March 3, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

Unit planning tops my list of favorite activities.  Poring over the objectives in the volume and the supplement,  pulling resources off my shelves, and searching out Internet helps, always stirs up my imagination and creativity.   But that is nothing compared to the actual learning, the reading together, the “aha” moments, and  the meaningful conversations that always take place as we study together.   This unit on  ”Speech, Sound and Language” opened up some areas of discovery for us.  Let me share some of them with you.

One surprise was how fascinated we all were by the book The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.  The only thing that prevented us from non-stop reading was my sore throat, from bronchitis, and lunch time hunger pangs.  I have to admit that I am a bit ambivalent towards Helen Keller.  Knowing that she became part of a cult, Swedenborganism, has always tempered my interest in her life.  But in reading about her accomplishments there is no escaping the tremendous determination and genius she displayed in overcoming substantial obstacles.  Learning Greek is difficult for most people but she added to that Latin, French and German.  She developed such a proficiency that she read works in those languages for pure enjoyment.

I was deeply impressed by how her teacher, Anne Sullivan, showed a self-sacrifice that would challenge any of us who calls herself Christian.  Would I be willing to dedicate my life, even to the detriment of my own eyesight,  so that another could succeed?  

One of the great benefits in using living books is all the extra “goodies” we get from our reading experience.  For example, through Helen Keller’s relationship with Alexander Graham Bell a whole different side of his character was revealed.  Even though we studied him as the inventor of the telephone we became aware of his deep love for children and his ongoing work with the deaf.  Helen also had special friendships with several famous writers of her era such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greeleaf Whittier and Mark Twain.  These men showed real kindness to her.  She read from Mark Twain’s own lips one or two of his tales.  She said, “I feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake.”

A great challenge I have in using read-alouds is completing the book within the time frame of the unit.  Many times the classic I want to use is much too long to accommodate a 2 week study.  This book would have been manageable but then bronchitis set in.  In the end we were finishing up as we began our next unit.  But no one really minded.

Some other living books that I added for individual reading were, All of  A Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor for my 3rd grader,  It’s a Jungle Out There! by Ron Snell  for my 8th grader, and Fanny Crosby: The Hymn Writer  by Bernard Ruffin for my 10th grader.  Each touched on some of the objectives that were covered during the unit.

Several in my family were hit by a virus during this unit where talking became difficult and our hearing became muffled for weeks because of congestion.  I can say with conviction that we came to value those abilities with new appreciation because of all we experienced in this unit.

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December 3, 2007 by pattycov.

One of the reasons that I love Weaver is that it doesn’t demand that I finish the curriculum in a school year.  Currently we are in Chapter 16 of Volume One, so we will be finished with the volume by the end of the month, before we go on break.  Who caught that?  “Wait… chapter 16 is only supposed to be 8 days long.”  This is just one example of what happens when I get “in deep” with a unit.  I just happen to love this unit.  It is about the Civil War and slavery.  American History used to bore me to tears when I was in school but now I can’t get enough of it.  I just want to spend two months here because there is so much to learn, to apply biblically, to read about and to do.  I realize that we are only supposed to touch on some of these subjects and not get too deep into it, but I just can’t help it!  I also love to do all the research; find the reading books, find the projects to do, read internet site after internet site and book after book.  So far, we have done a lot of reading.  We’ve read books about the Civil War, about Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman, not to mention fictional stories that took place during this time.  God is so good to show how certain things tie together.   I will admit that sometimes I don’t stick too closely to the DbD when I think it doesn’t go far enough with a subject and we go on our own rabbit trail.  When we started, we talked about battle and the scripture I used was 2 Timothy 2:2-3, “We, therefore, must endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  Anyone engaged in warfare does not entangle himself with the affairs of this world, that he may please the one who enlisted him.”  I think I got that about right, as I am quoting from memory.  We had very in-depth conversations about what that verse meant.  Focus in times of battle, not getting caught up in the things of this life, keeping the enemy in our site (or sight.  I don’t know much about guns).  Today, I went ahead and ventured ahead of our bible lessons to the birth of Moses (though I suspect that’s probably coming up in Vol. 2, so we didn’t go too far), and we talked about God’s purpose for Moses.  Like Moses, God used Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman to free the captives.  He had a specific purpose for their life.  Just like He has a specific plan for our lives.

I have done so much research on this and there are so many great ideas for this chapter that I know I have to reign myself in.  I have to make sure that I’m not taking this above the heads of a 1st and 3rd grader.  Do you ever feel like you are having more fun with it than your children are?   That’s okay; hopefully my fervor and excitement will ignite something in them as well. 

But, again, this is why I love Weaver.  Independence with a little structure to keep me in line!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

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