Today, we write letters. I will have to transcribe Girly’s, but we will be writing letters… Continue reading Day 4: Express thanks
Tag Archives: writing
The Dragonnaire Cluster
I just needed to update you all on BigGuy’s writing. I’m VERY. PLEASED with it! He’s seriously coming along really well!! We don’t work on this every day but after his first whipping out of a page of writing, I introduced the process of rewrites. There is a local homeschool mom I admire very much and she recently divulged how she tackled writing instruction and the gusto with which she embraces the rewrite. Her kids (who are high school age) know that there is pretty much no set number or max on rewrites.
I gave this some thought, and decided that I would really rather my son be prepared to rework his writing many times over than assume he was done after any set number (likely a number close to 3). Continue reading The Dragonnaire Cluster
Totally hacked my son’s education today
Sho ’nuff did. So, I have not been able to get my act together–especially to facilitate Socratic/thinking discussion.
But I was inspired by my son’s willingness to write when the writing was about the fictitious land he created and made a map for. Then I saw a TEDx talk on hackschooling. Suddenly, I remembered the whole reason we’re homeschooling is to allow our kids the experience of learning by way of the things they love–that drive them to learn. Continue reading Totally hacked my son’s education today
My kids did a LOT of writing today
Girly loves, love, loves, LUUUUURRRRRVES the Magic Cabin catalog. Me, too. Inasmuch as our family has tried to phase out “Santa” for more reality-based ideas about the December holidays, Girly will have none of it. She wants to believe in Santa and there’s really no way to gently let her down; and I will not shatter that illusion in a disturbing manner. Continue reading My kids did a LOT of writing today
En route to killing my printer
I’ve finally sat down and figured out how to handle this stuff with BigGuy. Tonight, I got his notebook set up and printed out the assignment pages that go with Tapestry of Grace (TOG). Each week, we’ll sit down and go through what he actually needs to do and read from the curricula. I also created a list of tasks outside of the curricula that he needs to do each week… math, science, foreign language, etc. I did the first 5 “weeks” of the curricula and then 2 weeks of the “outside” work. I printed out all of the resource pages he needs for the writing component of TOG. We’ll see how that goes.
I also printed out the pages for ME to help with facilitating Socratic discussion; and managing the Accountability and Thinking Questions from TOG.
And the maps… I printed out the maps he needs for the first 5 weeks of TOG plus the teacher copies with the answers.
Holy moly…
Actually, I have to be honest that I really like the idea of sitting down with BigGuy twice each week to talk about his learning in a more mature manner. Once to sit down and go through what he needs to do and plot it out on his planner with him; and another to talk about what he’s learned and have a solid discussion about what he’s learned. Not just asking him to spew it back to me, but DISCUSSING it.
I’m kind of looking forward to it.
Now… to figure out Girly. And to hope that this works for BigGuy (and me).
So unprepared… so much pain
Yesterday I threw my back out in a way that I’m not sure I have ever thrown my back out. It hasn’t responded to anything that has ever helped. I honestly don’t know that I have ever had this much pain. I can’t even walk standing upright.
Needless to say, I am in rare form today–and I’m really not liking myself at all right now. At all. At 11:01am. I’m in tears as I’m typing this because I’m so disgusted with the things that have come out of my mouth this morning, in the tone and volume they have come out to people inside AND outside of my home.
I also tried to follow my Tapestry of Grace curriculum this morning (having forgotten to prepare this weekend) only to find myself clueless about his notebook (which was a central component since we are STILL attempting week 1 for the second week in a row–which is totally fine). Apparently, all I needed to do was Google “Tapestry of Grace notebook setup” to find this neat little page called “First Steps to Set Up Tapestry“. THAT would have been useful a week or two ago. Ugh… on the up side, I think that between what I bought this weekend for BigGuy’s grammar & composition notebook plus what I already own (which is TOO. MUCH. CRAP) I should have what I need.
BigGuy and I did sit down and go over “how it’s gonna go down” in terms of the Tapestry of Grace stuff (heretofore referred to as TOG). We agreed that we would do Critical Thinking Company’s Word Roots rather than vocabulary and we’re ditching the timeline thing. So there’s that. I sent him off to do his Math-U-See which resulted in trying to find his missing workbook which is still MIA.
Girly watched the LeapFrog video to learn her vowels.
This afternoon we’re going to watch a Netflix video about Ancient Egypt after we do a Character Building Day by Day
Educated Adventures 