Unveiling Our 2012-2013 School Year (Finally)

Since we got home from our extended trip to Maine (lots of related posts on that; check them out by clicking the Summer label on the list at the right!), I've been a busy girl. I spent a few days and nights making final plans and gathering all our materials for this, our sixth homeschooling year. Miss Priss is now in seventh grade, and Tiny Girl is in sixth. We are thoroughly entrenched in the middle school years. (Aside: When and how did that happen?? They keep growing, yet I'm still as youthful, dewy, and wittily charming as ever....)

Some background: we use Ambleside Online's fabulous and rigorous FREE curriculum as our foundation. Since I am a rebel, I amend AO's schedule, adding and subtracting to create a unique plan for my family, one that fits us best. This year, we are beginning AO Year 6. And we're trying our hand at notebooking in a few areas, which I think will be wonderful.

Spiritual Growth
The girls have begun a pre-inductive study of the Psalms called Young Hearts Longing for God, which I purchased during CurrClick's recent sale. This year, they prefer to work on this independently, which is a new thing, and one I'm not so sure about. But I'm willing to give it a try. If I notice any slap-dash work, I'll be back at the helm.

Math
After much curriculum-switching, we decided to enroll Miss Priss at our neighborhood Mathnasium center for her math studies this year. She goes to the center Monday through Thursday for 1.5 hours each day. So far we've all been pleased, and we have high hopes for this year. Tiny Girl opted for a change as well, and we went with MasterMath, a free online middle school math website with video lessons. (For more info, read my review at Curriculum Choice.)

Logic
Miss Priss has begun a new course, Critical Thinking, by Anita Harnadek. Both girls will continue with the MindBenders series, which they love, and the BalanceBenders series. All of these are from the Critical Thinking Company.

English Mechanics
For spelling, we're staying with Spelling Power. Three days a week, we spend a bit of time on grammar with Daily Grammar. You can read my reviews of both here. Copywork continues as well. However, we are taking a more formal approach to composition this year and using Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Skill, book 5 in her writing series.

Literature
AO's poet for Year 6 fall term is Robert Frost. To my great joy, Miss Priss is already entranced. We will be incorporating memory work and recitation this year, which we've done in the past but let slide the last two years.

Both girls are reading The Hobbit independently this term. We are STILL reading Oliver Twist as a family read-aloud. Now that we are home and on a more regular and predictable schedule, I'm hoping to move a little more quickly through this one. Tiny Girl and I enjoy it; Miss Priss does not and strongly voices her opinion every time I crack open the Kindle. Also, AO's list of Year 6 free reads is packed with some wonderful selections.

Now that my girls are older, we are returning to Bulfinch's Age of Fable, beginning with chapter 27, the Trojan War and the Iliad. This fits in well with our geography study (see below). I love serendipity!

As for Shakespeare, we will attend a few theatre productions this year. Macbeth is first -- in October, of course. Later, I have in mind Much Ado About Nothing; Julius Caesar; and Romeo and Juliet. Tiny Girl was much put out that A Midsummer Night's Dream is not on the theatre's schedule this year.

Foreign Languages
I had a hard time deciding on a French study. We're beginning with Child's Illustrated First Book in French, by J. G. Keetels (in the public domain; I found it on Google Books). This will be somewhat of a review. Miss Priss wants to continue her German studies via PowerSpeak on our library's website, and I have no intention of dissuading her. Tiny Girl will begin -- and Miss Priss continue -- Latin and Greek roots later in the year.

Readings: History, Geography, Science, Natural History, and Biography
Story of the World, volume 4, by Susan Wise Bauer
Exploring the Holy Land, by Ann Voskamp and Tonia Peckover
Secrets of the Universe (selections), by Paul Fleisher
It Couldn't Just Happen, by Lawrence Richards
School of the Woods, by William J. Long
Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein, by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
"Dion," from Plutarch's Lives
Queen Victoria, by Noel Streatfeild (a Tanglewood selection)

Artist and Composer Studies (Fall Term)
Renoir and Debussy

Outside Activities
Theatre, both girls this year
Riding, Tiny Girl
Piano, both girls
Mid-week small group Bible study at church, both girls
Girl Scout Cadettes, all of us

So there you have it! Our 2012-2013 year. Some titles will change as we finish them, of course, and new ones will be added. But this is the basic framework.

Let the learning begin!

It's a Carnival of Curriculum!

Welcome to my contribution to The Curriculum Choice's Carnival of Curriculum! I'm very excited you're here, and I hope you find some encouraging and informative tidbits to help you in your homeschooling adventure.

A little about us and what we do:

• I have two daughters, both of whom will be in middle school this coming school year. I'm still having trouble coming to terms with that fact. Last week, they were in diapers, for Pete's sake!
• This fall begins our sixth year of homeschooling, so we are no longer neophytes. I still experience moments of nail-biting anxiety or a sleepless hour or two during the night now and again. But I am sure we are on the right path for us.
• My girls and I love to read! So it's natural that a literature-based educational philosophy suits us best. Our first year of homeschooling, I began in classical mode and quickly made the switch to a more Charlotte Mason approach. Now I blend elements of both.

My top curricula sources:

• Ambleside Online: This FREE, Charlotte Mason-based curriculum is, in a word, astounding. So much thought and effort went into its design. I've studied the book lists through Year 11, AO's final year, and am very impressed with the selections and options offered. We will begin our sixth year with AO, Year 6, in September, and I can't wait.

Have I mentioned that I'm a life-long learner? I have an academic's desire for research, discovery, and enlightenment; ergo, I enjoy searching for other books or educational avenues. Here are some sites where I've located titles to read:

• The Tanglewood School Curriculum is another FREE curriculum guide that offers ideas for supplemental literature and history selections. More book choices is always a good thing!
• Heritage History offers a huge selection of book titles, many of which are in the public domain, as well as study aids, such as historical maps, and information on wars and battles. Browse the library to find books listed by genre.
• A Book in Time is another fabulous booklist. Organized by time period, such as Early America or Middle Ages, listed books also feature annotation and age recommendation.
• Epi Kardia, a CM curriculum, provides a book list I like to peruse for ideas and options.
• Happy Hearts Homeschooling Library offers a wealth of information on FREE books, arranged by subject.

I also use books to help me plan a thorough education for my children:

• A Literary Education, by Catherine Levison
• A Charlotte Mason Education, by Catherine Levison
• More Charlotte Mason Education, by Catherine Levison
• When Children Love to Learn, ed. Elaine Cooper
• The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
• Honey for a Child's Heart, by Gladys Hunt. You can read my review on The Curriculum Choice here.

A source for other education materials that I find particularly helpful is The Critical Thinking Company. Over the years, we've used several of their workbooks, including Mind Benders, Building Thinking Skills, and Word Roots.


Although reading is at the heart of our educational pursuits, we do some math as well! One of my children has used the free MEP curriculum (Mathematics Enhancement Programme) for five years. The other has required a few different curricula, and most recently we enrolled her in our nearby Mathnasium, a math tutoring facility. Already, we've seen a vast improvement in her attitude and confidence.

So that's a description, albeit brief, of most of my curricula resources. It took me a few years to winnow through the myriad options available to homeschoolers today, and these are what suit my family. I hope I've helped you on the way to discovering what's best for your family!

For more information on what goes on around our house as well as other resources, take a look at my posts under both the "Reviews" and "Homeschooling Helps" tags.

For more wonderful ideas and encouragement, spend some time browsing other posts at the Carnival of Curriculum! The review team has a wealth of homeschooling knowledge, experience, and tips, all ready to share with you.

Are You Looking Ahead to the Next Year?

About this time, many a homeschooling parent's mind turns to plans for the next school year. I know mine does. If you use a boxed curriculum, attend a virtual school, or just plan to keep on keepin' on with what you've already got going, then planning's a breeze. Or, if you're more like me, you start with a basic framework, add some elements, subtract others, touch it up here and there with some embellishments -- all in accordance with your vision for your children's education, your family's beliefs and values, and your children's learning styles/preferences.

For example, (I LOVE examples! I'm that kind of person.) folks with a literary bent may select a Charlotte Mason-style curriculum and then add in notebooking. Another family with a more classical emphasis (a la The Well-Trained Mind) may opt for extra hands-on activities or visual elements to their studies, such as videos or movies. And then the eclectically-minded choose from the entire smorgasboard.

So many choices! So much responsibility. It can be enough to make a mama lose some sleep at night.

I'm one who has a firm foundation, and that's Ambleside Online. I start there, and I mostly stay there. But I must admit, I'm one who likes to look over the smorgasboard. If you do, too, let me point you to Curriculum Choice, an excellent curriculum review website. (Let me hastily point out that I am in no way swayed because I'm a reviewer there -- I'm only a newbie!) It helps me tremendously to read what other homeschooling parents think about curricula and resources and what their experiences have been like.

Tip: If you're considering a specific curriculum or resources that hasn't yet been reviewed on Curriculum Choice, just Google the name of the product along with the word review. Bingo! A wealth of information at your fingertips.

Another idea: you've probably hung onto many of your homeschooling help books. I know lots of us re-read our favorites to inspire and refresh us anew. I flip through mine for highlightings, things I noted in the past and now we've reached the point to use. I see where I can add those items to our year's plan.

I'm an avid blog reader. Seriously, there's not enough time in my life to read all the blogs I want to with the level of commitment I wish I could devote. And I learn so much! I'm forever bookmarking blogs and websites on my Favorites bar.

Think of the blogs you most like to peruse for practical information and how-tos. (Aside: I know I "should" write how-to's for the sake of clarity, but I cannot STAND to put an apostrophe where it does not belong. An apostrophe shows possession; it does not indicate a plural. I beg your forbearance.) Then set aside some time to peruse those blogs. You may want to rise earlier than the children one day (or a few days) to give yourself this luxury. Read archived posts; click on links. I am almost always rewarded with gems when I take time to research my favorite blogs.

I have highlighted links to helpful homeschooling websites on my blog's sidebars. If there's one (or a few) that you haven't checked out, the planning stage is a great time to do it.

But the very first thing I do before I begin to plan is pray. I ask for guidance, wisdom in decisions, and rejuvenation on this journey. After that, I don't feel like the full responsibility of my children's education weighs on my shoulders alone. And that is a lovely, freeing feeling.

Flirting with the Idea of a Book of Centuries

For Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, the book of centuries (or century book) is a core idea.  In case this is new information for you, a century book is a notebook with a two-page spread for each century.  On the two-page spread, the student should record important events of that century, sort of like a timeline.  Only better.

Why is it better?  For one, instead of merely listing events or people at a blip on a line, a century book allows -- even encourages -- other details, such as sketches and other artwork, narrations, maps, and whatever information a student would like to add.  In fact, Catherine Levison points out in More Charlotte Mason Education "that the earliest form of the century book was known as a Museum Note Book [that] served as a combination sketchbook/notebook with each page representing a century."  Students brought their note books with them on trips to museums and then sketched museum artifacts on their appropriate pages along with written entries about any noteworthy events.

I love the idea, but I've been struggling with the particulars.  Levison offers instructions for assembling a century book in More Charlotte Mason Education, so I thought I'd research the topic a bit more in order to make the best decision.  Here are some ideas I found online:

Lindafay has a wonderful post about century books with a different layout on Higher Up and Further In.  Her older children's century books divide the page into topics, such as Wars, Conflicts, Politics; Art and Music; and Religion and Philosophy.

On Ambleside Online, I found a Parents' Review article published in 1923 by G. M. Bernau entitled, "The Book of Centuries."  Levison references this article in her chapter.

Simply Charlotte Mason offers a free template and instructions for creating a book of centuries.  Free is good!  It seems that this is a popular format; I visited several blogs to check out posts about century books, and some mentioned this version by name.

Design-Your-Homeschool showcases a century book with a separate timeline at the top, so that users can turn the timeline independently from the century book pages.  Scroll down to number five under "Application" to see a photo.

The Tanglewood School curriculum features a century book with a different layout as well.  It's not free, but it's very inexpensive.  The site shows two sample pages and provides instructions for assembling the book.  Depending on your desires, you can make a "quick page" or a more in-depth page about a person or event.  It seems to me that this version is more detailed than a true CM book of centuries.  It's more of a notebook.

I found these sites very helpful (and others I didn't include; just Google "book of centuries Charlotte Mason" or simply "book of centuries" and you get quite a lot), but I am still undecided as to format, paper, binding, etc.  Perhaps I am being too picky; but when I consider that Charlotte Mason intended for her students to keep and use their century books for years, indeed, as Miss Bernau writes in her article, as "a life-long interest," then I'm naturally a trifle wary of making an ill-thought-out choice.

However, Catherine Levison's advice in More Charlotte Mason Education (can you tell I really like this book?) inspires me.  Why stick to two pages per century?  Some centuries had a lot going on.  Also, there is this crucial point:  additional pages per century provide "a way for the child to mature with the book. [...]  If the child is embarrassed by earlier immature entries, he can stop adding to the sheet and begin using a fresh sheet for that century."  But, she cautions, don't remove the earlier sheet from the book.  After all, it's still a record of their education.

Another tidbit of advice from Levison:  century books aren't just for the children you teach.  Keep your own book as well, and foster an even greater love of history.

How CM Is Your Homeschool?

Like many of you (I'm just taking a wild guess here), I'm a member of several homeschooling Yahoo groups, some of which pose Questions of the Week.  Last week, a moderator asked, "How CM is your homeschool?"  (CM stands for both Charlotte Mason, a British educator, and also for the eponymous educational philosophy she espoused.)  Since I describe myself as "CM-ish," this question got me to thinking.

To be honest, there are many aspects of CM that we just don't do or do a bit differently.  But I thought I'd look at what we actually do and see how it fits into the CM scheme.

For example, we enjoy and use living books and biographies, and I try to incorporate this into every subject.  They fit more naturally into some subjects, like history, than others, like math. We have enjoyed the Sir Cumference series for math, and I know there are other math-related literature resources.

My daughters narrate anything that can be narrated.  When they were younger, we did drawn narrations or little plays, but we don't any longer.  Aesop's fables were particularly good fodder for plays.  At the beginning of this school year, I would type up one of their history narrations per week, but I've gotten really slack about that.

The girls do copywork everyday from their literature selections. Sometimes I use AO's copywork (we're in Yr 3) and sometimes they select their own.  We also started English for the Thoughtful Child 1 this year, and we use spelling workbooks, which is not very CM. Every once in a while, we do studied dictation.  The girls enjoy it, but it seems to take a long time. We study the AO suggested poet for each term.

We do artist study on Friday, and we choose whomever we like.  Right now, we're on Van Gogh.  I'm more loose about composer study.  We listen to classical music in the car.  In the past, I've been more deliberate about this.

For Bible, they each have their own individual devotion and we have a family prayer time.

We do a bit of memory work.  Right now, they have each memorized a poem by Sara Teasdale.  At church, one child is memorizing the Apostles' Creed and the other Psalm 23 with their Sunday school classes.

For Shakespeare, I downloaded Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit on Librivox, and we listen to this in the car.  We really enjoy it.  They do not narrate Shakespeare at this point.  Even I have trouble with all the characters' names!

For foreign language, We started Rosetta Stone French 1 this year and it is superb.  My youngest likes it the least; she has trouble with the pronunciations and often gets frustrated.  Also, neither can do the writing part, so I do it for them.  They listen to the speaker and then tell me what to type.  Miss Priss and I began Latina Christiana this year. She doesn't LOVE it, but she likes that she is learning Latin, if that makes any sense.  She memorized the Table Blessing, and then taught it to Tiny Girl.

We use MEP for math, and I supplement with times table worksheets and quizzes.  Since I try to keep the lessons on the short side (a la CM), we often don't finish a full MEP lesson.  If I think the uncovered material is crucial, we just continue with it the next day.  Sometimes, we simply move on to the next lesson.

Where I fail at CM is in these areas: we do not do hymn/folk song study.  I'm not so fabulous at handicrafts, but am better at life skills.  The girls have a chore rotation that changes each week.  And, while they play outside a lot, I am really lax about nature walks and nature study.  I tried to do this in the beginning, and we all had nature notebooks and nice, new colored pencils, etc.  But it didn't seem to work for us.  So now our nature study mostly involves our backyard birding, which we really enjoy. (They also take a biology class at Timothy Ministry on Fridays with other homeschoolers at a local church.)  I don't concentrate on habit training, per se, but our chore chart helps in this area.

In considering this, I came to the conclusion that I am more of a "literary education" person than a strict CM homeschooler.  I rely heavily on AO, Catherine Levinson's books, and Gladys Hunt's books, sprinkled with suggestions from the Tanglewood curriculum, TWTM, other homeschoolers, Jenny Sockey's book, etc., to make our selections.  Basically, we read a lot.  But we also take time to do some other things.  This week, as are working on a medieval lapbook of a sort.

Regardless of my CM shortcomings, our homeschool truly reflects one of Charlotte Mason's basic tenets.  For us, education is not a particular set of guidelines or schedule; education is a life.

Our School Plans for Next Year

I've been planning what we're going to do in our homeschool next year. Sort of. Since we use Ambleside Online as our template, I don't need to plan in as much detail as I might otherwise need to do. Also, I tend to take things as they come. In fact, a dear friend of mine suggested I title my blog "Fast and Loose Homeschooling," but I demurred.

Despite my cavalier attitude, some planning is necessary and worthwhile. For instance, I've been woefully slack in our French studies, despite several books and a few CDs. Obviously, another tack was needed. Also, we're adding Latin and spelling, so I did some research in those areas. Here's what I have so far (but it's never carved in stone):

• Math: MEP, years 2 and 3
• History: Story of the World, after the Norman Conquest and into the Renaissance; continue with Our Island Story; This Country of Ours
• Spelling: Excellence in Spelling's The Phonetic Zoo
• Copywork
• Grammar: English for the Thoughtful Child; Simply Grammar
• Latin: Latina Christiana
• French: Rosetta Stone
• Natural History: finish Pagoo; Secrets of the Woods; nature study
• Science: Science Lab in a Supermarket
• Geography: Marco Polo
• Biography: Da Vinci; Good Queen Bess; Squanto
• Literature (a few selections): Tales from Shakespeare; Little Pilgrim's Progress; The Princess and the Goblin
• Poetry Study
• Artist Study
• Composer Study

I've also been perusing the Tanglewood School curriculum. I really like Tanglewood in that it's a blend of Charlotte Mason and contemporary classical philosophies. Also, Tanglewood differentiates between literature and reading. For example, literature is what's read aloud to children; and reading is what they read on their own. I've found that many of the AO free-reading selections are too difficult for my daughters to read independently. Tanglewood's suggestions are quite good.

That's the plan, thus far. As you can see, I have a few holes. Artist study, for example. Our first year homeschooling, we studied Claude Monet. We really enjoy Monet. In fact, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta currently as a Water Lilies exhibit going on. We're planning to see that. We recently read Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, by Hugh Brewster about the development of the Sargent painting with the same title. It's a fabulous book that I highly recommend. So now we're interested in John Singer Sargent. I could write a post on that book and Sargent, alone, so I think I'll stop there and do just that.