Thinking (Some More) About Scheduling Our Days

I've been working on our schedule some more, and reflecting on Charlotte Mason's motto- Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life. Trying to reconcile the truth in this motto with the rushed, jam packed, crazy thing that seems to be our life can be quite a challenge. How can I allow my kids the time they need to play house, make forts, catch frogs, see the animals in the clouds, make mud pies and just be a kid when we have 8 appointments or classes each week, in addition to taekwondo and church and grocery shopping, SCHOOL, and everything else?

I found the answer to be my educational philosophy. An educational philosophy is the goal, the form, the method, and the process we use to teach our kids. You may not agree with all the educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason, but I think its a great starting point for looking at how we can light that educational fire on our kids. One of Charlotte Mason's principals is that children need time to be kids and think and experiment and fiddle with things in order for it to make it their own

When planning our days I try to start with the most important things. For my family this would be relationship first as it is the foundation of everything else that will follow. My younger kids are adopted and we are still working on attachment and connection. It is especially important for us that for the relationship piece of the puzzle everything be gentle and pleasant, then habits, Bible, reading instruction, writing instruction, math instruction and exposure to great literature are my priorities.

Once they can read, write and do basic math, they have all the tools they need to learn anything they want, at any time. Great literature will provide the ideas needed to fuel the fire of their minds.

Another quote I try to always keep in mind when planning our days-

Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.  ~ William Butler Yeats

How Does Home Education Measure Up?

     Source: TopMastersInEducation.com

Gardening

We started easing into school today, and did Bible, reading instruction, and some copy work. Everyone had fun and wanted to do MORE, so I knew it was time to stop for the day. :-)

We went outside and worked in the yard for a while before it got too hot, and gave our beautiful, newly planted Mandeville plant some water.I can't wait til it gets big enough for us to see those lovely red and white blooms from our bedroom window!
 
This afternoon I am trying to decide if we should take the Laguna Trolley into down to see the Sawdust Festival before it closes Sept. 1. I know the kiddies would love it, but I'm tired. We'll see what happens!

It's that time of year again....

School planning is in high gear!
We are starting kindergarten for my daughter and JrK for my son, and while it will be a very gentle year, I will also have to be much more consistent than I have so far so that we can make the kind of progress my daughter has been requesting. She really is eager to be a big kid and learn!

Here is what we are planning for now.

• 7AM- 9AM  wake up, breakfast, morning chores, take a walk
• 9AM- 10AM read aloud Bible (10-15 min), Scripture Memory Work (5 min), Copywork (5 min working up to 10 or 15 min by the end of the year), and Reading Instruction (5 min working up to 10 or 15 min by the end of the year).  If we need to do errands, appointments etc they would go here *after* the school lessons
• 10AM- 12:30PM outdoor play, (yard, park, etc) lunch
• 12:30PM- 1:30 Math (5 min working up to 10 or 15 min by the end of the year), Nature or literature read aloud 15min.
• 1:30PM- 2:30 or 3PM Quiet Time- free play or quiet reading/resting in bedrooms
•  3:00PM- 3:30PM Spanish
• 3:30PM- Free play indoors or out.

For Bible we are reading through and discussing The Jesus Storybook Bible.
For Scripture Memory we will be doing the verses assigned from  Sunday School- in September this will be the Great Commission

 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~Matt 18:18-20

 For Copywork we will be doing the Delightful Handwriting program which starts with single letters and moves into words and short sentences from the reading program we are using, which will be Delightful Reading. Both these programs are from SimplyCharlotteMason.com.

Math will be MathUSee Primer, moving into MUS Alpha as soon as she finishes Primer. www.mathUsee.com

For Nature reading we will be reading aloud Books by Thornton W Burgess such as The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse and The Bee People by Margaret Warner Morley. I got these as part of a downloadable bundle from Yesterdaysclassics.com and they are also available from Amazon.com

For literature we will be reading aloud fairy tales such as the original The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson or Aunt Jo's Scrapbag by Louisa May Alcott.

Spanish will be  Salsa Spanish.

Wednesday morning will be Bible study class.

The difference between K and JrK is that if my little guy doesn't want to participate he  doesn't have to, and I have other activities like for him during reading and math instruction.

I am so excited to get started, now I just have to decide on a date to start!

Useful Links

http://livingcminca.blogspot.com/

Great Home Ed Websites

I wanted to share some web sites I have found helpful- stuff I have recently found as well as some tried and true favorites.

Learn In Freedom by Karl Bunday I really can't say enough about this site. Way back in the olden days when I was home schooling the first time around and I was first got online, I met Karl Bunday at a home ed site. He was a revolutionary thinker back then, and there is still a lot of golden nuggets all over his pages.

DonnaYoung.org Printables and Resources
So much stuff at this site!Everything from handwriting pages to print out to pictures of presidents to calendars and more.

Salsa
How to teach Spanish when you don't speak it yourself (Or have forgotten what you once knew)? Salsa is Georgia Public Broadcasting's award-winning Spanish language series for children.

Living Math
I want to build a bridge. I'd like to close the gap between math and history, science, literature and humanity created by the isolated way we traditionally approach math education.

Little House on the Prairie Pa's Fiddle Project
The goal of The Pa's Fiddle Project is simple but ambitious: to re-connect generations of readers with the rich musical legacy written into the Little House books.

First Week of School 2012

We had a great  first week of school. I had planned things to go very slow, taking our time and starting at the most simple of simple things, but my girly had another idea. She wants to write and read so badly that she was making leaps ahead of where I had planned to start. Since I wouldn't want to frustrate her, I am changing to meet her where she is so we can catch that joy and excitement of learning! We are doing lots of things to help small motor strength and endurance. Play dough, Light Bright, and coloring all can help small motor development. Lil Princess was so proud of her rainbow alligator letter A. Lil Dumpling was more traditional with  a green alligator but also had a lot of fun. I got the Animal Alphabet from http://www.education.com/ Today we used plastic C clips to sort colors and make chains and learn about patterns. After that we used play dough to make letter A. I just use a plastic page protector on a piece of construction paper where I had written the letter A for them to press the play dough along the lines. They love it and it doesn't stick at all. Best of all? School only took about 30 minutes a day!