Plans for Fall, 2009

Please Note:

#1: When I say “week”- I mean any 5 consecutive school days.   This will not be Monday-Friday.  If we did school one week on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and the next week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday then our “week” would be the first Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and then Monday, Tuesday.

#2: We’ll do the Bible readings first, followed my MOH (Mystery of History).  I will probably not be able to read all of the Bible readings, MOH chapters and supplemental books.  SO, I will skim through MOH, reading what we have the time and interest for.

Tapestry of Grace Lesson Plans

Year 1, Unit 1: Lower Grammar

Week 1

Read Genesis 1-10

MOH Lessons 1-4

Do Measure out Noah’s Ark on the road

Draw Pictures (Mary) Coloring Pages (Nathan) of Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark

Review TOG manual, wk. 4, pg. 6   People and Vocab

TOG manual, wk. 4, pg. 13 Bible Survey Questions

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Geography Usborne Geography Encyclopedia (UGE), pgs. 6, 14-17

TOG manual, wk. 4, pg. 12- “geography” section only

Outline map of the world- label continents

Week 2

Read Genesis 11

MOH Lessons 5-9

“Tower of Babel” (Greengard)

“The Tower” (Mayer- Skumanz)

“The Visual Dictionary of Ancient Civilizations”- focus on Mesopotamia (pgs. 6-9) and The Babylonians (pg. 18)

Do Use blocks to build/recreate “Tower of Babel”  (take picture)

Review TOG manual, wk. 5, pg. 12   Bible Survey Questions

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Geography TOG manual, wk. 5, pgs. 45-46

Label map of Mesopotamia

Week 3

Read Genesis 11-50 (Obviously you can’t read it all- choose several stories from Egermier’s Childrens’ Bible from these chapters.)

MOH, Chapters 10, 13, 14, 15 (Skim- read introductory and concluding                         paragraphs)

Do Put up tent in backyard and sleep, eat, etc. out there a la Abraham and Sarah

Review TOG manual, wk. 6, pg. 8 People and Vocab.

TOG manual, wk. 6, pg. 12 Bible Survey Questions

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Geography Using Mesopotamia Map, trace Abraham’s route to the Promised Land

Using the terms from TOG manual, wk. 6, pg. 12, label the map with appropriate terms.

Week 4

Read MOH 11

“Egyptians” (Turnbull)

“The Nile River”

“Usborne’s Living Long Ago”  pgs. 4, 28, 52, 76

“Usborne’s See Inside Ancient Egypt” pgs. 2-9

Do See Geography Section

Review TOG, wk. 1, pg. 6  People and Vocab.

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Geography

Read “Finding Out About Deserts” (Wilkes), pgs. 2 and 3

Using UGE, define “delta”, “oasis” and “flooding”.

TOG manual, wk. 1, pg. 7

TOG manual, wk. 1, pg. 14

Do- Blank map of Egypt- label Egypt, Nile River, Delta

Make a Salt Map of Egypt (work on for 2 weeks)

Weeks 5 and 6

Read Exodus 1-5

MOH 17, 16, 22, 23, 24, 19*     (*must be read last)

“Who Built the Pyramids?” (Chisholm)

“Mummies Made in Egypt” (Aliki)
“Tutankhaman’s Gift” (Sabuda)

“Pharaohs and Pyramids” (Allan)

“Usborne’s See Inside Famous Buildings”, pg. 1

“Usborne’s See Inside Ancient Egypt” pgs. 10-14

Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures in Ancient Egypt

DK Eyewitness Book “Ancient Egyptians”

Do Mummify a chicken

Use modeling clay and sand paper to make Pyramids

Bake Unleavened Bread (“Old Testament Days”, pg. 57)

Review TOG manual, wk. 2, pg. 6 People and Vocab.

TOG manual, wk. 2, pg. 12 Bible Survey

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Geography Read “Finding Out About the Desert” (Wilkes)- review pgs. 2 and 3, read pages 8,9,12,13,16-23

Finish Salt Maps

Finish last weeks Geography assignment

Continue labeling Egypt map with important cities, Valley of the Kings,

etc.

Week 7

Read Exodus 19-40 (Using Egermier’s Childrens Bible- choose stories from within Exodus 19-40)

MOH 20

“Celebrate: A Book of Jewish Holidays” (Gross)- read section on Shabbat

“The GOD Around Us” (Brichto)

“Old Testament Days” pgs. 69-70, 74-75

Do Make Challah Bread and celebrate the Shabbat on Friday evening

Start memorizing the Ten Commandments (use chart on TOG manual, wk. 7, pg. 13)

Review TOG manual, wk. 7, pg. 6  People and Vocab.

TOG manual, wk. 7, pg. 14 Bible Survey

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Geography Add Mount Sinai to Egypt map

Review previous places and definitions.

Week 8

Read MOH 20

“Celebrate: A Book of Jewish Holidays” Read sections on Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur

“The Hardest Word” (Jules)

“Old Testament Days” pgs. 69-70

Do “Old Testament Days” pgs. 71-73 (Make a Priest Outfit)

Decode message sheet (TOG manual, wk. 8, pg. 13)

Review TOG manual, wk. 8, pg. 6 People and Vocab

TOG manual, wk. 8, pg. 12 Bible Survey

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Week 9

Read Finish Exodus using Egermier’s Childrens Bible- focus on stories about the 12 spies and Moses’ death.

“Celebrate: A Book of Jewish Holidays”  Read sections on Sukkot and Passover

“Old Testament Days” Read pages 60-61

Do Prepare a Sedar Meal (Invite Mimi and Paw Paw?)

Complete any unfinished projects (salt map, mummifying chicken, etc.)

Review TOG manual, wk. 9, pg. 6 People and Vocab

TOG manual, wk. 9, pg. 12 Bible Survey

Place figures on timeline- orally review important people, events

Geography Review important terms and places, Egypt map.

Hornets….

This counts for Science, right???

(6/21/2009) Kip found a Bald Faced Hornets nest in our front yard last week.   After getting stung (!) he thoroughly sprayed the nest to kill it before they got one of the children.

On Sunday afternoon he went out and cut it down.   The odd thing was, the nest was on the ground.    Usually they build up in trees or eaves of a house- somewhere high up.

Mary was a little unsure- notice her hanging onto Nathan a bit.

We sliced the backside of it off so that the children could see inside the nest.

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Peace…

“You’ll Know When The Yoke Fits”

Sweet sisters- June 18, 2009

I’ve been in turmoil for the last two months, trying to decide if we were going to participate in Classical Conversations.  On paper, it looks like a great fit for us but for some reason I just didn’t feel any peace about it.   Then, on Wednesday, I read this post at In The Heart of Her Home.    The lines that I underlined below really spoke to me.

So, here’s my answer to the swelling number of emails asking me how to choose what to teach: pray about it, research your options, know what’s in all those boxes, pray about it,  talk to your husband, pray about it, and then trust God to lead you in the right direction. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. You’ll know when the yoke fits. And when it does, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s an inferior yoke. It’s the yoke God himself made for you. (underlining for emphasis by me)

And once I read the above, especially “His y0ke is easy and his burden is light.  You’ll know when the yoke fits” it was all crystal clear to me.   Kip and I had a long, long discussion that night and decided to go ahead with Tapestry of Grace.  I bought it in the spring and I’ve been SO excited about it.   A big part of my hesitation with CC was the disappointment in giving up TOG as I’ve been waiting for over a year to use it.    Once we had hashed out all the pros and cons, our weekly schedule and came to the conclusion that TOG was indeed the right fit for us- I felt such a complete peace.

I spent several hours on Thursday planning for the upcoming year.    Math, Language Arts and Science really don’t take any planning- we just proceed through the chosen books a lesson/day at a time.  But I did need to spend time wading through the TOG manual, picking and choosing what we will use for the upcoming year.   (The manual covers grades K-12 so you need to choose the books and activities that are right for your age student).  TOG will cover lots of Bible, History, Geography and good bit of Fine Arts.

The first nine weeks will cover Creation through Moses, the Ancient Egyptians and the Tower of Babel.   Essentially Genesis-Exodus in the Bible.  I love how TOG weaves Biblical and Secular history together.

I put all our books for the first 9 weeks away in this drawer so that they will be fresh and “new” to the kids when we start school in September.