The Curriculum Choice

Barb

Barb McCoy- Harmony Art Mom writes about homeschooling their teens on her blog Harmony Art Mom. and taking family outdoor adventures on her other blog, Handbook of Nature Study. She is the author and host for the Outdoor Hour Challenge and a series of ebooks helping families get started with simple nature study. Barb also founded Harmony Fine Arts which helps homeschoolers with their art and music appreciation.

Excellence in Literature: Reading and Writing Through the Classics (IEW)

Classical, High School, Language Arts, Literature, Middle School, Writing No Responses »

May 022012

Wondering what your student can do with all those

wonderful writing skills they learn using IEW in the younger years?

The IEW system is a complete writing system that homeschooling families can build on from year to year. If your family has worked through the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style course and your older student is now looking for ways to use apply their skills to other subjects, the Excellence in Literature Content Guide for Self-Directed Study series by Janice Campbell is the perfect way to connect great literature and great writing. There are two books to choose from: American or British Literature. You can download a sample of the American Literature guide from the IEW website and also one for the British Literature guide.

These courses are written directly to the student and not the parent, allowing the student to build time management skills and allowing a measure of freedom. The author says that these courses will introduce “literary reading”, where the student learns to read with discernment.

Video introduction from the IEW website

We are just finishing the American Literature course which features nine different authors, offered in chronological order by literature movement. Each book is introduced by giving background to the author and the time period along with suggested follow-up topics to write about. The background links and resources are a rich mix of primary sources, biographies, art, music, and additional context material in written, audio, and video formats. The background research before reading the book is fundamental to this literature/writing course and will give the student a more three-dimensional view of the literary selection.

Points to Consider

Targeted to students in grades 8-11 (My 16-year-old son used this as part of our 12^th grade curriculum.)
Units include suggested additional honors texts and links.
Provides models, tips for general study skills, additional writing helps, sample writing pieces, and grading rubrics.
We found it necessary to have a copy of the course book and the literature selections for highlighting and notes.
The guide does not give a daily reading plan for each book. I assigned one week for background work, one week for reading the book, and two weeks for writing, as suggested by the author.
There is usually more than one suggested writing topic.
$29.00 – My son kept notes and thoughts in his book so I would suggest that each student have their own course book.

This IEW product was a success in our family and we will be moving on to British Literature next year.

Notes and Information Can Be Written in the Book

I love that we can take the pattern from this literature guide and apply it to future books.

Complete background information through internet research into the author and time period.
Read the book with a writing topic in mind, keeping notes as you read.
Follow up with a formal writing piece using the topics or ideas from the assignments in the course.

You may be interested in my other Institute for Excellence in Writing product reviews:

Teaching Writing Style and Structure (TWSS)
Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom. I blog at Harmony Art Mom and am the creator of Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study.

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Sonlight Ultra Microscope -Investing in High School Science

High School, Middle School, Nature Study, Science 1 Response »

Apr 042012

Most homeschoolers are very frugal and must make their homeschool budget stretch as far as possible. My family is no exception and I think long and hard about investing in curriculum and tools for our learning experiences. My two youngest boys are very science oriented and are naturally inquisitive about the world around them so purchasing a quality microscope made sense as we entered the middle school science years.

Our family aims to get the most value for the dollar. So which microscope would we buy?

The decision was not easy but after much research and thought, we decided to purchase the Sonlight Ultra Microscope. With a price tag of $240 this was a decision not made lightly! We wanted to provide the best equipment for our sons even as homeschoolers. Taking into account the useful life (six years in our case), our cost per year would be $40. Our high school science plans would be greatly enhanced with this investment and could provide college-prep level lab work throughout the high school years.

Actual image we took through the eyepiece of river sand.

Now after using this microscope for many years, I can with confidence say that it was an investment that paid off in a growing knowledge of the world right under our noses. Our eyes were opened to a complete new dimension of study, fascinating and wonderful.

Features Our Family Have Found Valuable:

Sturdy, durable construction. This is not a toy microscope and from the moment you pull it out of the box you know it is built to last.
The ease of aligning the slides. The mechanics of the slide platform are easy to adjust with the up-down and side-to-side knobs positioned for easy use. Going from coarse to fine adjustment is easy and the object stays in your field of vision. This feature cuts down on frustration. View Sonlight’s YouTube.com video showing Features and Benefits.
The light does not get hot and we can use this microscope for a long time without the slides getting hot or drying out too fast. This is especially important when working with wet objects like those you find in a pond.
The eyepiece swivels around so we can show each other what we see in the microscope as we gather around the table.
The magnification has been plenty high enough that we can see amazing details of our subject (40x, 100x, and 400x lenses).
We used this microscope in our biology, marine biology, chemistry, and human anatomy studies during high school.

Check the Sonlight website for their complete description and warranty.

Our family highly recommends this product for your homeschool science courses.

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom. I blog at Harmony Art Mom and am the creator of Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study.

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Playful Learning-Develop Your Child’s Sense of Joy and Wonder

Art, Elementary, Hands On, Mathematics, Science, Writing No Responses »

Mar 052012

What a treat for the eyes and a delight to the heart! I LOVE this book and any mom who is looking for ways to build on play-based learning, this book is a gem. The book, Playful Learning by Mariah Bruehl, will help you create an atmosphere of learning by building spaces and providing activities that spark creativity and fun. Looking back over my years as a homeschooling mom, I realize the best learning takes place when I could build on my child’s interest in a relaxed and enjoyable way. The trick was to be prepared for those moments.

Sometimes it is as easy as creating a learning environment, introducing your child to the space, and then letting them explore.

Playful Learning is the kind of book that can be referred to again and again and you will always find some new idea to spark a creative activity. It is a visually appealing book that outlines areas of your home where you can set the stage for playing and natural learning. The author stresses the importance of free and unstructured time for children to explore their interests and Playful Learning gives specific ideas for building on your child’s natural inclinations to play and learn by organizing play spaces and materials to nurture the interest alongside your child.

“Playful Learning gives us as parents an opportunity to play again! It is wonderful to teach the way we wish we had been taught. I have rediscovered my own awe and wonder of the world.”

Do you want to nurture your child’s love of writing? Young writers will be encouraged to keep lists and notebooks, write stories and letters, and have a try at bookmaking.
Do you want to build an art area, a child’s science “lab”, or a cozy reading library? Images and resource lists are included in this book.
Has your child shown an interest in learning geography? Create maps together and learn more about the world we live in using suggestions in this section of the book.
Is your child a nature lover? Activities illustrated will help your child better connect the the natural world in your own backyard.

Mariah Bruehl will give ideas in pictures and words, making it easier to provide a richer learning experience at home by showing you activities to plan on and offer as you play through your day.

She explains that the key for parents is to stay “one step ahead”. I appreciate that this book assumes you want to identify an interest and then build on it, preparing yourself to offer up the space and ingredients for playful learning at home. She outlines in each main section the stages of learning, how to stay “one step ahead”, the process of building on interests, and then more ways to explore with your child. She suggests skimming the book with your child and then refer back to it when they become interested in a particular subject.

The book includes lots of printables in the back of the book as well as from the Playful Learning website. What a great way to get started with your Playful Learning experiences! You may also want to follow Playful Learning on Pinterest where there are many, many wonderful additional ideas for you to implement in your home.

Excellent resource for families with children from ages 4-8 (even older if you extend the ideas). This book will be a perfect supplement to any homeschooling curriculum and can be used with any style of learning. Big thumbs up for this sparkling gem of a book!

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom. I blog at Harmony Art Mom and am the creator of Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study.

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Take Five! for Language Arts

High School, Language Arts, Middle School, Writing No Responses »

Feb 062012

One of hardest subjects for me to teach is writing, especially creative writing. As a long time homeschooling mom, I appreciate that I don’t know everything about everything. Two of my children are gifted writers and it has always been a challenge to offer them interesting writing programs, stimulating them to tap into their creative juices. Finding a resource that meets my high expectations is like finding a treasure!

I received Take Five! for Language Arts as an electronic download to review. I knew immediately upon opening the file that I was going to be able to use this with my high school age son AND he was going to enjoy the simple but imaginative assignments.

The assignments are actually written for practice in critical thinking and just happen to include creative thinking and writing as well. These are not your usual hum-drum writing assignments. Some of the prompts have you make a list or chart, sometimes you actually do a quick sketch before writing, or some of the prompts build on each other from day to day.
Each activity is intended to be done in five minutes so they are easily worked into an otherwise busy high school schedule.
The price is a little high at $23.95 but since the target age group for this book is grades 6 – 12. I could have used this as a resource making it a part of a larger language arts program in middle and high school making it a good investment.
This book would complement many styles of homeschooling including classical, Charlotte Mason, eclectic, or even unschooling.
There is just enough variety to make it interesting, leaving the writer wondering what tomorrow’s assignment will be. Yes, anticipation for the next assignment!

Things to note:

Sometimes you need more than pencil and paper to complete an activity but never anything you wouldn’t already have in a well-stocked homeschool.
I found that Take Five! for Language Arts was really something I needed to be involved in, reading the narrative, prompt, and extensions together with my son. This way we could adapt the assignment if needed or go a little farther if we found it was a “bell ringer” of a topic.
I do not assign a score or grade with these assignments. The task is always to complete the prompt, share it, and receive feedback. I think this gives my son a little more freedom to write or create in a way that fits him.
There is an index at the back of the book categorizing the prompts by language arts skills involved and I found that to be very helpful. For example, if I was looking for a prompt that used persuasive writing, I could scroll to that section and read down the list of prompts working on that genre of writing.
You can download the Table of Contents and a Sample Activity from the publishers website: Maupin House.

My teenage creative writer and I give this program a big thumbs up!

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom. I blog at Harmony Art Mom and am the creator of Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study.

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Institute for Excellence in Writing: TWSS

Classical, Elementary, High School, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Philosophies, Writing 8 Responses »

Feb 182010

Institute For Excellence in Writing- Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVDs By Andrew Pudewa

Feeling Empowered as a Parent/Teacher

Many of my blog readers have been asking me to write a review of Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) for a long time. I have hesitated to write the review since we are still very much a work in progress using their system of writing. My boys were in middle school when we first started using IEW’s Teaching Writing: Style and Structure program. At this point, after using the plans for three years, I feel prepared to give a review of the program based on how our year is going with this final stage of IEW and their Teaching Writing: Style and Structure DVDs and manual. (TWSS)

Just a Note to Make Things Clear

Please note that there are several programs available through IEW but this review is for the TWSS DVDs and teacher’s manual only. The TWSS DVDs are for the parent to watch and glean techniques and ideas in order to guide their children through the writing process. They are the beginning step to using the IEW system in your home school. Parents do not need any previous experience teaching writing nor do you even need to be a confident writer. The TWSS DVDs will teach you all you need to know to help your children add structure and style to their writing.

The Strong Points of the TWSS Program

Guides the Parent: The TWSS method of teaching arms the teacher/parent and students with a variety of tools to use in their writing. The IEW system is a system that builds up a great foundation by introducing a structure that the child can use to express his thoughts in a logical and meaningful way. Each new skill slowly adds on the last skill. The DVD lessons in the TWSS series arm the parent with concrete ways to structure and then “dress-up” the student’s writing. Each lesson gives you specific objectives so the parent and student know exactly what the writing piece needs to accomplish. A whole new vocabulary is learned in the process and soon everyone is talking about quality adjectives and who-which clauses. (Link to a handout explaining more about dress-ups.) The most significant thing about the way new tools are added is that we are no longer trying to fix everything all at one time. The lessons help us to concentrate on the new tool introduced and to incorporate the previous tools into our current writing.

Lessons Build From Elementary to High School: Each lesson in the TWSS plan is a baby step to more sophisticated writing. Starting with key word outlines and summaries, your child learns to gather information to write about each week. I love that I can tailor the topics we want to write about to the lesson and make it even more meaningful. My boys are now busy writing instead of thinking of things to write about. The flexibility to choose your topics and apply them to each of the lessons in the TWSS sequence is one of the greatest benefits of this program.

Working from a Key Word Outline Makes Writing Easier

Tailor the Topics for Writing Projects: For instance, this week my boys are working on writing a research report. They both chose a topic from their current areas of study with one choosing a physics topic and one choosing a biography. They had plenty of fresh ideas from their studies to incorporate into their writing assignment. Remember that we did not start off writing research reports, but the TWSS lessons have built from one paragraph summaries to three paragraph essays to now a five paragraph essay with introduction, conclusion, and bibliography. Our next step after mastering the five paragraph essay is to work on what is called a “super essay” which is basically three five paragraph essays tied together with super introduction and super conclusion paragraphs.

Here are the official units covered in TWSS in the DVD lessons:
Units 1-2 Note Making and Summarizing including Stylistic Techniques and Dress Ups
Unit 3-Summarizing Narratives Stories and introducing Sentence Openers
Unit 4-Summarizing Reference for Library Reports and adding in Advanced Dress-Ups: Decorations, Triples
Unit 5-Writing from Pictures
Unit 6-Reports from Multiple Sources (extension of Unit 4)
Unit 7-Creative Writing and introducing introductions and conclusions.
Unit 8-Essays: Basic, Expanded, Super-Essay, Persuasive (extension of Units 4 and 6)
Unit 9-Critiques, Book Reports, and Reviews

Teacher’s Workbook: Along with the DVD lessons, you will receive a workbook with extensive notes for each unit, checklists, charts, and resources for your child to use with the lessons.

Writing with Their Own Voice: It has always been important to me to have my children develop their own voice in their writing, to have the paper sound like it is from their own thoughts and reasoning. IEW has helped my boys use the IEW tools in a way that makes writing in their own words easier. At first the checklists provided with the lessons seemed cumbersome and awkward. They did not enjoy all the “box checking”. For instance, as the sentence openers are introduced they had to go back and rewrite a lot of their sentences to make sure they had used each sentence opener tool . (More on sentence openers in this IEW document, see page 7) The editing process was tedious and we all loathed that time of the week when we would review the writing and the checklist together. Progressively, each time we used the sentence opener tools in our writing, it became more natural. Now as the boys write an essay they can easily insert the sentence openers as they go along, they are on their mind. By incorporating the various style tools in the TWSS program, they have found their writing voice.

TWSS consists of 6 DVDs for the Parent

Possible Obstacles to Successfully Using the IEW or TWSS Programs

Parent Involvement is High: If you are looking for a short-term fix or a program that you can have your child work through independently, the IEW system is probably not for you. The tools taught through the TWSS DVD lessons are helpful to the parent in their guiding the writing process with their own children. The tools are then used by the student to first learn how to structure their writing and then to incorporate style points to make the writing piece their very own. Your children will benefit from your help and support through the process of learning to write an summary, a story, and essays of all sorts. The DVDs included with the TWSS program can be used over and over and I have found it beneficial to watch them at the beginning of each school year.

Cost of the Writing Program: I struggled with the price tag on this program for over a year before purchasing the DVDs. Our home schooling convention had Andrew Pudewa as a speaker and listening to him explain his ideas and philosophy behind this plan convinced me it was worth the investment. It was also helpful to hear his style of teaching and his great sense of humor that comes through as he teaches. You can listen to his introductory video by going to this LINK and scrolling down to where there is a link to his video. I have never regretted the decision.We purchased the TWSS and the Student Writing Intensive (SWI) programs together for $239 which when you take into account that we are using the plans for our fourth year, they are a reasonably priced. (The SWI program is a set of DVDs that the student watches and it comes with a complete set of lesson plans. The SWI DVDs correspond with the TWSS DVDs which are for the parent to watch. I need to write a separate review for the SWI plans-stay tuned.)

Help in Using the IEW, TWSS, and SWI Programs

Bonus Student Workshop DVDs: Included in the TWSS DVD program are three disks showing at different levels how Andrew Pudewa teaches his writing workshops using the TWSS lessons. I highly recommend watching these along with your child after getting started with the TWSS plans.

Free Resources: There are some free downloads available on the IEW website, both materials and pod casts.

Online Groups: There is also a very helpful Yahoo Group IEW Families, that has lots of free lesson plans, writing helps, and suggestions for free that you can tap into. The moderator of this group is very good at answering questions so if you are undecided about whether to purchase this program for your family, you might ask her some more specific questions about how you intend to use the IEW programs, especially with younger children.

TWSS DVDs have made me a more confident writing teacher and coach. I have the tools to do what needs to get done to step my boys through learning to write wonderful essays and then some. The emphasis is on creating great writers all throughout the TWSS plans. All parents can teach writing structure and style using this great product.

I wrote a little bit of my random thoughts on IEW on my Harmony Art Mom blog a few months ago. You can read about it HERE.

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom. I also blog at Harmony Art Mom and my business is found at Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at Handbook of Nature Study.

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Daily GRAMS-Junior High/Senior High Level

Classical, High School, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Writing 9 Responses »

Feb 042010

Daily GRAMS (Guided Review Aiding Mastery Skills)

This is one of those simple ideas that I love as a review in our weekly schedule. We thoroughly covered grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and sentence writing in our grammar and logic stage years (grades 4-8). As high school students, they no longer needed a full-blown language arts program, but I also didn’t want to get rusty with our grammar terms and other skills.

I introduced Daily GRAMS as a quick and easy way to review and refresh our memories. Each Daily GRAM takes about 10-15 minutes to complete and my boys were able to fit them in as they had time in their morning.

These exercises are not meant to be lessons but rather to review their language mechanics skills. Each GRAM is one page in the workbook and the student can write directly on the page. Categories include capitalization, punctuation, parts of speech, sentence combining, outline formats, and parts of a friendly letter. I liked using Daily GRAMS as a way to spot check any trouble areas my sons might have and then to review briefly as they came up.

All the answers are in the back of the workbook and with 180 GRAMS in this book, we stretched the book out over two years since we didn’t complete a GRAM a day. CLICK HERE to pop over to Easy Grammar Systems and view sample pages for the Junior/Senior High Level. You can also find samples for other levels there as well. We did not use Daily GRAMS for any other level so you will need to view the sample and make up your mind whether it fits your language arts needs.

Written by Barb-Harmony Art mom. She also blogs at http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com and her business is found at http://www.harmonyfinearts.com. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com.

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English From the Roots Up

Classical, Elementary, Foreign Language, High School, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Science 6 Responses »

Jan 212010

Years ago when I was first introduced to the classical method of homeschooling, I was determined to have my boys attempt a Latin program as suggested in The Well-Trained Mind.

We tried two different programs to learn Latin. We got a little farther with a DVD based program, but we still were not able to stay motivated. I know I had a bit of a bad attitude about Latin and at some point I made the decision to set it aside and learn Spanish instead. I thought in our family that Spanish would be more applicable and practical. It was a great decision.

We have not totally ignored all Latin. We have used English From the Roots Up as the basis for our very simple Latin and Greek roots curricula. Why do we even bother learning these roots? I have found that my boys are able to easily decipher the meaning of an unfamiliar word by looking for roots within the word.

For instance they can remember what igneous means because they see the root ignis, meaning fire, within the word.

Another example would be the word hydrophobia with hydros meaning water and phobos meaning fear or a fear of water. Learning the Greek and Latin roots has been especially helpful in their study of high school level biology.

Some Quick Thoughts About English From the Roots Up:
We started off with the English From the Roots Up book and the flashcards but what has endured to the end are the cards. The box set comes with 100 pre-made cards with the root on the front and the meaning and some vocabulary words on the back.

Many roots are in both Greek and Latin

We took the roots very slowly, discussing and learning each root one at a time. When I say slowly, I mean it has taken us four years to cover the box of one hundred Latin and Greek roots. Taking the slow approach has allowed my boys to learn and retain every root in the box. I would not hesitate to start using these cards even with young children using this slow approach, keeping it light and fun.

We used the cards each week to drill the roots into our memory. We played simple games with the cards if we had some extra time during the week. We studied five minutes a day, four days a week. Of course I could have made up my own cards with markers and a good list of roots, but I know that I always am more motivated to stick with something if I don’t have to produce the foundation myself (some might call that lazy). It is much easier for me and well worth the money to purchase the box and have the roots all lined up for me with no preparation on my part.

Here are a few of the activities we used with the pre-made cards:

Quiz each other: I give the root and they give the meaning or I give the meaning and they give the root.
Speed: Use a stopwatch and see how fast we can get through the cards we know.
Made Up Words: Use the roots to make up new words, mixing together funny combinations.
Matching: Many of the roots are given in Greek and Latin. I give them the Latin and they tell me the Greek or vice versa.

Cost:

Book at Rainbow Resource- $22.95

Cards at Rainbow Resource- $13.95

I highly recommend this system for learning Greek and Latin roots the simple and easy way.

Please note: You can use the book without the cards. The book gives you instructions for making your own set of color-coded cards to study with each week. The book also has additional activities to reinforce the roots in your child’s mind.

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Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization

Charlotte Mason, Classical, High School, Highschool, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Preschool 10 Responses »

Jan 072010

poetry memorization book and cds

Yes, that is really the title of this review: Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization. It is not a very catchy title but this compact spiral bound book is a powerful tool in helping our children develop better language skills. The basic idea behind this Andrew Pudewa creation is that children need a foundation for correct and sophisticated speech patterns. Our children are constantly surrounded by slang, sloppy speech, and improper grammar. This program strives to provide food for the ears of our young ones and help them build up their natural ability to memorize.

If you want to view an introductory video on YouTube about this product here is the LINK.

My boys just think this is a fun way to start out our day. We listen to the accompanying CD to hear Mr. Pudewa recite the poems under study. We listen to each poem and then work on memorizing it. Some of the selections are short and some are longer. A few are familiar but many are new to our family. There are serious poems and silly poems. This program emphasizes “mastery learning” or memorizing every word “in its correct place, being able to recite the poems with fluency, speed, pronunciation, and inflection.”

There are charts to copy off and use to keep track of your memory work. There are four levels included in this one volume and depending on your child’s age and aptitude, this book will carry over from year to year. My boys just started working through this program this school year as high school students and they have almost completed the first level memorized perfectly.

Spiral bound book, 3 CDs, and charts to copy for your own use

The first few poems are short and will give your child confidence as you begin this program. As you work through the poems, memorizing starts to get a little easier. The plan suggests the “Every Poem Every Day” plan where you recite every poem you know every day until you master all twenty poems. This isn’t as time consuming as it sounds. We allow ten minutes per day and we can easily get them all in if we focus.

Some poems that are included in this book:

My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson

Who Has Seen the Wind by Christina Rossetti

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

I have found that our work in this book has carried over into our Bible scripture memorization as well. We seem to be quickly working through this year’s list of verses. Besides the benefits already mentioned, I see my children really enjoying the ability to recite for fun in front of their siblings, their father, and friends. It is a pleasurable experience to be able to entertain others with funny or lovely poetry. I also see a difference in their writing and vocabulary after using this program even for a short period of time. The patterns and words they are putting into their minds through the poetry memorization process are coming out in their other schoolwork.

I highly recommend purchasing the book and the CD to make your life easier. We have found that listening to a “professional” recite the poems before we learn them to be beneficial. We can imitate his inflection and pronunciation in our reciting of the poems.

I wish we would have known to start earlier with this valuable product since it has become an important piece of our language course. All ages and abilities can successfully use this program!

Edit to add on 1/8/10

Jimmie commented after I posted this review that at $65 for the program it was a little expensive. Here is what I commented in reply:

Here is how I think:
Two boys and probably three years to get through the entire book. $65 divided by 6 is about $10 per year per child…not so bad when you consider it that way.

Also I really, really enjoy having the CDs so we can listen first and then have them memorize. It is a very Suzuki way to learn. You hear the words in your ear, you say them with your mouth and then as time goes by they are used in their writing. I see it as a way to program great speech and grammar into their minds.

This is so much more than memorization.

I purchased my set from Rainbow Resource and waited until I had a $150 order so I didn’t pay shipping. (Plus for those of us in the states, resale is very HIGH for IEW materials.)

I think all of the IEW materials are pricey but looking back over the last four years of using their stuff……priceless.

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Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad

Art, Hands On 3 Responses »

Dec 102009

Draw Squad book

Our entire life has been made better by using Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration but I could easily say that this has been the most loved, used, and admired book in our art instruction courses over the past ten years. All three of my boys have worked their way through this art instruction book at least once.

Learning to draw can be an adventure. For my boys it has always been about making things look real. They wanted realistic cars, planes, houses, and animals. They wanted results! In my searching, I found Mark Kistler and his Draw Squad book. This book helped my children to get past stick figure drawing and sparked their continued interest in learning to draw even more proficiently.

Each lesson has a drawing challenge that you can keep track of on the provided progress sheet.

How is the Book Set -Up?
First Mark Kistler describes what he calls the Ten Key Words of Drawing. These include foreshortening, shading, surface, size, contour lines, overlapping, density, shadows, attitude, and daily use. These ideas are thoroughly covered in the Draw Squad book for your child to learn and then apply in their everyday drawing. These words are now a part of our art vocabulary. Working with these concepts in their own drawings, they can easily see how other artists use these tools and concepts in their paintings.

Each lesson gives you step-by-step instruction.

There are 30 drawing lessons in this particular book and they each are structured in a way that easily breaks down the steps to understanding the lesson’s concept and then the lesson helps your child apply the concept to his own ideas. Learning to draw is like learning a new language and Mark Kistler gives us the vocabulary and tools to speak a new “drawing” language in a fun and creative way.

How Long Does it Take?

We could easily complete a lesson each week so this book has a whole year’s worth of drawing lessons. We worked through the complete book in the 4th grade and then again in the 7th grade just for fun.

What Supplies Do You Need?

The book is set up like a workbook where you can actually make many of the drawings right on the pages. We have preferred over the years to do our actual sketching on drawing paper. This means the only supplies you will need are a stash of paper and some good old number two pencils.

I like to keep the completed drawings in a three ring binder. A one inch or perhaps a one and half inch size is enough to hold all those wonderful drawings your child will make in a year’s time.

After the lesson, Mark Kistler challenges the kids to draw something from their own imagination using the lesson's concepts.

Do I Need To Know How To Draw?

Mark Kistler can help anyone learn to draw. His style is easy to follow, encouraging you to learn the basics alongside your child if you have the desire. Draw Squad makes the process fun and so simple that you will feel successful after the very first lesson. The book is also very easily used independently by a middle school child.

My kids had fun learning to draw using Draw Squad!

What Do I Like Best About This Book?

As each of my children worked through this drawing book, I could see the lesson concepts reflected into their other artwork. Many people look at Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad and see a cartooning book, but the cartoon qualities are just the beginning and a vehicle for learning the way to make things look real when you sketch them out. The ideas eventually translate over into more serious artwork. Mark Kistler not only teaches children how to get started, but then he encourages them to add in their own personality. I love this aspect of his teaching.

When we make learning fun and our children have some success, they develop a love for that particular skill. I have seen that in action in our family using this particular drawing book.

This Book is Not Just for Young Children

Drawing and sketching are such important skills for everyone, young and old. Your children will use these skills for the rest of their lives. I have found that it is never too late to give it a try. I took my first drawing class at age 39 and I regret not doing it sooner.

If you are a fan of Mona Brookes’ book Drawing With Children, you may be interested to know that she wrote a glowing forward to Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad book.

For more information and free drawing plans from Mark Kistler, check out his website: Imagination Station

For more information and samples of our artwork, see my Squidoo Lens: Getting Started with Drawing and Painting

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Sonlight vs. Tapestry of Grace:Our Experience

Classical, Philosophies 3 Responses »

Nov 262009

This seems like a topic that has been covered elsewhere but I had a reader ask me about my thoughts and experiences with Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace. I will try to do my best at representing our family’s experience with both programs. I originally wrote this entry for my Harmony Art Mom blog in the spring of 2009.

First off, I love both approaches to homeschooling. Some of my fondest years of homeschooling were those years that we used Sonlight. The boys were young and eager to read and to be read to and Sonlight’s choices were a perfect fit for our family’s tastes. I really enjoyed having my days all planned out for me and believe it or not….I did not do much tweaking to Sonlight’s well presented plans. (In fact, if you use my Harmony Fine Arts plans, you will see a striking resemblance to Sonlight’s format.)

I can't bear to part with our favorite Sonlight books.

We used Sonlight’s Core Levels 2, 3, 4, and 6. We also used Levels 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for science. Somewhere during those years, I found The Well-Trained Mind book and decided that I really liked the idea of a four year cycle of history and I began investigating this idea some more.

We made the decision to switch to a curriculum that followed the four year cycle of history and included the Story of the World books. After much deliberation, we decided on using Tapestry of Grace. We picked up where Core 6 left off and that was with Tapestry of Grace year 3. My boys were in 6th and 7th grades at that time.

There really were two big adjustments coming from Sonlight to Tapestry of Grace.

Choices in Books and a Little More Planning

First of all, the TOG plans are so flexible that you really need to sit down with access to your home library, your local public library, and the internet to coordinate which books you will use to teach each concept. I take each unit’s plans and go through and decide on which books I would like to use to present each week’s concepts. There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to knowing how many books you need to use each week. Within each week, the books are not broken down by pages like in the Sonlight plans. You are given the title of the book and you are left on your own to cover it at a pace that you choose.

Unit Celebration Year 3-Lewis and Clark Dinner

With Tapestry of Grace, I would say that it takes two hours of initial planning per unit (nine weeks) to decide on books and to decide on activities. It also takes an additional 45 minutes or so per week to make sure you have the books you need and if your children are older, to go over the schedule with them to put in their planners. I use the library for many of our books so that means a trip to the library at least every three weeks to check out and return books. We would be doing that library trip anyway so I don’t count that into the planning time.

If you are a box checker, TOG will seem overwhelming unless you understand right up front that you will *not* do everything put down in the plans.

The way that TOG can be a huge time saver in a larger family is the ability to offer history, literature, writing, art appreciation, hands-on activities, geography, and more to everyone from one set of plans. You can keep all your children together in all these subjects and choose from the different levels of books as you go along. The subjects are taught topically and you can use your own resources as well if you want to substitute.

The thorough Teacher’s Notes have been a great help to me as the boys have moved up to the rhetoric level. The notes are very well done and the research has been done and gathered for me.

The advantage of Tapestry of Grace over Sonlight is that you are teaching things topically and you can substitute your own books or books from your public library if you want to. The plans are not put down in such a way that if you don’t have access to a certain book that you are stuck for the week. Another advantage to using Tapestry of Grace is the fact that you can move up and down the levels within each week, using what is appropriate for your particular child. One week your child may read the upper grammar level literature and the next you can offer the dialectic level book if you think they would benefit from it instead. The opposite is also true and you can have your rhetoric level student move down and read the dialectic selection some weeks if the load is too heavy and you need to offer something a little lighter. We do that sometimes if the ideas and concepts are new to our boys.

Tapestry of Grace Unit Display Year 2

More Meaningful Discussions

The second *huge* difference for us moving from Sonlight to Tapestry of Grace has been the increased expectations as far as the boys’ manner of learning. TOG has helped me to make the boys more independent learners. Many times the Sonlight discussions felt like question and answer time but with TOG we have deeper, more meaningful discussions. I think it is the way the material is not spoon-fed to them. Here is a link to some information on TOG’s website that will explain it better than I can.
Teacher’s Notes

Those are my general thoughts about our experiences with both Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace. I would highly recommend going over to Tapestry of Grace’s website and downloading the free complete samples that they offer. You will get a little taste of how the plans are scheduled out and how they differ from Sonlight. Remember there is a learning curve and know that after the first few weeks of using the plans you will be more skilled at knowing how they work together.
Tapestry of Grace-Free Sample

Just so you know, I am not an affiliate for Tapestry of Grace. The thoughts here are my own personal opinions and were drawn from our own experiences. As the years have gone by, our homeschool style has changed quite a bit and I am much better equipped to adapt TOG to our Charlotte Mason/Classical/Project based style of learning. It takes some effort but now that my children are much older, I have the time.

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