Homemaking

Today we were cleaning some corners in our school room and moving book shelves before school. What a job! We have so many books that our school room gets quite dusty. All three of us had allergy attacks before school. Hubby will install adjustable shelves on every wall before we're done. Right now, we have shelving on three of the four walls.

Hubby and I are fixing up our school room while converting our huge walk in closet into a sewing/craft room! He cut a very large window out of the wall so that I won't feel as if I am in a dungeon. I will be able to look out and watch a movie or keep up with grandbabies. It is coming along very nicely and I was able to move my sewing desk into the new room today. I'm going to wait until it is finished and then post some pictures if I ever figure out how to add pictures here.

Week Three

We are in the midst of week three of Tapestry of Grace year 4. So far, we are enjoying this new curriculum very much. It is very thorough, well laid out and interesting. I've found that it is not difficult to use at all and much easier than our previous curriculum and much less "twaddle." The pace is very quick which is good since I'm the type of homeschool mom that has to beat a subject to death before moving on. We are working hard to keep on schedule which is actually a very comforting experience.

After all these years, a new method of homeschooling

After 15 years of using a very popular unit study curriculum, we changed to Tapestry of Grace. We finished week one today and so far are very impressed and happy with our choice. Tapestry of Grace is laid out very thoroughly, is interesting and can be used for all grades. I think that it has a good balance between activities and reading. I've always been a unit study user, but with an emphasis on reading rather than many activities. I use activities to enhance what we've been studying rather than stringing activities together.

Why, one might ask would I change curriculums after so many years of loyalty to the other? Well, I have three reasons.

1. The other curriculum publisher began to promote an "expert" mentality, i.e. you need an "expert" or "master teacher" to show you how to use their materials. Of course, for a small fee, this master teacher will take you by the hand and show you what to do. I began homeschooling in the 90s when the homeschooling market wasn't flooded with products. We had very few choices, so most of us, picked what we thought was the best and just started. We made mistakes, had successes and learned how to teach our children as we felt best. I believe that the best thing about homeschooling is that we shed the need for "experts" and seek God's help to teach our children.
2. Another reason I chose Tapestry of Grace is that it is finished for all four years of High School. I had to use a lot of texts for High School with my older daughters but wanted to use unit studies all the way through. With TOG, I can do this without having to reinvent the wheel.
3. I believe that the author of TOG believes fully in our ability to take the curriculum she has written and make it fit our unique talents, abilities and family situations. She offers many helful additions so that we can adapt easily.

I considered several other options before choosing TOG. I bought another popular curriculum used and attempted to use it for a while, but ended up changing. They have a lot of books, but little or no activity and seemed disjointed.

Hopefully I will be posting about our progress as we go along. My children are excited and so am I. I think this is a great fit for us.