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.
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