Getting ready to start Monday! [Archive]

OhElizabeth

01-16-2009, 10:48 AM

Just wanted to introduce myself and say we're starting Monday. Most of the stuff is here, just waiting on the student pack, craft kit, and timelines. I've been comparing the IG to the project pages of TT to see if there were things they left out that I wanted to do. So far I'm thrilled! There were only a couple of things, as in one or two in Explorers and one or two in CL that I had wanted to do that they didn't include. The one that surprised me was the mapping, which I think is pretty important. So I haven't decided if I'll use the TT maps on acetate or the KQ maps cd I have, but definitely I want her to do the mapping of the explorer routes. They left out the straw ticking and rope bed activity in colonial, which I thought was too cool to skip. They didn't include the penmanship pages for CL, and I was thinking about using them for our handwriting. I'm undecided there, so we'll see. But overall, I was just really pleased! I bought the student pack to make my life easy with the new baby (or not so new now, 3 months old?), and I was afraid they were going to make my life hard and skip things I wanted to do. Other people had posited that on threads here, so I just wanted to say that's NOT the case! I went through it painstakingly for two hours last night, through the 1st and 2nd cd's worth of material, and they've included all the things you really want to do, skipping the ones that to me would have guilt-tripped me but weren't really stuff you wanted to do or needed to do (handwriting, that sort of thing). And I LOVE the way they've specified you to put everything into the notebook rather than lapbooking it. Do you realize how much time that will save? They've just done a great job of turning something that for me was overwhelming (TT) into something I can actually implement.

On the books, I'm more thrilled with them by the minute! We'll see how dd does with them, but I keep having to pry her away. We'll see how it goes and whether I end up adding things. (Like all junkies, I own the entire SL3 core, Hakim, the VP cards, and more, hehe.) This is a really great place for us to start. I'm allowing 1 1/2 hours a day Tues-Thursday and one hour on Mondays, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm tossing around this idea of doing the WP timeline pages (the pretty ones) in a different way, like hanging them on the wall or taping/accordian-folding them or something. Maybe I'll be zany and string a clothesline and hang them up? :) I don't know, just tossing around ideas. I think I'm going to have her do 4 small (1") notebooks with her TT projects rather than putting the projects between the timeline pages.

Well that's all for now. I just wanted to post here a little, so people could follow our progress and see how it goes. I know I read the forums here quite a bit before deciding to start and even my initial handling of the materials has shown me some of the concerns people had are not at all the case (that they would skip things you want to do in TT, for instance).

jjn3beans

01-16-2009, 01:04 PM

I'm not doing AC yet, but I want to start right now after reading your post! :o Seriously though, it sounds just so awesome, but I guess I have to wait with only a 6yo and a 4yo, right? ;) Just looking at the TT in the catalog looks confusing to me, so I'm glad to hear it is easy to follow and well-laid out.

I told my DH that I wanted to buy the older kids programs so I could look and read! We don't have enough cash to do that though. Sigh . . . . I guess I'll have to wait. :( I am having fun with the younger WP programs, though.

OhElizabeth

01-18-2009, 03:51 PM

Well I've been working on dividing up the student activity pages to go with the various weeks. It's actually been sort of fun! (There's just something satisfying about working through a huge, 3-4" pile of stuff and getting it DONE.) When I printed off my TT text and projects pages (which I would not recommend btw, buy them from WP. It's not about the speed or time, but that they use better paper.), I printed off the color binder covers. So I divided my AC1 ig up to go into 4 binders, and I have the SL 36 week dividers. Then I got 8 packs of slash dividers, the kind that are 3 hole so they can go in the binders, and put one with each week to hold the activity pages. However the last binder (19th cent) is going to need to be divided into two binders. The 8 packs each have 5 divider pockets. I put a pocket at the back of each binder to hold timeline figures, the lapbook covers they included, etc., just anything extra. So if you're confused, to get set up, I ended up using:

5- 2" duraflex binders, the really nice ones from the office supply
40 slash pocket dividers
1 pack of 36 weekly sonlight dividers. (anything you can label with the weeks would do)

It took me 1-1 1/2 hours each to work through sections of activity pages (Exp, CL, etc.), but I wasn't really keeping track. It wasn't daunting, but now I'm REALLY glad I didn't cheap out and try to print all this myself. It would have taken me that long to print it (on our fast printer), which wouldn't have seemed bad. But then, when you figure in the organizing of those pages into weeks ON TOP OF the printing out, that would have burnt me out! I don't know, maybe others are more industrious. I'm just saying for me, the process has been fun, having bought the pages. If I had printed them out and now had a pile to organize, I'd be burning out before I even started. So my advice to the wise is to buy, buy, buy! :)

Did find a couple typos in my guide as I worked through the pages, but it was nothing major, nothing you can't figure out.

All in all it seems very well conceived. There's a lot more time spent on the 19th century cd (weeks 20-36), so I'm going to divide that into two binders. I'm wondering if the time on the revolution will be too short, frankly. (The entire cd in 6 weeks? Whew!) I won't be surprised if we end up slowing that down. Guess we won't know till we get there. But overall it looks really great, and I'm really happy. This is JUST what I needed! It is fun, goes into more depth than merely saying it happened, and has all the fun a 4th grade girl could want. Not having a boy, I can't speak for boys. However I do think my dd will enjoy it! :)

I do want dd to do the mapping of the explorer routes, so I'll probably get some acetate and print those out. Oh, and I decided what to do with the WP timelines! Now that I've received them, it's clear there are too many to hang the pages, even if we just do part. (It's a seriously large stack of cardstock!) I thought about notebooks, but I don't want them bundled out of sight, and I'm not really interested in putting her work pages between the timeline pages. So my IDEA is to use large rings, 3 of them, and make heavy laminated covers. So it would be like a giant flip book or something. Someone else did this on another board with a homemade timeline, using rings to hold it together, and I'm thinking the WP timeline pages are so sturdy, it would work out very well!

So there you go. We're plenty ready to start Monday, as the little bits left are details for other weeks. (divide up the last binder, print some optional pages, ready the maps for explorers)

OhElizabeth

01-19-2009, 04:49 PM

We had a great day today. It worked out much better than I would have dreamed, having her do the paper projects while I read the books, TT lesson, etc. The Kalman book (Native Homes) is a hit. She definitely wants hands-on as well (besides the paper projects), but I told her we can just add things as we have time/interest. She's outside playing in the snow now, so we'll probably do the last thing, spice ornaments, this evening. She's very excited about that! So all in all I was really happy with the way the schedule worked and how it improved our dynamic. It's making our history time multi-faceted, which is a good thing, and it's easy for me to implement, even with a baby on the lap. In 45 minutes we got a lot done, and that was even with the baby squawking part of the time and me searching for things I hadn't pulled together. (Leaving books in three rooms of the house just doesn't work, lol!)

On the state study, I looked through the ig more and finally figured out how it's structured and how to use the things we already have to fit their plan. I think I'm going to get that Time Kids Our 50 United States, because it looks really good. I already had the Kids Love America. I didn't get the WP state pages because I already had the one by Joy Dean (sp? not in front of me) and a really great crossword book. So it looks like that's coming together nicely too. If you happen to already have another state study book, you still might want the book they recommend, as it forms the spine. With my pea brain, having it all spelled out and written in the IG makes it easier! :)

I had already pulled together my own picture study using a list of american artists from Discovering American Artists and prints I made from pics online, so I didn't get the WP stuff. I'm sure the WP stuff would have been great, if I hadn't already done that. On the other hand, my dd will enjoy the weekly art projects from DAA. I'm not sure if the WP stuff includes projects? Haven't seen it, so I don't know.

I have no preference on the WP state pages vs. the ones I'm doing. The WP pages appear, from the description, to have a writing component, which would be good and age appropriate. I bought this state study book a year ago, so it's cut and paste, no bigee. That's fine too, just on the young side. I wanted it to be light, so that's fine. I got a state cookbook too, so that should be fun for dd. I think we'll have enough to keep us busy!! I'm not sure it will take us the full 1 1/2 hours I allotted for the other days, so we'll see.

OhElizabeth

01-23-2009, 11:24 AM

Dd got sick Tuesday, had a nasty temp Wed, and was recovering Thurs, so today (Friday) was our first day to get back into it. I really sweated whether to pick up with day 2 or wait until next Tuesday in order to keep it fitting in our weeks. I finally decided that was being too perfectionist and to just take the plunge, lol. We had so much fun! Today we tied knots while reading through the selections. It was just perfect! It took her about as long to figure out those three knots, hehe, as it did for me to read everything to her.

I just can't tell you all how much this has changed our dynamic in history and how we're enjoying it. I used to fall asleep during read alouds, but these short sections are something I can stay awake for. And while I thought we would have issues with the chunking of the readings and want to read them all in one sitting, really they flow nicely the way they're broken up. It's like just enough to think about, then you're ready to move on. On the activities, I was a little afraid my dd wouldn't like them, as she's never been one for papercrafts, however these are a big hit! Even though they use paper, they're more active. So far, WP AC is a winner!

Never fear, I'll keep posting so you can hear all the details. I do wish they had printed the pages for the knots from the masters, as I don't school by my computer. I ended up printing them, so she could use them to work on the knots while I read. Then I punched them to go with the project pages in my IG. That way I'll have them when/if I use this with my boy when he comes of age. That brings up the interesting question of whether it would work for a boy. I don't know, as my boy is just a baby, hehe. Today's certainly would have, tying knots. The text is sort of gender neutral. Not so manly or governmental as a textbook, but not stuck on frillies either. We've got rats, disease, food, sleeping habits. I think it appeals to both genders pretty nicely. You can tell it was written by a mother. :)

As far as the criticism someone lobbied that the writing is not good, well... Most of it is excellent, and some of the sentences could have used an editor. Overall, it's so delightful, I wouldn't let that stop you. Of course I'm only two days in. I'll let you know later.

pigpensma

01-23-2009, 12:35 PM

I have really been leaning toward AS I and II instead of SL 3 and 4 in a couple of years, but now you make me want to wait just a tad longer so we can all use American Crossing. It sounds great!

jjn3beans

01-23-2009, 01:13 PM

As far as the criticism someone lobbied that the writing is not good, well... Most of it is excellent, and some of the sentences could have used an editor. Overall, it's so delightful, I wouldn't let that stop you. Of course I'm only two days in. I'll let you know later.

The writing in what was considered not good, but you like it? I really enjoy reading your posts. :)

OhElizabeth

01-24-2009, 01:00 PM

The writing in what was considered not good, but you like it? I really enjoy reading your posts. :)

Sorry, the writing in TT.

juliekay

01-24-2009, 09:10 PM

reading your posts and hearing your excitement! We are using the AAI. We're ready to start the Revolution. We - family of 5 dc - have really slowed things down from what the IG recommends due to other activities, vacations, and other subjects that need to be covered in all the grade levels in this home. However, we STILL are very much WP fans! I am very excited to see what WP has in mind for AA2!

OhElizabeth

01-24-2009, 11:04 PM

Hi Julie! Yes, I'm half scared AC2/AA2 won't include much TT because they wont' be ready, sniff... I don't know.

I see you have a little one. That's what pushed me over the top and drove me to WP was having the baby. I wanted something spelled out, something that I could actually implement. Just goes to show I'm on the right track!

OhElizabeth

01-26-2009, 10:09 PM

Day 3

Another great day. We went ahead and read pages 8-11 of Native Homes to tie in with talking about longhouses in the Naya Nuki reading. WP AC skips it because you're going to read a whole book about longhouses later.

The kit included only the spanish flag, which was fine, but better to color than craft from felt. So dd colored that flag, and I printed out the english flag for her to make from felt later.

I'm coming down with a bit of something, so I may be out of commission tomorrow. We'll see.

OhElizabeth

01-27-2009, 11:51 AM

Day 4

Went great, even if it was one of those insane days where mom doesn't feel well, dog poops on the floor, dd wakes up with puberty-induced grouchiness, and baby has a fever from the bug that's going around. Yes, what a day! We used google image to find some color pictures for our timeline figures to place on our WP timeline pages. I'm saving the ones that came with the TT kit to use with the smaller TT explorers timeline (if that makes sense). So, if we keep up with it, what I'll have is a page for each week saved as a Word file. You just go to http://image.google.com , search for the image, right click and copy it to Microsoft Word. There you can add a bit of text under it. That way you can put however many images on you need for the week and print just one page. Then you cut them apart and paste on your timeline. If I were really smart, I'd have done lots in advance and done them on sticker paper. Oh well, next life.

Didn't get to the captain's log. I talked it through with dd, so I think she's going to do it on her own somehow. I'm itching to burn the pages, but she isn't, hehe.

jenn&charles

01-27-2009, 02:56 PM

Just wanted to pop in and say I've really been enjoying reading your updates!
:D
Even though we did American history last year...you are making me look forward to the American Crossings program in our future (many years off).

OhElizabeth

01-28-2009, 09:41 PM

Day 5

Took an off day to finish up some of our projects. Dd worked on her captain's log, and it's turning out FABULOUSLY! You know, I've felt guilty for years that I've never had the type of projects she wanted, so today I asked her, and she said we've nailed it! There you go, history by history lovers for history lovers. Anyways, we made the cover of thick paperboard (like in shirts), punched the corners to round, and covered it with some leftover brown moleskin fabric I had bought to replicate leather for a pocahontas outfit I made her last year. She tea stained the crumpled paper and ironed it out. Now we'll punch holes and sew the pages into the cover, and it will be done! That took quite a bit of time (don't ask me why, it just did), so that's all we got done. I need to put the timeline pages into the rings so she can start using them. And we STILL haven't gotten those spice ornaments done, lol. Oh well, if we've procrastinated on them a year (which it's true, we bought the stuff a year ago to do them), then it's not shocking that we still haven't gotten them done, lol. One day!

I was realizing our craft kit still hasn't come from WP, so I need to call them tomorrow. Tried today but got a busy signal. They so need to get some extra phone lines. Isn't it just like $10 a month to add a phone line? I don't know, but they really need to, or at least a thing to leave a voicemail and they get back to you.

OhElizabeth

01-30-2009, 10:31 AM

You know that quote about having a day that would make Saint Francis of Assisi kick babies? Well yesterday, I have one of 'em. :) Today is going much better, thank you! We've caught up on our LA that we missed, and dd is finishing her draft for her writing. When that's done, then we have math to do, and she'll get to work on her boat. She's crazy excited about that and already has the cardboard box hauled in from the garage. I have an old vinyl table cloth that was going to be thrown away that I thought she could use for a sail, white side out of course. I'm going to go punch the holes for the binding of her captain's log so she can sew it up.

Back later!

OhElizabeth

01-30-2009, 02:02 PM

Week 2, Day 1

I'm back, and we've done our work for day 1, even if it is Friday, hehe. Well not exactly. I need to find an exacto knife to cut the windows. Dd is working on her cardboard ship, so she's enthralled. She's enjoying the Naya Nuki reading and wanted to keep going, but, I'll tell you, the amounts WP has scheduled for each day are just about right for us. I had stumbled before with other programs where I was tempted to run ahead in one thing and fall behind in another, but with AC it's comfortable just to do it on-track, exactly as written.

I better go punch the pages in that log so she can sew it. She decided to deckle (tear) them rather than burning, so that's what she did while I read.

OhElizabeth

02-03-2009, 04:12 PM

Wk 2 Day 2

Another great day! We missed yesterday (just too busy), but today was awesome. I finally bought a utility knife and some sharp blades to make it easy to cut open the windows. She colored her project while I read. The other thing that is so fabulous is that, not only are we getting the history portion done, but we're able to get to our picture study and state study too! So it's just right. It feels like we're doing plenty (which is what I wanted, a full, rich experience), and it doesn't overwhelm us. By the time we've done all the assignments for the day, we're just perfectly saited.

I have some big, 11X14 unlabeled maps of the US, so I thought I'd have her do that each week when we introduce the new state. That should be good. She decided to color it too, using colors that reflected what she learned from her Kids Learn America book.

CiCi

02-03-2009, 06:30 PM

Hi! I'm so glad you are enjoying ACI! I am loving the TT text...my boys color projects while I'm reading that and the adventure reading. Right now we are in week 18ish...right in the middle of the American Revolution! Being boys, it's their FAVORITE unit so far. They really enjoyed the Explorers, though.

Thanks for all the updates! The Adventure Reading is our favorite...right now we are reading Fever 1793, they beg for more every day. It's so rewarding when they do that, isn't it? Have a great rest of the week!

Kristy

OhElizabeth

02-04-2009, 08:49 AM

Ooo Kristy, thanks for tantalizing us! :)

I'll tell you, one thing that's hard is that it's not something you can SPEED through. (Well I suppose one could, but you'd miss a lot.) We like to do history around here, but by the time we've done a day's worth, we're really done and have to move on. So WP AC is going to be something that really does take us about a year to do, plugging along, lesson after lesson... After years of condensing and finding stuff too light, too boring, too whatever, that's a real switch!

Today is her first real writing assignment from the TT. It's just writing blurbs about the different equipment, but we'll see how that goes. I reversed things and had her color the equipment wheel yesterday. Speaking of which, I need to go cut the stuff so she can complete it!

OhElizabeth

02-04-2009, 12:07 PM

Week 2, Days 3 and 4

Whew! We did the readings and several of the projects for days 3 and 4 today! Tomorrow we're going to use as a catch-up day and finish some of the projects we missed. I'm realizing it would have been good to have her fill out the little Explorer Profile booklets (that WP skips) while I did the reading about the explorers, so I'm going to print and prep those for the future. WP skips the route mapping, and I got acetate yesterday for us to do that as well.

On the Explorers Weekly newspaper, I wish they had copied it on parchment or something cooler looking. (just a comment, if they happen to read this) Rather than making her come up with things (which just didn't seem to be working), I dictated some hilarious summary sentences, and that was the end of it. We hadn't been getting around to much dictation these days, so it's good to know I can squeeze some in once a week through that activity. Another dc might prefer to write their own, original stuff, but dictation is good enough.

We ended up tossing the notebooking pages about the instruments, bleh. It was just a bunch of copying of defs and didn't seem really interesting. The navigation wheel was enough on that topic, at least for our taste.

They should make an indian homes craft kit or provide instructions for us to make them as we go through the Native Homes book. I found a link online that had some, but I lost it, oops. I think it was at www.easyfunschool.com The types of houses are really coming alive to us after our recent trips to Arizona and Oregon. You go through them awfully fast, so doing something to cement them might be good.

OhElizabeth

02-05-2009, 04:28 PM

Wk 2 Day 4

Played catch-up today! Finally got the navigation wheel assembled, ended up taping it instead of gluing. Finished the quadrant and played with it. Printed the maps and cut the acetate for the overlays. The WP AC kit doesn't include this, but I really wanted to do them. It about drove me insane, so now I know why I bought the preprinted kit, hehe. I say lobby them to include them next time. They take time but are worth it, imho.

The Line of Demarcation project should be moved to Week 3, Day 1, when you cover Cabot and read about it. We realized that AFTER the fact, oops.

Gave up on the little bio booklets, as it turns out dd already knows where all these explorers were from. (And she went through their pics to prove it! lol)

You know how I had talked about doing the timeline pages on rings instead of in a binder? Well we tried that, didn't like it (too floppy), and put it in a binder. It's terrific there, and dd is already enjoying reading them...

Tomorrow we have more catch-up to do, finishing the maps, doing art projects, taking pictures, writing in the captain's log, etc. Then Monday we'll be free to start Week 3!

OhElizabeth

02-06-2009, 10:20 PM

Dd played in her boat today, listening to Patch the Pirate music (how funny is that! hehe), and writing in her captain's log. For some reason her necessities on the trip were food, water, and BEER... Do sailors drink? She seems to think they do. I have no clue.

We did an art project today from Discovering Great American Artists. I had pulled this together before I bought WP AC, so I decided to just go ahead and use it. I selected 20 artists from DGAA and googled online to find 2 pics of artwork for each. You can print them at walgreens (4X6) for just 19 cents, so it's an inexpensive way to pull together an art study, complete with spine text, prints, and art projects. We put the pics into an album, discuss, and label them, then do a project at the end of the week. It's nice, easy to implement, and enough.

I have a nice stash of books on american history, so today I finally went through and pulled her books on the explorers to put in a book basket. That's the one thing she had really been missing. She LOVES having all the hands-on (and time to do it!), but she wanted to read more. So now I have that all up and running too. I pulled her books mainly on Columbus and Lief Erikson. When she finishes those, I'll give her books from the piles I made to correspond with the other explorers for the other weeks. I even have a couple books on pirates, hehe, to go with week 6! No particular favorites to recommend. They're just from a variety of levels and sources, many listed in the TQ guides or VP catalog.

OhElizabeth

02-10-2009, 03:44 PM

Week 3

We continue to work through the explorer readings. The readings for Cabot and Vespucci were fine, but the ones today really needed an editor. Of course I'm just picky. I HATE history (could tell from this long thread could you? It's my dirty secret), so I guage everything by whether I can tolerate it. I'm thinking what we're really going to have to do is slow it down. I have books on many of these explorers, and I have some general books like Around the World in 100 Years (Fritz) that cover many of them. I'm thinking what we'll do is slow down, spend several days on each set of readings (covering 2 explorers) and let dd do the readings on them from those books. That way she's getting the visual input. We're doing too much auditory, which is not her strength, and not enough visual input. But there's just NO WAY to do extra reading on the explorers on top of the TT stuff and keep pace, kwim?

I think we'll keep going with Naya Nuki and then start Walk the World's Rim after that. It has 13 chapters, so that's just enough to expand the WP stuff (two days for each 1 day of WP assignments) and still have a fiction read aloud. And I think that will make it easier to get done the assignments too. It's taking her quite a while to color the maps and do the overlays for each explorer, but she's really enjoying them. I highly recommend them if you have the time to spare. The product is beautiful and it does expand her understanding of the topic. It's just that you have to slow down if you do that. We spend a lot of time and are pretty open-ended with our history, but there are limits, lol. So if you want to add the maps, plan on adding in some extra days. For us, we'll probably go to two days for every one of WP, and that should be about right. I'll probably print off the Real Estate brochure project and have her do that too. I thought it was pretty cool. Going fast is not the best way to go deep!

The thing I *like* about the TT readings is that they cover particular information conducive to drawing connnections. But the coverage is pretty quick. If you want to go deeper or you have a visual learner, you're going to want to spend more time or bring in some resources he can read for himself. And this may happen as we move forward, that I'm going to have to be careful that she's reading about the stuff too, not just listening. She's too much of a visual learner to learn just by hearing everything.

If anyone wants those extra readings, I can post them later. It's not rocket science though, just the corresponding chapters in Fritz and a couple other books I had. I just should have thought to make the lists for each explorer earlier, at the beginning. For some reason I thought it would occur to her to read across the resources about a particular explorer, which it didn't. :(

blessed2fosteradopt

02-11-2009, 12:28 AM

Yes, please, that would be great as I am considering this theme for my son for next year (6th grade). I am really enjoying reading about your adventure thus far. I hope you continue to post.

Blessings, Lisa

OhElizabeth

02-11-2009, 11:14 AM

Well today she did more reading on the explorers, working through the list I made of readings for each one. I finally had this cool idea of what to do with the little bio booklets. I had printed the pages for them, tossed them (she didn't want to do them), but again wanted to do them, just to give her more of a way to synthesize and organize things in her mind. So I printed them AGAIN (yes), cut everything out, and am having her put them on the explorer timeline, the accordian fold one, as she does them. How cool is that!

OhElizabeth

02-12-2009, 01:18 PM

Week 3 continued!

Whew! I'm worn out, haha. She finally got to the day 2 map (balboa, de Leon) and got that done. I wish I had been smart enough to print them on and start them when we started the readings, duh. I don't think individually they would have put us so far behind, but once you get behind, it's hard to catch up!! I really think it's worth it though, because I'm finally seeing the synthesis and engagement I was looking for. She's a die-hard visual learner, so the maps are a fabulous tool.

I went through and finished marking out the Fritz readings, but it will be no big deal to do it yourself if you desire. Rather than take the time, I'll leave it to your pleasure. As I went through my piles, I found a couple lesser known dudes for the next couple weeks that I think we're going to skip. I didn't have books on them, and they didn't appear in Fritz. I know we "could" do them, but I think we're going to skip and avoid burn-out.

Well she's back. We're going to print out timeline figures.

OhElizabeth

02-17-2009, 03:26 PM

We've finished week 3!!

I skipped Pizarro and Verrazano, whom I don't know (granted I don't know much history) and who don't appear on the VP cards. Not that the VP cards are the gold standard, but I just felt we ought to pick things up and get moving and that these lesser known dudes could go. But Pizarro is apparently the connection to the Incans, meaning that project gets tossed. Ok, maybe I relent and read about him and do the project? If so, I'd have to add in another day, as that's a seriously long project! She wants to do it, just because it looks fun. Since we read about Cortes today, I have her reading about Aztecs. One of the books I had lying around (We Were There Aztec Times) happens to have a game included that uses Cortes and Montezuma as the theme, so I thought we'd play it tonight.

Doing the bio booklets and attaching them to the explorer timeline is working out well.

Ok, now I'm thinking I might relent and cover Pizarro and the Incans tomorrow. I've heard about the Aztecs, Incans, and Mayans and never had a clue who was what or where or why, so that might be good to straighten out. :)

OhElizabeth

02-18-2009, 10:41 PM

Week 4, day 1

Hurray, we're finally to week 4!!! Today we read de Soto, and I did Pizarro that I had skipped from week 3. You have to know Pizarro to understand the de Soto text, so I couldn't fully skip it. Cortes (that we read about Friday) intersected with the Aztecs, so this morning we played that game from the Aztec book. Pizarro connects to the Incans, so that's our next task. We'll start that tomorrow and just pause, not moving forward on our explorers. Or to put it in plain english, we're rearranging the reading of some of these explorers to make it make more sense, and we're pausing to have enough time to get the projects done. She's doing some fabulous synthesis, and we're having a great time, but it TAKES TIME!

So we're keeping the spanish dudes together, shoving Cartier off to Drake. You're supposed to play High and Dry later in week 4, but there's no time to make it once you get busy with the pueblo, so we started it today, which is fine. It means tomorrow we'll do the incan mask and be free to move on to the day 2 assignments either Friday or Monday.

BTW, if you get done with Naya Nuki early, Walk the World's Rim (of SL3) happens to tie in really well about this time as an extra read-aloud.

I've really liked what it's done for her doing the explorer profile booklets and the mapping. If your dc is interested or a visual learner, I highly recommend them. It's taken us some extra time, but the result has been worth it. And just for the curriculum junkies, I've figured out that instead of the WP or TT info cards for the games, I'm going to type up the questions from the VP history cards... I've been meaning to do this for some time, and now it's my big excuse, hehe! So there you go, you too can combine VP, SL, and WP in a meaningful (if not insane) way. ;)

Somehow I'm dreading the thought of paper mache tomorrow...

OhElizabeth

02-19-2009, 12:08 PM

Well I've been dreading the thought of the incan mask, which is supposed to be paper mache, gold spray paint, etc., etc. So I googled, looking for pictures, and found this alternate set of instructions for the same thing but using Sculpey, which use often and adore. It's clean, neat, and makes a nice project with little fuss. http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_IncaMasks.htm So if the thought of paper mache is too much to bear, check it out.

Next stop, pueblo land! That, I'm sure she'll get into. We just need to get a piece of foam board for it and the proper clay. (She'd much rather use clay than do the printed cardstock one.)

Nevermind. I showed her the sculpey plan, and she still wants to do the paper mache version. I'm just gonna close my eyes and hope for the best! :)

OhElizabeth

02-19-2009, 03:46 PM

Well it's done. Not sure I'm impressed with it, but it's done. She got it plenty soaked with the flour/water mixture, so the plate is soggy. Don't do that. I'm sure it will dry and be fine though. I read her 3 more chapters of Walk the World's Rim, because we finished Naya Nuki already. I didn't even realize we're going to meet Coronado in a few more chapters in it, so that will tie in perfectly to the next lesson on Coronado, cool! So yes, if you finish Naya Nuki early or end up taking more time on the explorers, try Walk the World's Rim. I thought I had heard negative feedback about it other places, but it's actually QUITE good!

Love B'ing A Mom

02-19-2009, 04:04 PM

Who is Walk the World's Rim by???? I'll have to check my library when we get there.

I have went back and read through your posts. I am trying to get ready to start AAI. All the paperwork is a little overwhelming. WHEW! I'm trying to get everything together well, before even attempting to start. Otherwise I will def. be in over my head.

Thanks for all your info in your posts. I'm sure it is time consuming to tell us everything, but very helpful for us!!

OhElizabeth

02-19-2009, 06:17 PM

Love B'ing A Mom

02-20-2009, 02:17 PM

Christina, it took me several hours (6?) to get all my notebooks in order, but now that they're done, it's WONDERFUL. I know it's hard, but if you can find the time to do it, then it's going to be such smooth sailing! I'm realizing now we could have started this last summer, back when I was pregnant, because it's so straightforward to implement.

"Walk the World's Rim" is a book used in Sonlight core 3 (their first half of american history). You don't need it, and you won't have time for it probably unless you end up behind but keep going with the read alouds, end up reading ahead, or something like that. In that case it just happens to tie in really well. I own almost all the books for core 3, and I know it's something people have pondered, whether they could somehow integrate the SL3 books into WP AC/AA. I decided to make my life easy and just use WP as written. When we have bald spots due to my being off, then we can plug in a SL book.

WP AC is turning out really great for us. Sure I tweak and play with it, but overall we're having a fun time and it's getting done!

I am trying, with the paperwork. I don't have all my stuff from WP yet. So I'm not sure about some other things as well. I need to go back over your first posts about the notebooks. Right now I have the TT in one and the IG in another. I just made most of the copies that I need from the IG (for the games and review, but I couldn't find colored card stock at Wal-Mart, I'll have to go to Staples) and I made all the copies from TT for weeks 1-6. I'm too copied out to continue for now. I'll come back to it later.

I'm pretty sure we will not be able to keep pace with the IG. We are always reading r/a's, but we have a good supply of books we want to read anyway. With 4 children and another on the way, I figure it will take us a good year and a half or so for us to get through everything. I don't want to rush. Sad to say this is the first history my children have gotten. It sure has taken me a while to get this hs'ing thing even half way under control. I still have a long way to go. :rolleyes: But I am very excited to get some history in. I loathed history when I was a child, so I am hoping my children will LOVE it. I love it now, but it took me getting away from texts and into books. My children LOVE projects and the ones in the TT look awesome!! I know they will love them. We haven't done any in a long time and they let me know about it often.

Anyway, keep up the great, helpful posts.;)

OhElizabeth

02-20-2009, 10:23 PM

So you did or did not buy the pre-printed TT student pages from WP? You're printing the pages from the cd's? I feel for you! I considered it, but chickened out. Whatever the case, YES, combine the IG with the student pages. It's going to make your life so easy! I got these pocket dividers (plastic pockets that are 3 hole punched to go in a notebook) from walmart. Now I'm using 1 notebook for each TT cd, so that's 4 plus an extra (#5) to divide over the last cd, which has so many weeks. Then I have pocket dividers to go behind each week's IG pages. That means everything is in one place and ready to go. It's going to make your life so easy! You have two students doing this? You might even have *2* pockets for each week. Or just use file folders and put them all in a box, conveniently placed. Whatever is convenient for you.

You'll find your pace with this. The read alouds are so good and the overall structure works. You can do this! If I can do this, you can do this. Just have fun with it, not too perfectionist. :)

Love B'ing A Mom

02-23-2009, 12:40 PM