What I learned last year and the changes I will make this year

Lori’s turn

The 2015-2016 school year is finished. It was our first year of trying a full Charlotte Mason education and our first year of writing a mother/daughter blog. We have learned quite a bit. The 2016-2017 school year has now begun and I am excited to implement all that I have learned.

Lessons about a Charlotte Mason Education

There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

When we started school last August, I thought I had a firm grasp as to what a CM education entailed. Now I know that I had only a pre-school knowledge. The biggest change I will make between last year and this is my curriculum. When I started homeschooling my sons in 2001, I used “Lori’s eclectic curriculum” which means I picked and chose and put together my own curriculum. After one year, I realized that others had taken time to figure out good curriculum and I could make life easier on myself by using a curriculum someone else had already worked to put together. Schooling was easier after that. Roll tape forward to 2015. If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. As we started our school year, I was taking that curriculum I had used for so many years and trying to retro fit it into the Charlotte Mason style. I learned my old curriculum did not exactly mesh with the new style. We spread a great feast. We used living books. I still felt like I was wading upstream. For this coming year, I am very excited to begin using the curriculum designed by Ambleside Online. I almost started it midyear, when I found it, but now I am prepared to begin. I am very excited about this new school year.

A CM Education has short lessons. Guard that time.

Last year we were still part of a Classical Conversations Community one day per week. We didn’t use CC at home, so that meant we spent a day out for the community. I was a tutor, so I had to spend time on lesson plans for something in which I wasn’t really invested. I am taking the Charlotte Mason point of a large and varied feast in short lessons to heart. We need to be home during school hours. When we are home, I need to be completely present. I am now working very hard not to schedule anything until the afternoon when we are finished with our school day. I don’t do chores or anything else during our school time. The time passes so quickly. We have only been back to school for a week, but I was amazed how much we accomplished each morning. I have already seen growth in HR having her afternoons to read, play, and create. This week she converted one of her bookshelves to a doll apartment house and then figured out how to make an elevator to bring the dolls up and down. I learned that a CM education does include STEAM subjects – I just needed to give her the time to be creative.

Community is important

We still need community, but we need community that supports us rather than distracts us. Last February I posted about a Charlotte Mason co-op we visited. We ended up becoming regular members of that co-op. The ladies, though younger than I, became CM mentors to me. The children became good friends for Hannah Ruth. The co-op only meets every other week with an additional week for nature study. The fun and fellowship are priceless. HR is very social and she needs people. (I do too.) I even ended up going to the Deep in the Heart of AO conference in Texas with a friend I made at the co-op. I cannot wait to see how this year turns out now that I am “all in” with our Charlotte Mason education.

There is so much to learn

I have been a homeschooling mama for more years than I care to reveal. (My oldest son is 26 years old now and I homeschooled him from 6th grade through graduation!) I do not know why I never heard of Charlotte Mason during that time because it was what I was always looking for. I have discovered so many good blogs and books to learn more about teaching this way. (I found five of the six original Charlotte Mason Homeschooling volumes for a great price this summer. I’m still looking for Volume 1.) I have also discovered the podcast. I can now walk for exercise early in the morning and listen to so much wisdom. I have my favorites. A Delectable Education and the Mason Jar are particularly helpful. If you know a Charlotte Mason podcast you especially love, please leave the name in the comments. I’m currently caught up and could use a few more.

Lessons about having a blog 

It always takes longer than you think

Blogs are not terribly new to me. I had one when we adopted Hannah Ruth and another about menu creation many years back. They always take longer to write than you think. I actually started this post in June! Furthermore, something is always coming in ahead of writing. Writing this blog often seems like a luxury for me and it is not the most pressing need. There is always laundry to do or dinner to prepare or lesson plans to write. Sometimes writing seems like a guilty pleasure. I started this so Hannah Ruth could have the opportunity to express herself. She is quite the writer! I also learned that if you want readers, you must be consistent in posting. The original goal was to post once per week. We in no way lived up to that! I am hoping that with the curriculum plan and the shorter days, we will be more consistent, but I have learned to make no promises.

Length matters

If you are still reading I am very grateful. I have trouble lasting to read long blogs. We are all so busy. This post should probably have been two separate posts: things I learned about a Charlotte Mason education and what I learned about having a blog. I’ve gone back and forth and have decided to keep this as one post. Your time is valuable as the reader and I want to always keep that in mind.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Blogs are more interesting with pictures. Photography is not my strength. I’m the person who enjoys a vacation but rarely remembers to take any pictures of it. I have to plan pictures for the blog. Quite frankly, I couldn’t really even think of any photos that made sense for this post. The only pictures I have taken recently is on our nature walk (or sometimes if I see something interesting on my morning walks.) I hope to improve on the picture side of our blog.

A tag means you are “it”

When I was a child, I played tag. I never really enjoyed being “it.” Tags are important when writing a blog. I am finally beginning to understand the significance of tags. If you want people to find your blog, you need to have key words that they might search. The tags help readers find your blog. My hope is that as people find this blog, it might be a help or encouragement to them as all the blogs I have read have been to me. In this case I may enjoy being “it.”

Well, that is some of what I have learned in the last year. Now that you have found us, I hope you continue to read the blog and perhaps give us the favor of following.

Hannah Ruth’s Turn

Summer is over :'(…… (cries for hours) so now school is in. We end around noon, and I wake up at 6:20 because my electronics hour is only 6:30-7:30 on a weekday, and if I practice violin 5 days a week, on Saturday I get 7:30-9:30 electronic time. On Sundays I get no electronics mostly.

What I have learned over the past week

Always wear bug spray. ALWAYS!  I only went out for like, ten minutes, but it had been raining 3 times a day every day so naturally, MOSQUITO ATTACK! The bites still itch SOOOOOOOOO  bad!!!!!!!!!! Also, rub basil on you if you have no bug spray. My mom googled that. Also, porci is pigs in Latin. I don’t know if it’s pronounced like Porky or Porkai but I like pronouncing it Porky.

S.T.E.A.M!!!!!!!!!!!

S.T.E.A.M. stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Some people leave out art and it becomes S.T.E.M. One day, I cleared out my bookshelf and made it an apartment for my toys. Apartments need elevators, so I duct taped a hair tie at the top of the bookshelf and put some yarn through it. Then, I put the yarn through the bucket and taped them together. Finally, I taped together the yarn above the bucket making a loop holding the bucket. (If you don’t do the loop, the bucket will NOT budge and the yarn will go straight through it without picking the bucking up)

When I showed my Mom, she yelled “Congratulations for getting in STEAM!!!”

That seemed a little random at first before she explained it. I’ve had lots of fun with the elevator, so it was worth the hour I put into it.

Until next time! 🙂

PS WEAR BUG SPRAY!!!!

Community

Lori’s turn

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I do not know.

I realize that quote is from Albert Einstein (and others) but when it crossed my mind this morning, I felt it was an original thought. This Charlotte Mason journey is just that; a journey of tiny steps. The more I read about the Charlotte Mason approach, the more I realize this is the way I want my daughter to learn and the way I want to learn along side of her. I also discover how much more there is to learn. Of course, any journey is easier when you have someone to accompany you. My husband is training for a marathon. The runs are much easier when he has his running buddies travel with him.  I am learning how much I need Charlotte Mason buddies.

I mentioned in a (much) earlier post that we joined Classical Conversations several years ago for the community. Hannah Ruth has made some great friends and so have I. However, the older she becomes, the more I realize that I want to travel a different educational path. We have continued in the CC community while not doing CC at home and realize that we want that extra day to follow other delightful pursuits. We still want and need community.

Hannah Ruth is not an only child, but her siblings are 13 and 15 years older than she, so she might as well be. We live in a neighborhood with few children. She participates in ballet, tennis, and violin, but she also craves friends to simply “hang out.” I am a homeschool mom who spends my days learning, teaching, cooking and laundering. We both need community!

We recently discovered a Charlotte Mason co-op. The children are mostly younger than HR and we have to drive 45 minutes to an hour to participate, but both Hannah Ruth and I love the fellowship so much. Hannah Ruth will tell you more about that. We plan to attend as much as we are able, and hope to start a local community in the future.

Last night I invited several people to my home to begin a Charlotte Mason reading group. We are reading For the Children’s Sake, by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.

We had a good first night of discussion with a plan to meet monthly to continue to read and discuss the book together. We had a wonderful time. It was an evening of moms discussing their thoughts and concerns together, while providing support for one another. When everyone had left for the night, I felt refueled and ready to meet the challenge of homeschooling. I need the power of community.

The last place I have found community is a little bit removed, but still very important. For many years, I did not follow blogs because I felt I did not have time. As I began blogging, I began reading other blogs and realized how much we have to learn from one another. My eyes have been opened to how much I can learn from others who have already blazed the trail. It has been a series of “Aha!” moments. I guess I was stubbornly trying to keep reinventing the wheel. I wish I could sit in a room with a cup of tea with many of these (mostly) women and simply discuss. While that is not possible, I have learned that most bloggers are only too willing to respond to any comments and requests regardless of how far apart we are physically.  The 21st century allows us another type of community.

Community has become incredibly important as I walk this path of homeschooling. For you reading this and those following this blog, you are part of this community. Please don’t forget to say, “Hi!” I have the tea brewing!

Hannah Ruth’s turn

Hi, so I’m talking about the little Charlotte Mason community, I guess.

            <——- This is my bird, Arabia . I made him/her/whatever gender at the Charlotte Mason community in the Handicrafts.

Arabia probably won’t be a sticking name, because I’ve already burned through Desert Rose, Bluey, and Sing-Song. Arabia developed because Arabia’s real name is Red Sand Blue Sky, like the book. Red Sand Blue Sky is kind of a mouthful, so I shortened it down to RSBS, but when you say RSBS really fast, it sounds like Arispius, but that makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER, so it turned into Arabia.

Don’t like that name? Can you think of a better one? Tell me in the comments if you can.         <—– The making of Arabia/RSBS/Red Sand Blue Sky!

Arabia didn’t pop out as a bird. She/he/whatever gender, started as some blue yarn, some orange yarn, two wires, some black (actually dark green) tape, and a ball of paper. We had to pick between an American Robin or an Eastern Bluebird. I picked bluebird.        <—– The making of Arabia’s feet with my new friends! (And the playing with them)

The birds are kinda delicate, so we couldn’t play with them much. :-‘(

So besides Handcrafts, there was Music Study, Hymn Study, Picture Study, and folk song study. It’s a great community! 🙂

 

 

 

The Last of 2015

Lori’s turn

Just a few more hours and old man 2015 will be replaced with a bouncing baby 2016. For the most part 2015 has been a great year, but I am also so excited for what 2016 brings. I just couldn’t leave 2015 without telling you about a book that is changing my homeschool life, Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie.

Hannah Ruth and I began this blog as we started exploring a Charlotte Mason approach to education. I feel the Charlotte Mason approach is full and thoughtful, caring for the student as a complete person while pouring beauty and truth into her heart. We started using the approach because we wanted to enjoy learning together again. However, old habits die hard. I found myself adding more and more to our days. I was upset if we didn’t finish everything on the list – the list I would create! I was looking forward to “smooth and easy days” but life would so often start spinning out of control. Days became longer and tempers became shorter. I knew it didn’t have to be this way, but we had to do “enough.”

One of the unexpected joys of writing this blog, is finding others sharing their lives as well. I stumbled across The Simply Blog; another homeschooler exploring the Charlotte Mason approach. She mentioned the book, Teaching from Rest. I went to the website and found that I could download the first three chapters for free. I downloaded, started reading and I was hooked! I ended up ordering a copy for me and four copies to share as gifts. A friend of mine and I are planning to start a Charlotte Mason reading group. The plan was to begin with a book about Charlotte Mason’s methods, but my friend with whom I shared the book exclaimed that we needed to start with this book. I know this will be at least a quarterly read for me.

I’ve started work on my January schedule and I’m already incorporating many of Sarah’s suggestions for simplifying our schedule and our curriculum. I believe “Morning Time” is going to bring the joy back to our homeschool. The book helps you to discern what is truly important and what your goals are. Reading the chapter “Whose ‘Well Done’ are you Working for?”  was a revelatory moment for me. God has blessed me to be my children’s parent and called me to be their teacher. He is the standard to which I need to measure and I cannot do this without His help. I am not doing this amazing book justice. I encourage you to go download the free chapters and check it out.

After reading the book, I’ve become a Sarah Mackenzie super fan. I also want to tell you about the Read Aloud Revival podcasts which she hosts, but I will have to save that for another day. However if you are intrigued and cannot wait, head to Read Aloud Revival.

Thank you for visiting! I hope 2016 is your best year yet!!

Hannah Ruth’s turn

Hi everybody! I don’t know what to talk about, really. Mommy has been reading a book called French Kids Eat Everything, which is, as far as I’m concerned, a bunch of paper taped together and is about starving children. In the new year, Mommy’s going to apply those rules to me. Yay. She’s already not letting me eat snacks in between meals. Even more joy. Anyway, have a happy new year everybody!

Lori again

Actually it is no snacks close to dinner time. 🙂

 

Liebster Award Nomination

This is an extra, but exciting post. Our blog has been nominated for a Liebster Award (which auto corrects to “Lobster Award.”) Thank you Jen at Practical by Default for the nomination! I feel very honored and humbled.

Liebster Award Rules  

Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
Display the Liebster Award on your blog
Share 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions you were asked.
Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers for the Award and have them answer 11 questions.
Let the other bloggers know you’ve nominated them.
Copy the rules into your post.

Here are our 11 Random Facts:

1. Lori is a vegan.  Hannah Ruth is not.
2. Hannah Ruth was adopted from China.
3. Lori has three children ages 25, 23, and 10 (Hannah Ruth.)
4. Lori is learning more from having a blog than teaching others.
5. Lori has been a storyteller for about 20 years, but has never written down the stories she tells. (They swim in my head.)
6. Lori has been married to the best husband ever for nearly 29 years.
7. Lori loves to bake bread.
8. Hannah Ruth loves to eat bread.
9. Lori was once a public speaking teacher and a speech/debate coach.
10. Hannah Ruth hopes to visit the lower 48 states before she graduates.
11. Hannah Ruth wants to open a bakery when she becomes older.

Answers to the 11 Questions

1. What language would you love to learn? Mandarin Chinese
2. Would you prefer to read, watch or be told how to do something? I like to think read, but the older I get, I find it easier to watch.
3. What’s your favorite hobby? Baking bread
4. What’s your dream job? Being a nutrition coach
5. Dog or cat? Dog, definitely dog.
6. The name of the teacher that influenced you the most? Mrs. Janet Fittro
7. Book or Movie? Book then movie
8. Why did you start blogging? As a creative outlet for me and for my daughter.
9. Cook or bake or eat? Bake (see Question 3) Cooking is a close second.
10. What are you is your best “I did it!” moment? Making a banana bread vegan, oil and sugar free that still tastes great.
11. Blogging what do you love/hate doing? I would love more “extras” on our blog, but I hate the time it takes to figure them out.

11 Questions for my nominees

1. Are you a night owl or early bird?
2. What musical instrument do you wish you could play?
3. What three words best describe you?
4. If you could do anything as your occupation and you would be guaranteed to be successful, what would you do?
5. Coffee or tea?
6. To which literary character do you most relate?
7. What was your favorite class in school?
8. Which country would you most like to visit?
9. Why did you decide to write a blog?
10. What was your happiest moment?
11. What do you wish you had known before you started blogging?

My nominees (in no particular order)

1. Prairie Sings
2. Learning through Exploration
3. Raising Little Shoots
4. Katie’s Home
5. The Simply Blog
6. Living and Learning
7. Bright Hope for Tomorrow 
8. Amberisonfire
9. Roadrunnermusings
10. angelicscalliwags
11. Homegrown Hatfields

Advent, The Nutcracker, and Craziness

Lori’s Turn

Ah! The season of Advent is upon us – the time for quiet reflection as we prepare our hearts for the arrival of our Savior as a baby.  Who am I kidding? The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has been CRAZY busy. However, the intermittent precious moments have been golden.

The most interesting  development I have had since starting this blog, is connecting to so many other fabulous blogs. Sometimes as a veteran homeschooling mom, I’m afraid I begin to think that I have my plan and I know what I am going to do. However, that misses out on the message I am trying to teach, which is you never stop learning! I have gleaned so much wisdom over the past few weeks. I have so much to write and share. I am still working on that time management thing though. For advent, I checked out Pinterest and found several advent wreath ideas. The combination of ideas along with what materials I could find and my imagination is featured above.  It has been a nice addition to our dining table.

Another great Advent idea I found was using the season as a time of service. I made a calendar and entitled it advent blessings. Hannah Ruth and I planned to perform a random act of kindness every day. Well, it has turned out to be two or three times a week, but we are conscious of helping others. My favorite was signing up to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. She played her violin while I added percussion with the bell. As it would happen, our day turned out to be one of the coldest so far. Hannah Ruth wore fingerless gloves, but she would still have to take warm-up breaks and go inside. (We were stationed just outside our local mall.) The funny part to this story is as long as she played her violin, the money poured into the kettle. When she would take a break and I would ring solo, no one stopped.

Now when we see bellringers and I have no cash, she will put her own money into the kettle. Other smaller acts of kindness we have done  is to take our newspapers to the animal shelter. I have performed some Christmas storytelling. Hannah Ruth has played her violin other places. While at the mall, we decided to have a bite to eat, and Hannah Ruth received a book in her kid’s meal. Hannah Ruth LOVES books, but the book she received was a little young. Rather than trading it for ice cream, she gave it to a little girl. Hannah Ruth has also made and/or purchased all her own gifts this year with her own money and time.  I guess it shows how proud I am of her.

Hannah Ruth wanted to talk about Nutcracker so that will be her time. My addition is that every year I forget how crazy Nutcracker production week is. I am just beginning to catch up and manage to prepare for Christmas. We leave at the end of this week to head to my parents’ house for Christmas. I’m hoping I will find the time for one more blog post that is stirring in my heart. If I don’t, I wish you every blessing this Christmas!

Hannah Ruth’s turn

Hi! I wanted to call this blog post The AdventCracker, since Nutcracker ended rather recently, (1 and a half weeks ago) but Mommy said no.

In the Nutcracker, I was a party boy and a Russian. I think you can tell which character is which. We also made Christmas cookies for the bake sale! I so so so so so (keep saying so until 3015) miss being a Russian. (I didn’t particularly like being a party boy.)

But anyway, I am so so so so so (keep saying so until 4015) excited because next year, two girls IN MY GRADE, will be picked to be CLARA!!!!!! I really, really, really, (keep saying really until 9015) want to be Clara. That is all I have to say this time.

(Comment if you think this post should be called the AdventCracker. Just kidding, you don’t have to do it :-P)

Thanksgiving

Lori’s Turn

I am learning so much! I have been a homeschooling mom for more years than I care to admit, and yet I am learning something new all the time. One of the reasons I am thankful for homeschooling is I keep learning.

Our November Thankful Tree

If you are a regular reader of our blog, you will notice that our goal of posting weekly has not even been close. We made a good start, but then life intervened and we found ourselves further and further behind on our posts. I am thankful for second and third chances. I am thankful for my subscriber. (Maybe soon I will have a few more! I would be so thankful.)

Part of the reason I have been away from our blog is I have been following other blogs in an effort to learn from those more experienced. I have found some pretty interesting people to follow. They have great ideas which is very inspiring to me. One of my current favorites is Raising Little Shoots. She is about to start a Nature Advent Calendar. I am excited about this. I look at our December calendar and feel like I want to just quit any type of study. Where will we fit it in? The beauty of homeschooling is that you can switch gears, so we will turn our hearts to preparing for Christ’s birthday and entering the holiday season. I am thankful for those who set good examples.

In addition to starting the Nature Advent Calendar, we will read aloud Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and then go see the play by our local community theater. We are also planning service opportunities. We are going to “ring the bell” for the Salvation Army. Hannah Ruth will play her violin to draw contributions. We also have some Christmas presents to make. I can’t give more details – you never know who might decide to read this blog! Hopefully if we do something different now, we will be prepared to return to our current studies with new vigor in 2016. I am thankful for flexibility.

Practicing outside on a beautiful day.

One of the things I know, but am learning anew, is that a blog is only interesting if it relates to others and if your journey can assist theirs. We started this blog for us, but I want to make it encouraging and helpful to others. I hope to help and encourage others with our successes and our struggles. I am thankful for those who are so open to help me.

With our wild December, I cannot promise that we will post any more frequently. I do hope to continue to share what we are learning as we pursue our continued learning. I am thankful for you! 

Hannah Ruth’s Turn

Hi! My Mom said I could talk about any topic, so I was originally planning to talk about Pepper and Cori. Mom says that I should also talk about something called NaNoWriMo. What is NaNoWriMo you ask? It is short for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. What is National Novel Writing Month? And when is it? It’s November! Sorry I told you guys late,  but I’ve been busy writing. NaNoWriMo is a writing program where you make a profile. It’s a competition- against yourself! You set a word count goal, then you write. You try to write however many words as in your word count goal. Now, that that’s out of the way, onto the puppy topic we go!!!! 🙂

Hannah Ruth diligently writing for NaNoWriMo.

Pepper and Cori are 3 whole human years old. We still call them puppies and they are tiny. (We’re pretty sure they’re as big as they’ll ever get) Pepper and Cori are brothers and their birthday is…. Drumroll, please… The 4th of July! Pepper and Cori are Shih Tzus in case you were wondering. Very recently we took the puppies to the vet. Cori has had anxiety trouble. He has been scared of everything. Dr. Glen said that Cori needed to take medicine so we gave the pill that night. We saw a change in Cori immediately. The problem was that Cori was acting dizzy. He didn’t jump on the furniture to take a nap. He slept down, down, down on the floor. But today he’s back to his bright, skittish self! Until next time…

Pepper and Cori waiting for the vet

Words, Words, Words!

Lori’s View   

Words are important.  Words are how the world came into existence.  Words share our thoughts, our hopes and our dreams.  We use words to spread ideas.

Hannah Ruth was an early reader.  She loves to read. Except for the hour or so she is allowed to play with electronic devices, you will probably find a book (or Kindle) in her hand or at the very least, nearby. I have no idea how many books she has read, and, although some may be twaddle, I marvel at the sheer number of words that cross her path. Because of this, I have struggled with how to teach vocabulary to her in the past. Word lists end up being busy work for a child who is always reading.

Vocabulary Notebook

Last spring as I was sticking my toe in the waters of a Charlotte Mason education, I read Karen Andreola’s Book, A Charlotte Mason Companion. In the book she tells about how she bought her daughter a beautiful notebook and when her daughter did not know a word, she would write it in the notebook, try to figure out the meaning from the context, and then look up the dictionary definition. I knew when I read the book that I would incorporate that into our home education.  I took Hannah Ruth to her favorite place in the whole world, Barnes and Noble, and let her pick out a beautiful notebook.  I find she uses it more with read aloud because she stops my reading to ask what a word means and then I can remind her to write it down, think about context and she later looks it up. Hopefully, as this becomes more familiar, she will remember to follow the procedure on her own.

This plan is wonderful on so many levels. As a homeschool teacher, we don’t need blanket word lists because we interact regularly and know which words our children know or don’t.  If we are not sure, we simply can ask! Words, like everything else, mean so much more in context. Hannah Ruth is also learning to think. I can (and often do) tell her what a word means, but I love watching her try to figure the word out from the context. She is also learning the vanishing skill of looking up a word in the dictionary.  (I admit, sometimes we cheat and simply use the dictionary app on my phone.)

For the first time, vocabulary is an integral part of our curriculum and yet it is not a subject to study. We learn together using a natural, gentle approach.

Hannah Ruth’s View

This is the narration box, (shown below.) I have to draw from it every time I finish a chapter of an assigned book. One time, I drew “make a scene out of legos, barbies, toys, etc.” Another time, I drew “using household items, make an object used in the story.”  My favorite was “put on a puppet show, showing one scene.”

This photo of the puppet show is a part of chapter 4 of Red Sand Blue Sky.  On the left is Amy and on the right is Lana. They are in a torn down house made of glued popsicle sticks. The other picture shows some of the narration box’s contents.

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤  🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

The Puppet Show

Narration box

Mom’s comment – We discussed the narration jar in our first post. Tonight the link did not work, but hopefully that is temporary. True narration is simply having the student tell the story back in her own words. We narrate everything Hannah Ruth reads or to which she listens. She enjoys the variety offered by the narration box.

Nurture vs Nature

Lori’s view

Happy Labor Day!  Hannah Ruth and I try to work on our blog on Saturday or Sunday afternoons, but with the holiday, we procrastinated a bit.  I still have lesson plans to finalize for the Essentials class I tutor at Classical Conversations tomorrow, as well as lesson plans for our week.

This past week was an interesting week for school.  I had to be out of town for a large portion of the day on Monday.  If a teacher in a traditional school has to be out, the school hires a substitute teacher.  When you are a homeschooling Mom, you have to figure out what to do. Homeschooling Moms don’t have sick days. The students often accompany mom wherever she needs to go if she has an appointment. Sometimes Dad is available to step in the gap and other times another homeschooling mom will let you drop off the student at her home – sort of like an exchange student. Before I ever homeschooled, that was my burning question: what do you do if you need to go somewhere during the day? This week I had a treat.  In addition to nine year old Hannah Ruth, I have two sons ages 23 and 25. The 23 year old left this week to begin his post college career three hours away in a new city. Before he did, I asked him to be the substitute teacher for the day.

What a great experience! I could do what I needed to do, but we were not losing precious learning time. I made a lesson plan for Hannah Ruth, stacked all the books she would need and left them to it. I admit there were a few phone calls with a few questions.  I also asked him to also take her to the Natchez Trace visitor center for a nature walk and to have her National Parks Passport stamped. My son is a nature lover and the two of them had a great time together.  He taught Hannah Ruth about poison ivy and she wrote about it in her nature journal. Even more importantly, the two of them had some quality time together before he left to begin the next phase of his life. When I am very tired from homeschooling, I forget these little blessings along the way.  One substitute teacher has moved on, but we have another month or so before the other brother leaves. This brother is working every day, so I can’t ask him to substitute, but I do need to make sure I take advantage of the time he has with his little sister.

Hannah Ruth’s view

On Friday, Mommy and I went to the lake in our neighborhood. We sat down and drew. I didn’t actually draw the lake. It was disgusting. I did a page about the lake’s status. The lake level was low. It looked slimy, oozy, bubbly and filmy. On the Gross-yness scale, (1 being super gross, 10 being swimmable,) it earned a 3. The water was sitting still. I also drew a tree. We decided the tree was an Ash Tree by using a tree identifier on Mom’s phone. The reason the Ash Tree stood out was not because Ash Trees are beautiful, they’re actually quite ordinary-loking trees. That particular Ash Tree was cool because it was HANGING OVER THE WATER! Half of it was, at least. All the roots were on land though. It was growing sort of lopsided.You’ll see the pictures of my drawing and the actual tree below. Anyway, this is the lake in one of it’s yuckiest times. TADA! Isn’t it gross? What number would you give it? On the scale I mentioned earlier, I mean. It almost looks solid, the way the sun
is shining!

<—————–The Yucky Lake—————–>

Drawn Ash Tree

Actual Ash tree

Lori again

We walk the same path most weeks for our nature walk so we can see how the view changes as the seasons change. Our walk usually ends at this little lake.  I’m sure you will hear more updates about the trees, the lake and the other discoveries as you read throughout our year. By the way, I think this Ash tree is pretty beautiful!

Hannah Ruth sitting under the Ash tree.

The joy is returning!

Picture Study – Lori

Last week, Hannah Ruth mentioned in our first blog post that she loved picture study.  I think I’m falling in love too! Charlotte Mason said, “We cannot measure the influence that one or another artist has upon the child’s sense of beauty, upon his power of seeing, as in a picture, the common sights of life; he is enriched more than we know in having really looked at even a single picture” (Vol. 1, p. 309). Picture study is totally new to us this year.  Classical Conversations studies artists during the third six weeks of each Cycle.  We are in Cycle 1 and will be studying Giotto, Ghiberti, Fra Angelico, Dürer, Michelangelo, and El Greco the first of 2016. We decided on Dürer, for our first picture study this semester, since we will briefly see him again next semester. We purchased a picture study portfolio from Simply Charlotte Mason.

We are studying the art of Dürer one day each week.  We start by reading a little part of his biography. Then I hand the beautiful print to Hannah Ruth to study it for a few minutes. I do not give her any information about the picture; not even the title. After she studies it, I take the picture back and ask her to tell me what she remembers about the print. When Hannah Ruth narrates back to me what she saw in the picture, I am amazed at the detail. Her narration of the art helps me to study it in more depth than I would have on my own. She always sees so many beautiful fine points.

The picture is then placed somewhere in the house where we will see it often.  Each week we look at another picture by the artist and place it somewhere else. I believe picture study is improving her attention to detail as well as opening her eyes to the beauty of the great artists. My hope is that as we spend six to eight weeks really studying one artist, we may at some point be able to recognize his other works when at a museum or gallery or maybe in a book, simply because we have become so familiar with his style. We plan to study three artists this year.

Hannah Ruth discusses Nature Study – the Constellations

I liked doing the constellation cards. You can see them in the pictures below.  The way we did them is we took a pencil and drew dots copying off of a constellation in the book. (size depending on magnitude.)

After that we would take a pushpin and poke holes where the dots were. We then wrote the 1st and 2nd magnitude star’s names down. Then we wrote the name of the constellation under or above the constellation and you held it up to the light. We didn’t do this, but it is an optional part; you draw lines to connect the dots and shape the constellation. The constellations we did were Big Dog, the Ursa Major, the Twins, and the Virgin. It was really fun. The one thing I forgot to mention in the first post is that we started a nature journal! There is a picture of the constellation section. We haven’t been doing nature walks, but one night, we did stargaze. We will start nature walks this week. Nature study was fun.

 

New Year, New Approach

Lori’s Take

Welcome to our Mother/daughter blog, CMschooling.  My daughter and I decided to adopt a more Charlotte Mason approach so that our homeschool would be a place where we learn without too much frustration.  Each week we plan to update how it is going with both our points of view.

I quickly learned that even with the kinder, gentler approach, school is still school and there is an adjustment.  The first day we finished everything so quickly, I wondered if we had completed everything we planned. The second day of each week we will attend a classical community for the friends and fellowship. We enjoyed our day with other homeschoolers, but the method is a little different than what we do at home. I hope to develop plans to create a Charlotte Mason Community for like minded homeschoolers in the future. By the third day, I realized the first day was not our new normal. The days were taking longer and I worried that we were falling into the old patterns I was hoping to avoid. However, when the week was over, I realized we ended our week with more smiles than frowns and more laughs and excitement than I remember from the past. Since we were narrating almost all subjects, even narration did not receive the groans of the past. The addition of the narration jar added a little fun and mystery to our days. For our nature study we had planned to watch the constellations, but every night was rainy.  We did read good books about the constellations and are still waiting for a clear night to look more closely at the sky.

We have homeschooled for HR’s entire education thus far. So what is different this year? The biggest difference is we are not doing every subject every day. We are adding more fine arts, including picture study and composer study. Family scripture memory work is at the breakfast table each morning. I’m trying to pace our studies on my child rather than on a study guide someone else designed.  I believe we will cover more during our year if school becomes more of a joy rather than a requirement.

Hannah Ruth’s Take

The biggest blow on starting school is getting up early. Mommy wakes me up about 7:30. I normally get up about 9:00 AM-12:00. Mommy says I’m getting up LATE compared to kids who go to private or public school. We would start school sometimes really late, or sometimes really early. (We finished school the first day in two hours.) Our schedule didn’t always come through. (Like the time we MIGHT have ended at 4:00 PM, or something like that.) During school, we start with Bible, then we move on the reading about constellations, then we do math, then Mommy reads me a book called Torches of Joy while I play with geometry blocks. After that we sort of do it randomly. Sometimes I then read assigned books, sometimes do handwriting, sometimes do a craft. We started this new thing this year where each day we do something different. One day, we do word study. Another day, we do picture study. (I ❤ picture study!)  When I do assigned reading, I have to narrate. We took a box of Earth Balance Butter (Maybe you’ve heard of it) and covered it with pretty paper with designs. Mommy cut out cards that said random ways to narrate. There was an hourglass on the left hand side that either had sand on both top and bottom, or had sand only on the bottom. If the sand was on both sides that meant it didn’t take long. If the sand was only on the bottom, it would take longer. I can’t decide if I’m excited for the school year, or not.