Semester 2, Week 8

What I’m Reading: Lavender Blue Murder (A Teashop Mystery #21), A Dark and Stormy Tea (A Teashop Mystery #24), and Lemon Curd Killer (A Teashop Mystery #25) by Laura Childs
I started reading the teashop mystery series quite a long time ago.  I would read one or two new ones a year.  By the time I reached the 18^th book, I was frustrated by the formula and the trajectory of the main character.  I wondered if Laura Childs had started using a ghost write because the characters and situations seemed a little ridiculous.  I gave the series a break thinking I would probably never read them again.  Then a year or so ago I wanted a Christmas mystery to read.  I turned back to the tea shop mysteries.  This year I’m finally back in the mood for cozy mysteries.  All of these books increase my tea drinking cravings helping me clean out my never-ending stash.  They’re also good and predictable reads for the end of the day.  Just enough fun mixed into a formula so that I don’t have to do much thinking to enjoy the book.  If you’re looking for a clean, cozy mystery series, this is the one for you.

Co-op
We had two park days for co-op during this school week.  The first park day was one rescheduled for later in the week due to inclement weather.  It was a busy day for us between going to the park, ballet class, and a family dinner.  It was hot, but there was a little bit of shade.  I felt like a great mom because all the kids enjoyed the carrots I brought.  We only had four families come, but I think it was a great amount so that we could really get to know one another.

Our second park day was our end of the year “party.”  It’s basically another park day that includes ice cream.  It was a great turn out.  We were missing a few of our families, but we had a well-attended event.  It’s great that the last two park days have been close to our house.  We also are really enjoying the spring weather.

Fourth Grade Highlight

We are on the final lesson in the grammar book.  I don’t think we will complete the very last assignment.  We are analyzing two sentences a week, and we’ll get through what we can.  We are spending our other grammar day completing a Mad Lib.  Both the kids think the stories are hilarious. 

We started listening to Little Britches by Ralph Moody.  We aren’t very far in, but we’re enjoying it so much.  This book will carry over into our summer reading.

Kindergarten Highlight

We finally finished reading through the Beatrix Potter books! I’m still keeping our nice collection on the top shelf of the kids books, but I look forward to the day I can pass the box along to my daughter’s care in her room.  What a good series of books.

Mom Highlight

I’m busy planning next school year, but I’m in the encouragement phase.  I’ve chosen our books, divided our weekly readings, and now I’m laying out our daily plans.  I’ve been listening to a few podcasts and reading books/articles to remind me of my priorities.  I’m {currently} feeling confident in taking off some of the books and tasks.

Semester 2, Week 1

What I’m Reading: Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie Bober
I don’t think I meant to read this book in its entirety, but I did and I liked it.  I’ve checked out a pile of pre-reading books from the library in my usual fashion of seeing what’s available and if I’m going to assign them for next school year. As usual, I’m having difficulty settling on what we’re going to do for history and science.  Even though we follow Amblesideonline in many ways, we’ve gone another route in those subjects in the past.  However, I do skim the books from the list that I’m able to find.  (Sorry, a little tangent there…no need for planning notes here.) Abigail Adams was an enjoyable way to read more about her life.  I’ve read snippets of her relationship with John Adams, but I’ve never read any other books about her.  This was a great biography that wasn’t too detailed to make it boring but also not lacking in substance.  I was able to get a full picture of her character and hopes for her husband, family, and herself.

What I’m Commonplacing: “You only care about the things that you can use, and therefore arrange them in the following order: Money, supremely useful; intellect, rather useful; imagination, of no use at all.” E.M. Forster, Howards End, Warbler Press 2021, p 25 

Co-op
We had our second class day.  My daughter’s classes are about holidays and animals.  She’s having so much fun.  I liked my son’s storytelling class and hearing all the stories the children came up with.  His second class is watercolor painting. I subbed in one of the youth classes.  Nothing like feeling really old than when you realize you haven’t had many conversations with teenagers since you were a teenager…a looooong time ago. (My job was easy.  I only had to be the adult once. They’re self-sufficient.)

Fourth Grade Highlight

Math went very well this week.  I didn’t have to teach any of the lessons, and we only had to review four problems total. 

We finished The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.  I loved it!  I didn’t remember anything about my first reading of this book.  I loved everything about this book especially after everything I’ve learned through the House of Humane Letters and The Lit Life podcast. 

In preparation for our Shakespeare play, we read through the Lamb’s version of As You Like It. It’s one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, so I look forward reading through it with my son. Z

We started reading Clyde Bulla’s story of Wagner’s Das Rhinegold.  We enjoyed the similarities to The Lord of the Rings. We’re also listening to short selections of the opera.

Kindergarten Highlight

We finally finished reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.  Both kids seemed to enjoy the stories. It was a good, nostalgic experience for me.

I’ve been sneaking in a Bob book every other week to introduce new sight words and to work on my daughter’s skill of sounding out words and blending sounds on her own.  She prefers the Bob books to our reading lessons. 

We had perfect weather this week to spend a lot of time outside.  It perfectly coincided with our neighbor’s school break. 

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that we’ve been following the lessons on Children of the Open Air on YouTube.  We’ve been doing it for quite awhile now.  We’re going very slowly through our progression of the videos.  My daughter came in yesterday showing me the hand signs for sol, la, and mi.  It was super cute, and I’m glad that she’s learning from the videos. 

Mom Highlight

After being really slack and laid back in our (non)routine, we are back on track getting up early with mornings free of tv and full of responsibilities and starting on school early freeing up our afternoons for outdoor time. The day that I didn’t enforce our new routine, school took all day.  Being the responsible party is work!

Fourth Grade Curriculum – Second Semester

* Updates * to the beginning of the year

I really like our adjustment to semesters this school year.  We fill so much of our school year with real life experiences that it is incredibly difficult to follow a traditional three 12-week terms in a Charlotte Mason education. 

On track, going well, no changes: Bible, The Chronicles of Narnia, fairytales, engineering with Grandpa, history, geography, grammar, copywork, dictation, Spanish, art lessons, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, piano. 

Daily Riches and Skills

Family Folder

Memory Work: We will continue memorizing the state capitals. I am adding in a few lines from Shakespeare’s As You Like It as this is the play we will be reading this semester. The poem we will memorize is “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth. The three scripture passages we’ll be memorizing are Zephaniah 3:17, Psalm 42:8, and Matthew 6:33-34.

Songs: We will learn five songs over the semester changing to something new after six weeks. The hymns are “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Me” and “Anywhere with Jesus.” The folksongs are “The Mermaid” and  “Shenandoah.”  I’m changing up our Spanish memory work, and we are going to  “Cielito Lindo.”

Math

My son is now is Saxon 5/4.  It’s going well.  He typically does four or five lessons, then we have a day where we do timed math facts and Simply Charlotte Mason Arithmetic. I’m having him do the odd problems on the odd lessons and the even problems on the even lessons.  At the end of the week, we go over the problems he got wrong during the week.  So far this system seems to be going okay. 

Literature

Shakespeare

We will be reading through As You Like It two days a week for 15-20 minutes. We had a great time going through A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so I’m hoping we’ll like reading this play together too.  Even though we’ve read through the Lamb’s version in a previous year, I thought we’d reread through the synopsis.  I use the Folgers version with my son, so sometimes I read the summary notes at the beginning of the scenes to explain what we’re about to read.

Poetry

I decided to buy the Amblesideonline Year 4 poetry anthology since all the collections I checked out from the library had too many poems to sift through.  I had said before that I didn’t really want to ge the anthology again, but I guess sometimes it’s a better way to get what I want.

Free Reads

We’re still using the AmblesideOnline Years 3.5 and 4 free read lists.  I still have a pile of books I want to read with my son.  I also pulled the books out that I had in a different free read tub I had kept to the side for my son to choose from in his free time.  Since he never picks from there, and I do want him to read them, I’ve decided I’m going to alternate him reading one of those on his own in between us reading the other books together.

Weekly Academics

The remainder of our subjects rotate once or twice a week. This is how we fit it all into our Charlotte Mason education.

History and Economics

My husband has asked that we add in reading and watching The Tuttle Twins series and then discuss them.  They have an easy series for my son to read on his own.  I’m having him read half a book and week and then narrate to me.

Science

Science will be divided into three parts – nature study, nature observation, and engineering. Our nature study topic is the sky.  I plan for us to make daily moon observations during the day or night.  I’m hoping this will stir up curiosity about other things we might see.

Riches

While I prefer introducing a new handicraft each term/semester, we’re repeating weaving potholders this semester.  We’re having a makers’ market again at the co-op family night.  I still have a lot of loops left from last year’s projects.  Now my daughter is old enough to join in.  I’m going to expand on his knowledge this year by emphasizing colors and design.

Composer

We will be reading Clyde Bulla’s The Ring and the Fire and listening to selections from Wagner.  I’m looking forward to doing something a little different with our composer study.

Artist

We are studying Whistler this semester using the Simply Charlotte Mason resources.

Semester 1, Week 10

What I’m Reading: Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
I think that this is the fourth or fifth book I’ve read in the Peter Whimsey mystery series.  I rather enjoyed it as all the others I’ve read in the series have been the books toward the end of the series.  I enjoyed the trivia facts I learned about Sayers along the way as I listened to a podcast that discussed her career in advertising.  It seems that I like several other authors from this era and a little past hers of clever women who also worked in television or advertising.  This was probably the most fun read out of the books I’ve read so far in the series.  (The other books seemed to have a lot more intellectual or philosophical meanings in addition to the story.)

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  The birds have come back around.  I had several weeks that they did not come to my backyard at all (or never when I was looking).  We had a very blustery day, and, all of a sudden, I had more birds than I could count.  I even added a new bird to my list: loggerhead strike.  My mom had identified one in her backyard. As she was telling me about it, I told her I had seen one just that day but didn’t get curious about looking it up because I thought it was probably a close relative of a nuthatch or such.

Co-op

We had three co-op activities in our one week of school (that wasn’t an actual week).  We completed the last class day of the semester.  It was quite a relief to myself.  I would grade myself with a C for this class.  It didn’t go according to plan, and I got very critical criticism from one of the boys.  I did my best by adjusting our time with more games.  I do wish I had more girls in the class to balance out the participation. 

We had a mom’s night out.  It was the first one I have been able to attend this school year.  We went to a tea shop that also serves Asian food.  It was a nice evening out with good conversation. 

Lastly, the kids had their Thanksgiving party.  It had  Peanuts Thanksgiving theme.  The kids did crafts and a few games.  They ate snacks based on the movie and watched the movie, as well.  The kids had a blast.  My daughter was especially happy to be consuming jelly beans on a holiday other than Easter. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

My son finished reading Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry.  He enjoyed the book and wanted to listen to it again.  We watched the movie on Disney.  My son said that very little of it was like the book.  How disappointing.

Kindergarten Highlight

Learning the skill of blending in phonics is a challenge.  We haven’t progressed past the second lesson.  I added in a copywork page of the first lesson’s words.  That seemed to really help as we reviewed the second lesson.  I’m going to continue this as we introduce new words.  I think that it really helped that she could see all the words on the same page and hear them all rhyme as I read through the words.  By the time I read through a few words, she was able to read most of the other words on the list.  I’m hoping this will help reinforce our lessons.

Semester 1, Week 3

What I’m Reading: An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym
I have rather enjoyed most of the books by Barbara Pym that I have read so far.  They are definitely perfect before-bed reads.  The characters have hidden depths, and the story lines are subtle.

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  The heat has been stifling lately.  However, I’m getting the children outside as much as we can stand.  We spent about 15 minutes outside looking for an insect to journal and were successful finding a mayfly on our garage.  The shade kept us cool for about a minute.  Fortunately, the rain is rolling in for a few days which should give us at least one week of pleasantness.  I would like to find a nature group for us to join at some point.  I think it would be fun and also help us grow in our observations.

Co-op

Since I’m taking our school year slow, we fit in two co-op activities in our “school week.”  We started things off with a kickoff of sorts.  The kids played on the playground and had ice cream.  Both kids were stretched as their usual outgoing friends weren’t there.  They both had to find some other kids.  My son played baseball with a group of boys, which was fun to watch since it was small kids up to high school playing.  My son has not played baseball at all, so it was a great experience for him. 

First class day is under our belts.  My son had a great time in both of his classes. We have a secret message to reveal, and he enjoyed his activities teaching about tornadoes.  My daughter’s second class was about bears; she also really enjoyed the part about alligators.  I was teaching my daughter’s first class, which is a kindergarten music and movement class.  It was crazy.  It was fun.  They did well with the rhythm instruments.  It was quite the experiment.  I’m not good at classroom management, for sure.  It’s a different beast in an eclectic homeschool community. 

A big reason why I didn’t pursue an education degree is that I don’t like to follow other’s rules or setting up major rules for others.  While I’m a big fan of manners and parents raising their children, I’m more of a live and let live kind of person.  Imposing ALL the rules on others is difficult for me.  It works well in our home because (I think) we are balanced in our freedom and personal responsibility.  My children are very well-behaved in public settings because we expect good behavior no matter where we go. I do not know how to translate that to a classroom setting.  Thus, I’m not a school teacher. I’m also a firm believer in letting kids move around while they’re learning, and that doesn’t work really well in a classroom setting.  I think I’d get a C in classroom management if I were to be evaluated. I’d pass because the kids are alive and I had 65-75% participation.    

Fourth Grade Highlight

We have ramped up engineering lessons with Grandpa.  My dad even prepared a lecture and written lesson for my son.  We’ll see how it all goes.  I’m hoping it will challenge him in a positive way to take some initiative to expand on his building skills.

My son finally finished reading Paddington Goes to Town by Michael Bond.  While I know he likes the series, we are still figuring out how to fit in reading time.  The minimum I require each day is 15 minutes because we have so many things that must be done.  He was reading some before bed, but he hasn’t done that much lately.

My son’s new free read is “Farmer Giles of Ham” by J.R.R. Tolkien.  He asked if he could read it on his own, so I have handed it over.  He had a hard time getting into it with the character introductions, but two days in and he’s liking it.  I’ve explained that now that he’s getting older, the books he reads will start giving more character and setting details.  I’m reading a Tolkien compilation of short stories and essays, so I’m going to reread “Farmer Giles of Ham” next.  I remember most of the story, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to read it again.

On the days that my daughter is in ballet, I’m having my son read the Odyssey series by Mary Pope Osbourne.  I’m having him read it aloud to me so that I can hear an easier version for myself (since it has been ages since I’ve read it), and so I can hear his reading progress.  He liked what he read so far and is eager to read more. 

We finally made it to our living library, so my son has started his biography readings.  He chose Charles Lindbergh for his first person.  I’m adding in a little extra reading while our school days are spread over multiple weeks.  I want to pick up a good momentum and then temper it later if necessary.  He is also now responsible for picking out what will go in his Book of Centuries.  I can see from this week’s selection that he has a lot of room for growth.

Charlotte Mason in a homeschool versus a classroom setting is a conundrum for me sometimes.  We are at a disadvantage in that my son does not have someone else’s example to see their school work.  While I do what I can to state my expectations for narrations or drawings, I think that sometimes the work that is provided is the bare minimum.  Sometimes I don’t know if I should require more or if the work done is really the best or the most information gleaned from a lesson. I am most definitely striving toward a more excellent form of work this school year.  As a result, I may be doing something against CM that maybe doesn’t show trust in the process.  We are reading The City Under the Back Steps for science.  I read a chapter each week, and I expect my son to write a sentence about what we read or draw a detailed picture.  He chooses to do pictures, but they are lacking in detail because he’s drawing one little thing that doesn’t take long.  Is it because that’s all he remembers from the story?  I don’t know.  So I’m going through the reading afterwards myself and typing out a list of the insect facts.  I do not expect every fact from my son, but I do want more detail.  We’ll see how all this goes.  I’m still not quite sure where I’m going with all this.

My son is loving A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I set the timer for 15 minutes.  We use wooden people figures to keep track of the characters. As we go from scene to scene, I assign a character to my son for him to read, and I read all the other parts.  It’s been fun.  He has also almost memorized his Shakespeare memory work, so I may need to add in another passage for him to memorize. 

Homeschool Freedom

We have reached our goal of completing three weeks in August.  It looks like we have the same goal for September.  I’m going to roll with it for now.  We have needed slow mornings, shortened days, and a LOT of time outside.  I think I’ve done a good job so far of simplifying our loads while also striving for excellence.

Kindergarten Highlight

My daughter is doing well with kindergarten.  When it comes to sitting down to do school, she is always so eager.  So it’s super funny that when she’s talking to others or asking about each day, she talks about how I make her do school or wonders when we’re going to have a break from school. 

Phonics lessons are going okay so far.  I am doing formal lessons, but I’m also fitting in as many letter sounds as possible on the sly.  I feel like there can’t be too much exposure at this point. 

We were able to fit in two trips to two different playgrounds this week making that three for the school year.  I would really love to be able to go every week even if it’s for 20 minutes.

New Starts

My daughter is asking for more.  In just about every area.  She told me she wants to play electric guitar.  I told her that it is required that she learns how to play piano first.  It’s a requirement in our home since I can teach the kids for free and it’s a great first instrument.  She has asked several days in a row when she can start piano lessons.  We’ll try it out next school week.

I might be a little ambitious, but I thought that my daughter’s new enthusiasm in music lessons might be a good time to introduce my kids to Children of the Open Air.  I’ve heard of it before, but I have never started my kids on solfeg since I’m already giving them piano lessons.  My daughter is at the perfect age for it, so while I’m going to gear the time toward her, I don’t mind if my son joins in.  Again, we’ll see how it goes in the new school week.

She also says she’s ready for a chapter book read aloud.  While I do have specific ones I want to read from AmblesideOnline, I have decided that we’ll try out Betsy-Tacy a little earlier than I had planned.  This will be another thing we’ll try in the next school week.

Semester 1, Week 2

What I’m Reading: King Lear by William Shakespeare
Another installment of my year of Shakespeare.  I listened to the Arkangel audio while reading along with the Folger’s edition.  I understood bits here and there but was lost in so many ways.  I watched the Kelly Cumbee class available on the House of Humane letters.  And then I watched it again and took notes.  My second viewing of the class coincided with what I was reading in Becoming Mrs. Lewis and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and On Fairy Stories.  I was able to make quite a few connections and understood so much more of the play.

Fourth Grade Highlight

I feel like we had a small victory this week.  I had originally planned to read the fairytale book aloud to my son, but due to how busy I was, I handed the book over to him. I told him which story to read, and then I had him narrate the tale back to me.  It worked perfectly.  I think I’m going to do this for the rest of the book.  While I really love reading most of the books with my son, it’s really nice to have work I can hand over to him to shift my load.  (Adding a second student is a challenge.  It has been a blessing that my children are separated by several years in this regard.  If they were closer in age, we would definitely be doing AO for groups.)

Another good part I’m realizing is that grammar is not taking as long as I expected.  That may not be the case all the way throughout, but I definitely feel like we could miss a week or two here or there and still complete the curriculum by the end of the school year.  Keeping the lesson at 10 minutes has worked out nicely so far. 

My son was introduced to division with remainders this week. (Is that considered long division?)  It was a challenge.  However, he’s slowly starting to make small connections between real life math and school work.  I still greatly dislike Saxon worksheets, but I feel like they’re a necessary evil.  He needs to be practicing math because it’s a skill.  He enjoys the Charlotte Mason arithmetic more, but he isn’t having to do any written work, and it’s basic adding and subtracting.  The difficulty is in interpreting the questions.  I think that the timed math facts practice I have him doing will also pay off in the long run.

Another victory?! My son has asked to double his time for his free reading.  It’s a reasonable request on one hand because he’s able to get through far more.  I told him that I am going to keep the timer at the minimum but that he’s welcome to read for longer once we have finished all of our other school work for the day.  I am still teaching him how to prioritize his days.

Needs Improvement

The second week of school was spread over a week and a half due to vacation and numerous appointments.  Instead of having my son take complete days off when I have appointments that keep me from teaching, I am having him do his independent work.  While it could be reserved for school days, I thought it would help in the long run building habits of working on school wherever we may go, and it helps shorten our normal school days.  We will be doing this quite a few times this semester.  In the past, I switched between normal weeks and shortened weeks, but I’m not doing that this year.  I have reduced our curriculum by weeks and subjects.  The subjects are reasonably spread through each day.  Over the course of ten days, all subjects have been well covered. This actual week of Monday through Friday seemed to feel a bit tedious in all my prep work, but I think it’s because we were having to work around so many different factors.  I don’t think I can manage more than two weeks at a time like that, so I will have to alter our schedule a bit when this happens so that I am not drained by all the packing, cleaning, prepping, teaching, organizing, cooking, driving, planning, etc. 

Kindergarten Highlight

THE highlight of the week was starting ballet.  My daughter has been counting down the days several times every day for several weeks telling us each day which day she got to go to ballerina class.  She was ecstatic.  She loves wearing her ballet clothes and shoes.  She thought her one hour class was way too short.  She hates that she has to wait an entire week to go back.

The second week went smoother than the first.  My daughter is much happier with our routine.  She’s doing well with what I ask from her, and she’s making connections of giving each request her all.  She has been introduced to all of the vowels, so I think we will start on the consonants next week.  She’s improving in her 100 counting.  She’s doing a great job of staying occupied.  She’s craving outdoor time.  She had a good week.

Kindergarten Curriculum – First Semester

What I’m Reading: Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks by William Elliot Griffis
I started reading this book before I left for the Netherlands and finished it several weeks after I returned.  I did not read every single fairy tale as some had a really boring start or seemed too redundant.  I did really enjoy the tales that included oak trees and storks.  My husband asked if I was reading it for the kids or for myself.  I was reading it for myself, but I do think I might read a few of the tales to my children at some point.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Sunflowers.  I have quite a variety of sunflowers this year.  Teddy bear, common, woodland, and another I haven’t been able to identify yet.  The teddy bears are definitely my favorites, but I generally love all sunflowers.  The entire growth process is fun to watch.  I also love watching them follow the sun. 

*Notes

Preschool Reflections and Kindergarten Anticipations

I have been on the nostalgic struggle bus as all the preschool lasts have wrapped up.  My daughter had her last day in the preschool at church which happens to be the last time in 8 years that we will drop off a child in this area.  She attended her last day of speech.  Did I ever tell you that while she could sign “thank you” she couldn’t say it?  She can say “thank you” with a whole host of long words now.  She’ll be in the kindergarten class at church and co-op and BALLET.  In her mind’s eye, she’s ready to be a teenager, but I’m over here mourning her babiness but also trying to celebrate her personhood.  I did not struggle like this when my son started kindergarten or first grade, maybe it was the anticipation of having more children.  This time around, I know it’s the last.  This is a big transitional year developmentally for my daughter.  I’ll be honest, I’m fighting it at every point until I know I can’t hold on anymore but must gently let her spread her wings.  I’m hopeful that once we transition into our new schedule that I will joyfully anticipate all the discoveries she’s going to make as she grows.

Calendar

My daughter uses a magnetic calendar that is introducing her to seasons, months, days, dates, holidays, special activities and weather.  I used it a little with my son, but my daughter has been wearing out the magnets!  I definitely went overboard buying all the educational tools for my son, so I’m glad my daughter has been getting use out of most of it. We didn’t use the calendar the entire month of July, so right at the very end of the month, she pulled it out on her own and asked questions figuring out what the day and month were.  She also started pulling out many of our other school things, so I can tell she’s ready to get back to our routine…or rather, that she enjoys what I’ve introduced in the past.

Read Alouds

I am following much of the AmblesideOnline Year 0 reading recommendations.  I wasn’t a big fan of the Burgess books, so I’m replacing those readings with Among the Farmyard People by Clara Pierson and Once Upon a Time Animal Stories by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (an original copy gifted to her great-grandfather many moons ago so such a treasure in more ways than one).  I will also be using her selections from our living library to encourage her joy for choosing her own books.

Math

My daughter will be using a 100 number chart to learn how to count to 100.  Right now she’s pretty good at it but needs help transitioning to each new group of 10.  She counts to 19 (skipping 16) on her own, so we will also work on counting without the use of the counting chart.  Once she has mastered the chart counting on her own, I will start her in the Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic series.  Slowly.  My expectation is that we will only devote 5-10 minutes each day to math.

Phonics

I will be using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading and introducing Bob books along the way.  Right now I plan to follow the way I taught my son, but I will remain flexible.  These lessons will also be limited to 5-10 minutes.

Copywork

Writing is another area where I’m going to be more relaxed with my daughter than I was with my son.  I did purchase the Brain Quest Kindergarten workbook because my daughter feels included in having something to work through.  I also use the Usborne Wipe Clean books to encourage writing practice.

Riches

I still plan to be relaxed in my participation expectations from my daughter when it comes to what we’re doing for school.  I would love for her to join us for everything, but I know she still needs a lot of play time. 

My daughter will be taking ballet classes once a week.  She is so excited about being a ballerina.  I asked her if she’s ready for piano lessons.  She said she’s not quite ready, so I’m not going to push it yet.  I don’t require it until first grade.  My son was far more eager, but he also saw me teaching other students in my home.  My daughter isn’t old enough to remember lessons with other students or that I spent more time at the piano myself.

During our tea and poetry time, I plan to include selections geared toward my daughter.  I will be using Sing a Song of Seasons and A Family of Poems.  She is also ready to memorize poetry.  This is more work for myself while the children can’t read.  I have to be far more consistent in reciting the poems with her if I’m to make this work.   

Outdoor Time

A giant reason why I have reduced school for my son this year is so that we can focus on more outdoor time.  Unfortunately, we do not live in a place where I can send my daughter to place outside without supervision.  This is another case where a lot of the responsibility lays on my shoulders, so I have to consider what the give and take will be.  We eat outside as much as possible and take walks around the neighborhood when weather permits.  My children are willing to play outside when the neighbors are out, but they will be back in school.  I plan on us taking more hikes.  While I think you can very cleverly have nature time at home, we are at a place now that we can pick up and go for short hikes.  My ultimate goal is for us to hike 1-2 times a month building up to one of the larger mountains nearby by next summer. 

Co-op

I am teaching my daughter’s class at co-op for the fall semester.  I’m teaching music and movement.  I plan for us to learn fold songs and dances, play singing games, sing learning songs, keep a steady beat with rhythm instruments, and read a few picture books that go along with music.  I know her second class will be just as fun as the mom taught the class last year, too.

Fourth Grade Curriculum – First Semester

What I’m Reading: Keep It Moving by Twyla Tharp

I first heard of this on the Schole Sisters Podcast.  My library has it as an audiobook, so I listened to a bit each day over the course of the summer.  I consumed the book in small increments as a form of daily motivation to keep active for the summer instead of losing my momentum and becoming a couch potato.  This is a good read.  It’s not life-changing, but there is good advice.  Overall, I think the book was a good daily encouragement to just keep moving.

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  I have so many flowers to be drawing in my nature journal.  While my wildflower garden has taken longer to bloom this year, I have had some new and different blooms than in previous years.  I feel like I have an even bigger variety of color this year.  My favorites have been the bachelor buttons and teddy bear sunflowers. 

Bird watching is great right now, too.  I’ve been sitting outside in the early mornings or late evenings to see who will come to my feeders.  I despise the mockingbirds living nearby who have killed my baby bluebirds and have made themselves pests in the backyard; they have also been attacking my dog.  I have loved being able to get a little closer to a nuthatch and cardinal.  It’s fun to observe the cardinal looking down at him turning his head this way and that.  The nuthatch has been rather cautious but takes advantage of the low traffic at the feeder and will come down to feed when I’m standing quietly.  We also have 3-5 regular ruby-throated hummingbirds.  There are definitely two females and one male.  They spend most of their time chasing one another and going back and forth between the feeder and the mimosa tree.  The two females will feed at the same time, but the male always chases everyone away.

* Notes *

We have a couple changes to our schedule this year.  The first change is that my daughter is starting kindergarten.  While it isn’t full-on formal lessons, I will be introducing some school habits into her day that will affect the individual focus I will be giving to my son. (I will have a separate post about her curriculum.  Today’s post is about my son.) The second really big change is moving from three terms into two semesters. I have reduced our curriculum to accommodate our desire to pursue a few of our own educational interests. I am confident that we are living a Charlotte Mason lifestyle following her principles.  I do not think we are veering off into “CM inspired” by making our own decisions about our curriculum selections.

Daily Riches and Skills

Family Folder

Memory Work: We will continue memorizing the U.S. Presidents. I am adding in a few lines from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as this is the play we will be reading this semester. The poem we will memorize is “The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (In the past, we changed the poem every six weeks.  Since I’m adding in more memory work, I am only requiring one poem.  However, I am expecting full memorization since we are devoting more weeks to the poem.) The two scripture passages we’ll be memorizing are Isaiah 40:28-31 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

Songs: We will learn six songs over the semester changing to something new after five weeks. The hymns are “Grace Greater than Our Sin,” “This Is My Father’s World,” and “Be Still My Soul.” The folksongs are “Wade in the Water,” “The Erie Canal,” and “Simple Gifts.”

Bible

I will be reading from Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible. This is the same story Bible that my dad read to me when I was younger.  I will read from the Old Testament two times a week and the New Testament once a week.  Some stories are longer or shorter, so I’m going to read and gauge attention and time each day instead of following a reading list.  On Fridays, we will continue to use the Kids Read Truth Names of God.

Spanish

I am reducing our Spanish checklist.  I have felt so discouraged in the past when we haven’t had time to practice Spanish each day.  I am putting it on our checklist three days a week.  While I would love to have more Spanish speaking in our lives, it isn’t realistic.  I do include it in practical ways of saying vocabulary around the house or when we’re eating out at Mexican restaurants.  However, I’m not a native speaker and I don’t plan on hiring a governess for my children to be hearing a native speaker on a regular basis.  Realistically, I’m laying a feast. If my children plan to travel to other countries in the future, they will have a little better head start than I did.  And thank goodness for Google Translate. 

All that being said, we will continue using Charlotte Mason Simple Languages – Spanish.  We are still in the first year, but we haven’t lost interest,  and have enjoyed the way the curriculum is set up.  I will also be using the Usborne 1000 words dictionary now that we are capable of learning more vocabulary.  I also read “Caracola” by Federico Garcia Lorca this summer; it’s a poem about a snail that sounds lovely in Spanish. Learning it fits well into our Spanish lessons.

Grammar

The BIG add to my son’s days this year is grammar.  I have decided to try out Grammarland by M.L. Nesbitt.  I plan for the lessons to be 10 minutes.  I don’t know the exact amount we’ll get through each day.  I will read the chapter and am hopeful I’ll be able to pass over the worksheet to my son for him to complete on his own.  I also don’t know if we’ll be able to complete a chapter each week, so I guess we’ll see how this resource works out for us.  My biggest goal is for my son to start learning and understanding the parts of speech and the basic building blocks of putting language into sentences so that they can be read easily.

Copywork/Dication

Part of reducing our curriculum is doing copywork one week and dictation the next.  My son gets enough writing practice during the week through his subjects.  I want him to continue improving in his cursive and build endurance, so he will still be using Learning Cursive in Narnia.  I have also really liked Spelling Wisdom from Simply Charlotte Mason.  We’ll continue our normal routine: Day 1 copy the dictation, Day 2 use the magnet board to spell out the passage in entirety or difficult words, Day 3 practice with oral spelling and talking about punctuation, Day 4 test.

Math

We have 10-11 weeks left of our current math routine.  My son has about 15ish lessons left in Saxon Math 3.  He will be introduced to two concepts a week, fully complete the first side of the worksheet and complete the second side according to my discretion. One day a week, he will practice math facts; this year I will be introducing timed practice. Two days a week, we will continue to work on mental math through the Simply Charlotte Mason Arithmetic.

 

Literature

Fairytales

Over the course of the year, my son will be reading Joseph Jacobs’ English Fairytales. This is an AO Year 3 free read or a main read for AO Year 3.5.  I’ve been working on the habit of reading more fairytales to the children as I’ve also been enjoying them for myself. (Have I ever told you about the folklore and storytelling class I took in college?  If not, I should tell you.  It was one of my favorite semesters.)

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia are free reads on Ambleside Online, but I think they are vital for my children’s education.  I know they would thoroughly enjoy them as free reads, and I also think we’d be able to have really good discussions from any reading we did of them.  I’m selfishly putting them in our literature category.  I want to read them slowly enough that I am able to take my own notes on the depths of the books.  I also know that my son will be able to listen to these stories whole heartedly and understand what is going on and perhaps gain a love of the stories where he will read them on his own when he is older. (My third grade teacher read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to us.  When I was in eighth grade, I found out there were more books in the series and received a set for Christmas.  I tried reading them on my own but was lost.  I finally attempted to read them again in college and absolutely loved them.  I can’t wait to read A Horse and His Boy as that was my favorite during that time, and I would love to see if it remains my favorite now.) We will be listening to the series on Audible, but I also have the physical books to follow along. 

This is the first year I will be requiring a written narration.  I will only require a one sentence narration once a week.  We’ll see how this goes.  My son gives great oral narrations for the most part, so I think he is ready for the next baby step. (He will still have oral narrations for most of his subjects as this is the main way I evaluate what he’s learning.)

Shakespeare

We will be reading through A Midsummer Night’s Dream two days a week for 15-20 minutes. I haven’t quite decided how we’ll be dividing up our readings, but I want to make sure my son is following along well.  I will use the wooden characters I painted for our Lambs’ readings and adding in character cards since we’re adding in the full cast of characters.  It’s all an experiment as this is our first reading of a full Shakespeare play.

Poetry

We will be reading through Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha.  Longfellow is a Year 5 poet, but you will see this year and upcoming years that we are making some changes to how we follow AO. On AO they give several selections across Longfellow’s career, but I really want to spend time diving into one work.  (My daughter’s poetry selections are also playing a role in what I choose for our poetry tea time.  I do not read a poem a day as suggested on AO.  I have a weekly (and rarely missed) tea and poetry lunchtime for the kids.  It’s an event to help me like poetry more.)

Free Reads

We will be following suggestions from Ambleside Online Years 3.5 and 4.  I also have a list of books I loved in fourth grade that I want my son to read.  And I’ve added in some suggestions from a few other book lists.  We will not get to all the books on the list.  My typical goal is for him to read one free read per month.  (We are currently read Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls.  My third grade teacher read this to us.  I have it divided so that we finish it the day before we start school.  My son also checked out a Paddington book; I have not had devoted quiet reading times like I planned, so this will be his first free read to complete since he will need to return it to the library at our August trip.) For the most part, I have read the free reads aloud or we have listened to the audiobooks together.  Occasionally, I will have him listen to the books on his own if it’s been an audio I haven’t enjoyed.  We will continue this trend for now.  I think that AO intends for the students to read these books on their own, but my son is not able to consume these at the rate in which I think they intend.  I want to make sure he’s getting really good exposure to good books, so I will continue to use these as our read alouds. I’m sure I’ll have to make some adjustments next year as my daughter starts AO Year 1.

Weekly Academics

The remainder of our subjects rotate once or twice a week. This is how we fit it all into our Charlotte Mason education.

History

We are doing something completely different again this year. (This is our subject that I have consistently changed each year. As a (now casual) historian, I want my children to fall in love with people more than events.  I want them to have a good grasp of a historical timeline, but I want them to learn (and sometimes love) the people who have gone before us.)  Through the living library that we have joined, my son will be reading through the Garrard history books. While I may make some brief suggestions, I plan on him choosing the books he wants to read.  I expect him to read one biography a month.  I will record him giving an oral narration of each week’s reading so that I can use them to create exam questions. (At this point, I expect oral narrations from all independent reading to make sure he’s reading and understanding the assigned chapters.)

I also have the expectation that he will be choosing what goes in his Book of Centuries.  The past couple of years, I have chosen a fact from one of our readings for him to enter into his book (every other week).  This will now be a weekly task.  I may still help him with sentence structure when necessary, but I will also be encouraging him to fill some of the pages with illustrations.

Geography

I have gone back and forth on the intensity of geography and what to include.  I was originally going to continue on in our geography facts with Long’s and Charlotte Mason, but I have decided to keep that paired with Year 4 next year.  I also considered learning the fifty states in a little more depth.  However, I have decided against that as well. I did purchase a short study on the Southern states that I may incorporate here and there, but I’m not prioritizing it.  The biggest goal for geography this year is to locate all fifty states on the map and learn their capitals.  My son will label the regions of the U.S., make his own flashcards with the capitals, and have quizzes to label paper maps and also incorporate some use of Seterra each month. I have not done any map drills in the past, but he is ready.  I will also continue having him map anything we’re reading in literature or other books as this has been a fun activity on Fridays.

Science

Science will be divided into three parts – nature study, nature observation, and engineering. Our nature study topic for the first semester is insects. Each week we will read a chapter from The City Under the Back Steps by Evelyn Sibley Lampman. Again, it’s an experiment, but I plan to have my son either write a short narration (to challenge him in his attentiveness) or to have a labeled entry in his nature journal. I do feel like this is a bit unorthodox way for us to approach nature study this semester.

Every other week, we will be going on a nature walk.  I will expect a nature journal entry.  My son and I had a discussion at the beginning of June about giving his full attention to better entries in his nature journal.  We have been giving more attention in his overall attitude about the energy he gives to meaningful things as opposed to temporary entertainment.  I am now making it a point to draw his attention to the things that matter or why certain parts of school and attention matter. While I will probably give some suggestions to be focusing on insects, my real goal for my son is to be observing and wondering and praising God for His creation.

Building cardboard models and Legos is probably my son’s favorite pastimes (besides watching Star Wars and Sonic).  While STEAM is so appealing in our current culture, what’s more important to me for my son in this realm is that he has opportunities to learn about the hows and whys of what he loves to build.  I want him to grow in his skills as he adapts them to real life.  He still has quite a bit of Engineering Scribble.  He’ll do that once a month.  His grandpa will also be coming once a month to complete one to two kit projects with him.  While I previously had the expectation that he could do these on his own in his free time, I have learned he’s intimidated by the instructions and all the pieces.  He needs assistance.  This is such a great way for him to be learning with someone else.

The handicraft I chose for him this semester also ties (a future pun) into science. He received a book and cords a year or so ago to teach him how to tie knots.  As part of my effort in reducing the vast amount of schooling we are doing, he will be working on tying knots every other week.  I plan on doing some of this with him as I am also interested in learning how to tie good knots.

Riches

Switching over to a 15 week semester is providing plenty of time for us to alternate weeks for our riches providing more time to complete everything on the list instead of always having to let something go. It does mean that we are letting go one artist and composer, but I am keeping the bigger picture in mind that quality is far more important than quantity.

Composer

We will be listening to Ravel.  I am using the list provided by AO.  We listen to the selections on YouTube during lunch or while we’re painting.  I may continue along this line.  Every once in awhile I wonder if I should be doing more, but I think we’re still doing enough at this point.  My children have a good appreciation for classical music and music in general.  They will be getting even more classical instruction during their piano lessons in future years.

Artist

We are studying Raphael.  I really like the resources that Simply Charlotte Mason has.  I also have been previewing a few YouTube videos about Raphael to mix in with our normal list of educational videos.  We usually view and narrate a painting every other week using the alternate week to read portions of the biography.  I’m not sure if I’m going to be following that plan this school year as I plan to have the composer one week and the artist the next.

Art Lessons

Art is the subject we end up leaving off for the sake of other things on our list.  My plan this year is to alternate this chunk of time with our nature walks and journaling.  It’s not feasible for us to include two large blocks a week to these two subjects.  However, we can reasonably plan to do one of these a week. 

We will continue using the Bestowing the Brush lessons that we have purchased.  I have enjoyed doing the lessons together as the way Dallas teaches makes art time approachable for us all at any age and stage.

Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

My son’s chosen sport continues to be BJJ.  We have changed him to the competition class, which will also change our weekly routine considerably.  We are also requiring him to use a BJJ workout 2-3 times a week at home as his P.E.  Being active is definitely a challenge when you’re home so much! 

Piano

I will continue to give my son weekly piano lessons and require at least three days a week of practice.  He’s now considered a late beginner and is slowly making a few transitions into early intermediate.  It’s not a fight to get him to practice, but he rarely goes over to play the piano on his own. If I remember correctly, I was like this until middle school.  (Side note: I realize that his age is the beginning of Form 2 in CM, but I feel like he’s still in this limbo of mastering the life stage of Form 1, being ready in some ways for Form 2 but really just on the precipice where I could push him and risk losing him or holding off for just a little longer with more confidence that he’s fully ready for bigger steps in all areas of his education.)

Co-op

We are continuing with our commitment with our current co-op.  So far only one class topic has been posted for his grade, so I will give more of those details in the future.  Our group has been fairly quiet for the summer.  I know there has still been a learning curve as the group is still rather new.  Last year there were a couple of park days in the summer.  Since we were only able to attend one of them, I’m wondering if there just wasn’t enough interest.