I bought the Playmobile Egypt set the year we did Ancients- 3 years later it still gets played with all the time & is one of their favorite toys. Your kids will love it!

That was beautiful- thanks for sharing. Your mother sounds like a wonderful lady.

You've done another wonderful job- thank you for sharing!

I dunno, maybe she said that because she really never would spend her money on that kind of thing. Some people are just "house" people and there's really nothing wrong with that. Everyone chooses to spend their money differently- some people spend it on their homes, some people spend it on their kids, some people spend it on vacations or shopping, etc. I don't see one choice as necessarily better than the other- you choose to spend your money on enrichment for your kids and I'm sure she feels like she is providing a better environment for her kids. :tongue_smilie: (although I'm sure where you live is very nice!) I can understand why her comment bugged you- maybe it felt like a not-so-subtle put down towards you. Really, it's rude to comment on how another family spends their money unless they've specifically asked for input, which you obviously had not. I'm sorry she was rude about it but I'd let it go.

Wow- this is fabulous! I hope you will share your nature study plans when you finish them...

It would help to know the age of your child. My suggestion would be to start with Year 2, Unit 3 and go through the end of Year 3. That would give a good overview of American history leading up to Year 4. If you want to cover that much history in just one year, you are going to HAVE to pick & choose which books you read. I would: 1. Read all of the Core History books. 2. Each week I'd pick 1 or 2 of *either* the History in depth readings or the literature readings. 3. Depending on his age, I'd either skip geography/map aids or scale it back. You'll have 54 weeks of Tapestry to cover in 52 weeks, and that's assuming you take no breaks for vacation, holidays, etc. which is clearly unrealistic. I would highly recommend that you sit down with a calendar and mark out a school schedule for the year- when you will have breaks for holidays, vacations, etc. Then look at how many weeks you have left- you will probably have to cover 1-2 weeks of Tapestry each week. One thing you might consider doing is skipping the week Tapestry spends on Australia and the 2-3 weeks that they spend on South America. That might buy you a little extra time and, assuming your son isn't already in high school, you WILL come back to it, so there will be another chance to cover it in a few years.

oh so stinkin' precious!!!

:iagree::iagree:

Oh, that is so wonderful! Very sweet! And it gives me hope for my late bloomer- thank you for posting!

THANK YOU!!! Weird thing- I've got them all printed out except for Year 4, Unit 2. When I go to those pages it has all of the Year 3, Unit 2 pages instead of the Year 4 pages. Will call them tomorrow to tell them they have a glitch.

Does anyone know... isn't there a central location for the student activity pages? I can't seem to find it...

My dh was 47 when our last baby was born! He'll be 50 this year and I keep trying to convince him for another one (or two!). :D

My favorite book of poetry is "Favorite Poems Old and New". Our family has discovered so many of our favorite poems from reading this book here & there throughout the day.

To me, this is the beauty of the 4 year cycle! Because I know we are coming back to each topic at least 2-3 more times- I don't worry at all about what I am missing. I do what I can this time and just know that I've got a few more chances to pick up what we missed this time around.

Have you looked at Tapestry? It seems like something you might like...

I tried combining CC with TOG last year. We ended up dropping out of CC in October. It was sucking all of the life & joy & fun out of our homeschool. :( It is a LOT to do both fully & completely and cc just did not provide the kind of education I wanted for our kids. It is difficult to keep CC & TOG synced together as they move at different paces. CC moves very fast- they cover in 3 weeks what we spent a semester on in TOG. I think the fast pace makes it hard to supplement cc in a way complements the depth of Tapestry.

I'd love to have a preschool board too!

I'm looking to buy some timeline figures that are stickers. I like the look of the Homeschool in the Woods set but it appears they are printed on cardstock. Sonlight has the same set as stickers, but they are all broken up into different years according to Sonlight Cores so I don't think that will work for us. Any other suggestions?

I've always really liked Kyler (ryhme w/ Tyler).

Well, I voted "vital" because I have traveled to another state to attend one for two years in a row. Although, really- I don't think conventions are necessary for me to successfully homeschool. I really enjoy them and always come away refreshed and energized for a new year. It is the only time of year that Dh and I go away together- we enjoy the seminars & the Friday night comedy. It's a really fun time for us. I really do think that we should continue reading & learning about homeschooling, teaching, etc. as we go along- kind of like annual training that most jobs do- so I consider this to be like professional development for myself.

We did CC this year and this is an EXCELLENT blog post on the pros & cons of CC and why they eventually chose to leave cc. I can echo every single one of her issues with CC. Rather than write my own post on it, I've just saved hers and always share it with others! http://accidentalhomeschooler.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-classical-conversations-to.html

I started TOG Year 1 when my oldest began Kindergarten. We are now about to start (in July) Year 4. My kids will be in 3rd grade, 2nd grade, Kindergarten and a 2yo. We love Tapestry for the elementary years- it is such a perfect, perfect fit for our family! If you love it, I say go with it!

Tapestry of Grace, Year 4 covers the 1900's.

TOG devoted 3 weeks to the Civil War. I did not fee rushed at all. I did add some to TOG with the extra field trips- they just happened to be nearby & it seemed a shame not to take advantage of them! The gingerbread cake & craft were among the fine arts options for TOG. The "doing our show" is something they do pretty much every day. They'll spend hours each day acting out whatever it is we've been reading about with Tapestry. So that isn't really a part of Tapestry as much as it is just their free play time.

My kids love it. Right now we are wrapping up the Civil War. Today my 8yo, 7yo & 4yo spent about an hour in the woods reenacting the Battle for Little Round Top (one of the Gettysburg battles). We've read piles of good books on the Civil War, visited a local exhibit on Confederate Arms and next week we are planning on going to an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln that is on loan to our local museum from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. We'll make gingerbread cake ( a popular dessert during Civil War era) and choose a craft from our Civil War Craft book. In her book "The Charlotte Mason Companion", Karen Andreola writes that kids need "something to think, something to do and something to love". Tapestry provides my kids with "something to think" and "something to do". They spend almost every afternoon outside "doing our show" (i.e. acting out what we've been reading about in history) and there are as many or as little hands on projects as you want to do. We are very happy with Tapestry.