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I love homeschooling. And one of the things I love most about it is getting to play with my kids (that’s right, we play!) But we play with a purpose.
We make art, we sing and do chants, we read stories, we solve puzzles—and we learn. And while I prescribe to the classical idea that young children are equipped for an amazing comprehension of facts, I don’t think all that memory work has to be dull drill. In fact, I think my kids would tell you that we have tons of fun.
As I’ve tried to actively incorporate memory work into every subject, I’ve also tried to actively vary how we do the memory work and repetition. For instance, we do have some flashcards—for math, for phonics, even for our history. But that’s not all we do.
Songs and chants
It amazes me just how much a child can learn when something is put to a tune or a rhythm. Last year, they memorized tons of countries they could barely pronounce simply because they loved the music. This year, we’re following the same concept. As much as I can, we sing what we want to learn, finding most of our music on either iTunes or youtube.
Hand Motions
When we aren’t singing, we’re moving (and often, we’re doing both). Hand gestures help to anchor the word pictures and concepts we are memorizing. We use hand gestures for Bible memory, poetry, and our history timeline. And I don’t come up with all of them on my own! Often, I’ll recruit their help to find a motion that will help them remember the ideas.
Flashcards
Okay, so it’s not all fun and games. But even the drill can be fun. For instance, sometimes I’ve taken our stack of flashcards outside to our favorite spot on the bridge. Sometimes, I let Middlest’s favorite monkey answer for her; we check to see how much Monkey has learned. Then, there’s the motivation that Dad just might “whup up” on them at our next unit celebration; after all their Daddy is a smart Daddy.
Lapbooks
I’ve also embraced lapbooking over the last couple of months. I resisted it for awhile because it’s messy, it takes some advanced planning, and it takes some space to store all of those projects. But I’ve also really liked them for a few reasons: lapbooking is a fun way to review memory work (who doesn’t like a flap book?); lapbooking allows us to get the big picture from all of the little facts we memorize (i.e. we can see the whole human body coming together as we memorize one organ and system at a time); lapbooking provides a means for me to begin teaching concepts of display and presentation for when they get older (think poster boards, display boards, and science fairs).
We lapbooked the kings of Israel and Judah. I wrote the names on popsicle sticks, and they matched them to the list in their lapbook. We also incorporated chant and rhythm as we recited our list. We didn’t memorize the whole list, but they became very familiar with which kings were good and which were evil.
So while we have a ton of memory work incorporated into our day from math, phonics, history, Bible, and science, it honestly just feels like a lot of playtime, which is exactly what I was going for—memory work that makes for fun memories.
We’ve done a lot of experimenting this year as we’ve launched our first year of classical curriculum. I knew that would be the case, which has helped me to keep an open mind when things haven’t gone as well as I had hoped. Map work is one of those areas where we’ve done a lot of experimenting, trying to find the best method for learning our maps.
I love map work. It is a definite kinesthetic activity to add to a history study, and there are lots of different ways to explore them. I know, because I’ve tried several.
First, I made labels for the kids to stick to the maps as we learned the different areas. That worked okay, but I wasn’t thrilled. It was hard to review everyday, and they only got to put the stickers on once a week (not to mention it took a lot of label making).
Then, I put the map for the week in a page protector and had Oldest trace it each day with a dry-erase marker. He enjoyed that, but I wasn’t convinced that he was really learning all that I wanted him to learn. And it did demand a little bit of fine motor skills.
So we’re on our third attempt. And right now, I’m thrilled with it. I keep the answer key map in a page protector in his assignment notebook for him to review (we also review together during our read-aloud time). Then, I have a blank version of the map magnetized to the side of our file cabinet. I made “labels” (strips of an index card with a piece of adhesive magnet tape on the back) for him to stick to the map as he reviews.
Each day, I have assigned three or four new magnet labels for him to find on his map and label on the blank map. He adds his new magnets and reviews the old magnets each day. The activity is pretty independent, as he has the answers in his notebook. He has to find the sea or the city or the island name, etc., on his own. Of course, he loves to show me his work, and I review with him once he’s found the places.
It’s an activity that he is enjoying doing over and over again. After all, what kid doesn’t like to play with magnets. He’s really learning these locations from all the review. And though it takes a little more time for me to prep at the beginning of each week, it doesn’t take as much one-on-one during the week.
I also am going to be more selective with my maps and try to select maps that build a broader view each week, rather than skipping around the region. That way, I can reuse and review the magnets that I have made, and Oldest will get a better view of where his maps fit in with the big picture.
I read on many blogs and in many different places that there is a definite learning curve with Tapestry of Grace. Many even named it “the four-week fog.” I’d say my first four weeks were great; my fog came a little later in the process.
Tapestry provides resources for a week’s worth of history, geography, Bible, literature, and art. Especially in Unit 2, we cover a civilization a week! (My head is still spinning.) But as if that weren’t difficult enough to coordinate, I think I’m still trying to combine two different teaching approaches. I’m traditional when it comes to reading, math, and phonics, and classical with everything else.
How does that work? You ask. I’m not sure it does to be honest. And I think that’s why I’m in the TOG fog. For example, for literature/reading I’m trying to keep up with the Tapestry suggestions while still going through the A Beka 1st grade readers. See what I mean? traditional and classical. We’re trying to notebook our history every now and then while doing separate copywork and cursive writing practice. Hmmm. Are you getting a clear picture?
As a result of all of this, I’m not really satisfied with anything right now. Tapestry is an extra and not weaving in as beautifully as I’d wanted. (not to mention all the work to be done) We aren’t learning the “grammar” of these civilizations in the classical fashion, though the kids are still absorbing a lot (is that the Charlotte Mason method or just my own invention?). “Tapestry is the dessert at the lower level” is the advice I’ve often read. We’ve definitely enjoyed what we’ve done, but I guess I was hoping for a little more.
So what am I doing about it? Ah! That’s the question.
Believe it or not, I went back to the drawing board and looked at other curriculums, everything from Veritas Press to Classical Conversations, only to come right back to Tapestry. I do still love this curriculum. I love that all the humanities are combined. I love the book choices. I love the Biblical emphasis. But there are other things I like about other programs.
I like the idea of the Veritas Press timeline cards and required memory work in Classical Conversations. Tapestry has the children experiencing history and culture, and I’m thrilled with that but I don’t want it to be at the expense of memorization. Tapestry provides suggested terms and “threads” as well as some evaluation questions, but there isn’t a suggested method for teaching those facts. I’m on my own to figure out what I want them to know and how I want them to learn it.
I like the central storyline offered in Mystery of History and Story of the World. Though the TOG book choices for history are wonderful and engaging, it feels far from fluid; and right now, the provided teacher notes are WAY over my kids’ heads. So I need to find someway of connecting all the elements of Tapestry so that we don’t feel as random and sporadic as I do right now. Transitioning from one civilization to another has also been troublesome. It feels a little like a hop-scotch game right now: I’ve got one foot in India, then one foot in China, and next I’m jumping with both feet into Greece.
So what am I going to do about it? Back to that question again. Well, in my search through other curriculums over the Christmas break, I found some solutions that I’m starting to adapt.
For memory work, I’m experimenting with a two-prong approach. First, I scoured youtube videos for presentations of the Veritas Press timeline (here’s the one I chose). There are quite a few videos, actually, of teachers and students performing the very impressive history of the world from Creation to present day. I’m memorizing the timeline and gestures from these performances and in turn teaching the kids. No flashcards, just the hand movements and facts chant.
Second, I had purchased the Tapestry evaluations but decided not to use them because it would have been impossible to require knowledge of that information from the reading we have done, especially as young as my kids are. But, those evaluations have made a good source for finding flashcard information. I went through the entire year’s worth of evaluations and made 3×5 flashcards of the facts I want them to know. Then, I filed them in a 3×5 card holder under each unit. These flashcards will be the source of the trivia questions for our unit celebrations. The kids are pumped and very motivated to memorize the facts.
For the final solution, finding that common thread through our study, I’ve decided to switch from notebooking to lapbooking (you’re laughing, aren’t you?). In spite of my hesitation to do lapbooks, I have definitely seen the value of them with my kids right now. The lapbook allows all of those seemingly miscellaneous facts to come together into one project to tell a story. It does provide a completed picture that notebooking was currently accomplishing. The timeline, too, will help with this, allowing all the countries and all the stories to fit together into one history. And I found a tremendous resource of free lapbooking ideas that follow the Tapestry outline.
I’m definitely open to other ideas, and I’d love to know what others have done to encourage memorization at the Lower Grammar level. In the meantime, I’d appreciate your prayers for wisdom and discernment as we attempt to make this curriculum our own.
We’re studying ancient Egypt right now: mummies, pyramids, the Nile River, the 10 plagues, the Exodus. One of the things I’m loving about Tapestry of Grace is how Bible and history are woven together so tightly.
The kids have been learning about life in ancient Egypt and Moses. What would he have eaten? What toys would he have played with? Why was the Nile important? Why would Moses have been afraid to go before Pharaoh? Why would Pharaoh have not believed in God? What was the purpose of the 10 plagues?
Another highlight are the hands-on activities—the crafts that really bring this curriculum to life. For our Egypt crafts, we made toys that children in Moses’ day would have played with. Oldest made a throwing stick that little boys would have used for target practice.
Middlest chose to make a paddle doll.
These crafts and other hands-on activities that we have done, along with the enjoyable read-alouds, have really served to anchor the information for my kids. The facts are not random lists of names and terms but are connected with pictures they’ve seen in stories or crafts they can hold in their hand. The result has been an astounding amount of information they’ve been able to retain, particularly Oldest. (I’ve allowed Middlest to play close by while I read and simply absorb what’s going on.)
I’m learning a ton, too! And I feel blessed to have found a curriculum that so beautifully reinforces our vision for our children’s education with such a practical daily plan.
There are many fine ways of educating children. I was homeschooled using largely A Beka and Alpha Omega, a graduate of the traditional schooling method. My husband graduated from public school. And we’ve both done well in life by God’s grace.
When I began homeschooling my children, I really had little idea of all of the different approaches and styles. I began on a traditional road, and quickly fell into a lot of potholes. We could have trudged on I’m sure, but none of us enjoyed those first weeks of by-the-book schooling. Disillusioned, I took a break and re-evaluated everything. I searched blogs and checked out books from the library, one of which was the Well-Trained Mind. It was my first introduction to the idea of classical education, and every part of it appealed to me.
I began researching more about this approach. The more I discovered, the more my husband and I were convinced that this was the path for us. Classical is more than the study of ancient cultures and ancient languages; it’s about a framework and an ordering of information.
In a recent article I read by Martin Cochran, published in The Classical Teacher, Cochran sites an illustration given by Neil Postman in a speech. Postman referred to a new deck of cards which is arranged in a fashion that gives sense to the whole deck. Once that deck is shuffled, however, the order is lost. There is no means of knowing which card will follow the next. Classical education gives order to the vast amount of information in our world. History is studied in chronological fashion; science is studied from the framework of history; modern languages and English are learned from the foundation of the classical languages from which they were derived. Classically educating is laying a foundation and constructing a framework for the facts our children must learn.
Another appealing aspect to this style is the trivium, the three stages of training through which a child progresses: grammar, logic or dialectic, and rhetoric. First, a child learns facts without fully understanding all of the relationships between those facts. Next, as the child nears adolescence, he begins to explore the logic, the relationships of ideas, and the reasons behind those relationships. It’s the stage when a child naturally starts questioning everything. In the final stage, the rhetoric stage, the high school student is now developing an understanding of what he believes and is now learning how to articulate and defend those beliefs. I love this video clip where Michael Horton explains the advantages of the trivium for the Christian faith.
And, thus, we embark on this adventure, fully embracing the classical model for the first time.
2012/2013 Curriculum
History and Bible Curriculum:Tapestry of Grace (history, geography, Bible, art, literature, and beginning grammar)
She’ll also be participating in our anatomy activities and our Tapestry read-alouds and crafts.
Now, to get my house and my school room as organized as my lesson plans!
Disclaimer: This post contains my Tapestry of Grace affiliate link and my Usborne consultant link. If you purchase your Tapestry materials through my link, I get a discount on the materials that I purchase from them. If you purchase your Usborne books through my consultant page, my 25% commission will be used to help provide funds for down-syndrome orphans awaiting adoption (read more here).
Choosing books from my Tapestry of Grace plans has been somewhat of a challenge. There are so many fun options! And yet I know there’s no way we’ll truly enjoy this if I try to do it all. Then, too, there’s the issue of the budget. So, there were quite a few books to get nixed from the list.
With such a monumental task, I thought I’d share my strategy (so that I’ll remember next year when I have to do this all over again.)
Though many veteran TOG bloggers have suggested purchasing the books one unit at a time, I really didn’t see that working for me. Planning the next unit’s lessons will be enough of a challenge; selecting and ordering books could put us very far behind. So for this year, I purchased them all up front. Next year, perhaps I’ll feel more confident to do it differently. However, there were several purchasing tips that I did keep in mind through the selection process.
some of the titles we'll get to read next year
The Budget
On my first trip to Bookshelf Central, I was a bit overwhelmed at the price of the total book list for the Lower Grammar (LG) books for Year 1. For the TOG plans and the books, the total would have been well over our entire homeschool budget without purchasing any math or phonics materials. Although I would have loved to purchase everything suggested, I knew that the limits of our budget could actually work in my favor.
After purchasing the Tapestry of Grace plans, I then deducted all of the other items we would need to purchase for the year. Next, I took a look at what we had left to spend—and did a lot of praying for wisdom. My remaining budget was less than half the cost for the books.
The Alternate Books
Tapestry of Grace has two booklists, primary sources and alternate sources. Though the alternate sources often do not have notebooking pages to accompany them, they do cover the material that needs to be covered. When I searched our public library, I looked at both lists. I also looked beyond our learning level. Tapestry of Grace is divided into learning levels rather than grades: we will be in the Lower Grammar (LG) learning level. But when I looked for books to substitute, I looked at the lists for both our learning level and the level just above it, the Upper Grammar (UG) books. These UG books would have to be read-alouds, but then many of the LG books would be as well, so it really made very little difference. And what I found out by doing this is that I really preferred some of the UG books to the LG choices.
I also checked the library for books within the subject itself. For instance, for Unit 1 I searched in the juvenile section for books on ancient Egypt, or even more specifically the Nile or mummies. By comparing the book descriptions, I could tell if the general library books would cover the same information as the Tapestry books; and by checking the previews available on many of the books at Amazon.com, I could often tell if I liked the substitute book as well and could decide on favorites that were at the top of my list of books to use for the year.
Last of all, I looked for the resources that could be used for multiple units rather than just a single week of reading. For example, the Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World was listed as an Upper Grammar resource throughout the year in all units, whereas the Lower Grammar listed several different titles. Because I already own the Encyclopedia (and my kids love Usborne books), it made more sense to use this resource than to purchase additional books.
The Schedule
Creating a spreadsheet, I made lists of the books I could get at the library and the books I would need to purchase, organizing them by unit and week. This gave me an idea of how realistic it would be to actually read that many books within the time-frame. I could keep a check on my gluttonous appetite for books by taking a look at our schedule. I mean, how many read-alouds can you realistically tackle in one week? If a certain week looked too tight, I re-evaluated the book choices and rated them by priority: which books were my favorites and what information was most important? Was there any other resource where the same information could be found?
I also hung out at Amazon.com quite a bit, looking over the book previews and evaluating how each title would fit into our schedule. I looked at number of pages, the table of contents, and (when possible) a sample page to get an idea of the reading level.
Several more books were eliminated this way, or at least prioritized lower on the list of possibilities. And at this point, my list was fitting much better into our budget. But there was one more step to getting the most bang for our buck.
The Purchase
When I made my purchases, I used two different websites: Amazon.com, as I just mentioned, and Children’s Books Inc. I chose these sites because they carried the most titles at the cheapest prices for the least amount of shipping. But then on Amazon, I also chose only the books that were available for the free shipping. When a couple of titles were not available for the free shipping, I once again evaluated those books. Could I find the information from this title in any other resource? Could our schedule during that week use a little less reading? And in all of the cases, I found I really did not need the book that required the extra shipping (which in some cases would have been equal to the price of the book itself).
The result, by God’s grace, was that I was able to purchase the books we needed for even less than what was in the budget! (Also, I’ll be able to skip shopping at the homeschool book fair in May with a two month old in tow.)
The choices weren’t easy ones to make, but hopefully we’ll have the time to actually enjoy the books I’ve chosen. I can’t wait to share that journey with you!
Linking up with
* This post contains affiliate links for Tapestry of Grace.
I’ve also embraced lapbooking over the last couple of months. I resisted it for awhile because it’s messy, it takes some advanced planning, and it takes some space to store all of those projects. But I’ve also really liked them for a few reasons: lapbooking is a fun way to review memory work (who doesn’t like a flap book?); lapbooking allows us to get the big picture from all of the little facts we memorize (i.e. we can see the whole human body coming together as we memorize one organ and system at a time); lapbooking provides a means for me to begin teaching concepts of display and presentation for when they get older (think poster boards, display boards, and science fairs).
