Homeschool

Summer School 2025

This year’s summer school was very fun and something close to my heart…we looked at the history of fashion and fashions from around the world!

We had a small list of books and hands-on activity kits that were the basis for our historical knowledge:

  • Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style
  • What People Wore When: A Complete Illustrated History of Costume from Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century for Every Level of Society
  • Sketch Your Style: A Guided Sketchbook for Drawing Your Dream Wardrobe
  • Coco Chanel: Pearls, Perfume, and the Little Black Dress
  • Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe
  • Klutz Tiny Fashion Studio Craft Kit
  • Fashion Design Kit

From there, we started with the basics…how color, pattern, and texture are the foundations of any fashion, and how fashion and true style are different. This was the part of the summer where I got to share my opinions on the topic, especially emphasizing that “fashion is about fitting in; style is about standing out.” We talked about things like couture vs. fast fashion, how popular fashions have influenced body image, the purpose of uniforms in various settings, and how things like rationing during war times forced styles to change. We even watched some bits from fashion shows, and discussed how the styles at shows do not necessarily reflect what even the designers expect the average person to wear in any given season.

What was really exciting, though, were the field trips we were able to go on, neither of which I was aware of when I chose the topic! First, we went to “Roaring” at the St Louis Art Museum, which focused on art, fashion, and automobiles in France from 1918-1939. We got to see a lot of cool designs (including one by Coco Chanel!), and Chickadee worked on sketching some of her favorites:

They even had a whimsical photo opp, which we both enjoyed:

And on a more serious note, we also toured the “Stitching History from the Holocaust” exhibit at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum. This exhibit gave us beautiful clothes to admire, but also a lot to think about…I’m very grateful that I ran across it!

There were plenty of opportunities for crafting and creativity this summer:

And we even had a guest designer make a beautiful creation…Bunny crafted this gorgeous pink dress!

This year’s summer school was very different because I only had one student, but it was also a lot of fun to talk about fashion throughout time and across the world!

Stitching History from the Holocaust

On Monday, Chickadee, Moose and I visited the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum for the first time. The reason for our visit was the new special exhibition, “Stitching History from the Holocaust,” which was created by the Jewish Museum Milwaukee and is now traveling around the country. This was an excellent addition to our fashion-themed summer school, and really encouraged us to look at fashion in a very different way.

This exhibit tells the story of Hedwig “Hedy” Strnad, a Jewish dress designer from Prague whose plans to flee Czechoslovakia with her husband and come to America were never realized. She was killed in the Holocaust, but some of her dress designs were found in an envelope by extended family members decades later, and they have been brought to life in this exhibit. She was a very talented woman, and seeing her work displayed made me think of all of the other people’s potential that was lost forever due to the horrible acts of the Holocaust.

Hedy was a very talented designer…eight of her sketches are styled for the exhibit, and this blue coat and dress combo was my favorite. The details, from the fur trim on the cuffs to the row of double buttons down the bodice of the dress are exquisite, and the rest of the styling, including vibrant blue shoes and a fun hat is outstanding. I enjoyed seeing a picture of the original sketch next to the mannequin to compare the two:

This floor-length gown looks like it was meant for happy times at balls or other formal events:

This lovely purple ensemble also caught my eye…the diamond-shaped detailing on the bodice is especially interesting:

I liked the bright color and belt detail on this teal dress:

This is another example of excellent styling, from the gloves and handbag down to the shoes:

I adore a jaunty hat and a well-appointed skirt suit!

The pattern on this dress is bright and fun, and the tiny hat is darling!

And the t-strap shoes and hat accessorize this floral dress perfectly:

Each of the designs was giving a couture tag in the style of the time, featuring Hedy’s name taken from her own signature, a detail that I especially loved:

And there was also a look toward the future, where you can write a postcard to yourself that will be mailed to you in the new year, so you can encourage yourself to pursue your own dreams.

This was our first visit to the museum, but I’m already planning to go back during the upcoming school year when Chickadee is learning about WWII…it is a great place to learn about a serious and important subject.

2024-25 Curriculum

Wrapping up our 2024-25 school year with one last post…all of the curriculum we used this year! This was my final year with two students…Ladybug was in 12th grade, and Chickadee was in 7th. The beginning of the year seems like a very long time ago, so hopefully this list is complete!

Religion

  • Journey Through Church History

Math

For Ladybug:

  • The Fallacy Detective

For Chickadee:

  • Horizons Pre-Algebra

Language Arts

For Ladybug:

  • On Writing Well
  • The Lively Art of Writing
  • Wordly Wise 3000, Book 12
  • The British Tradition Book Three: Poetry from the Romantic to the Victorian Age

For Chickadee:

  • Spelling Workout G
  • Wordly Wise 3000, Book Seven
  • Writing with Skill, Level Two

Literature

For Ladybug:

  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • Jane Eyre
  • A Farewell to Arms
  • Fahrenheit 451
  • 1984
  • The Great Gatsby
  • Paradise Lost
  • The Screwtape Letters
  • The Art of War
  • Wuthering Heights
  • Murder on the Orient Express

For Chickadee:

  • Tom Sawyer
  • The Trojan War
  • The Bronze Bow

History

For Ladybug:

  • 1491
  • A People’s History of the United States
  • American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
  • March–Books 1-3
  • Driving the Green Book
  • There are No Children Here
  • Between the World and Me
  • Travel as a Political Act
  • On the Hippie Trail

For Chickadee:

  • The Story of the World, vol. 3: Early Modern Times
  • Underground Railroad and Oregon Trail unit studies

Science

For Ladybug

  • Exploring Creation with Advanced Physics (one semester)

For Chickadee

  • Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science

Electives

For Ladybug:

  • Photography using Understanding Exposure
  • Psychology

For Both:

  • Duolingo
  • Tennis
  • Cooking featuring The Wizard of Oz: The Official Cookbook (and others)

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

You’ve already seen Ladybug’s graduation photos, but I waited until today for the final wrap-up of the 2024-25 school year because I had one more very special outing planned for Ladybug:

The rest of the week was just finishing everything up…Ladybug was ecstatic to be done with Jane Eyre and her term paper, plus she finished American Nations and our mad dash through poetry. Chickadee also finished her final paper and history project, plus wrapped up pre-algebra, and now I never have to teach it again!

We also did a few of our favorite things one last time…took a really long walk, visited the library, and played tennis.

And our favorite last-day-of-school activity…building some new Lego sets! We went with a floral theme this time…they’ll make excellent decorations for our school room (or any other place in the house that needs a bit of brightening), and there’s a fourth piece in the set that Chickadee will build on the first day of her eighth grade year!

That’s a wrap on my 17th year of homeschooling…up next, my first year ever with only one student in my school!

The High School Graduate

It’s Graduation Day!

Ladybug has successfully completed high school…and the entirety of K-12 in my little homeschool!

We had a nice little celebration, including photos and “Pomp and Circumstance.”

For fun, we built our last-day-of-school Lego sets…three of the seasons available in the Botanical collection…they’re absolutely beautiful, and used interesting building techniques and pieces!

For her graduation dinner, Ladybug chose some of her favorite recipes from The Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Online Cookbook…Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Pixieberry Tea, and Princess Pudding:

Not that I really thought it would, but it doesn’t get easier to say goodbye to students from my classroom at home…I’m going to miss seeing Ladybug at her desk every morning!

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty-One

The penultimate week (and a short week, no less) of the 2024-25 school year is complete!

We spent a lot of time outside, walking, playing tennis, and taking a field trip.

For our field trip, we took the train to downtown St. Louis, not just to walk around the Arch grounds, Citygarden, and Ballpark Village, (which we did), but also to visit the Old Courthouse, which just reopened over the weekend following years of renovations.

Ladybug is almost done with Jane Eyre! She continued reading American Nations. We began a (very brief) study of poetry from the Romantic to Victorian Age…better late than never, right? She continued working on her term paper.

Chickadee worked on her review of all of the big concepts in pre-algebra. She also reviewed for her final science test. She continued working on her final writing assignment, as well as the special project about the Oregon Trail I assigned her.

One more week until Ladybug’s high school graduation!

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty

We started the week off with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo!

It was a beautiful day, and most importantly, we got to see Jet, the baby elephant!

We also worked on wrapping more things up for the year. Ladybug completed her psychology course. She continued reading American Nations. Her term paper is coming along. She’s getting closer to the end of Jane Eyre.

Chickadee began her big review in pre-algebra. She finished the final chapter in science by learning about sight and hearing. We finished reading about the Oregon Trail, and she started an end-of-year project about what she learned. She also began working on her final writing assignment…not nearly as long as Ladybug’s, but a big paper for her!

Next week will be a short week for us, plus I have a field trip planned, and I’m really hoping the weather cooperates…just two weeks to go!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Nine

This was a fun week! Not only did we finally get to play tennis, but we also took a rare nighttime field trip to the St. Louis Zoo for the Animals Aglow Lantern Festival!

Of course, we did our regular work, too, although that is dwindling down, and our days are getting shorter. Ladybug began volume three of Jane Eyre…the end is in sight! She continued working on her term paper. In psychology she read about aggression, attraction, and altruism. Her final writing assignment was writing a “bad” thesis using subtle and blatant irony. She continued reading American Nations.

Chickadee completed all of the new material in her pre-algebra book with a final lesson on finding the area of regular polygons, and is now ready for the end-of-year review! Since she finished her history curriculum for the year, we’re focusing on topics that bridge the time around the California Gold Rush and the Civil War, including the Underground Railroad and the Oregon Trail. She began learning about the five senses in science. We started reading Amon’s Secret.

Three more weeks of school, and a lot of fun things in the mix between now and then!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Eight

We finally made it out of the house on a field trip! On Wednesday, we went to see the new “Collected” exhibit at the Missouri History Museum…I was very impressed with it!

This was also a short week for us, as we always take the day off on Good Friday. Ladybug finished the second volume of Jane Eyre. In psychology she read about social dynamics. She continued to work on her final research paper. In writing she wrote four different theses. She finished reading On The Hippie Trail…her last social studies book is American Nations. We made it to the final chapter of our study of the history of Christianity, and discussed what it means to be a confessional Christian today.

Chickadee worked with graphs in pre-algebra, performing transformations including reflections, rotations, translations, and dilations. She read about the California Gold Rush in history. We finished The Bronze Bow. In science she began a very long chapter about the nervous system. Her writing assignment is to combine the various topoi for writing about history to complete a paper about Joan of Arc.

I’m hoping for a few more field trips before the end of the school year!