Easing In

I feel like I should put "Easing In" into quotation marks.

This year, my oldest is in Ambleside Online Year 7. I also have a Year 5 student, a Year 3 student, and an extremely eager Kindergartner. Add in a seven-month-old and you may begin to grasp the chaos here. 

Planning was a special challenge this year. I had gotten into a scheduling groove over the last few years, but babies and schedules don't mix, at least not at my house. I have had to regress to a routine. Don't get me wrong, I loved my easy-going routines when all my children were little. But I find it hard to get all the work done (without taking all day) now that my children are getting older.

I ended up with a loose plan, inspired by the schedules at Piney Woods Homeschool. I can be fairly inflexible about my plans, but this year I decided beforehand that I would keep tweaking every week until the days were going fairly smoothly. Each child has their AO schedule (order modified slightly and colour coded) plus a sheet of paper with their "Daily Independent Work" and "Work With Mama" lists. The idea is that everyone gets started on their independent work while I spend time with each one, youngest to oldest.

My Year 7's list looks like this (the colours refer to the way I've colour-coded his AO schedule):

Daily Independent Work (about 2 1/2 hours)

Enrichment Narration (purple): 15-20 min

Math 30 min

History Narration (red): 30 min

Copywork 10 min

Science (green) 20 min (Narration OR Science Journal or Nature Journal Entry)

Piano Practice 15 min

Narration (blue) 20-30 min

---

All of this work should be done before doing computer time (alternate  Duolingo and Typing and Coding practice)

Work with Mama (about 2 hours) (I expect an increase in independence in some of these areas over the year, but for now I need to be close by, anyway. Most of this is done at the same time as his Year 5 brother, so I "kill two birds with one stone".)

Poetry 10 min

Writing 20-30 min

    Written narrations each week will be done on

        -New Testament

        -One reading from red or blue category

        -One reading from green category

        -One current events topic from the past week

    Fridays will be a fun writing exercise (Bravewriter).

Shakespeare/Plutarch/Beowulf (alternating) 20 min

Dictation/Grammar (alternating) 20 min

Latin/French/Grammar of Poetry (alternating) 30 min

Map Drill 10 minutes once per week

News and Current Events story read and discussed at lunch

I also have a list of things they can choose to do in the afternoon, hoping to get to each item about four times per 12-week term.

Drawing Lesson (YouTube or from a book)

Microscope Activity, or field work from Signs and Seasons

Piano Lesson

Composer Study (YouTube)

Shakespeare Play (YouTube...we watch as far as we've read that week.)

Nature Journaling

Nature Walk

Painting Lesson (YouTube or from a book)

Baking Lesson 

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Of course, his is the longest list. AJ(5), who also insists on his own list, has:

Poetry 5 min (A Child's Garden of Verses)

Miquon Math 10 min (we play with Cuisenaire rods and casually talk about math concepts that come up.)

Reading Time 10 min (I read him a story. Pinnochio is the current one.)

Learning to Read 5 min (He is learning to read three-letter words. I wouldn't push if he wasn't ready, but he is. Very.)

I spend time with AJ first. This fills his love tank so he is more happy to go off and play on his own when he's done.

I decided to "ease in" this week. I gave the boys their back to school presents on Monday morning (school supplies that somehow seem much more special for being wrapped up), and we started with everyone doing math plus one reading and narration. Somehow this managed to fill the whole morning, so I felt a bit of trepidation about the whole plan.

Tuesday was awful. But then, Day 2 is always terrible. I tried to have everyone work through their Daily Independent Work lists. Again, this more than filled the morning, and this was WITH the baby having a wonderfully long morning nap.

Wednesday morning I had to go to the doctor for some bloodwork. When I came back, everyone was working on their lists. I quietly started the "work with Mama" lists, youngest to oldest. It went really, really well! My oldest did not complete his independent list, but I was happy with what we accomplished.

Thursday morning I got up at 7:00 and found SA(12) doing his math. We hit it out of the park that day. Everything was done by lunch.

And then came Friday. It was a bit like Day 2 again. SA was extremely stressed about getting everything done...so much so that he developed some hives. (He is a conscientious ISTJ who will put a lot of pressure on himself to follow the plan as written.) I will have to keep an eye on this.

So we had two good days out of five, though every day had things to be thankful for. I'll be tweaking a bit this weekend, but not hugely yet. I have to give us all time to settle into some sort of flow first. I will make a better (slightly simpler) checklist.

I took time to count three things I was thankful for every day. Here are some of my favourites:

-MM(8) fell in love with "Big Joe Mufferaw" (a Stompin Tom Connors song scheduled on Ambleside Online's Canada page.)

-Basic Christianity by John Stott seemed to touch a chord with SA(12). This was a personal substitution I made in the curriculum when I was unable to get How to Be Your Own Selfish Pig for a reasonable price. I think I've made a good choice there.

-Writing time went very well this week. This made me happy because I've decided that writing (written narrations, copywork, dictation) is going to be a particular focus this year. I saw some good advice as I was planning my year: "Choose one thing to do really well, and let everything else be good enough." Writing is that thing this year. Everyone had really good attitudes about it, and did really well with focusing on putting their ideas on paper without worrying too much about getting all the spelling and grammar correct. (This is a challenge we've been working on for a while, and we seem to have made a leap forward since last school year.)

Planning Woes

School planning was painful this year, and I mean that literally. Figuring out the schedule gave me a headache for four days in a row. This is the first time that I have acknowledged to myself that I do not enjoy school planning.

This is a problem, because I really do enjoy having a plan. I tend to follow my plan well, and I will readily admit that one of the reasons I love homeschooling is because I feel a great sense of accomplishment every day, week, term, and year that we follow the plan and actually do as many elements of a Charlotte Mason education as I can squeeze in. I can see my children's growth as we faithfully do the little things, day after day after day.

I need to think this through now, while the memory of the pain is still fresh. Why was it so hard?What can I do to make planning less of an ordeal next year? 

Why is it so hard for me?

1. This is my first year with three students. SA(10) is starting Ambleside Online Year 5, JJ(8) is starting Year 3, and MM(6) is starting Year 1.

2. I also have a preschooler, AJ(3), in the mix. I feel I need to spend some quality time with him at the beginning of our school time in order to make him feel loved and included and (hopefully) pre-empt any negative attention-seeking behaviour.

3. My Year 5 student is not quite independent yet. He is just beginning written narration this year. I still read with him in Shakespeare and Plutarch, and work with him on Latin and dictation. I think all these things are fairly normal, and yet I can see that my second child is already much more independent than my oldest was at his age, and I wonder if I need to push SA a little harder towards greater independence.

4. I do things in my homeschool that simplify our days and make them more joyful, but do add to the decision-making at the beginning of the year. For example, we do several lessons each day together as a family, usually a literature selection, sometimes natural history or geography, always Bible, and often Canadian history (In addition to all the obvious things we'd naturally do together, such as poetry, composer study, picture study, nature study, recitation and memory work.). This means that rather than just leaving each AO year as it is, I have to decide which of SA's readings we will do together, and also which of JJ and MM's readings I will leave out as a result so that they are not overloaded (this is the harder decision of the two). Of course, leaving the Years as they are without adapting to my family would have its own planning challenges.

5. I figure out Canadian History from scratch, since my chosen curriculum is American-based.

6. I try to do all the CM things. Again, it's the planning, not the doing, that does me in. While there are always some things I end up dropping unintentionally as the year rolls on, it always seems to be because I didn't plan that subject well enough, or didn't put it in a good place in the schedule.

7. Making playlists (for composer study, hymn review, folk song review, and poetry review) took longer than usual this year because I switched from Freegal to Itunes and needed to build them from scratch to include review for the songs we learned in the last four years. Itunes had more choice than Freegal and that resulted in greater decision fatigue. I switched because Freegal makes updates to their app three or four times a year, and almost every time I've had to remake my playlists from scratch. I'm hoping my playlists will stay where they are in Itunes. If they do, it will mean much less work for me going forward. Only the composer study playlists will have to be made up in their entirety, folk song and hymn playlists will just be added to one at a time as we learn new songs.

8. Planning requires an amount of focus that is difficult with four children around me. Every time I get into the flow, I have to switch gears and make everyone a meal, or do some laundry and basic cleaning. Also, when I am so focused on my computer screen, the children start to misbehave.

9. I am reluctant to change anything about my homeschool. I love Ambleside Online. I know there are other CM curriculum out there that do more hand-holding when it comes to planning, but I would find it very hard to break up with AO's wonderful booklists. I love doing certain things as a family. I love getting most of the homeschooling done in the morning so afternoons can be free. I'm not really willing to give any part of that up. 

Does that mean I just have to accept the four-day headache as part of what it takes to homeschool the way I want to homeschool? (That's a genuine question. It's possible the answer may be yes.)

What can I do to make planning easier next year? 

(and always...)

1. I could go over to another CM curriculum that has more scheduling helps for multiple students. But see #9 above. Still, it's possible that this could be a solution. (I looked into AO for groups when it came out, but because I'd already been combining my students all along, I saw that it would take just as much work to adjust that plan for my current students as it was taking to adjust the regular plan. Also, I now have students in two forms, and in a couple of years I'll have students in three forms, which would still mean working with two to three schedules.)

2. I could get a consultation somewhere and talk it through with someone experienced. The thing is, I think I make beautiful plans. They cover everything I want to cover. We actually do them (imperfectly, but still faithfully and consistently). I am planning things that work for us. I don't know if following someone else's ideas or plan would work as well. So I'm not sure if this would actually help me with the headache.

3. I could think through my planning process and have realistic expectations for how long planning will take me. For the record, here's what it took this year:

- Brainstorming: 1 week. I think through the past year, what went well, what didn't. I think about CM's principles. How is our balance is when it comes to atmosphere, discipline, and life? How have I been fostering the "science of relations" in our home? I consider if there's anything new I want to incorporate into the new school year. I look at the AO booklists. I think about each child individually, their gifts and their challenges, and specific ways I'd like to help them grow this year. I look at a calendar and think about when to start and where the terms will fall. I write every thought in a notebook. I also start to read something for inspiration...one of Charlotte Mason's volumes, or something else. This summer I was reading Karen Glass's Know and Tell.

- Book buying: 2 days. I go to bookfinder.com and buy all the living books I need. I also order math curriculum. I make a chart of what I've ordered, where I've ordered it from, and when I'm expecting it to arrive. I like to have the books in hand before I start scheduling.

- Morning time planning: 1-2 days. This is the learning we do together. I plan for our breakfast learning routine (1 literature or other reading and narration, Bible, hymn and catechism memory work, Bible reading and narration, and prayer) and our "tea time" learning routine (poetry appreciation, poetry and folk song recitation and memory work, picture study, grammar, foreign language vocabulary review, Canadian history, drawing, nature journalling.) I modify an AO schedule and put in each of these things in the order I plan to do them in every day. For the memory work and recitation, I choose what we will do each half-term, and print off what I need for the term coming up.

- Memory Binders: 1-2 days. I have two memory binders for myself and each student: one for Bible, hymns, and catechism, and one for poetry, folk songs, and picture study. I print off copies of my selections for the coming term and put them in page protectors in our binders. I also upload prints of the art we will study to Staples so they can print them in colour for me and I can pick them up next time I'm in town.

- Canadian history and geography planning: 2 days. I look at AO's schedule for my oldest child for the range of dates covered in history for that year, and I look at my collection of spines to figure out which one(s) I want to use. I also pick supplementary biographies or other books. I read or skim everything and schedule it all out. Thankfully this is a subject we do as a family and I don't have to plan more than one year at a time.

- Planning individual subjects: 1-2 days. I figure out what I'm doing for foreign language, piano, drawing, handicrafts, etc. I also think about what I'll do with my preschooler while the others are busy and can't play with him.

- Buying school supplies: 1 hour. I usually don't need much, just some art or handicraft supplies, notebooks, pencils. 

- Scheduling: 1 week (for three children and one preschooler). I consult PNEU schedules as input, though not as a rule for my home. I work with the AO schedules and modify them as needed for each individual child and for the things we do together as a family. 

- Printing: 1 day. I print off copywork pages, math workbooks for one of my students, my oldest's Plutarch selection for the term.

- Rearranging the school room: 1 week. This year I took all the books off the shelves and put them all back again after the shelves had been anchored more securely. I think my normal time is probably more like 1 day to put last year's books away and arrange this year's books and supplies.

- Playlists: 2 days. Again, I expect this to take much less time in the future.

Where am I? I think I just counted over four weeks of planning!!! I honestly didn't realize it all added up to that much. I just started and kept going until I was done. Well, that was a helpful exercise...I will know for next year that it just takes that long.

4. I could try to get help with the children during the scheduling week. I do need to do my scheduling at home, where the books are...I can't escape to a library or anything like that. My husband did take the children out two Mondays in a row towards the end of my planning, and that was tremendously helpful. Maybe I need to let him know that I need that regularly for four or five weeks. Maybe the kids can go to Grandma's for a couple of days. Maybe there's a Vacation Bible School nearby that can give me a few hours every day for a week. (I have resisted VBS so far because I have bad memories from my childhood...but maybe there's somewhere I can trust.)

I think I'm getting somewhere with those last two points. I need to have realistic expectations, and I need help. I honestly did not know whether anything good would come out of this writing exercise when I started. Thanks for sticking with me! I'd still like to hear what works for you. Does it take you this long to plan? If it takes less, what do you leave out? Or do individual things take you less time? If you've struggled with planning in the past and have come through victorious, I would especially love to hear your story.

Canadian History Form 2 (AO Year 5)

This week, I've been planning Canadian History for the coming school year. Once again, I will be combining lessons for the whole family while following the time period for SA(10)'s Ambleside Online Year 5. (1800-1914). I suppose it is past time that I could make SA do his Canadian History lessons independently, but the truth is that I'm not ready to give up doing it together as a family because we're all enjoying it too much. (If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?)

This year, I will have students in grades 5, 3 and 1. This plan will take the place of the American history "spine" and biographies in AO Year 5. Of course, I am always careful not to overload my younger students and will take history books out of their AO years to make room for Canadian history.

I want to caution you that this is my personal plan for this coming year. It has not been worked out yet. It's possible that I may decide four weeks in that I have been too ambitious, and start cutting out some of the supplemental reading. I may decide I haven't planned enough and fill it up with more Roughing it in the Bush. It's also possible that I may decide to excuse my Year 1 student from some of the lessons. Anything could happen... use your own discretion! I will try to come back to this post and tell you how it went.

The Books

"Spines"
The Story of Canada by George Brown, Eleanor Harman, and Marsh Jeanneret (hereafter BHJ)
The Story of Canada by Janet Lunn and Christopher Moore. (hereafter LM. My page numbers are from the 1992 edition.)

For more on Canadian history spines, see here. I have been using BHJ  (published in 1950) for several years now, but as we approach more modern times I am hoping to move into LM. For this year, I skimmed through both books and chose whichever readings appealed to me most for the subject. I skipped some sections of both because they overlapped with supplemental readings I was planning to do. Please keep in mind that this is a read-aloud, family plan. For an independent student, I would probably have chosen one spine to keep it less complicated.

Supplemental Reading
Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie (will not read entire book, may finish later as a free read)
Revolt in the West: The Story of the Riel Rebellion by Edward McCourt
Canadian Yesterdays by Edgar A. Collard, 2 selections: "The Apostle of Nova Scotia" (pp 84-90) and "The Lady on the Cowcatcher" (pp. 1-6)
Great Canadian Adventures by Reader's Digest (hereafter GCA), 11 Selections:
"Lieutenant Worsley's Revenge" pp 346-355
"A Voyage to a New Land" pp 220-235
"Franklin's Last Voyage" pp 207-217
"Tales of the Plains Crees" pp 99-108
"Down the Roaring Fraser" pp 173-179
"Overland to the Cariboo" pp 488-498
"The D-dest Man that Ever Came Over the Cariboo Road" pp 523-531 (I will edit out offensive words as I read, of course)
"The March West" pp 534-547
"Wild and Wooly Days" pp 550-565
"Van Horne Moves the Troops West" pp 368-375
"The Stampeders" pp 500-512

Free Reading (Will likely use as bedtime reading over the course of the school year.)
Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker
George Dawson, the Little Giant by Joyce Barkhouse

The Schedule

I have spread out these readings over four days a week to give myself some margin for map and timeline work. Also, in real life I schedule a regular time slot for Canadian history and just keep picking up where I left off. This "weekly schedule" will not be a strict rule for me...I may move through it more quickly at times, or more slowly at others. If my pace consistently doesn't line up with the weeks, I will adjust (add more Roughing it in the Bush readings, or take away unnecessary supplemental readings) and keep moving. 

Term 1

Week 1

"The Apostle of Nova Scotia" (Canadian Yesterdays pp 84-90), 2 lessons

"The War of 1812-1814" (BHJ 208-210), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson (not scheduling chapters, just picking up where I left off every time.)

Week 2

"Lieutenant Worsley's Revenge" (GCA pp 346-355), divide into 3 lessons and do 2 this week.

"The Story of a Shawnee Chief" (BHJ 211-214), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 3

"At Queenston Heights" (BHJ 214-216), 1 lesson

"Lieutenant Worsley's Revenge" (GCA pp 346-355), lesson 3 of 3

"An Even Struggle" (BHJ 217-219 ...Plattsburg and LM 90 Sea fights...-91 ...would stay British), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 4

"The New Comers" (LM pp 91-96), divide into 2 lessons and do 1 this week.

"A Voyage to a New Land" (GCA pp 220-235), divide into 4 lessons and do 2 this week.

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 5

"The New Comers" (LM pp 91-96), lesson 2 of 2.

"A Voyage to a New Land" (GCA pp 220-235), lessons 3 and 4 of 4.

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 6

"The People In Between" (LM pp 122-125), 1 lesson

"The Red River Colony" (BHJ 221-227), 2 lessons

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 7

"The Bay's Empire" (LM 126 And the Fur... - 128), 1 lesson

"Ruling Our Law-Makers" (BHJ pp 242-243), 1 lesson

"The Little Rebel" (BHJ pp 244-249), divide into 2 lessons and do 1.

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 8

"The Little Rebel" (BHJ pp 244-249), lesson 2 of 2.

"The Struggle in Lower Canada" (BHJ pp 250-252), 1 lesson

"Nova Scotia's Great Leader" (BHJ pp 253-256), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 9

"The Cry for Reform" and "Government by the People" (BHJ 257-259), 1 lesson

"A Famous Report" (BHJ pp 260-262), 1 lesson

"Cabinet Government" (BHJ pp 262-263), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 10

"Lord Elgin's Decision" (BHJ pp 264-267, LM chart on p 109), 1 lesson

"Franklin's Last Voyage" (GCA 207-217), divide into 3 lessons and do 1.

"Wanderers and Artists" (LM pp 129-132)

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson 

Week 11

"Franklin's Last Voyage" (GCA 207-217), lessons 2 and 3 of 3.

"Leaders of the West" (LM pp 132-135), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 12

"Tales of the Plains Crees" (GCA pp 99-108), 3 lessons

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Term 2

Week 13

"Mountains and Oceans" (LM 138-139), 1 lesson

"The Nootka Traders (LM 140-141), 1 lesson

"People of the Salmon" (LM 142-146), divide into 2 lessons and do 1.

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 14

"People of the Salmon (LM 142-146), lesson 2 of 2

"From Canada, by Land" (LM 146-151), 1 lesson

"Down the Roaring Fraser" (GCA 173-179), divide into 2 lessons and do 1

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 15

"Down the Roaring Fraser" (GCA 173-179), lesson 2 of 2

"The Father of BC" (LM 151-155), 1 lesson

"The Gold Fields" (LM 155-157), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 16

"Overland to the Cariboo" (GCA 489-498), 2 lessons

"Mountains and Oceans" (LM 158-159), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 17

"The D-dest Man" (GCA 523-531), 2 lessons

"Building a Dominion" (BHJ 298-302), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 18

"John A. MacDonald and Confederation" (BHJ 302-303), 1 lesson

"Breaking the Deadlock" (LM 165-166), 1 lesson

"The Idea of Confederation" (LM 166-169), 1 lesson

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 19

"From Charlottetown to Quebec" (LM 170-171), 1 lesson

"The Battle for Confederation" (LM 171-178), 2 lessons

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson

Week 20

"The Law that Made a Nation" (BHJ 305-307), 1 lesson

"Dominion from Sea to Sea" (BHJ 308-314), 2 lessons

Roughing it in the Bush, 1 lesson (This is where I will stop doing lessons from Roughing it in the Bush and either switch it to a free read or put it away.)

Week 21

"Into the West" (LM 180 The Metis... - 182), 1 lesson

"Massacre in the Cypress Hills" (LM 184) and "Scarlet and Gold" (BHJ 316-317), 1 lesson

Revolt in the West chapter 1, 2 lessons

Week 22 (If desired, can choose only one of the GCA supplemental readings for the NWMP, "The March West" or "Wild and Wooly Days" and spread it over more lessons for a lighter schedule)

"The March West" (GCA 534-547), divide into 4 lessons and do 2 this week.

Revolt in the West chapter 2, 2 lessons

Week 23

"The March West" (GCA 534-547), lessons 3 and 4 of 4.

Revolt in the West chapter 3, 2 lessons

Week 24

"Wild and Wooly Days" (GCA 550-565), divide into 4 lessons and do 2 this week.

Revolt in the West chapter 4, 1 lesson

Revolt in the West chapter 5, divide into 2 lessons and do 1 this week.

Term 3

Week 25

"Wild and Wooly Days" (GCA 550-565), lessons 3 and 4 of 4.

Revolt in the West chapter 5, lesson 2 of 2

Revolt in the West chapter 6, 1 lesson

Week 26

"Steel of Empire" (BHJ 321-326), 2 lessons

Revolt in the West chapter 7, 2 lessons

Week 27

"Van Horne Moves the Troops West" (GCA 368-375), 2 lessons

Revolt in the West chapter 8, 1 lesson

Revolt in the West chapter 9, divide into 2 lessons and do 1.

Week 28

Revolt in the West chapter 9, lesson 2 of 2

Revolt in the West chapters 10 and 11, 3 lessons

Week 29

Revolt in the West chapters 12 and 13, 4 lessons

Week 30

Revolt in the West chapters 14, 15 and 16, 3 lessons

Revolt in the West chapter 17, divide into 2 lessons and do 1.

Week 31

Revolt in the West chapter 17, lesson 2 of 2

Revolt in the West chapter 18, 1 lesson

Revolt in the West chapter 19, divide into 2 lessons and do 1

"Lady on the Cowcatcher" (Canadian Yesterdays 1-6), divide into 2 lessons and do 1

Week 32

Revolt in the West chapter 19, lesson 2 of 2

Revolt in the West chapter 20, 1 lesson

"Lady on the Cowcatcher" (Canadian Yesterdays 1-6), lesson 2 of 2.

"Sunny Ways" (LM 196-198), 1 lesson

Week 33

"Gold Fever" (LM ch 198-200), 1 lesson

"The Stampeders" (GCA 500-512), 3 lessons

Week 34

"The Last Best West" (LM 200-206), 2 lessons

"Isaac Barr's Fiasco" (GCA 109-119), divide into 3 lessons and do 1.

"Dreams and Struggles" (LM 207-208), 1 lesson

Week 35

"A Voice for Women" (LM 208-210), 1 lesson

"Isaac Barr's Fiasco" (GCA 109-119), lesson 2 of 3.

"A Turn of the Century Time Trip" (LM 210-214), 2 lessons.

Week 36

"Into the North" (LM 215-216), 1 lesson

"Isaac Barr's Fiasco" (GCA 109-119), lesson 3 of 3

"The Canadians and the Empire" (LM 217-219), 1 lesson

"Canada in WWI" (BHJ 344-346), 1 lesson.

Year in Review: Our Book Stack

I love taking pictures of our book stacks for the year! It never fails to make me feel like we accomplished something good. Many of these books are from Ambleside Online Year 2 and Year 4, though we did some substitutions (mostly for Canadian history and geography).

The Books We Read Together

As last year, we read a fair number of books together. We had a rotation going at breakfast, and another at teatime. I have not included the books we read at bedtime because they were not narrated and we don't think of them as "school books". Some of these books are ones we are reading over several years.

The Little Woman 

Canadian Wonder Tales (ongoing)

The Blue Fairy Book (ongoing)

Trial and Triumph (ongoing)

Elementary Geography

The Ocean of Truth

Drummer Boy for Montcalm

The Story of Canada (Brown et al) (ongoing)

Great Canadian Adventures (selections. ongoing)

The Story of Canada (Marsh) (selections, ongoing)

Famous Indians (section about Joseph Brant)

The Map-Maker

Robinson Crusoe

Kidnapped

Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (selections)

Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson (selections)

A Lakeland Anthology: William Wordsworth (selections)

Mathematicians Are People, Too (selections)

SA(9)'s School Books

Since several of the books we read together were from SA's Year 4 (Trial and Triumph, The Ocean of Truth, Robinson Crusoe, Kidnapped), his stack looks a little short! Not pictured are Plutarch and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. We read Shakespeare together with an audio production, and I read Plutarch aloud to him. SA's favourite books this year were George Washington's World, The Map-Maker, and Julius Caesar.

Shakespeare: MacBeth

Shakespeare: Twelfth Night

Shakespeare: Julius Caesar

Plutarch: Romulus

Plutarch: Publicola

Madam How and Lady Why (ongoing)

Bullfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable (ongoing)

The Story-Book of Science

George Washington's World (incomplete)

JJ(7)'s School Books

JJ is a very strong reader, and though I was reading some of his books aloud to him at the beginning of the year, by the end he was reading all of these on his own. You may notice that we left out several of the Year 2 books. This is because we were reading a number of books together (above) and I didn't want to overload him. JJ's favourite books this year were The Little Duke, The Wind in the Willows, and The Blue Fairy Book (not a Year 2 book, but I have fairy tales on constant rotation in this season of life).

Stories from Shakespeare (selections)

The Little Duke

The Burgess Animal Book for Children

Understood Betsy

Robin Hood (ongoing)

The Wind in the Willows

Seabird

The books above do not reflect everything we did. We studied Dutch artists De Hooch and Van Ruisdael, early Canadian artist Thomas Davies, and French artist Jacques Louis David. We listened to music composed by Telemann and Corelli, Copland and Gershwin, and Beethoven. We read French children's books La Chenille qui Fait des Trous, Ours Brun, and Trois Souris Peintres. In the Bible, we studied Joshua and Judges, Mark and part of Acts. The boys also did a number of paper sloyd projects. Outside the home, they participated in a children's choir and took swimming lessons.

SA was well into grade 5 of Singapore Math (Primary Mathematics US Edition) by the end of the year. He started KISS Grammar and did well with it. We did not begin Latin this year, as I wanted him to know more grammar before beginning Visual Latin. Studied dictation also went amazingly well, and we could see definite progress from the beginning of the year to the end. He did well with learning cursive italic handwriting, but did not gain ease with it yet. We did not begin written narrations, as he was just not ready. However, I started to write down his narrations from George Washington's World so he could begin to get used to the feeling of having his words written down. That was hard for him, as he is a perfectionist and it would take forever for the words to come out (a problem I understand all too well!). I ended up teaching him an oral version of freewriting, which is the technique that helped me break out of that paralyzing perfectionism myself. He made progress, and the words started flowing more easily by the end of the year. 

JJ completed book 2A in Singapore Math. We switched from Miquon part way through the year.  He prints with ease, so he began cursive italic this year as well. 

MM(5) started to learn to read, and insisted on doing math while the other boys were doing it. I printed off Year 1 of MEP Math and he completed it. I tried to have some one-on-one time with him every morning before the school day started, and we read Charlotte's Web, Little House in the Big Woods, and part of Little House on the Prairie. Of course, he also listened in on all the reading we did together and enjoyed the pictures, music, and Shakespeare. 

Writing about all we accomplished makes me feel good, even though I dropped the ball on several things (again.). We dropped piano. Once again, we did very little in our nature notebooks after the first term. French was a failure, other than the children's books we read. We could have done more of several things: dictation, poetry, map work, timeline work.  I could have written an entire post on what we missed and what we could have done better, but I'm making a choice to give thanks for what we were able to accomplish. It was a good year.

Enthusiasm for Year 4

I love Ambleside Online Year 4 more than any year so far. I was learning a lot in Years 1-3, but Year 4 is a whole new ball game. We get to read Shakespeare now, and Plutarch! I am learning so much, never mind SA(9). I have to stop myself from starting to discuss things in the middle of the reading.

Don't get me wrong, it's hard work, too. I have never put so much effort into pre-reading and scaffolding the readings for my student. ("Scaffolding" is removing obstacles between student and author before the reading, for example, providing definitions and showing maps. The object is for the child to form his own relationship with the author and his subject without too much talking on the teacher's part.) Strangely, while the books are making my brain work overtime, they do not seem more or less challenging to SA than to me. As Charlotte Mason says, he makes the connections "proper to him" and I make the ones proper to me, and we are both learning and growing. I think it's AMAZING that living books allow that to happen.

Almost everything is new to me. I have never read Shakespeare or Plutarch, and my only exposure to Greek Mythology (Age of Fable) so far has been the Iliad. Madam How and Lady Why is a very interesting way to think of science, and we're having very good discussions over it. I know that I'm talking too much in our lessons (I do try to restrain myself), but at the same time my own enthusiasm for the books is not a bad thing to be modeling. In any case, SA is liking them all. 

My only problem is that I am not giving enough to SA to read independently in his lesson time. He reads The Storybook of Science on his own. I know I could easily hand him Robinson Crusoe, but I love that book! So far I can't resist sharing it with all the boys by reading aloud. I could also give him Madam How and Lady Why, but I feel like discussion flows more naturally when we've just read it together. Maybe I need to get over this so he can do more "digging" for himself. I know we need to work towards more independence for him or I'll drown next year, when I will have three students for the first time.

Is anyone else out there having the amazing experience of learning together with your children? Isn't it wonderful?

Linked with Mason for Me at BRC Banter:

Year in Review: Our Favourite School Books

JJ(7)'s Year 1 Books

Today I pulled out all our books from the school year just ended and stacked them on the table. What a good feeling it was to realize what we had read through! Most of these are part of Ambleside Online's wonderful curriculum for Years 1 and 3, with a few books added in for Canadian content and special interest, and a few books taken out to compensate for what we'd added in. Everything we read was narrated, whether by the individual student, or by both of them (or all three! My extroverted 4-year-old loves to take his turn narrating the readings we do together as a family.).

Some of them are books we will continue to read in the next school year (Probably. Plans are not set in stone yet!):
The Blue Fairy Book
Canadian Wonder Tales
Great Canadian Lives
Mathematicians are People, Too
The Story of Canada (Marsh)
The Story of Canada (Brown, Harman, Jeanneret)
Trial and Triumph

Some of them were books that we didn't complete. The term ended, and we moved on:
Children of the New Forest (SA(9) may yet finish this on his own.)
Hamlet by Bruce Coville
The Jungle Book
Just So Stories (One chapter to go...JJ will finish it on his own.)
Leonardo da Vinci by Emily Hahn (I suspect I got the wrong book in this case...it was very heavy for Year 3. We read through half, and moved on.)
Sebastian Bach by Opal Wheeler

But the majority of the books on the stacks were the ones we finished, whether together as a family, or separately. Because we did several Year 3 books together, I ended up taking out a number of the Year 1 books in order not to overload JJ.

SA(9)'s Year 3 Books

Together:
A Drop of Water 
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
Madeleine Takes Command
Pagoo
Pilgrim's Progress (We finished Book 2 this year)
Secrets of the Woods
Tales from Shakespeare (We did the chapters scheduled for Year 3 together.)

SA(9):
Bard of Avon
Our Island Story (He completed the chapters scheduled in AO's curriculum through Year 3.)
The Adventures of Marco Polo by Russell Freedman
The Heroes
The Princess and the Goblin

JJ(7):
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Paddle-to-the-Sea
The Aesop for Children


The Favourites

For fun, I asked all of them to choose their favourite school books. They each started with one, then thought of more they considered favourites. In the end I let them choose as many as they wanted. I also asked them to choose their least favourite book. JJ had no doubt about his pick, but SA assured me earnestly that really, he liked all his books, and his least favourite was still a good book.

SA(9):
The Princess and the Goblin 
Madeleine Takes Command
A Drop of Water
The Heroes
Sebastian Bach
Mathematicians are People, Too

Least Favourite: Leonardo da Vinci by Emily Hahn

JJ(7):
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Madeleine Takes Command
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Paddle-to-the-Sea
A Drop of Water

Least Favourite: The Story of Canada by Brown, Harman, and Jeanneret

MM(4) also insisted on choosing his favourite:
The Blue Fairy Book

And why not? I'll include my own favourites of the year. You'll notice some overlap with the boys picks...it's just such a pleasure to share books when they are loving them too. I was learning as much as they were.

Madeleine Takes Command
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
Secrets of the Woods
The Blue Fairy Book
The Heroes

Time for a Brain Dump!

Hello friends,

It has been too long since I've written here! We just finished our school year earlier this week. The school year felt long to me. I made the choice last fall to take Mondays off, but that meant our terms took longer to finish. Last week we still had two or three weeks to go, but I made the choice to cross out what I could and read the rest, narration-free, at breakfast for the summer. (The children want to hear the rest of the stories!) We did some low-key exams over a couple of days and were done.

The rest of the week has been fairly relaxed. SA(9) had his birthday, and so did I. I took a break from my diet and exercise in time for birthday cake. My mother came over and we went to the beach. We gave away three kittens but still have Oscar, Cat about Town and Meeko the Mighty.

Oscar, Cat About Town

Birthday Indoor Picnic

Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake (Yes, those are dark chocolate Kit Kats!)

MM(4)

Greenwich, PEI

 My mind is buzzing with Things that Must be Done, and I'm finding it hard to relax. I know I need to write them down so I can deal with them.

There is the Sweep and Smile course that I'm taking from Mystie of Simplified Organization. We're starting week 5, but I need to reboot. (It's a wonderful course, by the way. If you need any help in the homemaking area, jump on board the next time she offers it!)

There is Diet and Exercise. I lost 25 lb from March-May, but lost steam in June. I have another 25 to lose, and I need to recommit.

There is book tidying and organization. I'm behind again.

There is reflection. What went well in the last school year? What needs improvement? What am I thankful for this year?

There is school planning. Ambleside Online or AO 2.0? Continue to combine as much as possible with my upcoming Year 4 and Year 2 students, or treat them as if they're in different "Forms" (I'm speaking in terms of content...of course my Year 4 will have additional subjects and skills to work on.)?

There is prereading. SA(9) will be reading more of his books on his own this year, and I want to get a head start on him.

There is my personal reading...Homer's Odyssey with a study group, Northanger Abbey with a book club, continuing with my C.S. Lewis project, The Living Page. Oh yes, and I want to read through School Education quickly again before SA jumps into Year 4. Maybe I'll even have the self-discipline to blog about it here.

There is the Natural History Illustration MOOC I'm taking to boost my nature journalling.

There is SUMMER! I need to make sure we don't miss the opportunities of summer while I'm doing all this working and planning. For one thing, I want to make sure we go to the beach once a week. I also want to plan a few field trips... a waterfowl preserve, a historic site, maybe a zoo...

How about you? How is your summer going? AO friends, are you going for 2.0 or sticking with 1.0 for now? I want to hear about it!

Show and Tell: The "Schedule"

I use the term "schedule" loosely in my homeschool...being tied to the clock does not work well with babies and toddlers in the house! However, we do have a routine, and I have found it helpful to post our "average day" on the wall so the children know what to expect.

In keeping with my habit of pinning our school activities to normal household routines that always happen no matter what (meals and snacks, for example), I have divided our chart into smaller charts. Somehow it seems slightly less overwhelming that way too...

 

This routine is very similar to our routine last year, except that this year, I have a new Year 1 student! I have planned to do several lessons together with my Year 3 student (the Morning Time and Tea Time routines are done together), but I still need about 45 one-on-one minutes with JJ(6). That's 10 for math, 10 for phonics and reading, 10 for piano, and 15 for beginning narration.

 

When I total it up, total school time for my Year 1 student is 2 hours and 15 minutes, and for my Year 3 student is 2 hours and 30 minutes. This does not include our "Morning Time" routine, but it does include our relaxed "poetry teatime" routine and 20 minutes of Phys. Ed. and play in the middle of it all. For me, of course, the total is more like 3 hours and 45 minutes. I hope that will decrease a little if SA(8) gets more independent with some of his lessons. 

 

I am trying to get most of the work done in the morning so the afternoon can be much more free. I will be trying throughout to do as much as is reasonably feasible outside, even during the morning.

 

We have been having a break from screen time this summer, and I will continue with that as long as the weather is nice. In the winter I will probably return to our usual allowance of screen time at 4:00.

 

Keep in mind that this is only my plan! No doubt it will evolve over time as we work it out.

 

How do you organize your school days?

 



Show and Tell: Maps for the New School Year

I'm sure a lot of you do the same thing as we do: go back and forth from the dining room table to the couch, to the backyard to do your homeschooling. We have a normal-sized house, adequate but not expansive ...no space for a dedicated room for homeschooling here!

I had an idea this year for all the maps we need for our lessons. I put a tablecloth on the table, laid out the maps, and put a clear vinyl tablecloth (from the dollar store) on top of it all.

I'm finding the vinyl tablecloth a little thin and will be looking for one of a bit heavier weight, but I think the idea will serve us well. I may also look for some clips to hold it all in place. The vinyl has been sliding a little bit, though the tablecloth underneath and the maps stay in place remarkably well.

 

Most of the maps are outline maps, unlabeled. We will write in the names of the places as we read. The map below is one of Newfoundland, the Maritimes, and part of Quebec for our study of Jacques Cartier this term. I also have maps of Canada, Europe, the Great Lakes, the Exodus from Egypt, and the Mongol Empires of 1200-1480 AD. All of these relate directly to our lessons coming up this year.

 

For the maps themselves, I searched online for maps in the public domain, saved them, and sent the files to Staples to print them in the format I requested. Most are 11x13 on cardstock. 11x13 was the largest size I could print before the price jumped from 89 cents to $14.99, and I thought cardstock would be a bit more durable than paper. If you are using Ambleside Online, I realized just after I did all the work of finding maps that the forum there has links for all the maps you might need!

 

We also have a world map and a Canada map on the wall next to the table to give context to these smaller maps.

 

What about you? How do you use maps in your homeschool? I'd love to hear how everyone else does it!

Deciding What to Combine in AO Years 3 and 1

As we begin this coming school year, SA(8) will be in Year 3 using Ambleside Online, and JJ(6) will be starting Year 1. I also have two preschoolers: MM(4) and AJ(1). I think I mentioned last time that planning for two official students seems like a huge thing for me. (Feel free to smile, you moms of many. Some day I will be where you are.) This process of deciding what to do together and what to do separately is a personal one. Some people combine, some don't, some just combine a few things. This is just my plan...it is prescriptive for no one but me!


Pre-Reading...The First Step When Choosing What to Combine
I started my planning by pre-reading week 1 of Year 3. Pre-reading is becoming more important now as I plan to have SA read more of his lessons on his own. (Narrations will still be oral, of course.) I am hoping to keep a few weeks ahead of him if I can. I take notes in my bullet journal that I can refer to as we set up the lessons...names to introduce, places to find on our maps, and words to define so they don't bring him to a screeching halt in the middle of a lesson (I try not to do more than three per lesson...many words are easily understood from their context.). I also jot down sentences that might be good choices for copywork.

Besides these things, pre-reading the first week of lessons before even beginning to think about scheduling allowed me to easily see which books might be good options to do with SA and JJ together, which books SA can probably read on his own, and which books I should continue to read aloud to him.



Some Obvious Things to Combine
There are some things that we have been doing together all along, and we will not change that. These things are:

• Bible reading and narration (JJ will just begin to take his turn narrating along with SA.)
• Pilgrim's Progress
• Bible, hymn, and catechism memory work
• Poetry reading and memorization
• Folk songs
• Picture study (again, JJ will begin to take his turn describing the pictures)
• Music appreciation
• Drawing lessons
• Nature walks
• Chores
• French
• Handicrafts

These things already have a place in our routines, and it will not take much to add one more "official" student to the mix.

Readings I'm Planning to Combine
This takes more thought. In the first place, having JJ participate in some of SA's Year 3 lessons means taking away some of the Year 1 lessons in order not to overload him. We might be able to circle back to some of them in the future, but it's hard to leave out books that I loved reading with SA in Year 1.

In the second place, I have been seriously thinking about beginning JJ's Year 1 with more of an emphasis on Canadian history, and less of an emphasis on British history. Canada is his own country, and he naturally has more of an interest in and relationship with Canada. I listened to the History podcasts (episodes 11, 12, 14, and 15) from A Delectable Education a few months ago and was quite convinced that learning about their own country was the way to go in the early years of a child's education. This actually works quite well when it comes to combining, as SA is just beginning Canadian history now in the AO history rotation.

So here are the books I'm planning to do together in the first term:

• Pagoo (leaving out The Burgess Bird Book for JJ's Year 1. But I think I may come back to it, possibly when MM starts Year 1 in two years.)
• Trial and Triumph (I'm planning to add this to our breakfast circle time, in rotation with Pilgrim's Progress and selections from Paterson-Smyth's commentary on Exodus. If I was doing Parables of Nature, I'd add it to this rotation, but I think I'll skip it again this year.)
• Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence (A wonderful Canadian living book - will review soon! This actually has quite a few pages, and I'll regretfully have to take out both Benjamin Franklin and Our Island Story for this term.)
• Tales from Shakespeare

Deciding Where to Plug Combined Readings into the Routine
For me, it makes the most sense to add these readings to activities in our routine that we're already doing together. Trial and Triumph will be added to our breakfast circle time (We have two circle times...Breakfast for Bible-related things, and Tea Time for poetry and art.). Pagoo, Cartier, and Shakespeare will all be added to our Tea Times.

This is as far as I have gotten in my planning. The next part is even harder... deciding how and when to do the lessons that will be done separately. Stay tuned!

Our Year 2 with Ambleside Online

This summer SA(8) finished Ambleside Online Year 2. I may have mentioned before how grateful I am for the booklists Ambleside Online provides so I can get on with homeschooling. Once again I did not deviate much from what they laid out, though I did begin with Canadian history near the end of Year 2.

Next year is going to be interesting, as I will finally have two students! JJ(6) will be starting Year 1, and SA(8) will go on to Year 3. Of course, I'm not implying that JJ hasn't been learning before this --he learned to read this year, and is loving his math. But somehow starting Year 1 is still serious business for me. School suddenly becomes much less casual somehow. I am a little overwhelmed at the thought of two students. I know, you moms of many. It's nothing! But it seems like a lot to me now. I know I will adjust and move on, and do it again when I add another student, and another. Each step is an adjustment, though, and feels like a big deal.

Anyway, (big breath) before I jump into that I'm just going to take a moment to look back at Year 2. This is going to be long, sorry!

The Books

The books are my favourite part. There is something so satisfying about gathering a good feast of wonderful books and getting to know them well over the course of the school year. Some of the books are hard at the beginning, and then your student adjusts and you suddenly realize that what was once difficult has become easy. I also noticed over the year that SA made progress in narration from telling back a few sentences at a time to a few paragraphs at a time.

The History Books

Our Island Story (British History) was continued from Year 1. I continued to read aloud, even though SA became quite good at reading over the year. This book has a lot of names and places. In Year 3, I think I will introduce the names at the beginning of the lesson and allow him to read to himself.

We added several names that stood out to us to our timeline. I love our timeline! This year we will start a fresh one because JJ is starting school. I am considering making it a little bit longer (more space for SA) and giving SA the bottom portion and JJ the top. We will transfer names from stories that SA found especially compelling from the old timeline to the new one. At this age it is not so much about understanding who the most important figures are as it is about getting to know people in history and making connections between them. Having some people he already knows on our new timeline will help him make those connections.

We also had a few readings from A Child's History of the World this year. I was excited about this book at the beginning of the year, but in the end I didn't love it. I think it was the tone...it seemed to talk down to children a bit. However, we had some good experiences with it, especially when it enriched our understanding of Our Island Story.

Using Ambleside Online, we begin to study the history of our country parallel to the history of Britain when European explorers begin to arrive in the New World. I am reconsidering that for JJ's Year 1 next year (I would like to start with Canadian history from the beginning.). However, with SA I have followed AO as written and so we began our Canadian history near the end of Year 2. We used E.L. Marsh's Story of Canada for the stories of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot, and supplemented with Brown's Story of Canada for more on John Cabot. This worked well, and I would do it again. It meant more of an emphasis on Cabot than Columbus, which was appropriate for our Canadian homeschool. The books complemented each other well, not overlapping so much as adding to each other.

The Little Duke is a good example of a book that we grew into this year. It was difficult for SA to narrate at first, with all its description. However, over time narration got easier, and we grew to love the characters. I'm already looking forward to reading it again with my next child.

Trial and Triumph went much better this year than last year.

Somehow I missed Diane Stanley's Joan of Arc! I didn't buy it because it's in our local library system, but though I ordered it, it never ended up at my house.


The Literature

We managed to read through most of Pilgrim's Progress Book 1 in Term 1 of our school year. (It was supposed to take all year...) I don't know why, but I think it went that fast because the schedule told us to read 800 words a week. I wasn't about to count out 800 words every time, so I just read a little every day. We started in on Book 2, but went much slower. We still have a little bit to finish up in the new school year. The boys told me what to draw afterwards in a sort of picture narration. (SA in particular is not much of a draw-er...) So really, it was just a narration, but it felt unique to them because I drew what they were saying.

Understood Betsy was a fun, easy read in term 1. We really started to lengthen the amounts I could read to SA before we broke for narration, and that carried over into his other narrations.

The Wind in the Willows was SA's favourite of the year, I think, along with Robin Hood.

We dropped Parables from Nature.

Natural History and Geography

These were the books SA read on his own: Tree in the Trail, Seabird, and The Burgess Animal Book. I read Burgess aloud sometimes, but I found that he actually did a better job of narrating when he read it himself.  Usually, I set the timer for ten minutes. When the timer went, he read on to a good stopping-place and marked it in pencil (so he'd know where to start next time...). Then he came to me and narrated. I am hoping to hand over more of his reading to him in the coming school year.

Our Circle Time

Circle time is our time to learn things together as a family. As I have done from the beginning, I divided our "Circle Time" into two parts. One part was immediately after breakfast for Bible reading and narration, Scripture and hymn memory work, and prayer. The other part began at around 10:00 and marked the beginning of our school days. We read poetry on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, studied pictures on Tuesdays, and listened to music on Thursdays. A real highlight in the poetry this year was Robert Frost's little book You Come Too. Whenever I gave the children a choice of what to read, SA chose from that book. (JJ and MM still love Cat up a Tree.) My favourite times of picture study were in Term 2, when we studied Canadian artist Tom Thomson. Music...well...let's just say I need to work on getting them to sit quietly and listen. We really enjoyed watching The Nutcracker ballet (on YouTube) before Christmas.

We also tried to work on our French at Circle Time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In Term 2, SA really enjoyed working online with Middlebury Interactive Languages. I didn't end up purchasing more of it, though, as it is expensive! In term 3, we watched quite a few BookBox stories in French on YouTube. They were much in the same style as the Middlebury Interactive program (only without the step-by-step lessons, of course.). The stories seem to be real folk tales from all over the world. Also like Middlebury Interactive, they include the written word at the bottom of the screen (which Charlotte Mason would not have approved of, at least not at first.). I don't feel that I used these stories as well as I could have. I know I need to do better at teaching foreign language. Or maybe I just need to hand it over to my husband...


We did well (for us) with drawing in the third term. I discovered the Art for Kids Hub. I am no artist, and I have picked up and dropped Drawing with Children several times already in the few years I've been homeschooling. I still like it a lot, but I just can't seem to get any momentum with it. With the Art for Kids Hub, we'd just watch a video once a week and follow along. SA did not complain, and JJ and MM continued to draw throughout the week based on that one lesson. If I can't be perfect, art lessons done this way still bless my family...

The Skills

SA made a lot of progress in copywork from the beginning of the year to the end. His neatness remained about the same throughout the year, but his fluency increased quite a bit. He went from printing three words in five minutes to printing two or three lines. He is still "behind" other children his age, and would still not voluntarily pick up a pencil and write something down. I think this coming year will be the year it takes off, though. He is becoming conscious that he can't write or spell what his cousin (just slightly older) can. JJ is also catching up with him in this area. I think these things may just give him the motivation he needs. I may add spelling to circle time this year, as I think SA and JJ will be at about the same level this year.

We made some changes between Term 2 and Term 3 in the way we do math. Those changes have worked out very well, and I plan to keep going with them. Our every-day math conversations started coming back, and SA began to amaze me again with the way he figures things out. He had been getting bored with just Singapore Math day after day, it was as simple as that. More variety and more inspiration has been good for him.


We had a good year. We still love homeschooling, and learning, and Ambleside Online!



It's Hard for Me to Deviate

As I'm busy planning for next year and ordering books, I'm really running into the fact that I have a hard time deviating in any way from my chosen curriculum (Ambleside Online). I think that really, this is mostly because of my personality. (I am ISFJ, but my "F" is very near the middle and I think my "T" side really comes out when it comes to this.). Some people might call me inflexible. I prefer to call myself steady. I am not the homeschool mom that switches curriculum in the middle of the year. I do my research, choose what looks best, commit to it, and make it work. Indeed, when I chose AO, I had fallen in love and fully expected to use it mostly as written for all of my homeschooling years. Maybe that part was a bit idealistic.

Why do I stick to AO with such tenacity?

Love. Loyalty. Gratitude. Respect. Trust.
I trust AO, because it has been worked out by moms who have learned and studied and lived Charlotte Mason's philosophy. I am grateful for the booklists they have provided out of that experience and knowledge. With four young children and just a beginning knowledge of CM, it would have been very, very hard for me to put together the books needed for the great feast I want to offer my children without a lot of trial and error.

So I am thankful, and loyal. And I feel guilty for being tempted to tweak. It feels like cheating on AO. I do not trust myself enough yet to be confident in my tweaking. And yes, in my heart I know I am being ridiculous. So laugh at me. :) This is my journey. I have to go through some trial and error anyway, it seems.

Here's where I want to change right now.

- I want to substitute another Shakespeare book instead of Lamb for the sake of JJ(5) who is starting Year 1. While we enjoyed it, it was very challenging in Year 1, and I did not like the simpler Nesbit option (Not detailed enough to be interesting, I thought). So I'm looking at getting some Bruce Coville books, and possibly Geraldine McCaughrean. I haven't seen her Shakespeare, but we enjoyed her Canterbury Tales, so I'm thinking it might be a good option for us. I feel fairly comfortable tweaking in this case. I understand that my purpose is to introduce my children to the stories of Shakespeare's plays so that they will be familiar when we get to study the actual plays.

- I'd like to skip the Burgess Bird Book with JJ and study insects instead. He just loves bugs. This is much harder for me, even though we did not really like the Bird Book (We love the Animal Book in Year 2, though!). What if the books I choose for insects are not as good? What if studying birds at this stage is crucial and we miss out on something because of it? When I type it out, it seems irrational, but it's how I really feel. I'm afraid to let go of AO's hand. I'm planning to choose some of the books on the booklists at A Modern Charlotte Mason. But that's not a hand I know and trust yet, even though what I've seen of it looks lovely. I suppose that if I mess up this time, I still have two more boys to practice on. Are you getting the idea that I'm a bit of a perfectionist? What? You're amused at my agonizing over a choice that seems so insignificant? That's okay. Me too...

- I've been convinced by A Delectable Education podcasts that I should be beginning with Canadian history in Year 1. Should... but it's hard to leave behind some of the books that we loved in Year 1. So hard, I'm not sure I'll manage it. I might start with a half tweak in this area.
You should know that I did AO as written, American biographies and all, with my oldest child. Of course, I need to substitute Canadian biographies for those American ones when I begin with my second child, and I will. (Now to find the perfect ones...) But I’m not sure if I’ll be able to leave behind the British history AO includes and put in more Canadian history. How could I leave out stories like King Alfred and the Cakes? I’d have to find something wonderful. On the other hand, JJ has been extremely interested in the Canadian history I’m reading with SA(7) right now, so perhaps I should consider doing that class together…

- The same podcasts have been proposing a different way of organizing the CM homeschool around history so that the whole family studies the same time period at once, each student using books at their own level. (I mean it is different from AO. It is actually based quite consciously on how Charlotte Mason organized her schools in Forms.) This idea is very attractive to me, though I do not necessarily consider it essential in order to faithfully provide your child with a Charlotte Mason education. There is interplay between ideas in different time periods, and connections could still be made between children no matter whether they are studying the same period or different periods in history. But it would be pleasant, and give a sense of unity within our homeschool. I would continue to follow AO for my oldest child, and then consider tweaking for subsequent children so that, beginning with Year 2, all my children would be studying the same time period as him. This would mean finding appropriate books at their level all the way through. I’m really not sure I’m brave enough for tweaking that extensive. I still have another year to think about it before my second child begins Year 2. Maybe the booklists at A Modern Charlotte Mason will end up being a help in this area too, as it is also organized by Form.

What about you? Is there anyone else out there that feels uncomfortable changing anything in your chosen curriculum? Tell me I’m not the only one. Or laugh. I don't mind.