CIVIL WAR UNIT

The next 6 weeks, we will be covering the Civil War of the United States. Or, as some prefer to call it, the War of Northern Aggression. :-) Above is our bulletin board for this unit. I have kept it very simple. Above that are the books we will be reading. I have simply spread them out over the 6 weeks, as evenly as possible. They are as follows:

Abraham Lincoln's World by Genevieve Foster - the last 16 sections

The Pictorial Encyclopedia of American History - Volume 7

Virginia's General Robert E. Lee and the Civil War by Albert Marrin

All Things for Good (Stonewall Jackson) by J. Steven Wilkins

Clara Barton Founder of the Red Cross by Helen Bore Boylston (a Landmark book)

An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi

The Life of J.E.B. Stuart by Mary L. Williamson

The Boys' War by Jim Murphy

Big Girl will be reading Robert E. Lee, the Christian by William J. Johnson, and Little Girl will be reading Welcome To Addy's World 1864, an American Girl book.

We are also watching Ken Burns' Civil War, and will be watching The Great Civil War Debate after we finish the unit.

Our next composer is Wagner and artist is Monet.

ODDS AND ENDS

Wow! It's been two months since I posted last. I just got tired of posting our weekly reviews, since they were basically the same old thing week after week, with different books. Not exactly exciting to read or anything.

Little Girl is almost finished with the CLE level 4 math. I LOVE this math! If I had another child to homeschool, I would definitely start at the beginning with it. It covers so many things that you "think" you will cover in "real life," but never actually happens. At least, not enough to actually learn it. She is also just about finished with the 7th grade CLE Language Arts. Since they only go through 8th grade, I have slowed her down to a half lesson per day. That leaves her more time to work through the math and to read. She is still doing the Apples 2 Spelling workbook, skipping through some unnecessary pages, and the Vocabulary Vine book. She is also reading the BJU 8th grade Literature book, just one story per week right now. She still keeps several other books going at a time, as well as her Nature Friend magazine. She just finished Black Beauty and The Wind in the Willows.

Big Girl is still working through the Abeka Consumer Math book and the Story of Art book. She is also reading A Ready Defense (with discussion and discernment), and the Clarence Carson history book, as it goes along with our main history, Uncle Tom's Cabin (as am I), A Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, and A History of England by Dickens.

For history, we have dropped Tapestry of Grace. I just did not like the way we kept going back and forth in history, instead of completely chronological. I know everything can't be perfectly chronological (as when you read a biography, that person's life will cover a lot of ground), but it could be much better than most history programs do it. I started to pick Truthquest back up, but it has the exact same problems. We do not like studying history in units that cause you to go out of order, like most history programs (actually all I have looked at) do. So, I have been creating our own. We are still in the 1800s, taking it a decade at a time. I use a couple online timelines, as well as a few books I have here, and we cover a decade in 2-4 weeks, depending on how much happened during that time period that we want to study. I went through several book lists I found (along with All Through the Ages and Truthquest guides) and listed out all the most recommended books for our century first. I narrowed them down to ones we own or could get at the library. Then I put an approximate date by each. If we want to study something or someone we don't have a book listed for, we just see what we own or the library has on that topic.

We are basically reading chronologically through that book list, along with reading Abraham Lincon's World, the Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Presidents, The Pictorial Encyclopedia of American History, The Defining of America (PAC), and utilizing BJU world and U.S. history texts where we want extra info or can't find it anywhere else. We usually have a biography or two going, as well as a historical fiction and a few nonfiction books on the period. I simply figure out what readings are about the decade we are studying and divide them up and read a bit of each book daily. We all are enjoying this much better.

I am trying to do some of my own reading lately as well. Currently (besides the Bible), I am reading Uncle Tom's Cabin on the Kindle, More Than Conquerors by Hendrikson (don't think I agree with his viewpoint, but wanted to read a good book on it anyway), and Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. I may do some short reviews on these soon.

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First Week with Tapestry of Grace

I finally ordered a unit of Tapestry of Grace after looking at it for several years and thinking how expensive it is. I ordered unit 3 of year 2, since that is where we left off in time with Truthquest. I ordered the digital edition (I am using a Mac) because they did not sell this single unit in print. I much prefer print because I do not like to read off the computer, nor be tied to it when making my plans. But it downloaded without a hitch (even though I am not computer savvy at all), and I was quickly on my way to planning out our first week. We started with week 20, which is the beginning of this unit, and actually took 2 weeks to do it. We will continue to take 2 weeks for each week, as this particular year plan is very full.

First, let me give some background. When I first decided to make my own literature based history plans, I started with Christine Miller's All Through the Ages. While it is a great listing of books for each time period, there is no real outline to go by. The books in each section are listed in alphabetical and not chronological order. This would not do for us. So then I discovered Truthquest History, which we have been using for several years. I thought it was just the outline I needed, with lots of great book suggestions. I never did care for the commentary, and neither did my girls, though most people seem to love it. It is just too "chummy" for us. We do not like that at all, nor do we agree with most of her theology.

Well, what I came to discover is that we would do a section of Truthquest, choosing books to read about the particular topic, then, a few sections later (which would be weeks or even months later in some cases), we would come across a section of people from that time period, or perhaps a section on the science of that period, etc. These topics and people should have fit into the previous lessons, but because of the way the TQ book is arranged, we kept having to go back and forth in history, instead of keeping up a steady chronological pace. I was quite annoyed with this. When I recognized the people or events, I could insert them where they belonged, with a bit of messing around, but in many cases I just didn't know without doing tons of research.

Next, I ordered year 3 of Biblioplan. It only took one look to realize this was not for me. It is just so sparse, for lack of a better word. Not good at all for someone who likes choices and planning. :-)

Enter TOG. It is just what I have been wanting. Each unit is sort of a unit study, where you cover all the people, events, etc. of a particular period at one time. So far, I love the books they suggest, but because it is by topics, I can always substitute if needed. We are only using the history, and even that we are not using "properly." I pick and choose from among the levels as I see fit, and we just read and discuss and read and discuss. It is working great for us.

Our first "week" covered the Roanoke colony, Jamestown, the 30 Years War in Europe, and all the folks associated with those things. We do not like reading long passages from books at a time, so I divided our reading up so that we read a section from each book each day. We read from these books:

The World of Capt. John Smith

Don Quixote (an adaptation)

Here Comes Galileo

Story of the World 2 and 3

Our Island Story

Trial and Triumph

Life in Colonial Times

Also, Big Girl read Lion of the North by Henty, and a couple sections from Clarence Carson's Basic History of the United states. Little Girl read the Childhood of Famous Americans book about William Bradford.

We read from these books for 9 days, then on the second Friday, we read the Pageant of Philosophy aloud together, and reviewed using the teacher notes and student questions and answers. I did not have the girls do any worksheets, nor do we do any projects. But that is the great thing about TOG - you make it work for you! It is very customizable. In fact, I like it so much, I went ahead and ordered unit 4, but in print, so I can sit wherever I want and plan. TOG is a planners dream. :-)

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