The Curriculum Choice

Since my daughter is in 8th grade this year, I was eager to start some formal home economics classes with her as part of her school day. Not only do I feel that home economics classes teach valuable life skills, I think they are a wonderful, hands-on break from the more academic subjects which compose her school days. My daughter had shown interest in learning to sew, so I wanted to add a sewing course to her schedule this year. Given that my seamstress skills are limited at best, I was nervous about putting together my own sewing course.

Thankfully, I ventured into the Sew Teach Me booth at the Midwest Homeschool Convention. After talking with the helpful folks at the Sew Teach Me booth, I decided that the sewing curriculum was exactly what I had been looking for in a beginning sewing course.

I purchased the entire course on CD for $89.95 which includes patterns for a few of the projects and pattern design software from which all of the other patterns can be printed. If you prefer to purchase the curriculum printed and bound which also includes the pattern design software, the price is $159.95. The curriculum is recommended for ages 8 and up but I think you would really need to consider the maturity level of your child. My daughter definitely would not have been ready for this course at 8, but at 13, the course is a perfect fit for her.

Sew Teach Me includes 8 chapters covering a wide variety of basic sewing skills. My favorite part of the curriculum is that chapters 2 through 8 all include a great sewing project to complete at the end of the chapter. My daughter’s enthusiasm for the sewing course increased dramatically when she had successfully completed her first project. All of the projects are items that could be given for gifts or kept for oneself.

Most chapters offer a choice of projects so that your child could choose his or her favorite project to complete or complete all three projects if desired. For example, your child can choose between a ski hat, pet planket, or tic-tac-toe board at the end of the chapter on straight sewing. My daughter chose the ski hat.

More specifically, each chapter in the Sew Teach Me sewing curriculum covers basic sewing skills with a project or projects at the end of the chapter designed to practice the newly learned skills. Here is a brief overview of the contents of each chapter and the sewing projects from which your child can choose.

Chapter 1 – Learning the parts of the sewing machine.
Chapter 2 – Straight stitching. Projects include a ski hat, pet blanket, or tic-tac-toe board.
Chapter 3 – Stitching curves. Projects include a candy swirl pillow, oven mitt, or hand puppet.
Chapter 4 – Fasteners (sewing in a zipper, sewing a snap, sewing hook and loop tape). Projects include a book bag, hanging organizer, or wrist wallet.
Chapter 5 – Survival sewing (replacing buttons, repairing hems, mending tears and rips, re-sewing seams, replacing zippers, pressing, laundry). The project for this chapter is a laundry sorting bag.
Chapter 6 – Decorative stitching. Projects include a lap quilt, computer mouse pad, or a visor.
Chapter 7 – Field trip to a local fabric store, learning about patterns.
Chapter 8 – Putting it all together. Projects include a picnic tablecloth, iCare bib, or apron.

Sew Teach Me is written directly to the student in simple, clear language. While the class is clearly designed to be primarily an independent study, I am working through the class with my daughter. If at all possible, I think it is quite helpful to have somebody available to help work through the sewing projects. Expert sewing skills are NOT NEEDED to help your child with this course. I have some experience with sewing but I am no expert. With my limited knowledge and the excellent instruction in this course, I am learning right alongside my daughter. In the very first chapter, I learned that I’ve been removing the thread from my sewing machine the wrong way for the past 17 years!

My only complaint about the Sew Teach Me curriculum is that I find piecing together the patterns after we’ve printed them out to be difficult. Using the included pattern design software, patterns are printed right from your computer. Then, all of the pieces of paper need to be matched up, taped, and then the pattern pieces need to be cut out. Therefore, I will be purchasing a simple apron pattern for my daughter to use in the last chapter rather than trying to piece together the pattern pieces for a large project like an apron.

You can learn more about the Sew Teach Me curriculum at their website. As well, you can see pictures of each of the chapter projects. Fabric kits for each project can also be purchased on their website but I find it much more fun to pick out the fabric of my daughter’s choice at our local fabric store. If you are not close to a fabric store, though, this may be a convenient option.

Samantha has been homeschooling her three children for the past 8 years. Currently, she is homeschooling a 4th grader, 6th grader, and an 8th grader. Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at To Be Busy At Home.

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Before I Fall

One of the very best things about homeschooling your kids is that you are free to choose any philosophy of teaching you wish. Paying attention to the way your child learns and adhering to his/her needs in the classroom is a huge benefit that homeschooled kids have. Many of you reading this review may have chosen to homeschool for the very reason that your child could not learn the in the style being taught at a traditional school. There are plenty of styles of schooling your kids out there. There’s Classical, Eclectic, Unit Study-based, Unschoolers, and more. But the style that has most worked with our family is the Charlotte Mason approach.

In a nutshell, Charlotte Mason was an educational reformer that live in England in the late 1800′s. She completely disagreed with how school worked and thought it could be better. She had no children of her own, but she made it her life’s mission to improve the educational system as it was. She set to work and started her own school. I love a woman willing to go against the grain!

Her philosophy can be hard to adopt for homeschoolers that were brought up in public (or private) school because it is so different from “regular” school. With a CM approach you use no text books. Everything is taught on a literature-based standard. Instead of having children memorize names and dates and cram for tests, you would read interesting and exciting literature to paint a mental picture that sticks with them…encouraging a love of learning.

So…pardon me for the long introduction. I’ll get the the review now . It can be difficult in the beginning to know how to use this philosophy, but I’ll share some of my very favorite Charlotte Mason guides that really helped me. (Please note: There are TONS of great websites and books to help you learn more, but these are my most “beat-up” CM books…meaning they are dog-eared, highlighted, “coffee-ringed”, and creased!)

Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola: Karen Andreola is a forerunner for starting the Charlotte Mason revival in the homeschooling community. She has written many books about teaching certain subjects the CM way, but this book is a compilation of allaspects of teaching the CM way. The contents include everything you need to know. She includes a background about what drew her to the CM method and bumps along the way. The book is sprinkled with personal stories about her life as a homeschool mom. She stresses the importance of having a support system and possibly even starting your own CM group. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and room for notes.

A Charlotte Mason Education Series by Catherine Levison: These are the books that first got me excited about CM. I love the way Catherine writes and her clear explanation of everything she discusses. Her series is made of three separate titles:

The first book is an overview of each school subject and how to do them the way CM would have. The second book goes a bit more in depth and gives great ideas for your classroom. Both books have great examples, lists, and sample schedules to help you get started.

The third book in the series is a compilation of books that CM used in her teaching and newer books that follow her guidelines of teaching. There are many books reviewed and I use many of them in our homeschool. This book also includes a great scope and sequence of grades K-12. It’s a wonderful way to get started, even if you don’t follow it all the way through high school, it’s a great starting point.

Catherine’s website also includes excellent articles that I’ve read over and over.

Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg with Charlotte Mason helps. A few others that come to mind are:

-Written by Alicia, a Charlotte Mason-loving, mom of three. You can find her blogging at La Famille.

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