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.

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?

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!

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.)

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!

I used to wonder about this also some 12 years ago, when I first started using Weaver with my young children. The lessons seemed very short. Was I missing something? Thankfully I ran across some Charlotte Mason philosophy at the same time. That philosophy reinforced for me a great benefit of Weaver. CM philosophy encourages short interesting lessons, which Weaver provides. I had to get out of my head the idea of the 50 minute classroom, teacher-controlled lesson. We all need to unlearn some things when we start home-schooling like unlearning all that we thought was true education, modeled by the public or private school. If you begin to fret and think you have to add extra information and go beyond what the Weaver unit covers it can lead to overload and burnout. Follow some rabbit trails, if you want, but remember that you don’t have to do so in order to make the curriculum complete. You will repeat many of the subjects year after year, although the objectives will not always cover the same information, so you don’t have to worry and ask, “Are my kids getting enough?”.

Now, if you go beyond what Weaver presents for a particular unit you may run the risk of burning out on a topic and when you hit it again your children may rebel. Volume one is a volume for setting the hooks in place for further building. Why does Weaver do that? Weaver prefers hitting many topics yearly in increments and building on them rather than teaching a subject every four or five years.

Also once you introduce a topic your children will become more aware of that subject and you will find them adding their own information to it as well. You don’t have to think you have to supply all of the learning situations. Life is not segmented and compartmentalized, like most curriculums are set up. Weaver plans on the fact that as you introduce subjects your children will begin to take responsibility for their own learning. Their interests will be piqued and they will begin to make their own connections.

Some lessons are short and some are not, as you will see. I would encourage you to trust the curriculum. Yes, you can follow tangents but know that you don’t need to. Your kids will fall in love with a curriculum that does not require fill-in-the-blanks, long sitting, teacher directed and text driven lessons. With Weaver you are invited to learn with your children, in short interesting lessons, so you can spend the rest of your day living and enjoying life, not tied to a school desk! Do I hear a hallelujah?
Even though the lessons are short and there are hands-on activities I still always ask the Lord to help me find ways to make the new lessons applicable and memorable for our family. When you come to a new unit, or are in the middle of one, there is also the wonderful group of home educators on the Weaver loop who has lots of ideas also. There is always a game or nifty introduction which will create an element of delight, surprise and spice things up a bit.

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.

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

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.

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.