trail guide to learning — part 1

This year my family was given an unbelievable opportunity — we were able to review the entire Trail Guide to Learning Paths of Settlement Curriculum produced by Geography Matters. I had been praying for a curriculum that fit our family — we love to read, are creative, love the Ruth Beechick approach to learning, and have {obviously} many different ages of students.  I am using this with Gracie {5th grade} and Chloe {8th grade}. My boys, Brennan and Caleb, love to listen in as we read and help us out with projects.

Paths of Settlement is a complete curriculum {studying American History from the pre Revolutionary War though the turn of the century} that is the middle part of the three part Trail Guide to Learning curriculum written by Debbie Strayer and Linda Fowler.  Language, History, Writing, Spelling, Science, Art, Cooking {yes, that is very important}, Nature Studies, and more are all integrated. The only thing I needed to add additionally for Grace was Math. {For those of you wondering we use Saxon — I always start them with Saxon in Grade 5.} I also received the Middle School Supplement for Chloe. All of the portions of the day are integrated — like a unit study — so there is a common thread in our learning.

Here’s a day.

Dictation/Narration/Copywork. Passages from the books that we read serve as the foundation for the Copywork section. I think that copywork is an important skill — it teaches grammar rules, writing, and editing naturally.

Readers/Read-Aloud. Right now Grace has read several books – The Story of Sarah Noble and Ambush in the Trail. Chloe read the latter and also the story Calico Captive {which is an excellent book — she read it in one day and simply “couldn’t wait” till the next day}. After this I’ll read aloud to them, and the rest of the family currently we’ve been reading the biography of Abigail Adams.

Mechanics/Grammar/Spelling/Journal Writing. This is sprinkled throughout the week. One of my favorite parts of the interactive journal is that they ask me to answer one journal question – it’s about a page – and then Grace and Chloe have a page with a question they fill out. For example, one for Grace was what was your earliest memory and mine was write about your child’s birth.  I can tell that our family will be blessed by this written record that we’re compiling. I’ve written about our family history, my views on events in history and more.

Science/History. These alternate days. I’ll get more indepth in further posts about how they work, and the excellence of both. It’s fascinating to me how the lessons in science are linked to what we’ve been learning in history – it makes understanding and learning retention higher. I’ve included some pics of some of the pages we’ve completed as well as the “weather vane” Gracie and I made on Friday. Which worked. 🙂

Mapping/State work. Love. Totally. I’m such a geography fan – I read maps for fun – and I’ve hoped that my love of geography would rub off on some of my children. I’ve tried to engage them before, but nothing really stuck. Until now. Paths of Settlement includes mapping for each of the states. We have excellent atlases that we use to map state capitals, major rivers and landmarks, and surrounding states. Then, each state is given a state fact page to fill out. This is hands-down Gracie’s favorite part of the week. In fact, as I was driving her home from ballet she asked if I could just print her off one more state fact sheet to do for fun.

Cooking. We’re using the Eat Your Way through the USA book. The book lists recipes for each state and then what we’ll do is cook a recipe {or two. or three} from the states we cover during the week. And let me tell you – the food is amazing – remember that New England Pot Roast? I know you’ll be seeing recipes throughout the year.

Friday Review/Crafts/Games. Or for me – catch up day. The curriculum is set so that it has four days of heavier learning and then the fifth day is for review, catch-up, fun puzzles and crafts, reading from the most beautiful Profiles from History book by Ashley Wiggers, and more. I love the wisdom in scheduling a day like this as it fills the week with freedom and solidifies the love of learning.

So for now, I’m leaving you with a bit of an overview of how the curriculum works. Below you’ll see Gracie’s binder. I’ve split it into categories for each of the subjects and we’ll just add our pages as we complete work. By the end of the year it will be an excellent and beautiful portfolio of her work.