studies (Homeschool in the Woods), KONOS, and a few others before I decided to check out the TOG site. When I did I made an amazing discovery!

TOG has gone digital!! Which in itself is great, but what makes it even better is that the individual units are $15 LESS than the pre-printed plans!! Ok, I thought, maybe this will make it more affordable. I decided to download the Year 1 Three-week sample to get a better look at it. I found all but 3 of the recommended books at my local library.WOW! I began to seriously think about using this curriculum again. IF I could use the library for the great majority of our materials, that made TOG affordable for us! I got out my old booklists that I had printed from using TOG before and looked up the entire contents at my library. For the second unit of year one, I found every book (or it's recommended alternative) except one! That was it, I was hooked on the idea of giving this awesome classical, Christian, multi-level, multi-subject, chronological curriculum another go. So I talked to the hubs. He was skeptical. "What ,makes you think you will have better luck using this time?", he asked me. OK, fair enough question. I went through my list of Pros and Cons. He said, "Sounds good, but how much is this going to cost me?" I informed him of the fact that the plans were now cheaper thanks to the DE versions becoming available and that I could get all the books except a few at our local library. I told him I would sell as much of our other curriculum (that DE would replace) as I could to make sure to make the change-over as painless as possible. He said, "OK, but this is it. Once you change to it, you are stuck with it. I am tired of you changing your mind. You had better find a way to make it work." I also told him that I was planning on doing the plans half-pace, doing only two units per year, at least until we get through the first year plan.
Now I just had to figure out what to do about the subjects TOG doesn't cover:

• Grammar
• Spelling
• Math
• Phonics and Reading
• Science
• Handwriting

So I decided we would stick with BJU for Math, Phonics, Reading (for Isaiah) and 1st grade spelling (Isaiah). We will also continue using our Handwriting without Tears workbooks (they are working out wonderfully). The BJU English wasn't going to cut it because TOG already includes a writing/composition component. I didn't see the point of paying $80 per child, per year for a program that was only half grammar and skipping all of the included writing lessons. So for Isaiah, we are doing a mild introduction to grammar, copywork, narration, and dictation (following a classical model) using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. I already had this book on hand, but had decided not to use it once we went back to textbooks. For Drew, I purchased Easy Grammar 3. I am copying the student work pages in order to use it later with Isaiah, and eventually with Joey! I was thrilled to find it on CBD for only $24.95. For Spelling, I decided to go ahead and use the BJU Spelling 1 for Isaiah I had, since it is tied in with his Phonics and Reading programs. For Drew, I have been thinking of changing his Spelling lately, as the All About Spelling has only 20 lessons per level, and the levels are about $30 to purchase. Which would add up to at least $90 a school year. So through many recommendations, I purchased a used copy of the 3rd Edition of Spelling Power for only $10. I also purchased the additional Quick Start DVD to go with it from CBD. It was also under $10. We are both loving it so far, btw, and Drew is doing great with it!

Science was another issue altogether. SO I decided to follow the 4 year cycle recommendations from the Well-Trained Mind. And since they are in different grades, I decided to allow them to choose a topic to study and we would just continue afterwards with that area of science and move through the cycle as we wish. They chose to study Electricity. This worked out great for us financially, because I already have a project kit for an Electricity study I picked up at Target on clearance a while back. All I had to do was get some kind of guide to help me make sure to study the correct areas, so I bought a lapbook from Hands of a Child. We are renting books and materials from the library to learn more.

So now, I have sold quite a bit of curriculum through online classifieds and have made enough money to purchase:

• TOG Year 1 Unit 1 DE
• Year 1 Unit 1 Lapbook DE
• Spelling Power
• Easy Grammar 3
• Walk with Y'shua Through the Jewish Year (a book my library did not have)
• A lapbooking kit for our Unit Study on Electricity

Well, this has turned into quite a looong post, hasn't it? I think I will delve more into our new plans in my next post. In the meantime, we are having a ball doing our first week of TOG. I will post pictures soon of all the projects we are doing together.

Blessings,

Cassie :)