Last Friday, we had a little “Celebration” to commemorate the ending of our first Tapestry unit. The idea is to serve some authentic food, dress the kids up, set all the projects we did out for viewing, and let the kids practice their presentation skills. Despite the wounds incurred during prep, the evening was a success.
We served a giant pot of lentil soup, challah (I taught the kids to say it like “Holl-aaaah” which always makes me giggle), and matzo. I set the table with all of the clay pyramids, booklets, and drawings the kids did. About half an hour before our guests arrived, I took the kids back to my room and pulled various scarves and jewelry from my closet to complete their ensembles. And I don’t think they turned out half bad…
Sam was the Great Sphinx.
Ian was a sad little Pharaoh boy.
Adam was Joseph, wearing his technicolor coat.
Ellen wanted to be a “princess.” I turned her into Pharaoh’s daughter. But I don’t think she really got the concept…
In case you couldn’t hear her, when Andrew asked the Princess where she was from, she answered, “Um, from Mommy’s closet.”
And if you’re wondering, Willa was around, but I chose not to wrestle her into a costume. She preferred hanging out with our guests.
At one point, Ian plopped onto the couch and said, “Mommy, this isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.”
And then Grandpaw and the Uncles arrived and I didn’t see the poor, pitiful Pharaoh for several hours. Turns out, he had more fun than he thought he would.
If you’re up for it, here’s what I had the kids present (several times) to our various and sundry guests over the weekend. I’m hoping now that they memorized the Ten Commandments we won’t have to worry about them becoming axe murderers…
We’re winding down our first unit of Tapestry, which means it’s almost time for something called a “Celebration.” We’ll put costumes on the kids, have them recite some stuff, show off their projects to friends, and have them practice some public “reporting” skills. But mostly just celebrate what they’ve accomplished in 9 weeks. My immediate instinct was to just skip such a thing altogether, but when I saw how much my kids liked doing projects and crafty stuff, I knew I couldn’t let it slide.
Hence, today we did the crafting.
Only this time, it was different. This time, I had different projects to do for each child. Which meant that I set Adam, Ellen, and Willa lose with paint and left them unsupervised on the porch.
I know.
Meanwhile, I was inside with a pair of scissors and lots of cardboard, making various shapes and helmets for my older boys. And slicing my finger in the process.
I finally got the twins busy on their own projects.
(Look! Popsicle sticks! I’m growing in my choice of “medium.”)
Then I ran back and forth between the dining room and the back porch, distributing glitter and paint where requested. (Yea, you heard me, glitter. Did anyone else get a chill up and down their spine when they heard that?)
And then, sigh, it was time for clean-up. I threw the three painters in the shower, and then stepped in, fully clothed, to remove all the pretty colors from their bodies. But first, I documented this little artiste for you. Look how happy she is. Made it totally worth it… I think.
And now I’m curled up in my bed, puffing on my inhaler and being grateful for naptime. Maybe if I lay here long enough, the glitter on the floor will just… disappear.
We’ve got big family excitement ahead this weekend, and I plan to document it all for you ad nauseum. (Don’t worry. All of my herbal concoctions, voo-doo dolls, and asthma nebulizers will be close at hand to keep the gang healthy.)
In the meantime, I’ve got a new guest post up and I’m crazy thrilled about it. I’ve gleaned so much inspiration and knowledge from reading Simple Homeschool. If you’re homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling, I suggest you check it out. Today, I’m over there writing about how and why I use Google Calendar for lesson planning. (Besides that it keeps me from messing with my nemesis, Excel.) I’m also providing helpful hints on how to get your husband to bring you ice cream.
So I guess I was taking a tiny, unscheduled bloggy break this week because I never showed up. But today I was doing some behind the scenes stuff on the blog and I felt a post coming on… in list form. Because I like to come back with a BANG.
1 - Sam went to the doctor to get his cast off. His leg isn’t healed yet, so the doctor suggested a brace. But none of the braces fit my skinny-legged little boy. So his options were a “boot” that would be removable or another three weeks in a water-proof cast. Sam chose the boot. Much to my chagrin. The boot can’t get wet, it can get lost, torn up, messed with… And, it means we have to go put his boot on him every morning before he can get out of bed. Despite this inconvenience, I’m glad to see his sweet little bare foot every now and then and I like knowing he doesn’t have to wear it in bed at night. But, oh this hot weather and a black polyester boot… Ick.
2 - Some sweet reader/ Twitter buddy gave Tapestry my name when she ordered her curriculum and I inadvertently became an affiliate. It was unintentional, but I thought I’d let you know that I’ve been secretly trying to turn you all to the Dark Side for my own benefit. On the upside, the tiny little bit of kick-back I get will go toward the adoption, so that’s a happy thought. And, for future reference, Tapestry links will now also be “affiliate links.” The internet police may now rest easy.
And that’s all I have to say. See? Aren’t you glad I’ve stayed away this week? Here’s hoping next week has more… substance.
Alright, people. Let’s wrap this up so we can move onto more poop stories. You know I’ve got’em.
So, our goal for this year was to encourage some independence in the boys, let them start practicing time management. They are certainly responsible for many chores in our home, but I usually end up telling them which ones to do in five minute increments. I no longer have time for all of that vocalization. So I came up with a checklist for them. It includes daily chores (besides the obvious ones like “get dressed,” “brush your teeth,” “eat some breakfast,” etc.), and chores that I want them to handle or rotate on a weekly basis.
Once I had all the chores divvied up and laid out, I added blank spaces for the various school subjects I wanted them to be responsible for or expected to give them independent assignments in. This means I DIDN’T put squares for history or science or geography, because I don’t plan on cutting them loose on such things. We’re still trying to learn together, too.
Here’s what many hours of cussing and spitting at Excel resulted in: Download PDF
And there’s a slightly different version of this that assigns one child the Scooba duties and alternates some chores.
On Monday morning, our very first meeting is a scheduling meeting. Now, we don’t all sit down with our PDAs and iPhones and sync up or anything. Instead, the twins get a copy of their checklist. I look through their workbooks and give them page numbers to write in the empty boxes on their page. (Keep in mind, the first time we did this, I had to explain what a page number was, what the box was for, and I even had to remind Sam that seventy-three isn’t written like “703.”) Then if there are projects to pick from, I give them a brief synopsis and an option so I have time to gather supplies during the week based on their choices.
When the boys sit down to do their book work in the afternoons, they should be able to consult their checklist for assignments. That doesn’t mean they don’t come to me every half hour and ask me what to do. But I get to just point them in the direction of this little spot in the kitchen.
As we go through the week, if I have assignments to add, we throw those in, too. At the end of the week, I take their checklists and file them as sort of a “bonus lesson plan” written in some very sweet, messy, boy handwriting.
If you’re looking closely, you’ll see at the end of every day they are supposed to get their list checked. At this point, we’re not checking to see that they finished the page of handwriting that they wrote in their box. Instead, I’m checking for chores. If they want to do all of their spelling in one day, fine. If they want to save their math for Friday, fine. I only ask that they be ready for assigned test days and that they complete their school work by Friday. If I made the child who hates handwriting do handwriting every single day, he might resent it. Instead, he can hate handwriting all he wants, but he can figure out if he wants to do it and get it out of the way, spread it out a little, or put it off til the bitter end. Doesn’t matter to me. So long as he gets it done. So, really, the goal is not so much about checking things off a list. It’s about giving him the freedom to do things the way he wants to within the framework of what we expect of him during a week.
Do you see how lofty I can get when I start messing around with Excel? Somebody stop me.
When I started this year, I told myself that if all we learned this year was how to handle the checklist and manage our time, then I was okay with that. And I’m already seeing improvement. They know how to write down their assignments. They are starting to understand that what is written in their box matches numbers in their books. (It took me two weeks to realize Sam hadn’t made that connection, bless him.) And they had a real shock a few weeks ago when we told them they would have to complete their unfinished schoolwork on Saturday.
I’m trying not to micromanage. Which means if they goof off and don’t do their math, I try to bite my tongue during the week. It is DIFFICULT. I’ve been in such a habit of holding their hand through each little thing, but I found they were so dependent on me for feedback and direction that they couldn’t get anything done without me sitting in their laps. That was not the sort of “schooling” I wanted my kids to associate with me. So I am teaching them to understand that I’m always there to help, but only if they are taking responsibility for the things they KNOW they need to do.
This does not mean I’ve thrown my six year olds to the wind and said, “See ya. Good luck with subtraction, you’ll need it.” We’re spending plenty of time learning new material together, but the stuff that they don’t need me for, I want them to handle on their own. I want them to learn the concept that “we do our work in a timely fashion and then we PLAY.”
And they’re getting it. If I see a child lounging when I’m pretty sure he has work to do, I can simply say in a sing-song voice, “Just remember, if you aren’t done with your work, you’ll need to do it on Satur-dayyyyyy…” and they will usually scramble for their handwriting assignment. And if not, I have no problem sitting them down with a math book on Saturday. I make good on my threats. And they’re learning to make good on their responsibilities.
Our goal is not to create a bunch of mini-Type A personalities. We’re simply cultivating the life skills that we want to develop in our kids. Cultivation takes time, practice, and patience. It isn’t about perfection.
Which is something I’m grateful for 807 times a day. (And yes, I meant eight hundred and seven, not eighty-seven, thank you, Sam.)
Sitting down to write our school schedule for this year was a daunting challenge. And, before I go any further, let me remind you that this is a ROUTINE, a gentle suggestion, not a hard and fast schedule. The House of Vitafam doesn’t live by a schedule. We fly by the seat of our pants. But we do try to have a general idea of the direction we’re flying.
So…
First, I set some goals for our year, some of which I’ve talked about before. Basically, I wanted to teach the twins HOW to work independently, while still allowing plenty of time for learning together. But the learning together needed to include my littler people more often than not. And I wanted Adam to start getting some one on one attention as he transitions to school age. Most importantly, I wanted to keep things simple enough that nobody (i.e. ME) would feel strung out at the end of the day. I didn’t want to make school and the schedule PAINFUL for anyone. Oh, and I also wanted a slightly tidy house at the end of it all.
Nobody snort in disbelief. A girl can dream…
I had so many variables/children to account for and because of their age, they all need my presence pretty much all of the time. This is not conducive to actually accomplishing anything. So I made a list of the subjects I knew the twins needed my undivided attention for. I also listed any other children that needed some one-on-one time with Mommy.
When I started looking at this “Mommy List,” I realized that one way to foster independence but still be able to teach my kids was to set up Weekly Meetings for major subjects rather than trying to cover all subjects every single day. I got the basic idea of this from something I read somewhere in the Tapestry Loom, but then I tweaked it to work within the ages of kids I have. I assigned a different subject or meeting to every day of the week.
Then I added a daily read aloud section to every day, but I rotated the subjects we would read about. This allowed us to cover all the reading we needed to do in a week without feeling like we had to get it done in a day. Plus, it meant daily scheduled couch and cuddle time for everyone. I think this should be required in every household.
Then I parceled out all the chores, some individual time with my kids who need phonics, and my morning was set. All of the extra workbook stuff was left for the twins to do during rest time. Here’s our general weekly schedule:
I’m sorry about the size of the thing. You can click on the picture to see it bigger, or I’ve shared the link on Google docs here.
On Monday, I sit down with the fellas and their “weekly list” to go over the schedule. I will tell you more about this tomorrow, but basically, I let them know what we’re going to study, I give them a chance to pick their project for the week if they get a choice, and I give them their workbook assignments. Letting them choose on Monday gives me a whole week to gather any needed supplies (or courage) before Friday.
It may seem strange to start a new math chapter in the middle of the week, but I just couldn’t introduce our new Tapestry subject AND introduce new math concepts in the same day. Everyone’s heads would explode and Monday would be tortuous. So, because I can, I moved it to Wednesday. We start a new chapter each Wednesday by watching the video and then I teach the concept. Then the boys and I work one of their pages together. Once I can tell that they’ve got a handle on it, they’re on their own to finish the rest of the week’s assignments. We all actually like breaking up our math week with the weekend. And it makes Mondays not feel as daunting. Plus, Mondays give us one more day to review for a test while everyone is fresh.
Toward the end of the week, you’ll notice that the schedule is a bit more ambiguous. Sometimes, I need to use a Science read aloud time to read some extra Tapestry books. Other times, I use our project planning day to cover geography and map stuff with the boys, usually in preparation for the next day’s (hold me) CRAFT.
We’ve only used this schedule for about a month, which isn’t very long. But it withstood the onslaught of art camp and a broken leg, so I’m pretty impressed with the flexibility of it all. We’ve completed all that we needed to, no matter what the days have thrown at us. I share it with you not to show off my mad organizational skillz or to overwhelm, but to encourage you. You can do this, Mamas of Youngun’s. Set your goals for your school year, take stock of your family’s needs, and come up with a ROUTINE that will help you get through the days without losing your minds. Create a framework, then tweak it as often as you need to. Make it work for you.
Tomorrow, if any of you are still with me, I’ll show you the weekly checklist I developed for the twins and how we’re using it to teach them time management and responsibility.
Per several reader’s request, here’s more info onTapestry of Grace (and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here and click on the link in the lower right that says “Map of the Humanities.” That’s the best explanation.):
Andrew and I have had our eye on Tapestry for a ridiculous number of years, considering how young our kids are. I read about it on Granny’s blog when the twins were still babies and have been intrigued by it ever since. It appealed to us on so many levels. It was a mix of Classical style learning and Charlotte Mason “living books.”‘ It allowed for all the children in the family to study the same thing at their individual grade level, which made prep-work easier for me and set us up for “whole family learning.”
Most people’s complaint about Tapestry is that it is so overwhelming out of the package. I had several years to eyeball it, dance around it, play with it, compare it to other curriculum (curricula? curriculums?), and learn about it. For those of you who are looking to pick a curriculum for August, this may not be possible (unless you jump in next week, which you should). But it might be worth postponing your school year an extra month or so for you to get a good handle on it.*
Despite folks claiming to be overwhelmed, I liked Tapestry precisely FOR it’s organization. The makers of Tapestry have done a great job of providing online training and support for learning their curriculum. Marcia Somerville, the mother who wrote the curriculum out of sheer exasperation with keeping up with all of her children at once, is excellent at explaining why she chose to organize things the way she did and then encourages mothers to use it how best suits their families. I love that she believes in her curriculum, but also wants people to use it flexibly, any way that works for them.
Once I sorted out which parts of it were pertinent to me, I have had no trouble turning exactly to what I needed at any given moment. I can identify our goals for the week, any projects ahead, and any books I need to preview with a glance at the Threads page. I know which column my kids are in (LG) and I only read that column. I don’t stress about what they could be doing if they were in fifth grade. That part isn’t for me right now.
I do read the Teacher’s Notes, partly because I’m a geek who loves history, but mostly because this helps me teach them. I don’t sit down with my notes and give a lecture. Instead, I read the notes ahead of time and then as we read books or do projects, I can subtly point out the connections and ideas that I want them to learn based on my reading. This means that I’m “stealth teaching” without my kids’ knowledge. Sneaky, isn’t it? (Andrew also tries to read the notes so he has an idea of how to quiz the kids and talk to them during the week. He’ll prep some Bible study that coincides. See? Learning together as a family…)
Finally, I view Tapestry not just as a “history program” but as the Context for which we study everything else. The curriculum includes our geography, our Bible (this is mostly for Year 1, in later Years it will be church history), our literature, and I can include their Writing Aids with it as well. This means that we’re reading, writing, and mapping all about the same subject. Because of this, the kids have far exceeded my expectations for these first few weeks in terms of the facts they are retaining and the ideas they are putting together. We’ve got little light bulbs going off all over the place and I LOVE IT.
If you still feel overwhelmed by Tapestry, remember to look at it as a “buffet.” Nobody can do it all. Nobody should do it all. I love that there are three or four projects for me to pick from so that if one is just too messy for my anti-craft self, I don’t even give it to the kids as an option. That’s my prerogative as the mommy and the teacher. Don’t judge me.
Which brings me to one more extraneous point: part of the beauty of Tapestry is that it encourages independent work in kids, even as it fosters the idea of Family Learning Together. They’re learning to take responsibility for their own assignments and how to keep up with their stuff. (Mothers of Boys, can I get an Amen?) I can give the boys choices about their projects (but only if I want to.) They can follow the paths that interest them, but we’re all still studying the same thing. For someone with twins, this is especially useful. It encourages me to let them be themselves, which is hard for me to remember when I want to keep life simple for myself.
And I think that’s what I love the best: Tapestry allows me to give my children so many great things, but still keep things simple. It’s Simply Complex, which is a lot like life, no?
(My apologies in advance for that attempt at being Yenta. We’re studying Jewish history next week and apparently it got under my skin.)
Next week, I’ll tackle what our schedule looks like and how we made Tapestry work in the House of Vitafam.
*When they say to start out with the Loom info that comes with the curriculum before you do any planning, they aren’t kidding. Reading the Loom opened my eyes to how it all went together, what a typical week would look like, and how to get started making it work for us. Do. Not. Skip. This.
*By a fluke, somebody gave me credit for a Tapestry purchase they made and I became an “affiliate.” Therefore, an affiliate link is contained in this post. I’m happy to lead others down this crazy path with me, apparently.
The four older kids are doing art camp this week, which means there’s a lot of sitting around in a tiny room and waiting on one child’s class to finish and another child’s class to start. This is what it takes to get my little brood of five up and out the door every morning with just the bare necessities:
1 purse/bag - I will not be listing the contents of this. Suffice it to say, I NEED IT ALL.
my iPhone, loaded with kid movies for emergencies
1 box of Boggle Jr.
Mommy’s coffee
Mommy’s water
Mommy’s stash of chocolate, which tends to melt but is absolutely necessary
Is it any wonder I never leave my home?
p.s. The kids are having a blast and I’ve already got a wall full of artwork to display, so it’s totally worth the schlepping. But I plan to lock us all in next week and not look at another backpack for a very long time.
I know you people are sick to death of hearing about homeschooling from me, but this post is only partially related to the afore-mentioned subject. I promise.
I very bravely gave Sam and Ian each a choice about their “project” for the week. (By “project,” I mean the arts and crafts portion of our curriculum which makes me sweat and suffer palpitations.) Of course they chose different things, but they each seemed do-able, so I pulled up my Big Girl Panties and played along.
Ian opted to make himself a pharaoh crown. We copied this website, and I only cussed a little in my head when I had to wrap his head with wax paper and it got tangled and stuck to the oh-so-classy packing tape I was using to hold the stuff together.
I do believe I’m growing as a person.
Pharaoh’s crown is a two-part fiasco head piece, with a head piece for Upper Egypt and a head piece for Lower Egypt. We finished Upper Egypt’s head piece and Ian proudly wore it all day long. He wore it while he helped Sam finish his clay models of the Great Pyramids.
Then Pharaoh moved outside to his mini-Nile, aka The Fountain. He wouldn’t admit he was hot, but I was a bit concerned that wax paper was going to melt all over his head.
It was incredibly hard to take him seriously with that get-up on his head and his two front teeth missing. And there’s nothing Ian wants more than to be taken seriously. It was a tough day.
Late in the afternoon, the Lower Egypt crown was dry from where he painted it red (I was too cheap to just buy red poster board, although later I regretted this decision). The problem was, the other side needed to be red, too. Neither of us had the patience for that, so we sat down with a red crayon and colored the other side. I decided this was more life-like and we were both happy.
Andrew drew Ian a cobra to stick on the front and his head dress was complete. Ian was very pleased with himself.
Pharaoh Ian even deigned to join us in the car on our way out to eat that night.
(A Side Note: See the blue toy Adam is holding? A month ago, Adam was given three army men. All three “guys” were broken by his siblings. So we replaced them. They lasted less than 24 hours. Sam amputated the first leg this morning. Sigh.)
Ian cried when I wouldn’t let him wear his hat into the Mexican restaurant. I told him it was the wrong continent and wrong century, he might offend somebody.
He’s got big plans to wear his hat to Grampaw’s house tonight and quite possibly to art camp tomorrow. My next step will be to introduce him to “Walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles.
And maybe if I’m lucky, we’ll convince this one to “walk like an Egyptian,” too.
If there’s anything we homeschooling mamas like to dish about, it’s curriculum. Around March or April, as conference time approaches, the talk among my homeschooling friends heats up. We stay up late wandering sites on the internet, reading reviews, pricing things on Amazon… We inhale a lot of caffeine and get very passionate about classical vs. Charlotte Mason or workboxes vs. notebooking.
By now, most folks have nailed down their final choices and are in the planning stages. But here at the House of Vitafam, we did all the researching and digging and pricing, made our decisions, planned like crazy for four weeks, and plunged right in. That’s what we year-round schoolers have to do. And I kind of like it that way. I don’t have to wait three months and lose my excitement and passion for a new spelling workbook. (Please ignore how geeky that makes me sound.)
Anyway, this year, the twins are officially in 1st grade. I will be adding in a kindergartener slowly, as Adam won’t be five until August. And then I’ve got my preschooler, Ellen, and Willa, who mostly just needs things to climb and she’s happy.
Tapestry of Grace - *deep breath* Okay, I started to write about this and then realized that it was a post in and of itself. TOG can seem pretty overwhelming and may be a bit ambitious for someone with young kids. But we’re using it in a really broad context. I love all the connections we’re able to make between our drawing, Bible, reading, writing, and (gasp) crafting. The kids are SOAKING it up. And I think we managed to find a way to use it and fit it into our schedule that suits us very well. If you people want to know more, leave me a note in the comments and I’ll make a post out of it.
Math-U-See - My relationship with this curriculum has already been stated here and here. The love affair continues. The boys are already well into the Alpha book (we just kept going when we finished Primer) and Adam will start Primer when I feel he’s ready. (Probably fairly soon. He seems to grasp numbers pretty well.)
Reason for Handwriting - The boys are in the middle of Book A. I realized about halfway through the book that we’d been doing the pages out of order, but now that we’ve figured out Mommy is an idiot who can’t read directions, all is going very smoothly. I love that they have to write Bible verses and they enjoy coloring the pages when they’re done with their work. Win-win.
TOG Writing Aids - Because one of my twins is still a very beginning reader, I didn’t think we were ready for a full-on grammar curriculum this year. Since Tapestry includes a writing curriculum, and I happened to already have it, we decided to give it a try, using the Level 1 assignments. The boys LOVE it and, because you know I love The Verbage, we’re having a pretty good time. We’ve made a Word Bank for all the parts of speech (so far we only have nouns) and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they caught on. We’re also learning how to draw and caption pictures about the people we are studying. This week, the boys are writing about King Tut, or, as Sam insists on calling him, “King Hut.”
Horizons Spelling - I can’t say much about this yet because we haven’t started it. Right now I’m doing a phonics review with them just to make sure Sam is ready for spelling. I think he is, so we’ll start next week. I agonized over picking a Spelling book, because, well, I’m me, but I think I chose what will be simple enough for them without a lot of bells and whistles. I don’t want spelling to rule our lives. The goal is for them to learn HOW to spell so that we can eventually start using vocabulary words from Tapestry for spelling. But that probably won’t happen this year.
Christian Liberty Nature Reader - We’re calling this Science this year. It’s a cozy little read aloud that we can enjoy together. We’re starting with Book 1, which is mostly about insects, so I bought a used copy of an insect encyclopedia for us to use for extra pictures and such. If something really interests us, Mommy’s laptop and wikipedia are just a few feet away. I adore this little set of books.
Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading - Ian is already done with this (and yes, we finished all but the last ten lessons, I couldn’t believe it) and Sam is about halfway done. I will use it again for Adam, but I have purchased more magnetic letters because I think Adam will definitely need the kinesthetic/games portion of the book more.
Letter of the Week - Ellen is doing “school” this year, mostly because I need something for her to do while I work with Adam. I downloaded this curriculum and am using it in a daily workbox for Ellen, along with an activity bag. She has fun doing these and it makes her feel like a big girl. I’ve also found that if I have a chance, I enjoy being the one to sit down with her. I’m much more likely to have time because everything is already printed out and thought out for me. If all I have is ten minutes, I don’t waste 8 of them printing out a worksheet. This means more quality time. Big Win.
My goal for this year is not so much about the information the kids retain, but it’s more about introducing a lifestyle of learning into our family. I want to teach the kids to be responsible for some of their own schedule and for choosing some of their school projects. I’m trying to foster independence, but also foster the idea of learning together. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Once we’ve had more time with it, I’ll show you our schedule/routine. Working on this thing made me sweat bullets, but, so far, it’s kept things running fairly smooth.
