New school year, new... everything.

"The only constant in life is change" is how the old quote goes.
 

I tend to agree.

Just when you think you have a handle on something, it's very likely to change.

Or be changed for you.

So it goes with homeschooling.

I faced this year with another first: three kids in school.

I needed a new plan.

So I got one.

First I need to say that Sonlight served us well for these four years I used it. I actually mourned the passing of Sonlight through our lives, and it made me feel better that Laney was sad too. The upside is that I was able to keep so much of what we had used to use again, and I will continue to use their books for years to come. I still recommend that curriculum highly. I doubt that I would have had the success with homeschooling thus far if not for them.

Great. Now I'm sad again.

Here's where we push forward.

The curriculum I've chosen for us now is "Tapestry of Grace."

You can learn more here:

Tapesty of Grace

This curriculum follows the Classical mode of educating. This method of teaching is outlined and explained fully in The Well Trained Mind by Jesse Wise and Susan Bauer Wise.

I always wondered why people called it their "homeschool bible," and now I know. I very nearly carry it around with me now.

To make a long story short, this year we are studying "Year 4" which is the Modern Period of history. And with this curriculum, I'll teach the Modern Age to all the kids with appropriate books and information for each.

This is almost the opposite of what I was doing, which was teaching two separate curriculums with Sonlight to two different kids. I knew that I couldn't do that with three kids. It is possible to teach one Sonlight year to mulitple kids, and they provide plenty of help for people who choose to go this route had I chosen to do that. Or been able to choose that.

God just had other plans for us.

I've decided that Him keeping me in over my head is His way of keeping me desperately depending on Him.

So that's one reason why after four years, we had to change everything.

I'm not bitter.

okay maybe a little

It will all be fine. Better in fact that anything I could do on my own. One day I'll realize that God's Plan B is so much better than my Plan A was.

So for kindergarten Zane, we are working through the "Bob Books." It's my fault that the kid can't read yet. Both of the other ones were reading at least "One Fish Two Fish" by the time they were in kindergarten. I'll make myself feel better by reminding my self that not only was he the third kid, and I was busy teaching the other two kids, most of the time I was trying to keep Zane from doing me in. 

That and he's almost a year younger than Laney was when she started K, almost six months younger than Jude was. 

Eh, I'll get over it, and he'll learn to read, and we'll all be just fine.

He's also using "Explode the Code," which worked so well for my other two. In fact, Jude still does the harder books and loves them.

Last year, in third grade, we added Latin for Laney. This is also a recommendation of the Classical method.

We didn't completely get through with the first book last year since we didn't start until the second semester. I found Levels 1 and 2 at a garage sale, and that was pretty much why I chose this particular curriculum, but it has been wonderful and amazing. There is a DVD of a nice lady who teaches the lessons, an audio cd for review, a student workbook and a teacher book also. Laney is learning it so quickly, and that's in large part due to how well laid out this curriculum is.

Yeah, I haven't used the teacher book, but she hasn't needed me too. I really wanted to learn Latin with her, but that was not feasible. Or possible, probably. I have an old brain.

Spelling for the big kids this year is Spelling Workout. There is a level for each grade, and the kids are really enjoying this so far. I'm pleased with it.

Language Arts is coming from First Language Lessons. I am using Level 1/2 for Jude, who is in second grade, and Level 3 for Laney, who is in fourth grade. They were weak in Language Arts, and so I bumped them back a year. I am really pleased with this curriculum. They both like it, and I find it easy to use and easy to understand, but challenging enough for them also.

For vocabulary, we are using "Wordly Wise." This is certainly not necessary, but my kids love workbook type exercises, and this curriculum is challenging yet they like doing it. I also like to have them doing constructive things while I work with Zane.

Bible was one of the areas that I really missed Sonlight. I did decide to get the book that Laney would have used for fourth grade in Sonlight and let her use it in her morning devotional time. I am trying to get the big kids used to having a private morning devotional time by establishing this as part of our morning routine. 

For Bible,  I am using our church's Family Worship guide, for several reasons. It reiterates and expounds on the sermon from the Sunday before. It's also amazing how much work our church has put into making what ends up being a perfect part of our Bible part of school. There is a song, Scripture reading and discussion, and a prayer guide for praying for our church, local needs and global needs.

You can check it out here:

Family Worship

{{{I am so incredibly thankful for our church. I can't say that enough.}}}

Along with Family Worship, we are continuing to use the Harrow Family's scripture memory song cd's. Laney is about to finish year 3, which means that she has now memorized approximately eighty scriptures, which include passages like Psalm 1, 42, and 8 among others.

I would like to add that my old brain has also memorized these along with her. It's amazing how the verses we memorize come to mind when they are needed. Or how I can pull them up when I need to.

The one downside to memorizing with music is that I do have to think in order to say the verses instead of singing them, and at times have resorted to singing them. Yep.

That is one disadvantage with this, and so I have tried to also start encouraging memorization without music. Not excelling there yet, but we are working on it.

 I also have found other books on my bookshelf and in the local library that tie in with what we are learning at church. This book on Paul is an example. I just now have to use my (old) brain to plan instead of just going by a checklist, which is what I used to do.

I have also found that if my kids are coloring on the coloring sheets that come with family worship, they listen much better when I am reading longer passages of Scripture or from books. I have started finding coloring sheets that correspond with what we are learning. Even the big kids like that. 

We are also reading the "Jesus Storybook Bible." I don't have words to describe how much I love love love this book. Love it. We may just read it over and over again.

Science was another place where I really missed Sonlight. On the recommendation from a friend, I ordered from the "Christian Kids Explore" series. In the Classical method, you rotate sciences every four years also. This year is Physics for us, which is laughable since I never took physics. But elementary physics is completely doable, and I'm really excited about this. I also got Janice VanCleave's Physics for Every Kid free from PaperBack Swap  and we will use it also.












So far handwriting has included copying the Bible memory verse for the week for the big kids. This is a great way to make your own copy work sheets. Zane is of course working on his name, letters and numbers.

Math is the one thing that stayed the same. I am using Saxon Math again this year. It has worked well for us, and although Jude is way ahead and Laney is behind, we still all enjoy the layout of this curriculum, and I was happy to stay with it. A sweet friend blessed us with the next year's anyway, so when something is free, we are probably going to stick with it!

I do have a Spanish curriculum for the computer that I need to start using. I also had a head-smack moment this morning that I needed to add yet another thing to our day, which I am working on a blog post about. That will be soon...

I think that's it for now. I do keep adding and rearranging things, but for this week, this is what we are using!