Piney Woods Homeschool

I don't remember ever considering having children until I was 30 years old or nearly so.  It's possible that the thought crossed my mind, but it wasn't something I dreamed of or planned for.  Exactly why my husband and I decided to begin to plan for children, as we neared 30, I really don't know. Maybe it just seemed like the next phase, just like finishing high school, going to college, getting a job. So we set out to have children and parent them.  Seems simple, if you've never had any.  And although we had no idea what we were doing, we muddled through pretty well for a few years.  Frequently we found ourselves totally surprised by challenges we faced, and we discovered that our lovely plans for how all of this parenting business was going to go were pretty much useless. But eventually we'd figure something out and move forward, feeling pretty confident. We exemplify the Peter Principle for parenting.  Instead of being promoted to the level of our in...

I needed a gluten-free dessert, but I had very few ingredients on hand that I could be certain were not contaminated. Looking online, I found  these oven-baked corn chips . But all my spices were potentially compromised, so my friend and I started experimenting. Turns out, pieces of corn tortilla, topped with hazelnut spread or with butter and brown sugar, then baked at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes are pretty tasty!

In planning for our upcoming  AmblesideOnline  Year 5 Term 2, I'm adding in the optional science book  Physics Lab in a Hardware Store  by Bob Friedhoffer . I scheduled out Term 1 already.  For this second 12-week term, we'll divide up the readings like this: pp. 51-54 pp. 54-57 pp. 57-59 pp. 60-63 pp. 63-64 pp. 64-66 pp. 67-68 pp. 69-70 pp. 71-72 pp. 72-73 pp. 73-74 pp. 75-77 Supplies Items to view (These aren't necessarily required in person, as the book has illustrations of them and they aren't needed for activities.) claw hammer pry bar various wrenches spring clamps wheelbarrow casters screwdriver circular saw brace hand drill Items to use (These are needed for observations and activities and may be required more than once.) 24-inch piece of lumber 6-inch piece of lumber ruler 5-pound weight (bag of flour, etc. will work) fisherman's scale heavy string pliers yard stick outdoor faucet screwdriver screw ...

When we read the Uncle Remus stories in Year 0, I pick and choose the stories we read so as to be sure to read the most familiar tales and to avoid some of the more unsettling stories.  I do like to use the original Joel Chandler Harris version, despite the dialect, because Julius Lester omits the Uncle Remus frame story in his version and I think that part of the story is important. If you are not familiar with these stories, you might want to read about why they are important . This is the list of tales I read during the preschool years: Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy Wonderful Tar-Baby Story Why Mr. Possum Loves Peace How Mr. Rabbit was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox Story of the Deluge Mr. Fox Tackles Old Man Tarrypin Mr. Rabbit Grossly Deceives Mr. Fox Mr. Fox is Again Victimized Mr. Fox Goes a-Hunting But Mr. Rabbit Bags the Game Old Mr. Rabbit, He’s a Good Fisherman Mr. Rabbit Finds His Match at Last Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match Again Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear H...

I'm in the process of scheduling Year 3 for the fourth time.  I'm going to blog my way through the process, in case seeing my thought processes helps some of you.  Bear in mind that of course what works for me may not be what works for you, ditto for my child and your child, and that my process varies somewhat from term to term and year to year.  I school four days a week because one day a week is spent at the park and at band, so that may be different from how you schedule too. *** My section labels in these schedules are fairly arbitrary.  I don't really care if the label matches the section's contents. I downloaded the chart schedule in the .doc format from the AmblesideOnline Year 3 Detailed schedule page .  (The Basic schedule page should pretty much match for Year 3.  At this level, the Basic schedule just doesn't show you any of the alternate titles you could use instead of the first choice titles.) I prefer to manage my charts from G...

In planning for our upcoming AmblesideOnline Year 5 Term 1 , I'm adding in the optional science book Physics Lab in a Hardware Store  by Bob Friedhoffer . Part II  Part III For this 12-week term, we'll divide up the readings like this: Intro pp. 21-23 pp. 23-25 pp. 26-27 pp. 28-29 pp. 29-30 pp. 30-32 pp. 33-36 pp. 37-39 pp. 39-42 pp. 43-46 pp. 46-50 Supplies Items to view (These aren't necessarily required in person, as the book has illustrations of them and they aren't needed for activities.) tape measure open-jawed calipers vernier calipers sandpaper with various coarseness (can be observed in the store) file motor oil graphite paraffin wax axe hatchet maul splitting wedge cold chisel wood chisel plane wooden wedge ladder various types of screws, including wood screws and machine screws (bolts) and nuts Phillips screwdriver toggle anchors and Molly anchors Items to use (These are needed for observations and activit...

My oldest will begin Year 10 in a few weeks. Yesterday I visited the AmblesideOnline website , pulled up the Year 10 schedule page, and downloaded the .doc version of the Detailed schedule . I uploaded that to Google Drive and shared it with my dd and dh, granting them editing privileges. Dd can participate in the making of her schedule.  (The Basic schedule for Year 10 probably looks substantially different from the Detailed schedule.  Beginning in Year 7, the Basic schedule is no longer just the Detailed schedule without showing other options but rather is a lighter schedule that has fewer books read more slowly and in some cases even uses different books.) Today she and I looked over the Term 1 booklist , pulling out some of our physical books to examine and consider. We know we must pare down. For instance, Year 10 Term 1 has books scheduled under Theology, Worldview, and Citizenship. We decided to just keep the Citizenship titles on our schedule for this term. The ot...

I am creating my version of AO's chart schedule for the first term of Year 7.  Bear in mind that of course what works for me may not be what works for you, ditto for my child and your child, and that my process varies somewhat from term to term and year to year.  I school four days a week because one day a week is spent at the park and at band, so that may be different from how you schedule too. *** My section labels in these schedules are fairly arbitrary.  I don't really care if the label matches the section's contents. I downloaded the chart schedule in the .doc format from the AmblesideOnline  Year 7 Detailed schedule page .  (The  Basic schedule page  probably looks much different.  Starting in Year 7, the Basic schedule includes fewer assignments spread over a longer period of time and sometimes even schedules different resources than the Detailed schedule.) I prefer to manage my charts from Google docs right now, even though they do...

I had thought about adding to AmblesideOnline's Year 5 science schedule some extra readings from The Way We Work and The Way Things Work to go along with our other science.  But I'm changing course, so I'm saving here the first term's extra readings that I already had scheduled for future reference. Here's the schedule for The Way We Work: Way We Work 86-91 70-75 100-101 112-119 106-111 76-81 60-67 150-155 156-159 178-183 184-185 270-271 And here's the schedule for The Way Things Work: Way Things ----- p. 158-9 p. 258-9 p. 266-7 ----- p. 268-9 p. 274-7 p. 280-1 ----- p. 284-7 p. 288-9 -----

I have nearly finished creating my version of AO's chart schedule for the first term of Year 5.  Since it's fairly fresh in my mind, I'm going to describe the process I used in case it's helpful.  Bear in mind that of course what works for me may not be what works for you, ditto for my child and your child, and that my process varies somewhat from term to term and year to year.  I school four days a week because one day a week is spent at the park and at band, so that may be different from how you schedule too. *** My section labels in these schedules are fairly arbitrary.  I don't really care if the label matches the section's contents. I downloaded the chart schedule in the .doc format from the AmblesideOnline Year 5 Detailed schedule page .  (The Basic schedule page should pretty much match for Year 5.  At this level, the Basic schedule just doesn't show you any of the alternate titles you could use instead of the first choice titles.) I prefer ...