Reflections on learning around here

I've given it some thought and decided that I will do a Monthly homeschool review rather than a weekly one. I'm just trying to simplify and put less pressure on myself. If I can find time to write each week, that is fantastic. But, if we get busy and I can't, I need that to be okay, too. Last year, having that pressure to document each and every week of school became somewhat of a chore at times. I'm thinking that once a month, I can recap what we've learned, what we've read and what we've experienced in the past month. That is a commitment that I hope to feel a bit less pressure about meeting. If you really want to see some of what we're doing as we are doing it, check the three reading logs across the top. I'm trying to update those daily or every couple of days with the books that we read aloud and that the girls read themselves. A book doesn't make it to the list until after it's read, so that is your record of some of what we have actually done.

Anyhoo. Even though I don't intend to do a "Week in Review" for the past two weeks, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on some of the things that have been working for us and some of the things I've already decided to change a bit.

What is working for us?

Music in the morning.
   Monday morning I made a point to stop my quiet time at 8:00 am on the dot. I put in our "Masters of Classical Music: MOZART" CD and headed to the kitchen to start breakfast. When the girls came out (excited to start school) and smelled homemade pear cinnamon oatmeal on the stove, heard Mozart on the speakers and saw Momma in her apron, putting dishes away, they said it felt so good. I made a mental note of that and have since done the same each day ~ 8:00 am on the dot, my computer time ends, Mozart is turned on and I'm in the kitchen doing the work of the day. It works for us. It feels good to me. It signifies the start of the day. It signifies that Momma is plugged in (or rather that Momma is now "unplugged") and ready to hold the rhythm of the family. Plus, I can stop worrying about "scheduling Composer Study" ~ it's now on the agenda each and every day and doesn't take up a bit of our lesson time! The Hippie and I planned out the months of the year with our 10 CDs and we will have a new composer each month. I know that is a bit shorter than the typical "one composer per term" Charlotte Mason recommendation, but if we're hearing the music every single day I think one month is enough. We like it this way.

Ten minutes of copywork and no more ... and from books we are actually reading.
   I spent most of the summer thinking I just wouldn't be able to come up with my own copywork each day and that I needed to just buy something. I'm so glad I didn't do that. It really was easy to sit down the Saturday before and pick out four days worth of copywork from books we are actually reading, plug short sentences into this worksheet maker (cursive for the Hippie and print for the Princess) and be done with it. I really believe they are more interested in the writing when it is something they recognize. They get excited about it. Another key, though is that I have set the timer for 10 minutes and made them stop wherever they were at the end of 10 minutes. Period. I want ten minutes of perfect handwriting instead of 15-20 minutes of sloppy mess. Each day the Hippie was able to finish and the Princess finished about half. But, both were beautifully written and that is what matters!

Dictation with the Hippie. 
   I cannot express enough how beautifully this went this week. My oldest child (up to now) has hated copywork and anything to do with writing (when Momma requested it). Charlotte Mason says not to begin dictation and written narration until the child is in 4th grade or about 9 or 10. Boy, did she know what she was talking about. We did our first dictation exercise on Monday and the Hippie loved it. She wanted to do it every day (she's only going to do it once a week, but I love the enthusiasm). Again, I agonized over buying something, but in the end decided on the more natural route and am so happy that I did. On Monday morning, I asked her if she'd like to do her dictation exercise (she didn't even know what that would be) from Bambi or The Last Little Cat (two books we happen to be reading aloud at the moment). She chose The Last Little Cat because her copywork that day had been from Bambi. I chose a paragraph for her to look at, told her to pick out any words she might have trouble spelling and wrote those on the board. She then took mental pictures of each word and spelled them orally. I asked her to look over the paragraph again, looking at capitalization, punctuation and spelling. I told her to listen closely because I would not repeat myself ~ she would only get the sentence one time. I then dictated one sentence (she did not know which one it would be) a few words at a time for her to write. She ended up doing it perfectly ~ no mistakes at all. She was so proud of herself! Awesome.

Written Narration with the Hippie.
   Just like I said above, I really thought this was going to be met with whining and complaining. But, again the girl totally surprised me ... in such an amazing way. I expected sloppy handwriting, 2 or 3 short sentences and major complaining. What I got was beautiful, carefully written handwriting, an entire wide-rule page and even more detail than the original story. She blew me away, big time. We had just used The Dog and His Shadow in our oral English lesson, so she chose to do her first written narration on that. As I said, she wrote it better than the first one. Double awesome!

English in Momma's bed
   Grammar is another subject I agonized over. I originally planned to have the Hippie just do Intermediate Language Lessons from Emma Serl in the workbook format. Again I was thinking "easier for me" ~ just do it. But, again (even after purchasing and printing over 200 pages ~ ugh, hate to waste paper and ink like that), I ultimately decided to go the gentle,natural route of doing English lessons orally and with me and only having her write the dictation, copywork and written narrations from books we are actually reading. Again, I am so glad I did. Twice this week, the Hippie and I curled up on my bed and went through several English lessons orally and then called it a day. She loved it and it was simple and natural. I'm telling you, natural is better! Once this week, the Princess and I did the same (only going through one or two lessons instead of several). Again, that bonding time is so special. I chose English for the Thoughtful Child because I already owned it. Keep it simple, right?

Fresh air and movement
   This is so important. We started each day with a short walk and I am convinced that it made things better. After breakfast and chores, we headed out the door for just about 30 minutes. We walked and talked and looked at all the nature we could see (tons, by the way). It got each of us some fresh air, some sunshine, a little bit of exercise and got the wiggles out so that they could concentrate when they got home. Success!

Candle and prayer
   In Waldorf circles, school generally starts with "circle time". Well, the typical "circle time" just isnt' me, but we do signify the start of our learning time and this works well for us. We have a special "school candle" (that the girls picked out at the Farmer's Market last week) that we light. We then hold hands and say a prayer ~ going around and letting all three of us speak. We say "Amen" and blow out the candle and get to work. It centers us. It bonds us. And, we always start the day by Giving Thanks to He who deserves it. What could be better?

Tea time after lunch
   What is "tea time", you ask? Well, I had originally planned to do it after quiet time and before they went out to play. I wanted to have a dedicated time, make them some tea and fit in things like Picture Study and Composer Study and Poetry and Shakespeare at this time. Just some time together over tea (theirs was caffeine-free, of course) reading together. Well, as it turns out, no one in this family is coming back to anything "schooly" after rest time. The Princess had suggested doing it before rest time anyway because then the tea could relax her (as she said). So, I thought ~ great idea. We ended up doing our tea time after lunch and clean up. I fixed up tea for each of us, we took it outside and we read aloud. It was great. We read the classic story of Paul Bunyan one day and the next day we took turns reading TONS of poetry to each other. Blissful.

German and typing 
   Again with the subjects I fretted over "scheduling" and didn't need to. The Hippie asks to do her typing every day even though I only "scheduled" it twice a week. And, our German CDs and songs have been on as much as Mozart (by request), again, even though I only "scheduled" it twice a week. Some things really are better left to the natural, Unschooly way. I'll still keep them on my schedule just to remind me, but I don't think I'll have to make it happen!

Scheduling the hair brushing to audio or video
   Sounds silly, doesn't it? Well, we have a lot of hair in this family and although my girls are good at many things, keeping their hair free of tangles is not one of them. In recent history, we had a habit of letting it get pretty bad and then once in a while, Momma would spend an agonizing hour removing dreadlocks from each child's hair. Well, no more! I take a stand, lol. I actually scheduled hair-brushing time! The Princess is on Monday and the Hippie is on Wednesday. We listened to audio history while brushing, so it was part of our school day. And, the girls' hair is beautiful now. Can't beat that! I figure that as long as Momma hits the hair once a week and they continue to brush and fix it each day (which they've done beautifully), then hopefully it will never get that bad again. Let's hope.

God and memory at breakfast
   We started doing our "God readings" at breakfast last year and really liked that. I have their attention when they are eating and can read a bit from the Bible or Wisdom and the Millers (our Proverbs for Children) or something of the like. We can discuss it. And, it doesn't take any time out of our lesson time. It is perfect. This year, I've added Memory to that time slot. We're working on memorizing "Come Little Leaves" by George Cooper at the moment. Perfect for fall.

Keeping the rhythm!!! 
   I cannot stress this enough. It is imperative that Momma keeps the rhythm! If the children come out and find Momma sitting at the computer, not dressed and ready to go, they will follow suit. If they come out and find Momma doing what she is supposed to be doing, they will as well. It's that simple. Whether we like it or not, Momma's make or break the school day right from the start. Whether I feel like it or not, I must get up before them, have my time to get in a good place for the day and be ready for them when they come out. Period.

Reading every day
   The girls have read every day. Period. Some during our "lesson time" while I was working with the other and some more during "quiet time". I made a nice little log for them to record books they read (we all love lists, don't we?) and they read. Period. The Princess also reads aloud to me for 10 minutes each day. I had only "scheduled" that once a week, but she requested it each day, so I'm following her lead. Again, it's a lovely cuddling time on the couch. It's working.

Squirrel math
   This is working well because we have squirrels in our yard that the girls named over a year ago, so I can easily talk about Nutmeg and Peanut Butter (yes, those are two of the names) collecting acorns. If Nutmeg has 8 acorns and Peanut Butter has 4, how many do they have together (8 + 4)? If Cinnamon comes along and they want to share them equally, how many will each one get (12 / 3)? Okay, so they each have 4 acorns ... a new friend comes along with 4 more. Now, how many do they have (4 x 4). Uh oh, winter is here and they have forgotten where they hid 7 of them. How many are there now (16 - 7). You get the idea. Tons of fun. And, it works.

Switching bedtime reading to single stories instead of chapter books
   I decided to change up our bedtime routine to include single stories like fairy tales or picture books instead of a continuing chapter book at this time. The reason was simple ~ too often we would end up not reading before bed, so the chapter books would drag on forever and really not be that great because we barely remembered what was going on. With this new system, I can read the chapter books during "school time" (hopefully following through much more often so that we can actually make some progress) and we have time at night to fit in all the great picture books and fairy tales we love so much but never had time for. It's worked well. With this new plan, we read bedtime stories much more often! I think one story is less pressure or doesn't sound as daunting as one chapter. Whatever it is, it works for us.

Family time and family learning
   Lessons are important, yes. But so is life. Our family bike rides and family beach walks and Nature Study with Daddy and our family Zoo trip and our visit to a local fort and historical Native American preserve and our impromptu night at the Art Walk have been fantastic and have been just as educational as our Squirrel math and dictation and copywork! It is so important not to get so bogged down in "lesson plans" that you forget the good stuff! Get out there and have fun as a family ... and learn a thing or two!

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Wow. If you are still with me, you must be a homeschooler, lol. No one else in their right mind would read this much chatter. I had some ideas to talk about the changes I've made or our daily or weekly rhythm, but I'm thinking this post is long enough. I'll put those into another post for you. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll do my best to get back to you.

What is working so far in your homeschool this year?

Until next time,

IrieMomma 

Teaching to the CHILD, not the curriculum

If you read my previous post, you know that I've been struggling with some of my homeschool planning this year. It all started about two months ago. We were moving along nicely with our plan to school through the summer and I got summer fever. I also started to notice some things that weren't working in our homeschool and I started to second guess.

Everything.

Then, we moved onto just plain old "Summer School".

Then, we moved onto just plain old "Living" ~ coupled with reading aloud, reading independently, lots of library trips, play dates, homeschool group activities and free play around the house.

My school thought process has run the course all the way from:

• Doing a Waldorf 2nd grade with the Princess and a pretty rigorous Charlotte Mason 4th grade with the Hippie, to ...
• Keeping it Simple and Natural and just making sure we read something every day, write something every day, connect with God every day, do some math every day, DO something every day (with our hands), to ...
• God first, Read Aloud, DO, Play, Live, Get Outside, Enjoy, to ...
• Organic Homeschooling, to ...
• Ruth Beechick, to ...
• Modified Ambleside Online, to ...
• Five in a Row, to ...
• Back to Waldorf for the Princess and Charlotte Mason for the Hippie, to ...
• 100% Waldorf across the board for the entire family, to ...
• Full circle, back to Waldorf 2nd grade for the Princess and more Charlotte Mason-inspired for the Hippie ...

I think you get the idea.

I was truly a mess for about a month there. Then, I thought I got it settled.

Then, I got confused again.

What it boils down to is this ~ my two children are as different as night and day. As much as I wanted to choose the right curriculum or method for our family, I have to face the fact that there is not a blanket way to do things in this family.

The Princess is still dreamy. She is still very much a little princess. She needs gentle. She needs time to play. She needs stories. I interviewed her at the beginning of this charade and she told me that for math she would love to hear stories (Waldorf). She told me that she really doesn't care about history yet (Waldorf again). For "science" she told me she wanted to study animals (Waldorf 2nd grade puts us with animals). Ultimately, I've known in my gut for quite some time that she needed the gentle beauty of a Waldorf 2nd grade year. It is my responsibility to put that together for her.

The Hippie, on the other hand is ready for more. She loves Math U See and has looked rather worried when she saw me looking at Waldorf math ~ "You're not getting rid of Math U See are you?" She really wants to do MUS. Period. She likes to read. She likes to read about things that really happened ~ historical fiction and history, nature, about artists and all sorts of things. She likes Shakespeare and Classical Music and Artists. She seems to be a good candidate for a more Charlotte Mason education. Of course, she still loves all things magical and fantasy ~ she loves fairies, gnomes, believing in everything. She got excited about the Norse myths that would be in a 4th grade Waldorf curriculum. She loves animals and would love to study them this year. A 4th grade Waldorf curriculum would have her starting to work with Geography and map skills this year, and wouldn't you know she has been all about her compass and directions and maps lately. Ultimately, I know in my heart that I need to put together a custom-made curriculum that will meet her where she is developmentally, include the stories and ideas that Waldorf suggests she needs for her spiritual development, but I also need to balance that out with lots of beauty and living books.

So, if you wanted to know what was confusing me recently, there you have it. When you decide to teach to your child(ren) and not to a particular method or curriculum, decisions and plans become more complex than just buying that one-size-fits-all curriculum and making a schedule.

I need to find a way to fit in the gentle rhythm of stories and baking and painting and nature and God and lots of time to play to meet my Princess where she is. And, I need to find a way to fit in the slightly more rigorous structure that my Hippie is ready for.

Above all, though, I must remember what is most important to me and my family (all "experts" aside). No matter where my mind wanders, I know that the most important things in this home are:

• God and family first, always.
• Forming and keeping strong relationships between my girls and me, between these two sisters and between them and Daddy
• Developing Godly character.
• Peaceful home life that includes cooking and baking from real, whole foods, keeping a clean and orderly and above all COZY home and having fun together.
• Getting outside and observing nature, learning from nature and cultivating true reverence for nature.
• Reading aloud to them ~ classic literature, poetry, fables, myths, legends, fairy tales, biographies, nature stories, etc.
• Developing an appreciation for quality music, art and literature.
• Time to play and explore and get bored and create.
• Basic skills so that they can learn anything they want ~ reading, writing and math.
• Creating memories and traditions around holidays and festivals that matter to us.
• And so on ...

I had a bit of an epiphany this morning. I remembered how just a few months ago I was telling my husband that I finally felt like I knew what I was doing with homeschooling. I may have been struggling to manage other areas of my life, but I had this homeschooling gig figured out.

My epiphany was this ~ if I felt like I really knew what I was doing before, then whatever it was I was doing must have been working. So, in reality, I should really just leave well enough alone, right?

At that time, we were doing our own thing ~ predominantly Charlotte Mason and Waldorf inspired. But, our own way of doing it.

And, we were happy with it.

The only exception was my little feeling that things weren't quite right for the Princess. My little feeling that she needed me to slow down and honor her childhood a bit longer.

So, that epiphany tells me that I need to revisit the drawing board. But, not to start over from scratch. All I need to do is figure out a way to continue on the path we were already on, with a bit more relaxed and gentle Waldorf flair for the Princess.

Stay tuned for my thoughts on how to make that happen.

If you're still with me after this long stream of consciousness rambling, I applaud you. I apologize if I've bored you. But, if you are a homeschooler, I have a suspicion that you could relate to much of what I've said.

It's funny how we can do this for years and still come back to that feeling of not having a clue!

Until next time, 
   ~ IrieMomma 

  

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Term 1 Plans and Daily Checklists

I've had some questions as to how I have organized our school year and how things are going so smoothly for us FINALLY.

I have to say that being totally organized for a change is making ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD!

• I have an outline for the entire year.
• I have the year divided into terms.
• I have the entire first term planned out on one spreadsheet.
• I have Daily Checklists for the Hippie, the Princess and for the Family.
• The Daily Checklists are for the entire 12 week term on ONE page.
• I have the days labeled as "Day 1", "Day 2", "Day 3" and "Day 4" instead of "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday" and "Friday".

Having this all laid out in advance is a life-saver. It is allowing us to get what needs to be done DONE even when there are stumbles in our path. For instance, this week we had an impromptu field trip to the zoo with our homeschool adventures group. We usually do all of our "adventures" on Thursday, but this was on a Tuesday. Now, if I had certain subjects scheduled for "Tuesday", I would have had to choose between enjoying the fun and doing school. Luckily, I did not have to make that choice. We went to the zoo and we did "Day 2" today. No worries. It's also a beautiful thing to have it all laid out so that I don't have to think. If I'm not feeling well or one of the children aren't feeling well (as was the case today), we can still get it done because it is not hard to curl up on the couch (pjs and all) and "just do it" ... when it is already planned!

This morning my oldest woke up with a tummy ache. On a normal school day, there is no TV. On a normal school day the girls come out dressed and beds made, ready to get to it. We do our chores and get to work and follow the schedule. Today, there were pajamas and Mythbusters before school and breakfast was at a different time and things were all muddled up, but we still managed to do every . single . thing on the list. And, that glorious feeling that comes with getting it all done was enough to make my daughter feel wonderful after school. Now, I have two blissful children playing WILDLY .... afternoon is FREE for play ... and school is already finished.

I LOVE IT!

So, would you like access to my amazing files? My big secret? I've been trying to figure out how to post them for you to see. Let me try. If I can get them posted on here, you are welcome to use them to enjoy the same joys in your own homeschool.

You can look here for our plan for the school year.

You can look here for my plan for the first term.

You can look  here for the daily checklists for our family, the Hippie and the Princess.

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As far as HOW to use these ... I am training the girls to be responsible for their own lists while I worry about the Family list. Each day, we work our way through the day's work ... whatever DAY is next. If something comes up and we can't do school one day, we simply pick up the next time wherever we were. As far as WHAT to do, if I don't already know, I look at the plan for the first term. It will tell me which chapter to read.

For Art, I didn't put the of the actual prints we will study on the term plan, but I have 12 prints by Renoir. I had an old calendar of Renoir paintings. I cut each one out to fit into a page protector and placed them in my binder. We now have 12 Renoir paintings to study this term. I can decide which one to do each week ... whatever strikes me. Today we studied the painting entitled "Two Sisters" ...

For Music, I didn't put the actual information on the term plan spreadsheet, but I did divide the 12 weeks into three 4 week chunks ... four weeks on Peter and the Wolf, four weeks on the the Pet of Met and Magic Flute Operas and four weeks on the Hansel and Gretel opera. For the specific plans each week, you can see my page at the top entitled Music Study. This term we are mostly introducing the orchestra and opera and general music appreciation. We will begin true Composer Studies next term.

For Nature Study, I only put ideas where they fit with the plans for Outdoor Secrets. For the other weeks, we will either follow some other ideas I have here (from Oak Meadow or from Simply Charlotte Mason) or we will follow the Outdoor Hour Challenge. My primary goal for Nature Study is to DO it. Just to get outside somewhere with our nature notebooks and pencils and OBSERVE and draw.

For our Burgess Bird Study, we are keeping a Bird Book. We are reading through the Burgess Bird Book for Children (I have a beautiful OLD copy ... I love collecting my hundred year old books!). While we read, the girls are coloring a picture of the bird (coloring it true to life, not just however they want to). Once we have finished the reading and they have finished their coloring, we are listening to the birds' songs and calls online and watching any videos we can find. Then, the girls paste their colored birds into their "Bird Books" (sketchbooks) and fill in the background. The Princess then writes the name of the bird on the top of her page and the Hippie writes the name of the bird as well as a few facts about it. We are excited to have our own sort of "field guides" at the end of the year, filled with all of the birds that we learned about.

My literature plans only list what Momma is reading during the day. We have an additional read aloud going all the time that Daddy reads at night. For instance, right now the girls and I are reading Little House in the Big Woods while Daddy is reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at night before bed. It's nice for them to hear both styles of reading, it's good practice for Daddy (lol) and it's a break for my vocal chords (seeing as how I am reading aloud to them all.day.long.).

As for the rest of it, we do most all subjects the same way ~ Momma reads aloud and the girls take turns narrating (telling me what they learned from whatever I just read). I ask for oral narrations from Bible, History, Geography and Nature stories. Literature and poetry are for enjoyment only. Speaking of which, the spreadhseet says "four poems per week" for the poet. In actuality, we just read some poems each day ... so far we've done more like 4 poems per day. They beg for more, but I'm not complaining. Speaking of "begging for more" ... the Hippie BEGGED for "just one more lesson" in her English book today. And begged some more. Again, no complaints here! 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate. I just wanted to attempt to share what is working for us. If I can help just one other struggling Homeschool Momma, I'll be happy.

Of course, all of this is only possible because God's light shines through me. Give thanks for that!

Many blessings to you.

Habit Forming ... One at a time.

"The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children."

Charlotte Mason was clear. She told us that the choice was ours. We could either ensure smooth and easy days or long and stressful ones. It all depends on the habits we train our children to follow.

Well, I think that is most certainly true. But, I believe it actually must begin with the habits that we as mothers form for ourselves. If we "take pains to endow" ourselves with good habits, we are then strong enough to train our children in the way that they should go.

These are some of the thoughts that began swirling in my mind a few weeks ago. I set out to form some new habits of my own, while simultaneously doing my duty as a mother to train my children in habits of their own.

But, I am wise enough to know that I am human. I cannot expect myself to make a list of ten new habits and start them all at the same time. I cannot expect to form many new habits at one time if I want them to STICK.

So, I set out to make some significant changes in my life. I wanted to:

• Form the habit of spending time with GOD each and every morning.

• Form the habit of SCHOOL each and every day, making education a part of life.

• Form the habit of REGULAR EXERCISE.

• Form the habit of eating better, drinking more water and just plain taking better care of my body.

• Form the habit of SCHEDULE.

•   Form the habit of always greeting my husband at the door with a smile and kiss.

• Form the habit of spending some sort of focused time with my children each and every day in addition to school.

• Form the habit of a clean and tidy home, good organization, less clutter, treating my job as a homemaker as a JOB.

• Form the habit of taking time for ME each day. This one is hard for me to even type ~ it sounds so selfish. But, I am wise enough to know that my family needs me and needs me to be happy and healthy in order to take care of them, to love them (you cannot give what you do not have to give) and to provide a warm and inviting life for them.

*****

So, those were some of the things floating around in my brain. As I stated in a previous post, I was wise enough to know where to start ~ with GOD.

They say it takes three weeks to truly form a habit. I can say from experience that this is true. I know that because I have never stuck with anything long enough to form the habit! But, alas I am on a new road. I know it. I can feel it in my core.

Rather than wait a true THREE WEEKS to even begin each new habit, I vowed to FOCUS on just the one habit at a time, while also attempting to begin some of the others. I am happy to report, though, that through God's grace, more than one habit seems to be forming at a time.

I started with GOD. It all starts with GOD.

He was gracious enough to allow HIS light to shine through me, allowing me to see my life and my duties in a new way. Through HIS light, I naturally became a better mother, a better wife, a better person. Through HIS light, some of the habits I wasn't even "working on" have begun.

GOD IS GOOD!

So, as it stands, I have spent time with God each and every morning for one week. My girls and I have practiced our schedule and done our chores with (mostly) joy and a good attitude. I have loved my husband more deeply, been a more patient mother to my children and a better homemaker. My home has been cleaner, my family has been happier, my home has been warmer.

And, that is all in only one week.

God's grace is amazing when we ask HIM for it!

So, week two we have begun habit number two, while continuing to work on the first one. We have begun our new school year. And, as above, it has been glorious. Attitude makes all the difference in the world. MY attitude! And, it certainly helps to be completely PLANNED  and ORGANIZED for a change. I have a feeling our ride is taking a turn for the better. And, that makes me one happy homemaker!

 

What's in Store?

Well, I have the entire first term planned out in a beautiful spreadsheet / table, but I cannot figure out how to get it on here. While I work on that, I thought I'd share our plans for week one. These are our plans for our Family Work: 

The Children's Story Bible by Vos (daily readings): 1-4
Child's History of the World ch 1, Creation

A Living History of Our World Chpt 1

Very First Americans p.1
Holling Book of Indians Foreword & Chpt 1

CM Geography: 2 Sections
Aesop: The Wolf and the Kid
Tortoise and the Ducks
Oak Meadow Fairy Tales E & F

Seven Little Sisters, Brown Baby
Child's Garden of Verses: 4 poems
Outdoor Secrets & Companion, Lesson 12 & 13

Burgess Bird Book 1 Chpt

Renoir: 1 Print & 1 section of A Weekend with Renoir

Read about Orchestra, Peter & the Wolf

Work on memorizing Family Rules
Little House in the Big Woods
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

As far as the girls' individual work, we'll be on a "do the next thing" sort of schedule. There's really no planning needed here. They just need to work at it daily. Here's what they girls have in store:

The Princess (primarily guided work with me):

Letter pictures for two Oak Meadow Fairy Tales, E & F

Delightful Reading Lessons, 3 per week

Read aloud to me, 10 minutes per day (for practice)

Math Lessons for a Living Education, 3 times a week

Dreambox Math, 15 minutes 3 x a week

Queen Language Lessons for Little Ones, Volume 3

Letter Writing Practice, E & F

The Hippie (primarily independently):

Cursive (Pictures in Cursive PRIMER), daily

Math Lessons for a Living Education, 3 times a week

Dreambox Math, 20 minutes 3 x a week

Life of Fred Elementary, 2 x a week

Language Lessons for the Very Young, Volume 1

English for the Thoughtful Child, orally with me 2x a week

Read aloud to me, 5 minutes 3 times a week (so I can catch any mistakes)

Assigned Literature Reading

Free Literature Reading

We also have our weekly Handwork Group scheduled as well as a field trip to the zoo and an afternoon park day with our Homeschool Group. Should be a fun week.

What do  you have planned?

2012 School Year

Believe it or not, in the midst of all of our Christmas decorating, gift-making, gift-wrapping, cleaning, cooking, baking, stories and celebrating, I've also been planning our upcoming school year (2012). I've done a lot of thinking, researching, meditating and praying about this. As you may know, we had a rocky start to the fall of this year. We've dabbled here and there with various ideas of Unschooling and Oak Meadow, but hadn't found our niche or groove. I'm happy to report, though, that after much thought and prayer, I feel like I have a solid plan for 2012. I thought I'd share some of that here. I'm in the process of purchasing and organizing materials, but we will be starting FRESH  in January. Items with one * will be used only in Term 1, ** Term 2 and *** Term 3. If there are no *s, we will use the resource all year. Each term will be roughly 12 weeks. Here's what we have planned:

Family Subjects:

BIBLE:

The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos (Old Testament)

Wisdom and the Millers (Proverbs for Children)

HABITS:

Work on learning and following our family's rules.

TALES:

Oak Meadow Fairy Tales *

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit ** & ***

Seven Little Sisters **

Snow White and Other Fairy Tales by Grimm *** 

POETRY:

Robert Louis Stevenson *

A.A. Milne **

A Family of Poems ***

GEOGRAPHY:

Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography

WORLD HISTORY:

Child's History of the World, Hillyer (Narrate, Map and Timeline)

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History

Life in the Great Ice Age *

Boy of the Pyramids *

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth **

Trojan Horse

Growing Up in Ancient Greece

The Greeks

                                

AMERICAN HISTORY:

A Living History of Our World Volume 1 (Chapters 1-16)

The Very First Americans

Holling C. Holling Book of Indians
Eric the Red

D'Aulaire Leif the Lucky

D'Aulaire Pocahontas

D'Aulaire George Washington

D'Aulaire Benjamin Franklin

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

A Lion to Guard Us

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims                                    

Liberty's Kids DVDs

SCIENCE/NATURE:

Outdoor Secrets and Companion
Burgess Bird Book along with coloring and listening to their calls

Weekly Nature Study

MUSIC:

Orchestra, Peter and the Wolf *

Opera, Mozart's Magic Flute Opera, Hansel and Gretel Opera *

Bach with Opal Wheeler's Sebastian Bach The Boy from Thuringia **

Beethoven with Opal Wheeler's Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells ***

ART:

Renoir *

Cassatt **

Cezanne ***

LITERATURE:

* Little House in the Big Woods

* Twig

* Five Little Peppers and How they Grew

* Understood Betsy

** Wise Enchanter

** The Voyages of Doctor DoLittle 

*** A Little Princess

*** Wind in the Willows

*** The Door in the Wall

CHARACTER:

Beautiful Feet Teaching Character through Literature, Primary

OTHER:

Continue our weekly Waldorf Handwork Group & Homeschool Adventures Playgroup 

INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS:

THE HIPPIE:

Math Lessons for a Living Education

Life of Fred Elementary Series

Dreambox Math

English for the Thoughtful Child (orally with me)
Queen Language Lessons for the Very Young Vol 1

Cursive *

Copywork from various school books ** & ***

Free reading during Quiet Time

My America Copywork

THE PRINCESS:

Math Lessons for a Living Education

Dreambox Math

Delightful Reading Lessons
Reading practice from Treadwell, Lobel, Cobweb the Cat & other readers
Queen Language Lessons for Little Ones Vol 3

Finish Oak Meadow Letter Introduction via Fairy Tales & Drawings *

Copywork of words and short sentences ** & ***

My America Copywork

*******

Of course, we will always add books from the library to our Book Basket and I may include some a little more "officially", but these are the resources I know I want to use.

Home sweet home ... and thoughts on school

We've been out of town for a few days.

We had a wonderful time.

 We got to spend time with my mom and my grandparents.
 We went to the zoo (secret school).
 We went to Silver Springs (secret school).
 We rode glass-bottom boats and even learned some local history (secret school).
 We ate good food.
 We played in the pool (yes, in November).
 We took boat rides.
 We saw manatees migrating (secret school).
 We saw birds local to our area and named them (secret school).
 We saw alligators (secret school).
 We learned about snakes and bats and spiders and scorpions (secret school).


I could go on.


You get the idea.


We've had fun.


But, now we are pooped!

Tired, worn out, exhausted, a little bit out of it.

Now, it is time to unpack, clean up, pay bills, get back to LIFE.


Now, it is time to get back to SCHOOL.


School.


Hmmm


Funny thing, while I was away, I was able to use my mom's I-Pad to still "check in" on my favorite blogs and what I discovered while I was away was that my favorite "like-minded", "like-schooling" mamas were making changes.

Making changes along the same lines as my own thoughts lately.

Don't you just love it when you stumble upon people who seem to think the exact same thoughts as you?


Well, before our trip, when I should have been focused on packing and cleaning, I was obsessed with school planning thoughts.


For NEXT year.


You see, I want to buy what I need for the 2012/2013 school year in February with my tax return.  We don't have a budget for school during the actual year, so I need to know what resources I want to use the next year and get them when I do have the money. The problem with that idea is knowing exactly what you want to use a year in advance.


UGH


If you've kept up with things around here, you know that I made the mistake last year of NOT doing that. Then, I found myself in September of this year with no plan and no materials and sort of at a loss.


Thankfully, I was blessed to be able to borrow materials for THIS year from one of those "like-minded" mamas I was talking about.


I am eternally grateful, unimaginably appreciative.


I was elated, excited, stoked to be getting the materials.


I waited patiently.


I wanted more than anything to LOVE the materials so much that all of my homeschool questions would be answered for the next ten years.


I wanted Oak Meadow to be THE answer.
I wanted to like it enough to stop looking and just use it forever.


That was my wish.


My wish was not granted.


Don't get me wrong. Oak Meadow is great. It is holistic. It is beautiful. I know that it is an amazing choice for a lot of people.


It just isn't the right choice for ME ... for the long haul.


While I find the materials that are in my hands (grades One and Three) complete, I started thinking about next year. I knew immediately that I did not want to use their materials for grade Four.


When I really started to think about it, I pinned down what I do want and no matter how many times I stray, I always come back to Charlotte Mason.


When I was planning the Oak Meadow materials for THIS year, I decided immediately that there were a few things I would tweak.

• I much prefer the Charlotte Mason idea of copying only well-written literature, not copying our own summaries. So, when OM suggests summarizing stories and copying those summaries into the Main Lesson Book, I would find a good sentence or two from the reading for my daughter to copy instead.
• I much prefer the Charlotte Mason idea of less writing in the beginning. According to Charlotte Mason, a child less than about 10 years of age would really not have to physically write much more than their daily copywork. The child in 1st or 3rd grade would narrate orally and only copy short bits, only as much as they could do perfectly in a short amount of time. OM includes too much writing too soon for my taste.
• I very much prefer the Charlotte Mason idea of learning from WHOLE living books. While OM is story-based, the stories are all "adapted" and "altered" and inserted into these books written and compiled by Oak Meadow. I want to read whole, real books, by their original authors and in their original and beautiful language. You know, the kind you hold in your lap and admire on your book shelf. I don't want to read reprinted little stories in a syllabus or adapted fairy tales with no illustrations sprinkled in.

So, what I decided was this:


First Grade 

We are doing the Oak Meadow language arts for at least as long as the fairy tale and letter stories last. The Princess enjoys hearing the fairy tales (and that satisfies the Charlotte Masoner in me as well) and she loves to draw the letter pictures. Do I think she needs that? No, but we both enjoy it. So, we are doing two letters a week ~ reading the fairy tale, recalling the next day (a sort of delayed narration), drawing the picture, reading the rhymes and practicing the letters on the last day of the week (again, satisfying Charlotte Mason copywork for her age ~ letters first, then words and short sentences).  Will I continue the OM language arts after all of the letters have been introduced and drawn? Who knows. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.


We are doing the Delightful Reading lessons. She LOVES these. She demands them, requests them, WANTS to do them, daily. So, I oblige.


I ordered and received Math Lessons for a Living Education from Queen Homeschool Supply and we are excited to get into that.


I was trying to do the science activities from both OM 1 and OM 3, but was not ever quite getting to the ones in OM 1. But, we are doing the OM 3 science as a family, so I think that is sufficient for my younger one as well. I will just relax and let it be.


So, from OM 1, I guess I'm only really doing the Language Arts at this point.


Third Grade


I am using OM 3 as a guide for content (somewhat), but the method is my own.


We are doing the science as a family on the weekend with Daddy. So far, I've been having the Hippie make an entry into her Science Lesson Book on Mondays that includes a couple of sentences about what she learned and a picture to go along with it. Since I have ultimately realized that I am not doing OM 1 science, I will start having the Princess draw a picture on Mondays that represents what she learned from Daddy over the weekend.


As far as the OM 3 Language Arts, when it suggests to read the folk tales at night and have the child make three entries into their MLBs that week (summaries and pictures), I'm basically changing that entirely. We are forgoing the folk tales and focusing on the Old Testament instead.  As I said above, I don't want her to copy her own writing, so instead of summarizing (though she IS narrating to me orally), I am having her copy a portion of one of the Old Testament stories that we read from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible.


She is also learning cursive and I agree with Charlotte Mason that while learning to print or learning cursive, the learning of the letter formation is the copywork. So, what I've been doing is having her form six perfect capital cursive letters on day one, six perfect lower case cursive letters on day two and then only copying a sentence from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible on day three or four. She has been writing a letter on the other day.


The other aspects of OM Language Arts include reading aloud (we do that) and her reading independently (she does that).

My plan (though it is not concrete) is to use the rest of the OM Language arts this year as a guide.

When it says to focus on poetry, reading some, memorizing some and copying some, I think we will do that.


When it says to add in spelling, I will not do it the OM way, but will possibly add in All About Spelling at that time. I'm still undecided on that.


When it says to add in some grammar, I may or may not do that.


As far as the OM 3 Social Studies, I sat down and looked at the actual materials. I used the content as a guide and rearranged to meet my taste. Oak Meadow uses two random stories from the Old Testament to illustrate the Ancient Hebrew culture. I decided to do the Old Testament all year long. OM touches on some Native American stories. I like that, but I will most likely add in several books instead of just doing the stories in the OM syllabus. OM also focuses on some frontier stories. I am planning to do American History next, so I may skip these altogether, knowing that we will cover that in detail soon.


According to my own rearranging, I figured we would "cover" the Ancient Hebrews between now and Christmas, then touch on the Ancient Kush and Ancient Phoenicians in January and February, then move on to Native Americans for the final term. This could change, of course, but I think it will time out nicely even if I decide to start American History early. We can easily combine the Native American aspects with the Ancient American History stuff I have in mind!


I left OM math out of everything.

We do handwork on our own.

We don't do recorder.

We paint when we want to.

The girls both enjoy picking simple recipes from the little cookbook that came with Oak Meadow and making snack for us.

I still want us to bake.


I still want the nature study.


I still love Outdoor Secrets and I still own Language Lessons books for each girl.


******


So, FOR NOW (and this is always subject to change as I see fit), we are doing this:


1st Grade:

• Oak Meadow Letter Stories (Fairy Tales, Recall, Rhymes, Illustrations, Copywork)
• Delightful Reading Lessons
• Math Lessons for a Living Education
• Reading practice from Arnold Lobel books, Reading Literature the Primer, etc.
• MAYBE Language Lessons
• MAYBE All About Spelling (when not doing Delightful Reading)

3rd Grade:

• Learning cursive
• Copywork related to Old Testament or Native Americans or from our Literature selection
• Oak Meadow Third Grade Social Studies (Hebrews, Kush, Phoenicians, Native Americans, Map Skills, Economics, Law) 
• Poetry memorization
• Introductory Grammar (Sentence structure, Punctuation, Capitalization, Nouns, Adverbs, Adjectives)
• Math Lessons for a Living Education
• Life of Fred
• Independent Reading
• MAYBE Language Lessons
• MAYBE All About Spelling

Family:

• Oak Meadow Third Grade Science
• Outdoor Secrets
• Hurlbut's Story of the Bible (Old Testament)
• Literature Read Alouds
• Poetry (A.A. Milne & Robert Louis Stevenson)
• Music Study (Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Orchestra, Opera)
• Picture Study (Renoir & Native American Art)
• Baking
• Nature Study
• Handwork Group (Circle time, knitting, weaving, etc.)
• Homeschool Group, Field Trips, Park Days
• Library

****

And, that is where I am at right now.


As always, that is subject to change. :)


Looking ahead ... I am planning next year as we "speak".


American History and Geography ... and the rest will fall into place.


Many blessings to you on your journey!


So blessed to be a homeschooler.