It's Here!!!

Yay!!  My Tapestry of Grace curriculum came in the mail yesterday afternoon!!  I'm so excited to dig into this!!  LOVING all the extras.  I really wanted the Pop Quiz discs for my dh, but couldn't justify the expense, so I'm so thankful that it came with this set!  Plus--just because He can--we even got the Pop Quiz cards! 

I welcome any comments from TOG users as I start this journey.  I'm prepared for the "Tapestry Fog" and welcome and comments, advice or insight! :-)

Our Curriculum Choices for 2014-2015

We finished school this year the very end of April.  Ahhhh!  One of the LOVELY things about homeschooling!  We start August 1st, and don't take many holidays, so we get done early.  Even living in Tennessee where there is a mandatory 180 school days, we STILL were able to be done the end of April!!  Love it!

Anyway, once we end, I take a week or so off, then my mind turns to the coming year and what we need, changes that need to be made, etc.  We used Switched on Schoolhouse this past year, and for the most part, it just didn't work that well for us.  We'll be using a bit of it this next year for a couple of kids, but then SOS will be gone forever for us.

This year I will be homeschooling grades K, 7, 8 & 9, so that's going to be interesting!  To be honest, I'm a little more nervous about the kindergartner (my very "effervescent" child!) than I am my high school freshman! lol  With the three oldest, we used Rod & Staff for the first two grades and they are very strong readers.  When my two oldest were in about 3rd and 4th grade, they tested post high school in reading!!  Obviously, this curriculum has something going for it, so we are using it with our youngest this year.

  We only do math and phonics/language/writing in K as far as "curriculum" goes, so that will help as we get in the swing of things.

Our biggest change this year is that we are moving to Tapestry of Grace!  I am sooooooo excited about it!!  When I first started homeschooling, I knew little about the curriculum out there and didn't feel like I could "teach", so stuck with more independent learning type curriculum.  On top of that, my health wasn't the best, so I would be exhausted by late morning to midday.  All of that coupled with tight finances kept us from experimenting too much.  I ran across TOG a year or two ago, and liked what little I saw, but saw the price and just moved on.  There isn't time to tell you how everything came about, but God definitely moved and we are starting TOG this year!  It's been amazing to look back over the past week or two and see how He orchestrated everything to get us to this point.  I prayed specifically for a nice, used copy with some of the extras that were out of my price range and He supplied over and above what I asked for!  God is so good!!  I really feel His leading in this, and hope I am up to the challenge.   I have started taking Plexus and am slowly feeling my energy level rising (and I'm sleeping through the night--something I haven't done in YEARS!), so I have high hopes that we're going to have a wonderful school year!

My 9th grader will be doing Algebra I from Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum, Biology from ACE (with supplements for lab, etc), Writing with Ease, Health from SOS and Easy Grammar Ultimate.

 My 8th grader will be doing Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, Easy Grammar Plus, WWE and SOS Science. 

My 7th grader will be doing SOS math and science, Igniting Your Writing and Easy Grammar Plus.  Of course, the oldest will all be doing TOG, and I will be doing read-alouds to the little one to include her.  She won't officially start TOG until next year.  I can't wait to see what God does with all of us this year!!

A Change of Direction

Many of you have been coming here for some time for reviews on Christian books.  Due to the dearth of good, quality Christian fiction, I am no longer going to be reviewing them.  As a homeschool mom, I will be redirecting this blog for homeschooling. 

My youngest dd will begin homeschooling this year, meaning that I will be homeschooling all four dd's.  I will be talking about homeschool related issues, curriculum, books, possible field trips, etc.  I fully understand if you no longer want to follow this blog, and wish you well on your journey of life.

Sandra Lassiter

Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nick Vujicic is a fascinating person. Born without arms and legs, his parents refused to coddle him and let him be labeled "special needs" or "disabled", but raised him to do for himself all he could and to never give up. "Unstoppable" is a great book on overcoming adversity--both in his own life and in stories he shares of others. Reading this book makes you stop and look at your own life and realize one of two things: "My life is actually pretty great and I need to stop worrying about the unimportant, bothersome things" or "Look at what they went through and how they came through it with God's help. Maybe I can handle this, too!"

Nick is very open and honest in this book--sometimes almost TOO open--about his faults and failures and trials he's gone through. It's sure to be an inspiration to anyone who reads it.

I received a copy of this book from Waterbrook Multnomah for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.