Fall 2016 Morning Basket Plans

So, our school year is now pretty well underway and running pretty smoothly…so I thought I'd share what we're doing over the next few posts.

 

Morning Basket Plans

Co-op Plans

Individual Lessons for First, Secondish-Third, and Fifth Grade

Putting all the Pieces Together: Our Daily, Weekly, and Yearly Rhythm

 

Today, let's talk Morning Basket.

 

We are still starting our school day with a Morning Walk.  I cannot begin to tell you what a huge difference this has made in our home.  Even on mornings where people wake up cranky and breakfast is kind of a disaster (yes, we have those days in our house, please tell me you do sometimes too?) – this hits the reset button.  We come back to the couch to begin our time together refreshed and ready.

 

Our Morning Basket lasts 30-45 minutes at the moment, and runs somewhat like this:

 

Morning Prayer

Bible – Reading, Narration, Discussion

Singing: Hymn or Psalm

Read-Aloud from our Rotation with Narration and Discussion

Singing: Folksong or Latin Song

Swedish Drill

 

Here are the Resources I'm using for each of those categories this fall:

 

Morning Prayer:

I use parts of the Morning Prayer service from The Trinity Mission – a nicely organized, user-friendly resource based on The Book of Common Prayer.

 

Bible:

Joshua and Judges with the commentary by J. Paterson-Smyth.  Just a note on those: these were the actual commentaries Charlotte Mason recommended for use in her schools.  He was a product of his times (Victorian) and denomination (Church of Ireland, I think), and so there are places where I disagree with him.  This is not a resource to use blindly.  That said, thoughtfully using excerpts and discussion prompts has given us a lot of food for thought and brought these familiar Bible stories alive in a new way.  So they have been a good resource for us.  If you decide to try them, do be sure to read through the lessons ahead of time and decide how you want to handle them.

 

Hymns and Psalms:

We are mostly following the AmblesideOnline Hymn rotation, although I shuffled a couple around – so the hymns we will actually be learning (one per month) are: Jesus, The Very Thought of Thee; Jesus Lover of My Soul; Be Still My Soul; and Take My Life and Let It Be.  On alternate days, we are continuing to sing our way through Psalm 119 from the Book of Psalms for Worship.

 

Read-Aloud Rotation:

Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan) – the actual text.  We started this last year, and then in the craziness of moving this spring it got set aside.  We are starting again from the beginning since it had been 6 months+ since we last touched it.

 

Taming of the Shrew is our Shakespeare pick this fall.  We had a great time with Twelfth Night during our summer term, so our children are excited to give the Bard another go.  We started off with Lamb's retelling in Tales from Shakespeare, a film version, and making little wooden character people, and now are beginning the real thing.

 

Child's History of Art: Sculpture  (Hillyer) - I finally scored a fairly reasonably priced copy of this out-of-print gem.  I decided to skip over the painting section since we have learned about a lot of painters through doing picture study, but we are looking forward to expanding our knowledge of art by reading slowly through the sections on sculpture and architecture.

 

Parables from Nature (Gatty) – We've read through this book once already when Michelle was working her way through AO Years 1-3, where it is scheduled, and now have started over again for the sake of the younger two.  Michelle is enjoying giving it a second listen though – fun to see what she remembers from these stories, and how different aspects of them stand out to her now.

 

Trial and Triumph (Hannula) – I had originally wanted to keep this book as it is scheduled – stories of famous people from church history tied in with each year's other history reading across AO Years 1-6.  But this is also a book that needs to be read aloud because it has a little more of an anti-Catholic slant to it than I care for, so it requires a bit of editing and discussion. It got to be too much to be reading from three separate places with three separate students in three separate years.  That said…I didn't want to ditch these stories completely, so our compromise was moving it to a morning basket read.  We do pull out our timelines at add each person we read about, which helps them orient themselves to what other historical events were taking place around the same time, so it works out.

 

Elementary Geography (Charlotte Mason)  - We started slowly working our way through this book last year, and are continuing it into this year, taking time for hands-on exploration and application where appropriate.

 

In the read-aloud rotation, we shoot for reading a short section from Shakespeare and Pilgrim's Progress every week since these are ongoing stories and I don't want too long to elapse between each reading.  The others have more self-contained chapters, so we loop through them more slowly on the other days, hitting each about once every other week.

 

Singing, Again:

For folksongs, we are following the AmblesideOnline rotations.  On alternate days we sing Latin songs from Memoria Press' Lingua Angelica.  This fall, we are hoping to learn Angus Dei, Sanctus, and Veni, Veni Emmanuel (during Advent of course!).

 

Swedish Drill:

Hooray for my lovely friend Dawn for making Drill accessible for us regular folks.  I am pretty much following the outline of exercises and routines she is sharing over at Afterthoughts.  My kids have been loving this!  It also provides a bit of a movement break between our morning basket time on the couch and moving to the rest of our school day.

 

Other 'group' things that don't fit into Morning Basket or Co-op Time:

In addition to our 'formal' group studies, we continue our habit of reading a family free-read literature choice at bedtime.  My husband leads the Evening Prayer service from the Trinity Mission (portions of it anyway) at supper, usually using the New Testament Scripture reading since we are currently studying the Old Testament during our school time.   We just planted our first garden, which is our 'family project' for now….and when the cold, early-dark, winter evenings set in I'm hoping to spend some time with handicrafts.  

The one thing I am struggling to find a place for is drawing.  We enjoy drawing sessions when we have them, and I originally thought we might regroup everyone after lunch on afternoons when we don't have other activities….but that hasn't worked out as well as I hoped.  Still searching for the best place to slip this in….

 

On the Eve of a New School Year

It's that time of year again.  My Facebook feed is starting to blow up with first day of school pictures from various places all around the country.  Around these parts some of the private schools have already begun, and the public schools are gearing up to do so next week (I think?  I'm not entirely sure.  I guess I'll find out when the big yellow bus starts circulating the neighborhood again…)  And tomorrow, our family will jump on the 'back-to-school' bandwagon too. (Back to homeschool that is. While I can't say I've never contemplated sending my children off on the big yellow bus, that bus comes through my neighborhood at 6:30 in the morning, so mostly I don't contemplate it too seriously.  I don't know about you, but we don't actually get up that early….)

 

I did a fair amount of reading this summer.  Included in that reading was Charlotte Mason's second volume Parents and Children, James KA Smith's You Are What You Love, and Cindy Rollins' brand new book Mere Motherhood.  The only one of those that I had planned on reading was Parents and Children.  The other two were new releases that I couldn't quite resist waiting on, despite the number of books still languishing in my to-be-read basket.  More about all of those books in the weeks to come, I hope.  In very brief summary, all of them talk about the importance of nourishing our children with good ideas, training them in good habits, and the way those ideas and habits form their affections and influence the people they become (although coming at that theme from different angles).   All of them gave me a great deal of food for thought.

 

Then, last weekend we were at our church's annual family-style retreat.   Our bishop came to deliver the teaching portion of the retreat – a study of 2 Timothy – and all of a sudden all of the ideas that had been floating about in my mind from my reading this summer started coming together.

 

Have you noticed in Second Timothy that more than once, Paul mentions the 'shaping influence' of Timothy's mother and grandmother?  It was their teaching and training in Timothy's formative years that equipped him to live out his calling in the world.  That 'shaping influence' is the Word of God – the Word that is powerful and effective for everything.  And our end (Smith would say our 'telos') is Jesus.  He is our goal.  The One around whom our affections should be ordered.  He is also the One who gives us sustaining grace – grace for every moment.  Grace to continue with patience and perseverance even in the face of severe trials and testing.  (Cindy's book is a memoir of how these ideas played out in her family.)

 

At the end of the final teaching session on Sunday morning, we had a communion service.  In the Anglican liturgy, at the end of the service, we are commissioned to go back out into the world with these words: And now Father, send us out into the world to do the work You have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord…

 

One of my children – the one who, if I'm honest, is the one that I find the most difficult to parent most of the time – was right there, snuggled up against me during that service.  This isn't the first time I've heard those words, as they are part of the liturgy week in and week out.  Nor is it the first time that I've had a child snuggled up in my lap at the point in the service.  But that day, with the words of 2 Timothy still ringing in my ears, and my nose resting against a child's head, I heard them in a new way.   That little one in my lap…and the other two who were scattered in other parts of the room with their friends – they are the work He has given me to do.  That is my mandate: to faithfully train these little ones God has placed in my care.  To nourish them with Good, True, and Beautiful ideas.  To guide them into good habits – liturgies if you will – that will guide their future lives.   To steep them in His Word and point them to Jesus.  To do all of this in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

 

So tomorrow we embark on a new school year.  I have my books and lists ready to go – ready enough at least.  I'm excited about the new opportunities that the coming year will hold.  And I look forward to sharing some of those plans with you here in this space in the weeks ahead.  But in the midst of new books and new checklists and new supplies and new activities and new schedules….let us not forget the goal that we are aiming for.  The holy task we have been called to.   The sustaining grace we are given to carry it out – grace that is new every morning.  Let's love and serve Him as faithful witnesses right here in our homes.

 

 

Getting Started with AO Year One: Towards a Schedule

We are nearing the finish line with our little series here!  Two more posts left  in the queue.  Today, let's chat a little bit about principles for scheduling, and next time we'll wrap things up with some final thoughts. 

 

 

 

So schedules.   One of the things that I love about AO is that while they have pulled together the syllabus for the year for me, and even broken that down into a weekly reading list, they have NOT actually offered me daily lesson plans.  That gives me the freedom and flexibility to take that weekly reading list, together with our skill subjects and the beautiful 'riches', and make them work in our specific situation.   While I love that, I realize that some of the rest of you might not love that so much.  The thought of having to take that weekly plan and translate it into a daily schedule might be really overwhelming.

 

I could tell you what I do, but what I do may not work for you.  And that's okay.  I have three school-aged children in three separate years.  My Year One student is my youngest.  One of my students is very independent, one is slowly (very slowly) moving towards independence, and one is has to do everything with me still.   We do a co-op one day per week.  In our family dynamics, we can combine some, but it works best for us not to combine a lot.   Your situation might be different.  Your Year One might be your oldest or only student.  You may have babies and toddlers in the mix, or children with special needs that require your extra attention.  You may find that combining works better for your particular mix of personalities than it does for us, so you may want to consider doing more of that. 

 

So with so many variables to consider when scheduling, where should we begin?  With a few principles.  Christy Hissong has an excellent guest post over at Afterthoughts on this very topic (I also heard her present on these principles at the AmblesideOnline Conference in Indiana last summer.)  Click over there and read it, and then on back over here and I'll share a bit about how those principles play out in our situation….which will hopefully help you brainstorm what these principles might look like in YOUR situation.

 

So, did ya read it?  Good.  Let's chat about it now, shall we?

 

Principle #1: You need a schedule.

Well, we are routine-loving creatures of habit over here, so this one goes without saying for us. J We've toyed around with different variations on a daily routine here, but what has always worked best for us is getting to lessons right after breakfast and working until we are done…because then we're done! J  Right now, we begin our morning with a short walk right after breakfast, followed by a group-morning-basket time with a rotation of combined subjects, and then I work one-on-one with each student from youngest (least independent) to oldest (most independent).   This is certainly not the only way to do it – Celeste over at Joyous Lessons is a mother-to-many with lots of little ones, so her day looks different from mine.  Consider your own needs and situation, and develop a routine that fits that.

 

Principle #2: Lessons should be short.

The short lessons principle is one of my favorite things about Charlotte Mason's ideas on scheduling.  It is amazing what you can accomplish in short, consistent chunks!   For my current Year One student, a 'short lesson' might range from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on what it is.  Copywork is never more than 5, Phonics is usually 10-15 minutes, Math can be 15-20, and readings vary according to length.  Something like Aesop doesn't take any more than 5-10 minutes, including time for narration, whereas the Blue Fairy Book might take multiple 15-20 minute read-and-narrate sessions spread over several days.  The key here is to adjust your time expectations to your student and stop *before* their attention wanes.  When that time is up, close the book even if the lesson/chapter isn't done, and come back to it tomorrow. 

 

Principle#3: Lessons should be varied.

This is what varied/alternating lessons look like for my Year One Student, with times so you can see how the short-lessons work too:

 

Morning Basket (including all of my children – Years 1, 2, 4) (45 minutes-1hour)

Bible Reading+Narration (10)

Prayer (5)

Song (5)

Reading+Narration (15)

Song (5)

"Activity" Rotation: Artist/Composer Study, Drawing, Nature Journaling, Geography  (10-20)

 

Year One Lesson Block (just over 1 hour)

Phonics (10)

Reading+Narration(15)

Math (15)

Reading+Narration (10)

Poetry Reading + Recite Memory Work (10)

Copywork (5)

 

Nature study outings, handicrafts, and free readings tend to be more 'lifestyle' things that happen naturally in the afternoons, evenings, and weekends rather than part of our formal morning lesson time.

 

 

Principle #4: Plan for margin.

I have three formal-school-age students, and it's important for me to be finished with lessons by early afternoon. This means our mornings are pretty packed. This is also where those short, varied lessons principles come in handy. Our mornings are packed, yes, but not a slog.)  That said, we're not early morning people here, so one way we've planned for margin is by not starting lessons too early – I've given us the space we need to ease into the day.  We shoot for our morning walk around 8:30ish and aim to be on the couch with the morning basket by 9.  My Year One is usually done with lessons by 11, the Year 2 by noon, and the Year 4 by 1:30-2 depending on how long lunch takes. If we're not done by 2 for some reason, we just stop there anyway, which leaves lots of free time in the afternoons.  When my children were all young, we weren't involved in many outside activities.  This coming year we will be involved in more activities than we have in the past, but all of them (swimming, choir, co-op) are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which still leaves 4 days of the week we are primarily at home and free in the afternoons.

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So take some time.  Consider your family's situation in your current season, and consider these principles.  Find something that works *for* you rather than *against* you.  And then just go for it.   There is no perfect schedule or One Right Way to do things.  You will need to adjust things along the way.  But the only way you will know if it's going to work is to give it a try and see what happens.  Go for it, Mama!

 

For further reference: I've actually written quite a few posts on planning and scheduling in the past. Apparently, I am a planning and scheduling geek. :P  You can read some of those posts here for further ideas and what our routines have looked like in different seasons of our family life.

 

 

Getting Started with Ambleside Online Year One: Phonics, Math, and Handwriting

Welcome back for another coffee chat, friends.  Today we're finally going to dive in to what you've probably all really been waiting for – making sense of what you see when you open up the Year One curriculum page over on the AmblesideOnline site.   It's taken us awhile to get here – thank you for your patience – but I truly do believe that all that foundational stuff we have been talking about is just that – foundational, necessary.  Even a little bit of background knowledge of Charlotte Mason's philosophy will help you as you start to actually put her ideas into practice.  (By the way, I updated the Introduction post with links to all the posts so far in this series, if you want to go back and check them out.)

 

 

So…go ahead and take a minute to open up the AmblesideOnline Year One Curriculum page and keep that tab open next to you to refer to as you read through this post. 

 

The list looks a little bit long at first glance, but don't get overwhelmed.  I like to divide everything on the curriculum list into three categories – the skill subjects (for Year One, this would include phonics, math, and copywork – perhaps foreign language too if you are planning to include one.  We don't at this level – just the real meeting in the ideal in my home.), the booklist (covering the content areas like history, literature, natural history/science, and geography), and all the beautiful glorious rest (art, music, handicrafts, etc.).   My plan is to tackle one of these areas in each of the next three posts.

 

Today, let's talk about skill subjects.  As an aside, this is one of the things that I love most about the way the AO curriculum is set up.  Because they leave it to you to pick and choose the materials of your choice for these areas, it makes it very, very easy to customize for the needs and ability of your student.  Year One is perfectly appropriate for the brand-new reader starting from the beginning of phonics, for the emerging reader who can read easy readers but not the books scheduled on the reading list yet, or for the advanced reader who is ready to tackle reading some of their own schoolbooks.  I have three children who have all been in different places in reading….and different places in math for that matter…with relation to their AO Year and it has worked well with very little adaptation on my part.  This wouldn't be the case with a grade-leveled, all-inclusive boxed curriculum. 

 

Reading Instruction: You can see over on the Year One page several choices of reading curricula that the Advisory recommends.  We personally have used a combination of Charlotte Mason's methods, Ruch Beechick's methods, and Alphaphonics, depending on the needs of the child.  Plan for a 10-15 minute lesson each day, depending on the attention span of your student.  As your child gains reading confidence and no longer needs daily phonics instruction, you can begin having them read to you out loud daily from a reader.  We particularly have enjoyed the Reading-Literature readers by Harriette Taylor Treadwell for this purpose, and you can see some of our other favorite books for beginning readers here.  Once they have reached the chapter-book stage, I've started having them buddy-read (reading back and forth together, alternating paragraphs) some of the simpler school books with the eventual goal of gradually handing over the bulk of their school reading to them.  But this whole process will very likely take several years!  Don't expect to move through this whole sequence during Year One. J  Just keep moving along with short, consistent lessons at your child's pace.

 

Math: Again, you will see over on the Year One page a link to a list of various math options recommended by the Advisory, as well as links to various articles if you want to delve deeper into how Charlotte Mason taught math.  To be completely honest, this is one area I've not dug too deeply into.  We've simply applied some of Charlotte Mason's other ideas to our math lessons – things like short lessons (not more than 15-20 minutes for a Year One age student, and sometimes less) and using manipulatives to teach a concept and making sure they understand before letting the child loose with workbook exercises.   We tried several math programs (poor guinea pig first child!) before landing on Singapore which we've found to be a good fit for our family and intend to continue with through the elementary years at least. 

 

Copywork: You'll find copywork or penmanship listed under the daily work section on the AO Year One page, with a link to AO's Language Arts scope and sequence which I encourage you to read.   I don't schedule more than about 5 minutes for copywork at this age – even that is sometimes more than my very young students can handle.  Short, consistent lessons are the key to success in this area.  Start with letter formation, and don't expect the child to write more than they can do *well*, even if that means only one or two letters.  Requiring a child to fill a whole sheet with letters tends to lead to sloppy habits, whereas only asking them to do a few and taking their time to use their neatest possible handwriting reinforces the habit of slow, careful work.  All three of my children have used different resources to learn letter formation – so the only advice I have there is to choose a style that you like and go for it, keeping in mind the short lessons and careful work principles.  Once my children mastered basic letter formation, we did away with the handwriting curriculum and just started doing simple copywork – starting with single words, maybe familiar words like family names or words taken from a phonics lesson, and gradually moving to sentences chosen from our school books or poetry.  I've always limited it to the amount that they can do well in about 5 minutes or so and gauged my expectations accordingly rather than requiring a number of words or lines to be copied.

 

So, that's it for today.  Next time, on to the booklist!

Fourth Grade in Our Home: Fall 2015

Michelle, age 9.5, is 'officially' in fourth grade this year, although the longer I homeschool and observe my children the more I find traditional grade-levels just don't really fit them.  But, that's where she falls based on her age for any kind of official purposes where that kind of thing matters...so there you have it.   I say all this again as a disclaimer than my intentions with this series is to be DESCRIPTIVE of what is currently happening in my home with my particular students.  These lessons have been planned with their needs and abilities and our overall goals in mind.  I share to give you a peek inside of our home, just as I like to get a peek inside the homes of others from time to time. :)  

You can read other parts of this series here:

Morning Time and Group Studies

Kindergarten

First Grade

 

And get the big picture of our daily routine and how all these pieces fit together here:

Our Daily Routine

Michelle is a strong reader and able to direct herself independently quite well. She works through a daily independent work checklist while I work with the younger two.  Sometimes, she finishes before I'm ready for her, in which case she has a bit of time all her own. Other times, she dawdles and has to come back and finish after lunch, although that has become more and more rare.  She values her free afternoons pretty highly. :)

We left off for the summer halfway through AmblesideOnline Year 3, so have continued on from there.  We are doing it more or less as written, with the exception of the exchange of Courage and Conviction (Withrow) in place of Trial and Triumph for a broader coverage of the Reformation.  We will move on to Year 4 after the Christmas holidays.  Because of her age and ability, we have already started some of the Year 4 additions such as written narration, grammar, dictation, and Latin while finishing up the Year 3 books.

Independent work checklist:

• Math workbook page - covering the topic of the previous day's lesson from Singapore Math 3.  Sometimes she will do a drill sheet or work from the Singapore Challenging Word Problems book in addition to or instead of the regular workbook page.
• Two readings from the AO Year 3 reading list (she may come to me to narrate as needed)
• Copywork
• Study memory work (Scripture and poetry) and Latin vocabulary
• Typing - 3x per week she does a lesson, on Friday she is allowed to do a game from the game section.  We use Typing Instructor.
• One of the following weekly items: map work (Marco Polo or USA), written narration, add 2-3 people or events from the week's reading to her timeline

 

Together we spend an hour or maybe a bit more working on the following together:

• Check over independent checklist work (10 minutes)
• Math Lesson - I introduce new material or review troublesome concepts and we work together through examples. (She completes the applicable workbook exercises when she does her checklist work the following day.) (15-20 minutes)
• One reading from the AO Year 3 list, followed up by oral narration and applicable map work.  I still read aloud our main history spines This Country of Ours and Our Island Story so that we can pause for narrations more frequently since the chapters are quite long, especially in This Country of Ours.  She reads the rest on her own or I read them to the whole group during Morning Time. (15-20 minutes)
• Dictation - we are doing 2 passages each week this year for a change.  On Monday we study the new passage together, identifying words she is not sure how to spell and analyzing them and talking a bit about punctuation and grammar issues.  On Tuesday, she writes it from dictation.  We skip Wednesday because it's our co-op day, and then repeat that cycle Thursday and Friday.  I am pulling dictation passages from The Dictation Treasury. (10 minutes)
• Read poetry and recite current memory work selections (5-10 minutes)
• Latin - new to us this year!  We are using Prima Latina from Memoria Press.  It is a gentle, grammar-focused introduction, and so far it is going really well for us.  We set aside French for the time being because it was a constant struggle, so I am pleased that she is enjoying this and looks forward to pulling it out each day.  Maybe because I don't know it either and we are learning together?  Maybe because there isn't so much pressure attached to being able to speak it well?  I have no idea why Latin is going over better than French ever did, but I'll sure take it. (15-20 minutes)

And that's it.  Unless she seriously drags her feet, we are finished up between 12 and 12:30, just in time for lunch, leaving the afternoon free for other pursuits.

First Grade in Our Home: Fall 2015

James, age 7, is now 'officially' in first grade.  He has a summer birthday, and could have been 'officially' in first grade last year if we had wanted him to be.  However, he is a bright boy whose social and emotional maturity lags behind his academic ability a bit.   All that to say that we have progressed at his academic ability level at home regardless of his grade-level on paper, while keeping him in a younger age group for official purposes such as co-op, Sunday School, and testing.   I say all this again as a disclaimer that my intention with this series is to be DESCRIPTIVE of what is currently happening in my home with my particular students.  These lessons have been planned with their needs and abilities and our overall goals in mind.  I share to give you a peek inside of our home, just as I like to get a peek inside the homes of others from time to time. :)  

 

You can read other parts of this series here:

Morning Time and Group Studies

Kindergarten

 

And get the big picture of our daily routine and how all these pieces fit together here:

Our Daily Routine

 

James began AmblesideOnline Year 1 in January, and we left off for the summer at about the halfway point.  So his 'core' curriculum this year involves completing the rest of Year 1, and then moving along to Year 2, probably after the Christmas holidays.  He is a strong reader, which is reflected in my plans for him.

 

While waiting for me to work with Elizabeth (my kindergartener), James has a short independent work checklist which includes:

• Math drill sheet or page from Singapore's Challenging Word Problems 1 workbook
• Drawing - choosing from a drawing drill sheet or one of our drawing instruction books (2x per week)
• Mapwork - coloring and filling in places on his map of the United States (our current map drill focus).  He adores maps and has been known to ask for blank maps to color for fun.  (2x per week)
• Independent Free Reading: a chapter from either The Burgess Bird Book or a free reading book.  I am encouraging him to try to remember at least one thing to tell me about what he has read, as a step towards eventually being able to pass off more of his school books for independent reading.
• Review Memory Work: He reads over his current Scripture and Poetry memory work selections, which we will later review together.

 

Together we spend 45 minutes to an hour doing the following together (depending on length of readings):

• Buddy Read a section from the Treadwell Reading Literature Third Reader (which quite honestly he is ready to graduate from....but he loves doing it so....  When he finishes this, I will probably start buddy reading from some of his assigned school books and expecting a narration from that reading, again as a step towards transitioning to independent reading of school books) (5-10 minutes)
• Read together a selection from the AO Year 1 list - narrating orally and doing any follow-up map or timeline work. (10-15 minutes)
• Math Lesson - He is almost finished with Singapore Math 1A. (15-20 minutes)
• Read a second selection from the AO Year 1 list with oral narration, etc.  We also read a bit of poetry and practice his current Scripture and poetry memorization selections. (10-15 minutes)
• Return to the table to do copywork.  I am sitting with him while he does it even though his letter formation is good to help train him in what Charlotte Mason calls transcription - the act of copying word-by-word rather than letter-by-letter.  This helps to strengthen the visual memory and is a stepping stone to dictation. (5-10 minutes)

And that's it.  He's usually finished with all his school work for the day by 11am and free to go play. :)

Morning Time and Group Studies - Fall 2015

So now we come down to the REAL nitty gritty: curriculum choices we've made for this year.  You can see where each of these segments fit in to our daily routine here and some of the rationale behind our choices in the Reflections on Relationship series (index here).

Our Morning Time is fairly pared back this year from previous years.  We have moved poetry and memory work to each child's individual time with Mom as we found that this works best for our family dynamics. We've also dropped French almost entirely for now.  French studies have never gone smoothly for us, I think at least in part because it's been a little bit of an emotionally-charged, feeling-the-pressure sort of situation since we "have to learn it because we live in French-speaking Africa" rather than a delight or particular interest of anyone involved.  So while we are away from Africa, we're taking a break from French too.  We'll re-evaluate that plan when we have a better idea of our future plans.  So far, this simplified Morning Time is going really well.  I had planned this to take up to 45 minutes, 15 minutes on each topic, but very often we finish in less than that (which helps especially on those mornings that we start a bit late).  Michelle and James are expected to listen and participate fully (by narrating), Elizabeth is required to sit with us and listen but not to narrate unless she wants to.


Devotional: Reading from Starr Meade's Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds (based on the Heidelberg Catechism), Prayer, and singing a Psalm (a fairly new practice for us - we are using the Book of Psalms for Worship as a resource) 

Read-Aloud: We read aloud from one of the following each day, rotating through them on a loop:

Parables from Nature (Gatty) - currently finishing up the chapters scheduled in Year 3, then we'll cycle back through Years 1 and 2 again for the sake of the younger children.  I don't think it will do Michelle any harm to hear them again since they are quite rich and deep.  Her experience of them at age 10 will be quite different than it was at age 7.

One Small Square: Pond (Silver) - with By Pond and River (Buckley) as a follow up when we finish this.  We are doing a pond study as our nature study focus this semester.

The Avion my Uncle Flew (Fisher) - This is our nod to French for this year.  It is a code-switching story that I have heard recommended repeatedly.

Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales - from the Year 2 free reads.  I always like to include a fairy tale selection in our group read-alouds.

Ordinarily I would include Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb) in this rotation too, but they are doing Shakespeare at their co-op this year, so I left it out.


Activity: Again, we rotate through one of these each day on a looping schedule:

•  Folksongs (Cherry Ripe, Kookaburra, and the Brahms Lullaby this term)
• Composer Study (Brahms this term)
• Picture Study (Degas this term)
• Map Drill (on the USA this term)
• Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography - trying to include the hands-on demonstrations she mentions in the text when applicable.

Outside of our Morning Time, we also do certain activities like Nature Study and Handicrafts as a group, usually in the afternoons.  A nature outing and time for journaling is scheduled in for Friday afternoon.  Handicraft projects tend to be tackled a little more loosely - I will perhaps introduce new handicrafts on a free afternoon or weekend, and then we'll just work at them here and there as we have time available.   We have the Artistic Pursuits Elementary 4-5 curriculum on hand for drawing instruction too, and did do (and enjoy) a few lessons over the summer, but they are also doing a drawing class at our co-op this year....So we'll see how much we use that.  It's available for anyone who would like to use it, but it won't be required since they are getting other drawing instruction elsewhere.

Our evening family time is also done as a group and is our primary Bible instruction time (we don't follow the Ambleside Bible suggestions as we've always preferred to do this as a group).   We sing a hymn, read, narrate, and discuss a short passage from the Bible (currently going through the Old Testament using Marty Machowski's Long Story Short) and pray.  We follow this up with a family literature read aloud, usually pulled from the Ambleside Online Free Reading suggestions.

What does your Morning Time Look like?  What other studies do you pursue as a group?

Reflections on Relationship: Enriching Relationships with God's Creation

This is the fifth part in my planning series, Reflections on Relationship.  (Sorry they've been a bit slow in coming.  This little thing called 'life' and 'getting a new school year off the ground' keeps kind of getting in the way.  I'm sure you can relate, no?)  You can read the other parts here:

Introduction

Enriching Relationship with God

Enriching Relationships with People Around Us

Enriching Relationships with Mankind

 

Today, let's consider how we can enrich our relationship with God's creation.  This falls into the third area of Charlotte Mason's curriculum recommendations – knowledge of the universe (more from Volume 6 here).  Under this heading, she includes Science and Nature Study, Geography, Mathematics, Physical Development, and Handicrafts.

 

Again, some of these things are fairly straightforward to plan by simply following the Ambleside Online curriculum as written.  Natural history and geography books (coupled with mapwork) are scheduled each year.  In Year 3 and higher, some science experiment books are also added as options – we plan to include A Drop of Water.  Math for us is still just math, plugging away from where we left off last term.

 

Nature Study is the sort of 'obvious' way in which we can enrich our relationship with God's Creation.  I was reminded at this summer's Ambleside Online retreat that science studies ought to inspire wonder, and ultimately this is my goal.  This was a bit of a struggle for us last year since living in urban Africa limited our options somewhat.  We are looking forward to making this more of a priority in the coming year – we are living in a semi-rural area and have many lovely possibilities for local nature walks.   After our success with our focused plant study last year, we are planning to do a focused pond study for this late summer-fall term.   We have a pond just across the road from our apartment, so it should be easy to visit on a regular basis, and I'll add a couple of pond books to our read-aloud pile. 

 

My children are at times reluctant nature journalers, but if you look at the old schedules used in Charlotte Mason's schools, suggestions were given for specific numbers and types of nature journal entries.  To help encourage the children to branch out in their journals a bit, I am going to challenge them to do at least 10 entries over the term: 2 on a specific tree that they adopt to follow through the seasons, 4 related to our pond study, and 4 others of their choice – plant or animal.  And obviously, they are free to add other items of interest whenever they want - they surprised me by pulling them out on their own accord the other day and entering blue jays.  We'll choose a new focus area and journaling challenge for the winter-spring term – maybe rocks or climate or birds so we can compare with our African birds.  We'll see what strikes our fancy when the time comes. J

 

For physical development we will continue to swim as long as the weather is warm and the local pool is open, and walk, ride bikes, and play on the playground daily in decent weather.  We also have an opportunity to join a local homeschool PE class, although I'm not sure yet if it will work out schedule wise.

 

For Handicrafts – I consider handicrafts and life skills all kind of rolled into one. J   All of the children will continue with chores that they've been learning this summer and drawing (both in our co-op and at home as the mood strikes).  Michelle will also continue typing and crochet projects.  New handicrafts will be cooking lessons using Simplified Dinners for New Cooks (the littler two will start with the basic skills, Michelle I think is ready to jump in to the recipes) and plastic canvas needlework, which was suggested to me as a good prelude to embroidery and finer sewing projects   I'm thinking we'll tackle the needlework this fall (maybe with an eye to Christmas gifts for grandparents?) and focus in on the cooking skills after the first of the year.

 

How do you intend to enrich relationships with God's Creation this year?

Reflections on Relationship: Enriching Relationships with Mankind

This is the fourth part of my planning series, Reflections on Relationship.  You can read the other parts here:

Introduction

Enriching Relationship with God

Enriching Relationships with the People Around Us

 

Today, we are going to consider how to enrich our relationship with Mankind.  Charlotte Mason's curriculum recommendations are centered around three areas of knowledge – knowledge of God, knowledge of man, and knowledge of the universe.  Specifically, knowledge of man encompasses the topics of history, literature, morals and economics, composition, languages, and art (see more on this in Charlotte Mason's Sixth Volume, Towards a Philosophy of Education.)

 

It is much simpler to work out how to enrich relationships with mankind in practice than the previous two areas because the Ambleside Online curriculum was designed with this purpose in mind.  So it's really as simple as saying we will continue on with that.   For the most part, we use the Ambleside book selections as scheduled, although I occasionally make a substitution.  Michelle will complete Year 3 and begin Year 4 in early 2016, James will complete Year 1 and begin Year 2, and Elizabeth will have her own special pile of storybooks to read with Mama (she will not turn 6 until next March, and will begin Year 1 at the next natural term break after that.)

 

We will also be participating in a co-op this year which will also foster these relationships in the context of a community.

 

 

How are you planning to enrich relationships with Mankind this year?

Reflections on Relationship: Enriching Relationships with the People Around Us

This is part three in my planning series, Reflections on Relationship.  You can read the other parts here:

Introduction

Enriching Relationship with God

 

Today, let's consider how we can enrich relationships with those around us – our family and our community.   Charlotte Mason's educational motto was "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life."   While the other three aspects of relationship we are considering – God, Mankind, and God's Created Universe – all fall under the heading of 'education is a life', today's topic falls under 'education is an atmosphere' and 'education is a discipline'. 

 

Education is an Atmosphere

"When we say that education is an atmosphere we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a 'child environment' specially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere both as regards persons and things and should let him live freely among his proper conditions."  (Charlotte Mason, Volume 6, p. 94)

 

In When Children Love to Learn, Jack Beckman speaks thus of the learning atmosphere we should strive to cultivate:

 

"The atmosphere is supportive, nurturing, and caring, reflecting a sense of safety balanced with challenge.  Good habits of mind and body are deliberately encouraged both in teacher and student.  A sense of community is present – praying and feeding on the Word of God, solving problems, and gathering around vital learning together." (p.55)  

 

I love the picture that he paints of a learning community 'gathering around learning together.'   He also speaks of:

 

"our role as parents and teachers is to reflect the model of our Lord Jesus in relationship with these little ones – to come alongside and encourage them in their ignorance and sin toward a better way…When a child chooses to act in accordance with his fallenness, this time is best used to instruct the child in relationship." (p.59)

 

I see here the idea of cultivating a mentoring/discipling relationship with my children, of fostering a learning community within our family rather than a checklist-driven us-and-them mentality.  How to go about doing this is a little bit tricky because much of it relies on consistently checking my own attitude and setting aside my own convenience.   It means watching how I react to them in our learning times or in times of correction and being willing to take advantage of teachable moments.  It means repenting when I fail and asking my children to forgive me.   I hope (I pray!) that this kind of attitude shift will be a byproduct of attending to my own personal spiritual vitality.

 

On a more practical level, I have thought about some ways that we can restructure our learning time to better foster relationship and community.  For us right now that has meant putting Bible back into our Morning Time, as I mentioned before.  It has meant dropping French completely, at least for now, because of the tension it always caused among all of us.  It has also meant separating everyone for memory work/recitation so that each person can learn their poetry and Bible passages at their own rate rather than fostering a sense of competition or frustration due to children who memorize at different speeds. 

 

In addition to working to foster a greater sense of community in our home, we will also participate in the community around us through hospitality, attending a weekly co-op, and being a part of our church family.

 

Education is a Discipline

"By this formula we mean the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully whether habits of mind or of body." (Charlotte Mason, Volume 6, p. 99)

 

Ah yes, habit training.  This is one aspect of Charlotte Mason's philosophy that's always made me a little bit squirmy.  And so I have tended to be less than intentional about it.   That said, I was struck by some of Maryellen St Cyr's comments about habit training in When Children Love to Learn:

 

"The necessity of forming habits is an integral part of this philosophy as they aid one in functioning in relationships.  These habits are not tacked onto one's life as another feat to be mastered in a performance culture, but are used as valuable tools in the intellectual, spiritual, and physical development in relationship to oneself, God, and others…Therefore, it is the business of education and the function of the educator to train each child we have been entrusted with in the formation of habits that will allow the child to truly live." (p. 89,99)

 

The idea that habits 'aid one in functioning in relationships' set off all kinds of lightbulbs in my mind.  One area that we have really been lacking in is helping our children to develop habits of courtesy – things like table manners, greeting people, responding to people who greet you, how to treat visitors in our home.  While I could offer a lot of valid-sounding excuses for this, I won't.  The fact is, whatever has happened in the past, we still need to work on these things  now.  Failing to attend to them has at times disrupted the harmony of our home and relationships with others.  So as much as intentional habit training has always made me kind of squirmy, we are going to work on these things this year starting with table manners – things like sitting properly in your chair, not starting to eat until after prayer, not making rude comments about the food, eating quietly with mouths closed, not leaving the table until you have been excused…you get the idea.   I'm still working out exactly what this will look like in practice, but it is a goal for this year.  Once we have made some progress on that front, we will probably move on to dealing courteously with others (greetings and responding to greeting appropriately, etc) and habits of hospitality (treating others courteously when they visit our home).

 

How do you intend to enrich relationships with those around you this year?

What I Took Away From the Ambleside At Home Retreat....

You mean besides a beautiful new coffee mug and an advance copy of Karen Glass' new book Mind to Mind…signed by Karen herself? J

 

 

 

 

Karen Glass reminded us that we are educating MINDS and not BRAINS.  Minds are spiritual, rather than physical, and therefore need spiritual food: IDEAS.   When we feed a child properly, she will grow physically.  The process happens slowly – it may be a while before you notice the growth, but it will come.  An apple tree doesn't produce apples overnight, and we don't expect it to.   Likewise, when we feed a child's mind properly, regularly, and faithfully, the fruit will come in its own time.  Karen encouraged us to keep spreading the feast and trusting the process.

 

Cindy Rollins continued that theme in her talk, reminding us to start small and do what you can – even if that's only one page of Plutarch, for example – and to do those things faithfully.  Don't start big and get frustrated and give up.  Start small and let things grow from there, because they will.  She encouraged us to be faithful with our "10 minutes" because you never know how the Lord will use those moments.  She encouraged us to develop a habit of praying without ceasing because God has a plan for our children and we can trust them to Him.  She said a lot of other things too, but these were some of the key thoughts for me.

 

Christy's breakout session on scheduling reminded me that the child is a Person, and the Person matters first.  The Person trumps the book or the curriculum or the schedule every single time.  We are finite beings so we need to plan our priorities carefully.  One of our top priorities needs to be margin – we need white space in our lives so we have time to process what we are reading and learning.  We need routines, but those routines need to be simple and doable.

 

I forget who said it in answer to a question during the Q&A session - maybe it was Donna-Jean? - anyhow, she charged us to remember that we love our children and that they are not our projects.

 

Jeanne and Kathy's enthusiastic but gentle encouragement about implementing AO science left me feeling like yes, I can do this.  I get nervous sometimes about trusting the process of nature study instead of textbooks for science in the younger years.  And upper level science terrifies me in the extreme.  Their session helped me to see the bigger picture a little better – how nature study really IS the best preparation we can give a child for the formal science studies of the upper years. Flipping through the books used for science in the upper levels of AO was helpful in this regard too - we really WILL cover all those things that I sometimes worry we are missing now.  They reminded us that science studies should inspire wonder - that is truly the goal.

 

I'm sure the third breakout session that I had planned to attend (nature study)  was wonderful too.   But I never got that far.  I popped back into the dining room to grab a cup of coffee between sessions, and ended up spending the next hour first having a lovely and very encouraging chat with Jeanne…and then moving over to another table to join Karen Glass, Cindy Rollins, and Anne White.  Still kind of pinching myself.  These women are not only wise and encouraging, but also approachable and down to earth.  Our chat wasn't about anything profound, but still, it was a privilege to be seated around the table with such wise mentors.

 

Donna-Jean gave the closing address about Homeschooling in Hard Times.   I bawled most of the way through it, in part because I was so touched by what she shared, and in part because the retreat was so rapidly coming to an end – I had to leave the minute it was over to head back to the airport.   Donna-Jean's family has weathered some incredibly difficult circumstances over the years.  And yet she stood before us and reminded us that God is with us through the storm.  That Aslan is on the move.  That Jesus wants to renew your mind.  That He gave us these children to teach so that WE could learn.  That it was time to go home, but that Jesus goes with us – that the joy of the Lord is our strength – and that He is able and safe to trust.  The conference closed with the hymn Amazing Grace.

 

So, yes, I am mulling over many ideas still.  But perhaps what touched me the most was this:

 

 

Ambleside women are amazing, and the Ambleside Online community is truly a work of the Lord.  Once upon a time, years ago – before marriage, children, or homeschooling was ever on my radar – a few women started reading Charlotte Mason's writings and reached out on the internet for others to discuss her work with.   The Ambleside Online curriculum was born out of this small beginning.  Later the Forum was opened to support those using the curriculum and trying to implement Charlotte Mason's ideas in their homes.  I've long wondered at the camaraderie that we've formed in that little corner of the web – it's unique.  I don't know of anywhere else on the web like it.   But the joy of taking some of those online friendships and making them into real-life friendships this weekend – I have no words.  The retreat was called "At Home", and we truly all felt like we had come home.   I am so very grateful that the Lord led us to AO, and so very blessed to be part of this community.

 

I can't wait for 2016.