Ready 2 Read - Review

I was searching for a reading curriculum that would help my older cousins learn to read.  Someone in a group I am part of recommended Ready 2 Read by the Moffatt Girls.  The lady who wrote the curriculum, Annie Moffatt, is a former elementary teacher - now stay at home mom.  The curriculum utilizes word families and sight words simultaneously in teaching a child to read.  Your child must know the letters of the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes.  She recommends the Leap Frog Letter Factory and that is a sound idea.  My kids loved it ;)  Go here, to the Moffatt Girls blog, to find out more about the program and view all the pertinent information!

I intended on trying to use this for a couple of older children who had learning disabilities.  Once I got it and printed it out, I recognized this was not going to work for them.  Not because the information is not valid, but because it is definitely geared toward younger children.  The 13 and 14 year old would not have appreciated the singing, cutting, and gluing like the younger set does!

So, I decided on something different for them and gathered my little ones.  They are 7, 6, and 4.  I have to say that they really loved it.

Little ones, gathered, sitting in the dining room classroom.

They had fun tracing.

They had fun cutting.

They had fun gluing. 

We sang the sight words, made a book, studied two word families, and generally had a good time with this program.

All of them, including my four year old, learned the five sight words that went with unit one by the end of the week.  Since we have the sight word caterpillar hanging up on our wall, we frequently refer to it and the kids will randomly go to it, point to a word and say it.  Go here to see more pictures of the program.

Annie has done a great job laying out this curriculum and showing you how to use it.  There is a lesson plan that tells you what to do on what day, which is very, very helpful.

I liked this program well enough that I bought Level One in its entirety.   The purchase options are very simple and the price is very good too. It is *only* $5 a unit.  There are 8 units total and if you buy the bundle, you save money because the price is discounted to $32.

Keep in mind, this program is delivered digitally and you are in charge of printing it out or having it printed out.

Toddler Busy Bags

Homeschooling with a toddler or preschooler can be interesting to say the least. It can be like trying to wrestle a cat into a bathtub full of water - near impossible and someone is coming away damaged.

You get all kinds of good advice.  Train the toddler to sit still - because that sounds so nice. That would get me good mommy marks for sure and how cool would it be, at any time, to be able to say, "Sit still", and actually have your 2 year old sit still.  Seeing as how I have yet to train my 12 year old how to sit still, I did not think I would be able to accomplish that.

The next piece of advice I enjoyed was to let your child look at books, quietly, while you taught the other children.  Ok.  That resulted in several books with crayons decorating all the pages that were not ripped out.  I may be the only homeschooling mom who has kids that destroy books and don't actually handle them with fear and reverence, like they are the source of life.

So, the next idea was to create little bags of thing, projects, toys, ect, that were to be brought out ONLY when homeschooling the older ones and the system that told you how to do it only cost.... Yep, it cost.  I do believe the laborer is worthy of their hirer, but I am BROKE. I could swing the money for the supplies for the bags but not the book that told me how to make them.  So, I had to do something different.

There was only one problem.  I am not creative.  I am not a fun mom.  I am not filled with original ideas that will one day make me independently wealthy.

So, take these ideas from a non fun, non creative, poor mom and see if you have the success I did.

You need:
Box of gallon freezer bags with the zipper closure (TRUST ME.  Get the zippered ones!)
Bag of rocks or great northern beans
Bag of sea shells
Pack of small paper cups
Pack of spoons
Plastic grid sheet
Yarn
Small box of crayons
Coloring book

Put the rocks, a spoon, and 2 or 3 paper cups in a bag.  Zip up.
Put the seashells, a spoon, and 2 or 3 paper cups in a bag. Zip up.
Put the plastic grids sheets, and several lengths of yarn in a bag. Zip up.
Put the box of crayons and coloring book in another bag. Zip up.

There you go. Toddler busy bags on the cheap.  Never ever get them out unless you are doing school.  The rocks and shells were the kids favorite things. I eventually had to make them play with them on the kitchen floor because my vacuum hated them.  But, they would ask for me to do school so they could play with them.

The Beginning of Summer... Setting up the Pool

I decided to set up the pool for the kids.  We don't have anything fancy, just a large ring set pool.  It is 16 foot in diameter and 42 inches deep.  Last year I noticed the pool was leaning, a lot, on the right side.  It resulted in the pool not being as deep as it could be and one side looked like it had been squashed.  Not cute.  Not as much fun.  Not to mention it looked like an idiot set it up.

Not our pool or our backyard, but very similar to last year's disaster

This year I was going to do it differently.  (This seems to be the theme of my life.) I went to Lowe's and bought several 50 pound bags of sand.  Let me just insert here that 50 pounds is a lot heavier than you think it is going to be.  The salesperson assured me that someone would help me load it into my van and he trotted off to help a skinny, young thing, leaving me and my four children to fend for ourselves.  My 6 year old son, who thinks he is He-Man, pushed the flat bed cart to the checkout. He was really proud of himself because he "only ran into Mommy two times!"  Yeah.....

THIS   =   THIS

After checking out, I realized, all the extra workers, who were previously loitering around the area, had mysteriously disappeared. Not wanting to appear weak, or have my ankles crushed again, I pushed the cart out to the van and opened the back hatch.  I instructed my 12 year old to get everyone in the van, buckle the youngest into her carseat and start the van, while I - otherwise known as Wonder Woman She-Ra, loaded the bags of sand.  I casually leaned over and put my hands under the first bag.

UMPHHH! I heaved the heavy bag into the back.  Go. Me.  I am actually She-Ra.  I am *the* Princess of Power. I am ah-maze-ing.  Who needs help?  Not me.  I slap my hands together and suddenly wished for chewing tobacco gum, so I could spit as I hitched up my pants.  I go back for the second bag.  It was a bit heavier than the first... but, reminded that I was, in that moment, the epitomy of awesomeness, I put my back into and heaved it into the van, right next to the first one.

My Secret Superhero Identity

I quickly realized my error.  I put my back into it. I sorta figured the popping noises probably were not a sign that this was going to end well for me.  The voice of my husband was resounding inside my head and he sounded a lot like a nagging personal trainer, "Lift with your legs! Lift with your legs!"  This time, I squatted down.  Somehow or another, I got a 100 pound bag of sand, stuffed into a 50 pound bag.  I am sure of it.  I told myself that I could do it, out loud, and people in the parking lot surely thought I was NUTS.  I wrestled the bag into the van.

Somehow or another, I managed to repeat the process 4 more times.  Woot!  The effort it took to haul *myself* into the van after all the sand was loaded was monumental.  My back hurt, my leg hurt, my knee hurt and my kids had started arguing, so my head hurt.  I threatened them, "So help me, if you all don't stop your fighting I will take all the sand back into the store and not set up the pool."  They all stopped the fighting, but my 12 year old looked at me like, "Right, Mom.... I am sure you are going to unload all this sand..."  She wisely said nothing.

I drove home and realized that somehow, I was going to have to unload the sand from the van and dump it out into the spot where we wanted the pool, and somehow see that the pool was going to sit level.  The "can do attitude" I had when I first thought about doing this had somewhat dissipated. But, the kids were all excited now and I could not disappoint them.  I turned the van off and hauled myself out.

Somehow or another, I managed to unload 3 bags of sand and emptied them onto the area of the yard that needed to be level.  That brought me to my next dilemma, how was I to know if it was level?  I smoothed out the sand and stood back to eyeball my work.  Looked fine to me!  Time to put down the tarp.

The tarp is a square.  I have 4 kids.  One kid for each corner.  We stretched it out, each kid stood on their corner to hold it down and I went to wrestle the pool out of the storage bin and dragged it over to the middle of the tarp.  Then I unfolded it.  I would be embarrassed to admit how many times I spoke with annoyance and irritation through gritted teeth at my kids, who where having trouble standing still on their respective corner... So, I won't admit to anything.... I certainly don't admit that I threatened, no less than 50 times, to sell the pool on craigslist, scoop up all the sand and take it back to the store, and not have a pool this year. *whistles*

After a half hour, I had the pool unfolded and stretched out.  The children all but disappeared. We (me, myself, and I) poured bleach into the pool and scrubbed it really well.  Every now and then a child would come and half-heartedly swipe at the dirty spots with a scrub brush.  Then I started the water and began to fill the pool.

My actual pool in my actual back yard with my actual water hose and raised beds.

Suddenly, out of no where , four children appeared, in swimsuits and goggles.....

They spend HOURS out there... HOURS... in a lopsided pool... eyeballing to see if it is level?  It doesn't work...

Oh and one more thing.

Always, ALWAYS check to make sure the pool is close enough to the house to plug the pump in.  Or, at the very least, make sure it is far enough away that you don't have to have an extension cord because you missed it by 6 inches.

What do you do to signify the start of summer?

Is Higher Math Necessary?

This was shared with an email group I am part of.  I watched it and was flabbergasted.  The number of things that I found wrong with this was overwhelming and hard to find words for.  Beckie, a math teacher on the group, did find the words I was searching for.  I asked her if she would mind if I shared her response, because I found it so fitting.
From Beckie: 

"Why is it that no one thinks twice about recommending math illiteracy but shudders at the thought of children who can't appreciate and comprehend good literature? Because that's what this recommendation is equivalent to...if we taught our kids just enough reading to get by in everyday life, we'd only teach them enough to read and understand street signs, basic contracts and news articles. Would you cut off your child's future by limiting his exposure to great literature? No? Then why would you even consider cutting off his exposure to great math? Why would you cut his choices of occupation in half simply by shutting down his math instruction once he's mastered the BASIC skills? Basic doesn't mean sufficient. It means it is the bare minimum you need to survive. And I'm pretty sure I want my children to do more than just survive.

We make choices for our children all the time. Even as they grow older, we still make choices for them that their not-fully-developed brains (yes, even in the teenage years) would never make on their own. That's why we impose curfews and junk-food limits. That's why we make them study literature and art and history. And that's why we make them study math and science. Even if they're not fond of it, and even if they struggle, we make them keep trying. Because we want them to learn that some things are worth struggling for. And because you never do know what your children will finally decide to do with their lives. You can't expect a 13 or 14 year old to know whether their future career will require more math than just the basic skills. You never know if, after 10 years of working at a job they come to dislike, they will decide on a new path that requires knowledge of more math than just the basics.

I'm a math teacher and I understand where this teacher is coming from. I used to dread the "When will I ever need this" question myself until I realized that students ask it because they know teacher's won't answer it honestly. I have always answered, "You may never need it, but what you're learning is a different way to look at the world. You're learning a method of reasoning and logical thinking. You're learning to look at the world quantitatively, in numbers, and use those numbers to help you make decisions. You might never need to graph another quadratic equation in your life, but maybe when you throw a ball in the air, you'll think about how gravity pulls it to the ground and how it's height changes over time, and what the maximum height might be depending on how hard you've thrown the ball. When you hear about large companies making decisions about how much of a product to make, maybe you'll think about linear programming concepts and the graphs of inequalities we used to represent that decision making process. And when you think about how temperatures vary throughout the year, maybe you'll think about those sine and cosine curves you graphed in trig class."

"Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here." Attributed to Plato, the great philosopher."

Owning Up - Homeschooling After the Storm

I knew exactly how I was going to homeschool.  I knew how I was going to do it.  It would involve a structured day and textbooks.  It would involve pencils and grade books.  I eagerly shopped for little desks and pint sized chairs.  It would involve a *blackboard* and real chalk.  I was going to love it.

Then I actually got kids.  And, they got big enough to homeschool.  So, we started in 2010, the children sitting around the kitchen table, and I, standing at a white board.  I lesson planned and followed through.  We did projects and read books and completed objectives. The kids and I were having a grand time.

Then, a couple months into it, life happened.  My son got sick, and he stayed sick.  School stopped. Suddenly, teaching him to read was not near as important as finding out whether or not he was going to live.  Teaching him how to quantify was not nearly as pressing as teaching how to cope with pain.  I no longer used the whiteboard for spelling lessons, but for my son's medication schedule. It seemed like it was never going to end, that he would always be sick and life would never, ever be the same.

He is much better.  He did not die.  He did not have anything that was going to take his life, just make him miserable.  We have his medication all sorted out and he is only on a single medication that I struggle to remember to give.  So, a year and a half later, I no longer want to homeschool.  I don't even want to send the kids to public school.  Really, I just don't want to do anything that is going to take a lot of effort.  I just want to breathe.

So, we are breathing.  We are doing the bare minimum.  We do reading and math for the little ones, on Time 4 Learning.  My oldest is doing a workbook curriculum and Math U See.  I don't have to plan.  I don't have to do anything except turn on the computer and listen to an occasional read aloud.  I don't even read books to them, not even the encyclopedia!

Our day consists of us getting up, getting dressed, and doing chores.  Then I turn on the laptops and get my little one's started.  My oldest gets going on her workbooks.  I try to not feel guilty.  This is nothing like I imagined.

But somehow, it is all still valid.  My kids are somehow learning. My son is learning to deal with is ongoing issues and still have a wonderful life.  I am learning how to breathe again, and how to not be worried over every little ache or pain my kid has.  I am relearning how to not be so overwhelmed that I feel like I am drowning.  I am learning how to live outside of "crisis".

It is slower.  It is calmer.  It is hard for whatever reason.  My shot of adrenaline has left me with a tiredness that I can not explain.

I keep telling myself that it is going to get better, and I know it will.  God gave us time and time is a blessing.  It fades pain and heartache and eases the intensity of loss.  I realize that when time has done its job, I will be able to see clearly again.

Are you or have you been here?  Lots of us have.  Maybe it is not a sick child, maybe it is the death of a loved one or close friend. Maybe it was marriage trouble or maybe you lost a home.  How do you homeschool through it?  Do you keep a schedule? Do you find comfort in the order of it?  Or, do you just let things go?  Do you feel okay about it if you do?

Why I Can't Shut Up

I am pretty blunt. Sometimes to a fault. Trust me when I say that every time I write one of these blogs that I sit with my stomach churning, knowing that the likely result is that someone is offended. I also debated where the appropriate place to address this was because, a dear friend, is who actually inspired this blog and it is my deepest desire that I mend any hurt feelings that I cause. I do feel at this point it is something I need to address because I am a vocal proponent of Christians homeschooling their children and I just can't seem to keep quiet about it! And inevitably, I hurt feelings, which is, believe me, not my intentions, but is instead an unfortunate result of differing convictions.

So where to start? Let me say that I believe there are many things in which the Bible gives us freedom. One example would be modesty. I think there are clear lines as to what is not acceptable, but I also believe that we have freedom to reasonably decide what is modest for us. I am the same way with music. As long as it clearly praises God and isn't simply based on an emotional response, that we can worship with many types of music. However, I believe there are clear and biblically defined standards for raising our children and based on my study of these standards I believe that public school can not be an option for our Christian children.

Let me take a side road quickly and say, I never post a blog link, a quote, or a statistic with a particular person in mind. It is never personal. I have tried to temper the stronger quotes with a disclaimer that I know there are good parents who love their children and send them to public school, I know that there are good teachers and principals ( I happen to know one!) that are solid Christians who went into the public system wanting to make a difference. I know there are good kids that do great things through the power of Christ in the public school system. I do know this and I appreciate and praise God that He is able to take any situation and turn it into something that glorifies Him! Let me also say that I do believe there are certain situations in which there are no other options such as when a husband is not on board, or during financially difficult seasons, or in places where homeschooling is illegal. I also do not believe the homeschooling is the magic salvation wand that one waves over their family to ensure a ticket to heaven. Homeschoolers are still as much in need of redemption as the rest of the world.


I love lists so that's what we will go with for this. Here are the reasons I will continue to be vocal about my stance on public school:

1. Because, I do not post specifically to offend. Though sometimes I do realize that it will happen, I only post things that truly speak to me, convict me, or are just statistical facts. I don't think to myself , "Oh, Jessica sends her kids to public school (she doesn't but I thought she was easiest to use as an example) this article will really get under her skin". No, I just post what I like. The truth is that it offends because it is different and I understand that. I see posts all the time praising the school system, talking about what a great activity or teacher their child has and so on. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON goes on there and posts about how offended they are that someone would post about public school. In fact most go on and praise it. That is fine, that is great, but why do those posts not offend? Because they aren't different, because most people can relate to them. I believe that my posts offend because they challenge the tradition thought that public schooling is the best option.

2. Because I believe there is a very clear biblical standard for raising our children and that public school can not meet that standard. In fact, I believe the system to be a sinking ship and it is my heart that all of the children who are in that sinking ship are pulled to safety. I post because I care and because I believe that the public school can not meet the biblical standard for how to raise our children.  That for every good Christian influence there are hundreds more bad ones. That bad company corrupts good morals. That parents should be the main influences, teachers, trainers, in their child's life and that can not happen when a child is away from them for 6 hours a day in a secular system that by nature hates God.

3. I post because I have an unyielding conviction to post. Sometimes, people come to me and tell me that they want to homeschool but never could. Neither can I. I can't do this alone. I have to have God's grace and mercy and guidance or I would go crazy! Sometimes, I post because it encourages another parent who is on the edge that, all things are possible through Christ. Sometimes, I post because it encourages me to see that others struggle!

4. Because iron sharpens iron. We are called to challenge each other so that our walks with Christ are the best they can be. We are not called to be compliant, we are called to be different, to search the scripture and to discuss, challenge and encourage each other to make biblical choices.

5. Because everywhere I go I am challenged by others. I am told that my decisions are bad, that I couldn't possibly be a good enough teacher for my children, how will I teach algebra, "don't you know that the homeschooling family I know is...". My kids are quizzed by strangers, my motives are questioned, we are told we are going to turn out weird, that we won't be able to get into college, that I am overprotective, that the kids won't be able to get jobs, and while most of this is ignorance (and I mean that in a lack of information kind of way), I am discouraged. My blog and my facebook pages are my forums. The places I go to gain encouragement and to speak my mind.

So before someone says it, I don't think I have corner on the market of what is biblical, but I can tell you that I have a strong, vocal conviction about the public school system and I can not shut up about it. I hope that all of my friends know that I don't choose to be friends with someone based on their educational choices for their children. I love and care deeply for each of them and their children. I pray for them and I am happy for them when they make the honor roll, or get to go field day or find a good friend. You are special and important to me, even when we don't agree.

Your blunt vocal homeschooling proponent friend,

The Weaver Review

It just isn't possible to sum up The Weaver in a paragraph. So I suggest that you grab a cup of tea or some chocolate and put your feet up for a few minutes while I tell you our experience thus far!

When I first started homeschooling my preschooler in 2004, I was drawn to the idea of a Unit Study approach. I loved the idea that I could teach both kids on the same topic but at their own level. I looked over some types of Unit Studies and just didn't feel like God was opening the door for me to use any of them. Either it was clearly not for our family, or it was so overwhelming to me that I couldn't picture how to make it work. I tried various styles of learning, and all of them were wonderful in their own way. But something still seemed to be missing and my longing for unit studies didn't go away.
Unit studies have a base that all other subjects are centered around. For example, many are history based. As the student learns a new part of history, all the other school subjects deal with the same topic. Some are based on science. But still, none of them stood out.
I didn't want to just have 'Bible time' as part of our day. I wanted every part of our education to point our eyes to our Creator. And, it is sad to say, sometimes Bible time would get left out of our day because we ran out of time.

No matter how good my boys are (and I do think they are pretty good kids), they had many days where apathy was the attitude toward their school work. I know that we had the curriculum we had because I prayed and felt so certain in what I bought. And I still feel certain, I believe God had us where He wanted us, using what we were supposed to use.

In the late fall of 2010, I once again found myself asking the Lord if there was something else I had missed. I truly don't recall where The Weaver first popped up. But it was online somewhere. One reference lead to another. I was getting very curious and excited!

I wasn't looking to change things THAT year. I was thinking ahead to next year. But along came a sweet woman (you know who you are!) who happened to have an extra set of Weaver volume 1. I didn't expect to see it come so soon, but the mail moved FAST and it was at my home in a matter of a few days. I tore open the box and started to devour the information inside! It was as if this was written just for us! I would start using Weaver in January!

What is it that makes me love it so? First, this curriculum is based in Scripture. So let's say that today we read about the Tower of Babylon. We'll then start learning about architecture. Then we'll build some sugar cube buildings. With that in mind, you will never run out of time for Bible, because it all STARTS in the Bible! You can't do any other school work without opening in the Word!
Library time is always fun for us. We love it! But now it's a scavenger hunt. We look ahead at the unit we'll study and write down the topics, the books the author suggests, and a few rabbit trail ideas of our own. Then we head to the library with our list in hand ready to attack! We come home with stacks of rich videos and books. This is the ONLY weakness that I see in Weaver, the book list. Some of the books are very hard to find, and may seem dated. I don't feel discouraged by this, though. Instead, we just enjoy our scavenger hunt, both in the library and in our home library! I have found the Apologia elementary books work beautifully with the Weaver Curriculum, as well as several other books and DVDs.

Before going any further, let's go through the binders together...

Day by Day... Some people opt out of this planner, but I love it. I think you have to remind yourself that it is a tool. You aren't a slave to the planner. You can do, or not do, whatever you like. Each unit is separated by a divider. At the beginning of each unit divider is a "Unit Preparation" page (or pages.) Becky Avery (the author) has put these pages together for the educator to read in advance. It explains what you'll be teaching, possible book suggestions for read alouds, and supplies you may need.
From there, each page is labeled by the day. So you'll see Chapter 1: Day 1. You won't see Monday, Tuesday... There is no hurry in this. You do each day as you feel you are ready. Under the Chapter and Day is room for you to write in the date, and she has the theme written. Ie- "The city, Creation vs. Evolution." Under that you'll see a "thought for the day" section. These can be read to the student or can just be a pick-me-up for the teacher.

Each subject is in bold print below. So it opens with Bible, listing the reference to read, it tells you which bible lesson you will read from in Volume 1, and any other supplies or information you'll need for the bible study on that day.

Below that comes the Social Studies OR Science section. I say 'or' because you trade off every other day. This keeps it fresh for my boys! They love doing something different every other day. Under Social Studies or Science you'll see a list of grade levels and objectives. We'll come back to that in a bit.
After that is Language Arts OR Health and Safety, again, alternating. Then a list of books and supplies needed, creative writing suggestions, Wisdom Words (if you so chose to use her Language Arts program). And it ends with Math and Reading sections which are left blank. This way you can fill in what you want to use in your home.

A little side note... We have chosen not to use Wisdom Words. However, it is a fabulous program and I wouldn't have a problem using it at all. Instead, we chose the Phonics Road series. We are using Teaching Textbooks for our math program. These two resources keep me consistent and focused in those areas, and Weaver allows me to have freedom in the rest of our studies. I believe this gives my split Type A/ADHD personality a healthy balance.

Now for the BIG binder... Volume 1! Upon opening, you'll notice it has an overview of the entire volume. This is handy to see what you'll be covering at a glance. Mrs. Avery then has several pages of information, introduction, and ideas on scheduling (if you aren't using the Day by Day planner.) Then you'll see those lovely Unit dividers. Open divider Unit 1 and you'll see a Unit and chapter overview outline. "Unit 1, Chapter 1, 10 days" is the first heading, with the outline below. Of course you can make a unit last as long as you like. Remember, you are in charge of the flow, so if you want to follow rabbit trails, go for it! But she suggests how long a unit ought to take for planning purposes and to keep us from taking years to complete one volume. Then comes "For Your Information" where you, the teacher, will learn more about the topics you'll be teaching. So far all these pages have been white in color. The Bible Lessons and suggested reading list will also be in white. After that the colors change and they become quite important. 

This is another of the areas that I love in Weaver! Each grade, from K-6, is separated by color. So all pages of lessons for Kindergarten are golden rod. If I have a student who does work at a K level, I will turn to the golden rod pages no matter which unit I am on. She assigns them as grade levels, but you decide what level you want your child to work. In fact, they may be working at K level in science and social studies, but in language arts you feel like putting them on the grade 1 work. You have total control over the work they will be doing.
At the end of each chapter you'll see white pages again. Don't overlook them! There, you will find vocabulary words, health and safety, field trips, observation projects and memory verse suggestions.

So how do these 2 binders work together? Remember, earlier, when I said I'd get back to the grade levels and objectives? Here we go! So when Day by Day Unit 1 Day 1 says to teach your K student Science Objective #1... you'll go to Volume 1 binder, open it up to Unit 1 Chapter 1, turn to the golden rod colored pages labelled Kindergarten, look under the science section and read Objective 1! Day by Day will tell you exactly where to find everything in the Volume that you'll do that day. Simple!

At the very back of the Volume you will find the Resource tab. Mrs. Avery will often refer you to something in that resource section. So don't overlook it, there are several useful pages! Dads can get overlooked in our homeschool day. But in the Resource section you'll find A Father's Devotional Partner for Weaver. It is only a handful of pages, but it explains Weaver to the Dads and it has index card forms that you can copy and give to your husband so he is up to date on what the kids are learning. This way he can have conversations around the dinner table with the kiddos about whatever Bible verses or unit themes you are covering. This isn't a required task, and it isn't to bring guilt into homes where Dads aren't involved in the school. But if you have a husband who is willing and wants to know more about your day, this tool is really priceless. And it's unique! I haven't seen this sort of tool in other curricula.

One quick note: There are 7-12 grade supplements that you can order to make this curriculum go all the way through graduation! I haven't used them yet, personally, so I can't speak to them. Maybe someone will leave a comment here that explains those further. Or, possibly after I use it next year with my oldest I can update this post. But I thought it important to let you know it does go through grade 12. In the same manner, there is a Weaver Interlock binder for Pre-K! So it can be a complete curriculum from beginning to graduation if you wanted.

What about the cost of all those books she suggests? I have found that some of the suggested Milliken books are worth having, however I bought them used on Amazon and other places. And I wouldn't recommned them unless you are dealing with upper ages, possibly 4th grade up. The Usborne books are great. They are generally easy to find in the library, but worth looking for if your library doesn't carry them. Speaking of the library, most of the topics you'll cover can be studied in depth with books found at the library. So you could honestly do most of your studies with the library and the internet. No major book investment needed! I also found that many of my books on my shelf at home have worked just fine.

In the early Weaver days I would pull out the huge Volume binder and the not-so-small Day by Day binder. They'd take up the floor by my feet and part of the table as I'd flip through looking for each activity. This wasn't so fun... So I decided to consolidate into one binder thanks to the advice of others who went before me. It is essentially my 'Brain'. In the front I have a little DVD pocket for our math and grammar DVDs and CD-ROMs. Then I have my school planner. And behind that I have a page with our "Mission Statement." The first tab is Day by Day. I pull the Day by Day pages for the unit we are studying out of the big binder and put it in this section. It may be 4 or 5 pages, or it could be a couple dozen depending on the size of the unit, but that's easier to carry with me than a big binder. My next tab is Unit Information. I use that for any of the Overview and For Your Information pages out of the big Volume for that unit. Then I have Boys' Studies where I pull their grade level pages from the big volume binder just for the unit we're studying. The next tab is Resources where I have pulled all the resource pages from the big volume and keep them handy in my daily binder. The next tab is Master's Loom. I highly recommend ordering this resource from www.unofficialweaver.com. This is a topical index and biblical reference chart to accompany the Weaver Curriculum. So if we're studying Helen Keller in Volume 1, I can look at the index and see we'll also study her life in Volume 5. This helps me to know just how much I need to cover on Helen Keller. If I am covering Herbivores in volume 1 and see that it isn't covered again in any future volume, then I may want to be sure we've learned all the material I had planned. Another tab I have is the Overview of all the volumes. I like being able to see the topics we'll cover in each volume. My last tab is Books. I have to thank my husband for this one. He had me begin a book list organized by subject years ago. This way when I am at a used curriculum sale I can flip open my list and see if I already have that book. And on the last page I have a hand written wish list with the cost of each book written beside them so I know a good deal when I find it. All of this fits in a standard 2" binder. I found my binder for 25c at a thrift store. So this doesn't have to be very fancy. But it is much easier for me to use than having to pull each big binder out each day. And it is handy for travel as well!

What does a typical day look like for us? Amazingly smooth compared to before! Remember when I said there was great apathy many days in our schooling? No more! We usually start with our AWANA memory verses. Then we'll move into the bible study and sometimes I'll add an extra book or even bring out a hymn CD to sing together if it fits the lesson. Then we move right into the topics that the Day by Day has laid out. The wonderful thing about a unit study is that both boys are learning the same things together! When we've finished with the work listed, I pull out the Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading for my youngest, and my oldest works quietly on his Teaching Textbooks. Then my youngest moves to his Teaching Textbooks while I work with my oldest on the Latin Road. We do all of this from 9 to noon each day. Any time left over can be spent with my oldest doing a read aloud with his little brother. Last week we studied composers, so he would read a picture book to his brother about any given composer. After lunch we usually have a very free flowing time. The kids may take the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine outdoors. They may play card games. Or they may be found turning their school work into play. And this isn't unusual since we've started The Weaver! They learned about architecture, so in free time they watched DVDs about buildings and bridges and they built them out of Legos.

Gone are the days of complaining about school. Back are the days of awe and wonder over what we're learning! Do we still have bad days? Sure! I think any homeschooler has to question their sanity at times. But I am so grateful for the joy and interest that The Weaver has brought back to our learning!

Feel free to ask questions or post comments. :) God bless you in your journey, no matter what it looks like.

~Christa