Happy Monday! Today is my wonderful husband’s birthday and all my boys are down and out with a wicked cold. So here I site with stylus in mouth, hands at keyboard and wine at my side.

I’ve decided that I will be posting every week our ‘happenings’, ‘learnings’ and ‘creations’ during the course of this school year. It’s a great way for those friends and family who do not live close to be a part of our lives and learning as a great way for us to record what’s been going on with The Shards in homeschool land.

This is my fifth, yes fifth year homeschooling. And this year I have decided to forgo the Classical teaching method which for me was The Well-Trained Mind. Although this classic method was amazing and there is much that has been learned I find that it is not the best route for me and my boys. Earlier this year we mixed in a little unschooling and PBHS with our classical and I found the boys were much happier than they were with their workbooks and rote learning. So was I. Totally.

Now we say Hello! to a new way of learning with an entirely new curriculum which I find is more organic and the hands-on side is essential to us all. So far so good! I do still have some changes to make to fit in our writing program and PBHS but for the first week I’d say it was pretty successful, mostly because the boys say they enjoy it much more than the way we did things previously. If they enjoy it they will learn more, this I know.

A great portion of our work will now be hands-on creating which also means more time-based meaning once the ‘work’ is done it’s recorded then discarded/destroyed to make room for more. We use chalk for instance to illustrate stories as we learn, as well as clay and beeswax, paints and other mediums. There is a huge emphasis placed on the earth and nature which was a big draw for me toward this curriculum. The boys learn woodworking, housebuilding (and history of), weaving, knitting, cooking and farming for instance along with math and language arts, history and science.

Here are some samples of what they boys have produced this week.

The boys learned to hand-knit and they were so excited to see how quickly the results came. The green pouches were hand sewn last year and this year we added them to the fronts of their nature bags with their hand-knitted straps. Then we immediately went out for a walk and collected some nature samples for another project. Can you tell who’s bag is who’s?

They did a pretty good job with the knitting and X even made himself a bracelet after he finished his strap.

We read a story titled, “Why evergreens keep their leaves” and the boys created these chalk drawing illustrations. I am going to take pictures of work we cannot keep and at the end of the year print up albums as keepsakes of our schooling year.

I had purchased a Martha Stewart kit for knitting and weaving. I had taught the boys to knit but they were getting frustrated with the time it took and all the stitches they would drop. We started with weaving and Xman made this little blanket and pillow for his Pikachu.

L is making a blanket for his beloved cow stuffy, Milkshake. He is almost done. He just needs to finish off the ends! Not once were the boys frustrated with the work of weaving with this kit. I think it is a kinder introduction to the art of yarn!

I may have to make this now that I have seen what can be done because one cannot have too many projects on the go! Haha!

So for a first week of schooling I’d say we are going pretty well. Goodbye Week #1, hello Week #2!

Any new projects you’d like to share? Be careful! I may have to add them to my list! 😉