May 14, 2012 by KellyH.

The new site is up and running!

http://unofficialweaver.com

You’ll find book suggestions on just about every page, along with updated links to useful sites. Everything on the site is designed to help families who use The Weaver. Stop by and check it out, then come back and leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Print | No Comments »

April 8, 2012 by KellyH.

While I’m very good at planning out my Weaver chapters well in advance (during the summer I plan through to Christmas break; during Christmas break I plan through to spring break; during spring break I plan through to summer break), I usually use Sunday afternoons to flesh-out my upcoming week. Today was no exception.

Back in February I told you about how I integrated The Timetables of History into our day as we studied Early American History. This week we’re focusing on science, and I’ve discovered a set of books on my shelves that will work superbly: Biology for Christian Schools, Volumes A&B.

We’ve been studying plants (roots, stems and leaves so far) and will look at flowers and classification this week. I thought it would be nice to get a basic understanding of how plants are classified, so I asked other homeschooling moms if they had any recommendations for botany books. One mom suggested I check for a botany section in whatever science texts I have on hand. Why didn’t I think of that myself?!

I’ve already graduated two sons, and my third son has only one year left. My daughter starts high school next year, and there’s another son two years behind her. I happen to have the above mentioned BJU biology book because one of my sons used it in a co-op class. Since I didn’t teach the class, I haven’t looked too closely at the book itself–until now!

What a wealth of information! Chapter 13 is all about the plant kingdom. The text is easy to read, with sidebars of info and photos. I’ve taken the first part of the chapter and split it into three days–splits that fall naturally within the chapter to begin with–and will have my daughter answer the review questions as she goes. I also found info on classification in Apologia’s Exploring Creation with General Science, which is also on my shelf.

Once we finish with plants we’ll move onto the human body. I’ll get info from the BJU biology text, as well as from the Apologia text, The Human Body, which is another text I bought for an older boy for co-op classes.

I LOVE finding little gems like this that make homeschooling fun and so much easier! How about you? What books have you found on your shelves that prove to be invaluable to your homeschooling journey?

Posted in Volume 3, Science | Print | No Comments »

April 1, 2012 by KellyH.

For the past two weeks I’ve been working on updating the Unofficial Weaver Pages. When I first created the page, I did ALL the coding by hand in Notepad using basic HTML. Then I used Dream Weaver, which is a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) program, and I was able to make changes faster. A couple years ago I got a CSS book and started learning how to use Cascading Style Sheets. For the past two weeks I’ve been working on moving the content from the old design (HTML) into the new design (CSS). It’s tedious, as I’m doing it all by hand once again, stripping all the unnecessary code and tweaking the CSS to make it all look as I envision it. I’ll still have more to tweak when this update goes live, but I want to get it up as soon as possible, so I’m only doing the major changes right now.

Would you like a peek?

http://unofficialweaverpages.com/

Head over there and check it out. (The navigation links don’t go anywhere right now, so please don’t feel too frustrated that you can’t see anything else–this is just a sneak peek, remember.) Then come back here and leave a comment about the new look. I’d love to hear from you!

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February 21, 2012 by KellyH.

As we study Early American History in Volume 3, Chapter 7, I’ve found that my timeline book is coming in quite handy:

Today, for instance, we started covering James Madison. Mr Madison was president from 1809 to 1817. Upon checking The Timetables of History, I found that Rip Van Winkle was written in 1809. I looked the story up in my Collier Junior Classics Vol 5 (Stories That Never Grow Old) and began reading it to my children today. They had a different way of writing back then–lots of detail and many words no longer used in everyday language. We also listened to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 5, and learned that Louis Braille and Abraham Lincoln were both born in 1809.

History doesn’t have to be dry, boring dates that mean nothing to your children. Bring it alive with information your child can relate to!

(If you are looking for a set of Junior Classics, be sure to check antique stores in your area. Also, a search of eBay.com for “Junior Classics” turns up many sets averaging around $25.)

Posted in Teaching Tips, History/Geography | Print | No Comments »

March 6, 2011 by KellyH.

We’re currently in the middle of Volume 2, Chapter 8. It’s a loonnng chapter: 15 Bible Lessons. Normally, that would take 6 weeks to do (Bible every other day–30 days for the chapter) but I teach Bible 3 days a week, so this will take just 5 weeks. I’ve arranged our weeks like this because my oldest student takes science and math outside of the home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have Bible and History on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, when my son is home; on Tuesday and Thursday I teach science to the younger 2 (besides our other “classes,” like math, spelling, reading, etc).

As I was planning this chapter, and trying to arrange the science and history lessons, it became a challenge. I like to follow the flow of the Day by Day as much as possible, but rearranging the science objectives was not easy. Some of them were off track as I gave priority to the history lessons in our daily lineup.  I spent much time in prayer trying to make the chapter as cohesive as possible.

The first day we came across a science lesson that I knew should have been taught a few days earlier, I simply told the children, “Remember last week, when we talked about …” I even pulled out the Bible and re-read the info we covered previously. This was a great review for the children! About a week later I found myself teaching a science lesson the day before the Bible lesson with which it corresponded. As I began the science lesson, I mentioned that we’d be talking about it more the next day during our Bible lesson.

Whether your science and history line up perfectly with your Bible lessons or not, you can always point your children back to the Bible. That’s the whole basis of Weaver: the Bible. Proverbs 16:3 tells us, “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” If you are committed to teaching Weaver, God knows and will give you the words and the insight for the lesson at hand. Keep your focus on Him and you will be blessed!

Posted in Encouragement, Teaching Tips, Bible | Print | No Comments »

May 27, 2010 by KellyH.

Over the past week we’ve had two snakes turn up in our yard. The first was a big one. A Black Rat Snake about 4 feet long. Here it is crawling across the top of one of our windows–a 5 ft-wide window! It just shimmied up the side of the house.

Here it is trying to climb another part of our house:

Check out the pattern!

The second snake was found in our pool as we were draining/cleaning it. I believe it is a Plain-bellied Water Snake.

I can’t help but wonder if that big one was the one that left the 4-foot long skin shedding a couple years ago. And as for the little one… he was so cute I wanted to hold him, but didn’t have the courage.

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March 7, 2010 by KellyH.

We’re almost finished with our unit on Family (also the Human Body–these go together quite well if you focus on how each member of the body is unique, just like each member of the family is unique) and the best part has been the read alouds! You may recall, from my earlier post on Chap. 12, that we started with Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams. My children thoroughly enjoyed that story. We then moved on to Billy Graham, which they also enjoyed, but don’t seem to speak of as much. After that we read the Swiss Family Robinson, which was another hit. It was great fun discussing all the things the family had to “make” to live comfortably. Now we’re almost through with Susannah Wesley. There is so much history in that book! The chapters are a little long, but it’s giving us great opportunity to discuss marriages, death, and family living.

One more week until spring break… at which time I’ll be planning out the last couple months of our schooling.

Posted in Living Books, Volume 1 | Print | No Comments »

February 25, 2010 by KellyH.

Two days ago a Savannah sparrow hit my office window and scared the wits out of me (my computer chair is right next to the window). I looked out and saw feathers floating to the ground and a bird on the ground, obviously dead. He hit hard–didn’t have a chance.

This morning I heard another bird hit a window, this time my husband’s office window (directly upstairs from mine). The sound wasn’t as loud, so I hoped for the best. I looked out and saw a little Harris’ sparrow on its back, legs kicking as it struggled to figure out what happened. Thinking it would have a better chance right-side-up, I went out to see if I could assist it in flipping over. As I rounded the corner, he flipped by himself. Not wanting to cause more stress, I went back into the house and began praying.

Birds are such a fantastic example of God’s care for us. My heart was heavy for the Harris’ sparrow as he struggled to survive in the 31 degree weather. Being on the stone porch probably didn’t help him, and having a dead sparrow two feet away didn’t help me! My heart was breaking.

After an hour, the bird was sitting up, puffed out to stay warm, and his eyes were open most of the time. His head turned in reaction to shadows and loud noises, so I thought he had a good chance of survival. After another prayer for the bird’s safety, I gathered my two youngest and we went grocery shopping. An hour later we arrived home to find the bird still there. As we watched, he turned around. Thinking he would probably fly any time, we had our lunch, checking on him every 10 minutes or so.

Suddenly my daughter was yelling, “He’s on his side!” We rushed to the window to see the little bird about a foot away from his original spot, on his side, motionless. He must have tried to fly and it was just too much.

God had a plan for that bird’s life. He was always watching, always caring for it. He does the same for us: watching over us, guiding our paths, working out His plan. That little sparrow reminded me of that fact at a time when I needed reminding. Sometimes things happen in life that give us an out-of-control feeling. We can’t see the whole picture, so we grasp at what we know and try not to let things change. We can’t see that things are not really changing, or that if they are changing it is for the best.

We often get so caught up in what “might” happen that we forget to live in the here-and-now. We get ahead of God. My children and I enjoyed the nearness of that little Harris’ sparrow while we could. Later, they’ll go out and bury him and the Savannah sparrow (so I don’t have to keep looking at them when I look out my window). We’ll move on with our lives, and give our parakeets a little extra attention. And we’ll keep looking to God for direction and guidance.

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February 21, 2010 by KellyH.

We’re two weeks into our human body unit, but didn’t start making our organs until last week. No, I haven’t made the outlines of my children yet. After reading through the instructions, I was a bit flustered as to what needed to be done first. There are instructions for making everything… but not instructions for the order of making the models.

So, I’ve decided that we’ll just make all the organs and then worry about creating the body to “stick” them onto. And then I’m going to jot down lots of notes about how the project should proceed next time, and place it into my Weaver 3-D Body Book!

My children are really enjoying the sewing–actually, I think they enjoyed picking out the material for each organ the best. Rather than go out and buy plain material, we’re using whatever I have on-hand. These will certainly be colorful bodies!

I’ll post pictures at Facebook once we get a few more organs completed.

Posted in Volume 1, Science | Print | No Comments »

February 9, 2010 by KellyH.

Chapter 12 of Volume 1 is the Human Body unit. But, while we’re studying the human body, we’re also studying “family.” I’ve chosen to do some read-alouds with this unit. We’ll be taking five weeks to go through this chapter, so I have four “families” to read about.

The first week we’re covering the family institution and preparation for family living. I chose to read Abigail Adams: First Lady of Faith and Courage (Sower Series). I chose this book because I simply love the way families were structured in this time period. It’s very different than what we now see, and this book gives me a chance to discuss those differences with my children. (Having just finished John Adams the time period is still fresh in my mind, as are John and Abigail Adams.)

During the first half of week two, we’ll be studying guidelines for dating. I’ve chosen to read about Billy Graham from the book, Backpack Books: Modern Heroes. All of these families exemplify godly people, which is what I’m focusing on for this unit. I don’t know if this book will touch on his relationship with his wife or not–the Abigail Adams book talked a bit about their courtship–but I’m sure I’ll find many character traits to point out to my children during this read-aloud.

During the second half of week two and most of week three we’ll be studying marriage. I chose The Swiss Family Robinson from Christian Adventures… 4 Books In 1. I realize this is a fictional family, but it’s also a family that works together to survive. Teamwork is another trait I’m trying to instill in my children.

During week four and the first half of week five we’ll be studying death, so I’ve chosen Susanna Wesley (The Sowers). I’ve read this book before and I seem to recall that Susanna loses a few babies along the way.

None of these books are suggested in the Volume, but they are what I have on my shelves. You will need to choose your own families to study if you chose to do read-alouds. As a way to wrap-up this unit, during the last week we’ll be studying “famous families.” I’ll be asking my children to write a letter to any of the famous families we’ve read about, even the Swiss Family Robinson, and ask them questions. It should be interesting to see what they come up with!

Posted in Creative Writing, Resources, Language Arts/English, History/Geography, Volume 1 | Print | No Comments »