First Week of School

We began school on August 23rd, but we took it easy this week.  We are learning a new program, so I wanted to ease into it.  Since this is my first post about Tapestry of Grace, let me explain it.  This year we have converted to a classical, Christian homeschool and to the unit study approach.  I am so glad that my research led me to this program!  All of our students will be studying the same topics, but at their own levels.  This program encompasses History, Literature, and Writing.  What they read about for History will become what they write about, and what they read for Literature is also based in what they are studying for History.  I love this integrated approach and it will save me so much work!  Before, I was preparing lessons about Ancient Rome, Venezuela and the fire department for three different students' Social Studies lessons, and it was too much!  Tapestry starts at Year 1 with Creation and Ancient Egypt and covers world history chronologically, so we will get as far as the Fall of Rome this year.  All of history takes 4 years.  Then we will do Year 1 again but everyone will be at a different level so their material is more advanced but familiar.

Oh, and they have hands-on art projects too, related to what they are studying.  When we tried a sample of this curriculum I found out I had really been short-changing my kids, and that they loved that aspect of it.  I think of it as a hassle, messy and expensive, but after seeing how they got into it last Spring, I told my husband not to let me blow off that part of the experience!

So, this week we did cookie dough maps.  We could have done salt dough, but that just means I have a house full of nifty projects and nowhere, I mean nowhere, to keep them (see photo of home, below).  So...cookie dough maps, of course, get eaten!  Much wiser choice.  The middle two did a sugar cookie dough map of an imaginary country.  They were supposed to include a variety of geographical features:  an isthmus, peninsula, mesa, fjords, bay, etc...some of which melted in the baking process but were restored with buttercream frosting.

Our oldest student did her map of the Nile River valley. 

You may notice the Nile Delta is missing, so it must be the dry season.  Actually, she just thought it would melt.  This map is gluten free, to be eaten by her brother and youngest sister.  The dessert sands are yellow frosting sprinkled with cocoa powder.  Green frosting represents the Black lands, fertile areas.  We actually made the cookie dough and baked it on Saturday, then decorated it during school on Monday.  And we had a neighbor helping with the dictionary to look up some of the geography terms for the imaginary land.

On Tuesday, we had project time in the morning.  Oldest worked on an Egyptian Model Garden, and once again surprised me with how absorbed she became.  The results were impressive:

It is a little smooshed now, sadly, but you get the idea:  trees from index cards, columns and a grand doorway to the palace, and a jumping fish on a bent paperclip.  There are broken jewelry flowers on the aluminum foil pond.  The younger two began paddle dolls, but due to the need to let paint dry, they are not done yet.  This week, we will be building pyramids out of legos.  I'd like to do sugar cubes but can't find them; we may try mini marshmallows or just stick with the legos.

Here's what we're doing for the rest of our studies, for those curious minds:
Math:  Saxon 3, 54 and 87.
Grammar:  Rod and Staff 2, 5, and 7
Spelling Power
Prima Latina and Latina Christiana
Science:  Apologia Botany for 2nd and 5th graders, Apologia General Science for 7th grade
and we are using Tapestry's Writing Aids program, which is much needed because I have really let writing slide.  Looking forward to a great year!