November 30, 2007 by bigfamily4Him.

OK, now don’t get your thoughts on the wrong path here, the big house does not refer to prison (although some days my children would argue that).   I’m Holly, joyous mother of 10 children, and veteran homeschooler of 14 years. Six of the past 14 years we have been using Weaver and they have been the best and easiest years of homeschooling.

Presently we are on volume 2, chapter 10 which is one of the white chapters and the last one of that volume. Sometimes these white chapters still intimidate me but after I  look over them several times and write out my lesson plans the “intimidation factor” disappears. In this particular chapter Early American History is the subject for dissection and I chose to use the Time Travelers unit study of New World Explorers to enhance our study. It has been great fun as we dry fruit and meat for our journey, make our flag for our ship and journal in our captain’s log. I plan to post pictures on my homeschooling blog http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/bigfamily4HIM to show our progress. In September our town has a Heritage celebration and I purchased several items including ink wells, ink pens, hard tac and a compass from the reenactors tent store. I find small additions like this really help to liven up our studies.

 Another great find to help with the Bible end of our studies has been the Herein is Love commentary series put out by Shepherd Press. These are commentaries written for children and since 7 of my ten children are age 10 and under this has really helped this busy mom to put the wonderful meatiness of the Weaver Bible study into little people words.

I am really looking forward to encouraging all the weaving moms and just being available for questions. I have been greatly blessed by all those on the Weaver boards and extend the invitation to leave some comments.

Weaving in the big house 4 Him,

Holly

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November 30, 2007 by KellyH.

I’m a very visual person. You can tell me that something is 500 yards away, but I’ll have no concept of how far that is, unless you say something like “it’s from here to that tree over there… that’s 500 yards.” If I can see it, I understand it best.

The Weaver volumes have outlines at the beginning of each chapter. And the Day by Day (DbD) lays out each day so I don’t have to spend hours planning. But, for me, that’s just not enough. So, I created a Week-at-a-Glance page as well as a Daily page for our lesson plans.

My Week-at-a-Glance (WaaG) page is two sided. The first side covers Bible, Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Reading, Math, and Miscellaneous. These subjects run down the left side of the page. Across the top are the five days of the week. The other side covers Wisdom Words, Creative Writing, Spelling, Penmanship, Vocabulary, and Miscellaneous, all on the left, with the days of the week across the top again. I created this sheet with Microsoft Excel, and printed it as a landscape (sideways).

My Daily page is one-sided, with all the same categories going down the left (only one “miscellaneous”) and my children’s names across the top. This sheet was also created with Excel, but it’s printed as a portait (tall… you know, the regular way you hold a sheet of paper).

Some of the boxes are not as big as the others because the subject doesn’t need much explanation. For example, Math is a short box because I just need to write down the lesson numbers each child is working on. Spelling, too–I don’t write out all the words, I just write the lesson number. Creative Writing is a large box so that I can scribble my writing suggestions down. Bible is a big box so I can list key points and verse references.

When I sit down to plan a chapter, I start with my WaaG page. I transfer the activities and lessons from the DbD into their appropriate boxes on the WaaG page, using a different colored pen for each child, and black for activities that include everyone. Once I have the unit separated into weeks, I bring out the Daily pages. It’s not as neccessary to use different colored pens, but I usually do anyway, just from habit.

All the activities are transferred onto individual Daily pages, and the pages are dated at the bottom. As I prepare for the first day, I pull out the page for the first Bible lesson and any other objectives I need to teach and clip them behind the Daily page. I clip them at the bottom of the page, and then all the days are clipped together at the top until the week I need to use them.

As I finish teaching, and the children move onto independent work, I’ll place the pages from the day back into my Teacher’s Binder, and pull out the pages for the next day. I know at a glance what pages I’ll need because I list page numbers for each activity on my planning pages. Resource pages are pulled, books are pulled and pages are marked, and notes are jotted for the next day. The next day’s lessons are read-over and prayerfully considered.

This may be too much work for many moms, but when I do things this way I am much more prepared. I can mull over the next day’s lesson during my quiet times–this keeps me calm and less stressed.

Have you found what works for you yet? I started doing this last year, after 11 years of homeschooling. Yes, you read that right… it took me 11 YEARS to find a way that works for me!

If you’re trying to find what works for you, may I suggest trying the two extremes:

1. Picking up the volume and teaching straight from it without any preparation.
2. Planning everything the way I do.

Eventually, you’ll adapt one of these ways to work for you. But, I hope you don’t take as long as I did!

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November 29, 2007 by pattycov.

If you are a homeschool mom and a coffee aficionado, I’m sure you understand what I’m implying.  You pour yourself a nice, hot cup of coffee before you get started on your day.  In a perfect world, you would have time to sit and enjoy this moment of tranquility.  But reality says that even if you have a brief moment, it’s rarely tranquil because your thoughts are on what you are pulling together today for your lesson!  You consult your Day-By-Day or other form of agenda, read over your bible study, spend “just a few minutes” on the internet finding just the right information for your lessons and checking email; then, before you know it, your abandoned red-with-gold-polka-dots-from-Starbucks coffee mug has gone cold and it’s contents are uninviting.  It’s sad, but you take a drink anyway and mourn its passing.  Sigh. 

So, on with the show!  I am Patty and I have been a homeschool mom going on four years now.  I have six children, who range from 20 to 6.  Two are step-children, the other four natural.  But in my mind, they’re all mine!  I am only homeschooling my two youngest daughters, who are eight and six, 3^rd and 1^st grades.  I used a conglomeration of materials for our first year of Kindergarten and began Abeka for first grade.  However, the glitter of Abeka quickly wore on me.  By the end of that year, though my daughter was reading successfully and writing in beautiful penmanship, I really felt it was lacking some important substance.  I couldn’t put my finger on it but I knew something was missing.  The first idea that began to catch my interest was the concept of notebooking that another homeschool mom shared with me.  After some research I thought it might be the key to stepping up the fun and interaction in our school day.  Then, after some input from my sisters-in-law, I decided to look into Weaver and I was sold! 

We are weaving into our second year now, though it hasn’t been without some doubts.  By last February, I was ready to get a job at a private Christian school and sign the girls up!  God has been so faithful in this whole calling, though.  Just as I was ready to give up, another friend called me for encouragement.  She, too, was re-thinking her dry curriculum and looking into unit studies.  It completely refreshed my mind of where I had been just a year prior, “looking for substance”.  And she, through the counsel of another veteran homeschool mom, was reminded to PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!  This was certainly my turning point.  I realized that it wasn’t exactly the curriculum that I was having trouble with.  I thought I needed more structure when I had complained about too much structure the year before.  Basically I just needed to PRAY!  Of course, I pray on a daily basis, for our school day and all but there’s something different when you are at your wit’s end and are crying out for God to bless your homeschooling experience, to bless your children despite your faults, for it to be ALL Him and none of you.  Needless to say, our school caught fire as I began to document in our personal homeschool blog (www.graceandemilyschool.blogspot.com).  We entered Chapter 6 of Unit 5 in Volume One.  It was the most exciting school experience ever, for us!  From that point, I have not looked back.  Even if we’re in a lull, I know there’s something around the corner.  I have given our school over to the Master, the fully equipped Teacher, the Principal of principles, the most creative Creator, the Mathematician of the stars and sand and hair, the Scientist of existence, the Great I AM of grammar, the — well, you get the point.  It’s all His and I need to consult Him as I serve Him in His ministry.  That all seems so elementary to a seasoned Christian but sometimes us seasoned Christians can overlook the simplest of things.   

I look forward to sharing what we do at school and hope to encourage the “doubters”.   I don’t know what I can offer the veterans, as I am still learning the ropes, but hopefully there will be something here for you, too! 

Blessings,Patty 

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November 29, 2007 by KellyH.

Just a quick note to welcome Patty and Holly. These two ladies will be blogging along with me to give you a better understanding of what a Weaving family looks like.

If you have any questions or comments, or if you’d like to be considered for the job of Author on the UWBlog, please contact me (unofficial@weaverpages.com)!

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November 28, 2007 by KellyH.

I started with Interlock. It seemed logical, since my sons were 5, 3 and 1. Before the end of the year, my husband lost his job. I managed to find someone selling a new Basic Five set and purchased it at a huge savings. Our first year in the Volumes was rocky at times, but enjoyable for the most part.

When I started shopping for a used Volume 2 I decided I could do without the Day by Day. After writing out the lessons plans for the first week I took time to map-out the Wisdom Words objectives for the year.

My first step was to page through the first grade objectives and see how many of them there were. I also needed to know how many of them required multiple days to complete. Once I had this number, I looked at my calendar and figured out how many weeks of school we would have that year. I divided the number of objectives by the number of weeks and came up with a rough idea of how many objectives we needed to do each week to get through the program in one year. If I recall correctly, it came out to be two or three objectives each week.

I chose to do at least three a week, sometimes four. I didn’t want any objectives split over the weekend, and I also wanted it planned out so that we finished WW before we finished the school year. That way, if we fell behind for any reason, I would have time to finish. Now that I’ve been Weaving for awhile, I realize I could have also just kept moving through WW without worrying about stopping. When my child finished the objectives for their grade, I could have moved them up to the next grade and kept teaching.

My children don’t have to “see” the WW pages, so they don’t have to know which grade I’m teaching from. I still have two early elementary children and I’ll probably use the latter method to get them through Wisdom Words.

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November 26, 2007 by KellyH.

Just about everyone knows that Weaver is a unit-based curriculum. But, that doesn’t mean much to those new to homeschooling who don’t know what a unit study is. I recently replied to a homeschooling mom who had questions about Weaver…

What’s included in a volume?

Each volume consists of a complete curriculum to teach students in grades K-6. All the objectives and activities are listed, by grade and subject, and the sheets are color-coded:

• white for everyone/teacher
• goldenrod for K
• dark pink for 1st
• light pink for 2nd
• blue for 3rd
• yellow for 4th
• green for 5th
• salmon for 6th

The volumes are divided into 9 units, with some units having multiple chapters. Volumes 1-3 are designed to be done within one year each, while volumes 4 & 5 take about a year-and-a-half each. Going through each of the volumes once will cover about 6 years.

Each chapter starts with an overview so you know what you’ll be covering. Next are the For Your Information pages–these provide background info for the teacher, but you can also share this material with your students. Next are the Bible lessons, followed by a Recommended Reading list. Next are the colored pages, mentioned above, for the different grades. The subjects covered in the colored sections are:

• History (Social Studies)
• Science
• Language Arts

Following the colored pages you’ll find a few more white pages:

• vocabulary list
• health/safety ideas
• field trip
• art suggestions
• Bible memory verses

Sometimes the chapters have extra materials, like suggestions for character study, or information on mummification, or some other topic you may wish to study more in-depth while you study that section of the Bible. These extra materials are white pages as well.

At the back of the book you’ll find a resource section, with pictures, charts, maps, and various other “visuals” for your use–there is an index for these items as well, telling you in which chapter you’ll need each visual.

Does it matter which volume you start with?

This really depends on what your children already know. It’s recommended that you start with Volume I and work your way through, so as to go through the Bible chronologically. There is an overview located at the Unofficial Weaver Pages where you can see what is covered in each volume. Because Weaver is based on the Bible, choose where to start by thinking of your child’s Biblical knowledge.

What about math?

The only volume that contains any math is the Interlock, which covers pre-K/K grades. All other grades will need to purchase math separately.

The volumes themselves do not contain the daily lesson plans. These are found in the Day by Day, available separately. AOP also offers Wisdom Words, a grammar program written by the author of the Weaver, to round out your children’s academics.

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November 23, 2007 by KellyH.

Often, on the email list, we’ll discuss how to manage the trees– er, I mean, binders when it comes to the daily use of Weaver. Tammie (Blessed Hope Academy) gave a great description of how she sets hers up. (I’ve edited it slightly, for ease of reading.)

Front Cover Flap: Reminder note for the steps of planning a unit; and notes, craft projects, emails I’ve printed; resource listings; etc. First in the binder is a copy of the Volume Overview chart so I can easily see where we’re headed and how long it should be before we get there. Then a copy of the Assigned Credits from the Supplement so I can reference what is required to achieve the credit in the subject. Then a copy of Becky’s Dear Friend, instructional letter about homeschooling highschool from the front of my Supplement.

Tab Labeled Day by Day: DBD pages for the current unit and the next unit.

Tab Labeled Bible: Bible lessons for the current unit and the next unit.

Tab for Academics: Colored pages from the Volume and the white pages from the Supplement with another tab for the exact grade levels I’m teaching inserted. I used to just put the grade levels I was teaching in my notebook, but there were too many times that I wanted to go up or down the grade levels (either for teaching or for my own reference) that now I just put all grade levels in my book.

Tab Labeled WW: WW pages for the grade level I’m teaching.

Tab Labeled Literature: Copy of the Recommended Liturature List from TT&T. I have a copy for each kid and highlight the books they’ve already read.

Tab Labeled Resource Section: About 20 pages from the back of the Volume. I trade these out as needed as we start a new Unit.

Back Cover Flap: List of the Weaver resource books and which ones are used in each Volume/unit. I refer to this as I start each unit, to pull books that are relevant and helpful off from my big book case, and move them to my current teaching shelf. I also have inspirational and encouraging notes in this flap.

Some units are large, so I also keep paperclips, or those black binder clips, attached to the tabs, so that I can clip the pages to the tab as we move through the unit. That way when I turn a tab, I also turn to the exact spot within the section that I’m currently teaching from. It’s a very minor thing, but it does save on a lot of page flipping.

Thanks for sharing, Tammie!

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November 21, 2007 by KellyH.

Every now and then my children and I get the opportunity to accompany my husband on a business trip. Before we leave, I “prepared” by finding out who (from the Weaver email list) lives in the area we’ll be visiting.

During the past 11 years we’ve been blessed to meet many Weaving families:

• In Texas, we spent the day at a science/hands-on museum with two weaving families.
• In Ohio, we went to Sea World with a local homeschool group (one of the moms was a member of the Weaver email list and got me in on the field trip).
• Another trip to Ohio allowed us to spend the day at the park with two other families (dads included).
• There’s a Weaving family attending my in-laws’ church in Arizona.

I’ve even been blessed to host other Weaverettes in my home:

• One woman was in town for a Women’s Ministry conference.
• One woman was on furlough and passing through town.
• One woman asked for my help to understand how the curriculum works.

Weaving families are scattered around the world, but with a little detective work it’s possible to find Weaverettes just about everywhere. There are four other Weaving families living within an hour of my home!

How I’d love to meet each and every family from the Weaver email list. I know I will meet many more over the next few years! If you’d like to find Weaverettes in your area, or if you’ll be traveling and wish to hook-up with other Weaving families, drop me a note and I’ll assist you in your search! Perhaps I will be one of the families you bless with a visit!

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November 19, 2007 by KellyH.

The holidays are upon us. Instead of relaxing with their families and enjoying the season, many moms are pouring over curriculum catalogs and thinking about next year. Budgets need to be made and materials need to be placed on a shopping list so that the best prices can be found when the spring conventions start in March.

The first half of the year is coming to a close. Perhaps you’ll spend some time evaluating how the school year is going. If you’re like some moms, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. Perhaps you feel some of your resources are not working well for your children. Perhaps you have so many resources you forget to use some of them. Maybe your brain hurts from thoughts of inadequacy. Fear not fellow homeschooler! You are not alone, nor are you the first to experience these feelings.

I have been homeschooling for twelve years and I often still get these feelings. But, I know homeschooling is where the Lord is leading our family, so I trust Him to make it all work out when I can’t.

When I first started homeschooling I didn’t tell my husband how overwhelmed I was because I didn’t want him to suggest putting the children into school. Homeschooling was my idea twelve years ago and I felt I had to prove the benefits of home education to my husband. Of course, back then I was trying to prove a lot to my husband because I was very young and didn’t know how to be “one” with him. These days we are a team–my husband is not my competition.

Do you talk to your husband about your feelings? Have you discussed homeschooling with him? Is he supportive? Even if his role is strictly provider, you would be wise to still seek his opinions and advice.

I’ve also found, through the years, that if I put God first, all the rest of the academics will fall into place. My children know things that I don’t remember teaching them. Even when I don’t have all the answers for their questions, I know where to find them. I know my job is to teach them to do that also–to find the answers to the questions they have.

Do you put God first in your school? In your day? We can do this homeschool-thing with God’s help. If you’ve been schooling for awhile, and you think it may not be working, try changing gears–put God first for the remainder of this year. With Weaver it’s easy. Start with the Bible lesson and move on from there. Put God first. You can do this!

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November 16, 2007 by KellyH.

Each year, many moms on the Weaver email list re-read Teaching Tips & Techniques. It is amazing to re-read this book. After my first read-through, I’ve read specific chapters over the years, such as reading and writing, planning, and motivation.

Even though my teaching philosophy is similar to the author’s I’m still finding so many things to learn as I read. I’ve been telling mothers for years, “yes, Weaver takes time.” Weaver is not the type of curriculum that you place in front of your child and expect them to do alone. Weaver is interactive–you must teach it. You’ll spend less time reviewing with Weaver, too. I like how the author said it:

It takes more time to do, But the time is made up in review.

My other favorite quote is: “[Do] you teach Jesus?”

This is why I homeschool: so that I can teach Jesus. I will share more thoughts and tidbits from Teaching Tips & Techniques whenever I go through it. If you have something to share, feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

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