Tapestry of Grace at GHEA Convention

This weekly wrap is posted early because this homeschool mama is off at the Georgia Home Educators Association at the Georgia International Convention Center. (I’m in booth #311 if you can stop by!) Hodgepodgedad and our two middle schoolers will get to join me tonight. We’re looking forward to hearing Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and Voddie Baucham. Hooray for Nana for playing with the rest of the Hodgepodge!

Guess what?? On Thursday, I got to meet a Twitter friend in real life – Alicia. Looking forward to visiting with her more over the weekend.

See the list of speakers above? And, I got to hug Vicki Bentley’s neck!! Vicki Bentley heads up The Early Years Resources at HSLDA. Plus, one time a couple years ago, I linked over to her Everyday Homemaking site, quoting her from my Practical Prayer post. Kindred spirits! She reprinted Practical Prayer in a newsletter and linked it as resource on the HSLDA site.

I love her quote. Timely here at the end of the school year. Timely any part of the year:

“You can’t change what you have or haven’t done over the past year. Just start where you are, ask the Lord to make you a “joyful mother of children,” pray for grace and wisdom (and strength and patience), and move forward. ~ Vicki Bentley, Everyday Homemaking

Besides hugging necks and meeting folks, what fun to have the privilege of talking with other homeschoolers about a curriculum we love. If you, too, are interested in Tapestry of Grace, I can point you to a few highlights. The Tapestry website is a wonderful place to start:

• First, Marcia Somerville’s video explanation of the map of humanities. Hear directly from Tapestry creator and author about the journey of Tapestry of Grace.
• **Harmony Art Mom – a friend and mom using Tapestry of Grace through high school. She shares all of her practical Tapestry tips, topics, techniques. How much I have learned from Barb!
• Also on the Tapestry of Grace site, under the Explore Tapestry tab, you can view explanations of the cyclical plans, weekly plans. learning levels, the three big ideas.
• Download a free trial of Tapestry. Explore Egypt with your family and explore Tapestry of Grace at the same time. This is what we did when considering Tapestry. It helps me, as the teacher, see how the curriculum works. And it got the children all excited!
• Read about how I am the Tapestry cheerleader.
• I also talk about Tapestry in all of these posts.
• Interested in more curriculum? Our focus at Habits for a Happy Home this month is curriculum.
• A website full of curriculum reviews at The Curriculum Choice. You can view my write ups of the Hodgepodge favorites here.

As for the Hodgepodge, during the first part of this week, we were finishing up!

• Testing: We shipped off both the completed standardized tests this week.
• Language Arts/English: Both middle schoolers are enjoying a unit on poetry in their Rod and Staff curriculum. The last chapters for both.
• Drama Productions: We enjoyed Middle Girl’s church musical Down by the Creek Bank. The two drama girls are practicing, practicing for the Alice in Wonderland production in just two, short weeks!

• Nature: Outdoor Hour Dandelions - even I finished a nature journal entry – a first!

Next week I’ll pick back up sharing about our helpful homeschool habits. I’ve already talked about our Before 8:45 checklist and Morning Room Time for our preschoolers.

Here I am in between my Tapestry booth buddies – Sarah on the left and Kesha on the right.

I feel that continuing education and encouragement for mom is important. I look forward to the sessions at homeschool convention each year. As well as just seeing the sheer number of homeschoolers that fill that convention hall!

How about you? Have you already attended or do you plan to attend a homeschool convention?