January 16, 2008 by bigfamily4Him.

The new year is upon this mom of many and one thing I have found most helpful to start a new year is to do a quick reevualation of my schooling. I like to start with reminding myself of why I homeschool as it seems that after the holidays everyone can easily feel a little burn out.

Next, I like to go over our schedules and see if everything is working the best it can. Do I need to give more time to a particular student or maybe I just need to allow more time for research on those supplement objectives that my older students are working on.

After checking those off my list I look at our schedule in general. Are we able to stay with how it is or do I need to switch some subjects around to ease the load.

I realized that when I make myself (note the key word here is make) do this simple check that the second half of my school year goes much smoother and I don’t feel so overwhelmed with a scheduling problem that really was just a simple fix. This time of checking also allows me to review what we have already accomplished for the year and that is always a boost at a much needed slow time of year. Lastly, when I take time to “pull up any loose strings” my days are less likely to unravel.

Put on the kettle for a nice cup of coffee or tea , grab your school planner, say outloud “check please” and help the rest of your year to weave together.

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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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