Semester 2, Week 7

What I’m Reading: The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason by Laurie Bestvater
I don’t know how long I’ve had this on my TBR, but I finally broke down and bought a copy.  It’s a good how-to on notebooking for the Charlotte Mason method.  Even though I already have a good handle on how to work out narrations/observations, this is an encouraging read and gave me a few new ideas I might be able to implement.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: My son discovered a tiger moth camouflaged on our back door.  It is a pretty moth and has intriguing antennae. I’ve also been seeing some interesting insects that have met their demise in the dogs’ water bowl, but I haven’t fished them out to identify them!

Co-op
We had our last co-op class day.  It was full of excitement as everyone is finally feeling comfortable around one another with better friendships…always just in time for everything to get wrapped up.  It was a busy day for me as we also had open house for new families.  I was completely peopled out by the time I got home.  We still have a few more activities planned with co-op for this school year, so we still have more to look forward to.

Fourth Grade Highlight

My son can now pretty well label a United States map.  Now we’re focusing on state capitals.  It’s always nice this time of year to see the progression of what’s been learned and accomplished over the school year.  We still have another month or so, but I feel like most things learned at this point are just icing on the cake. (I did have my son start writing out a list of things he wants to learn this summer, so the learning never ends in our house.)

History-wise Paul Revere was wrapped up and now my son is moving on to Thomas Jefferson.  I feel like I know very mixed things about him, so I’m looking forward to my son’s narrations to see if I learn anything new.

We also made a small change in dictation this week.  I’ve added in the grammar from Simply Charlotte Mason.  It’s a good review in most cases, but it’s also some new lessons we haven’t gone into depth with.  The way I laid out the week also gave my son more focused chances to study the spelling.  I was giving him a lot of this on his own before, but it’s become more challenging.  I can see that we need to work on better habits. 

Grandpa engineering was this week.  They learned more about energy, potential energy, and pendulums.  They applied this to real life with my son on his bike.  Then my son built a car.

We finished listening to By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  It was good, not quite as enthralling as some of the other books.  It was fun to hear Laura’s very first mention of the Wilder’s crossing her path.

Kindergarten Highlight

My daughter had her very first lesson in math about place value.  I’m not quite sure how much of that actually got across to her.  I guess we’ll see the next time we do math!

Phonics/reading is going well.  My daughter is looking forward to her summer challenge.  I don’t think she quite understands what it entails, but I guess that’s what bribery is for (bribery is anti-CM).

Mom Highlight
I’m feeling far more encouraged about school this week.  I guess it has to do with getting over that middle hump.

Semester 2, Week 6

What I’m Reading: Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
What a delightful read.  I saw this book mentioned in a book subscription and put it on my TBR.  I ended up getting a copy while I was ordering school books. I found out that D.E. Stevenson is related to Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island.  What a neat connection!

Frances goes to Cairn for her first real holiday.  Her choice isn’t to do anything in particular but because she once saw a picture of Cairn and thought it would be a nice place to visit.  That’s my kind of travel! She goes there at the same time that troops are coming in (WWII) and befriends several of the wives.  She also befriends some locals, but there isn’t very much a focus on them as a particular young gentlemen who is stationed in Cairn.  It’s definitely a love story, but I found that there was so much more depth as she described the places and people.

I was pleasantly surprised at the richness and recommend this book wholeheartedly.  (I read a couple of the Miss Buncle books about a decade ago when one of them was free on kindle.  I enjoyed it very much but have never read anything else by Stevenson thinking they may all be too light.)

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Baby blue birds and irises.  The baby blue birds have hatched in the bird house.  I saw mama bird bringing a worm while papa bird looked on from the fence.  My irises are blooming too.  I thinned them out in the fall, so it’s so nice to see them growing all nice and straight and sans aphids. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

Right now my son is reading about Paul Revere in his independent history reading.  I like hearing him make some connections to other people we’ve discussed. 

I’ve noticed in the past with other assignments that my son’s reading comprehension isn’t always spot on.  I’m not sure if it’s a maturity thing or something we need to focus on a bit.  Narration is helpful for me to hear what he knows, and I try not to ask too many leading questions.  This summer we’re participating in the library reading challenge but I’m also setting up a reward system of my own for the kids.  I’m hoping this will help me better guage where my son is with his independent reading comprehension.

Kindergarten Highlight

I’m having so much fun listening to my daughter learn how to read.  She really likes Bob books and is not going to be left behind in our reading challenge this summer.  We finished one of her nature books this week, so she asked when she can start picking her chapter books like her brother does.  I told her she’ll get to do that more as she learns how to read, but it’s also coming up in the next school year and I bought a few for to choose from this summer.

Mom Highlight
We (mostly I) needed a school reset this week.  We are half way through our semester (not counting exams), but it’s feeling like February.  And technically, we should have been where we currently are by the end of February. We have had quite the school year.  I drastically reduced our school load, but it seems like we haven’t made any headway.  I’m sure by the time I do our evaluation, I’ll feel differently, but I’m in a will we make it through the hump funk.  We have also received some discouraging news about a close family member who has a cancer battle in the upcoming months.  It’s been a lot. 

Thus, a reset in the form of a nature walk.  I realized while we were at our favorite nature preserve that’s been a year since we’ve been.  I can’t believe it.  We enjoyed a slow walk, stopping at every bench to eat snacks.  We saw so many things that we’ve been studying in recent years.  We saw mushrooms, wildflowers, spring blooms, working ants, butterflies, a caterpillar, nesting birds, chirping birds, bees, deer, nuts.  We also brought along a picnic.  The kids always love running around afterward looking for pecans and walnuts.  You know what we didn’t see? Squirrels and chipmunks.  That’s a first.

I felt far better after our morning out.  We still took it easy with school work since I had to be away for a day and we needed a work day to go through all the kids’ clothes.  I’m not sure how my attitude is doing going into the second half. I’m still feeling a little discouraged that we aren’t farther along, but I also don’t feel like we have so much that we can’t make it through.  I’ve been trying to look on the bright side that school going into June at least gives us some routine. I would love to just be done, but I also really think our curriculum is worthy of our time.  I wouldn’t be soul satisfied if we were to leave things undone.  It’s too good to neglect.

A day has passed since I wrote that.  I received a message from a(nother) friend who is researching Charlotte Mason.  I kept my affirmation brief in reply, but it’s so hard because that’s how much I love CM.  I could talk about all the things we do and the philosophy and the soul feeding we’re doing every day.  My little explosion of how lifegiving our schooling is was enough to encourage me for these upcoming weeks.  Yes, it’s not been a breezy season of school, but school isn’t a burden. If we were to set it aside right now, it would be a break but we would just be seeking these same things to fill our days.  When we miss tea and poetry or art or nature walks or our variety of books and subjects, the kids are sure to be asking when we’re going to do it again.

Semester 2, Week 3

What I’m Reading: Murder at Vicarage and The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
A few years ago I completed my quest to read all of Agatha Christie’s books.  Now I’m making my way through the Marple mysteries in order.  I was so scattered in my read through of all the other novels that this is giving such good continuity.  I’m able to focus on one mystery solver, get to know a smaller area of the world, and see different characters pop up again. Despite previously reading these books, I didn’t remember the specific murderers as I read.  I did vaguely remember that background characters played more of a role than I expected on the first reading.  I know a lot of people recommend the Poirot books when they’re recommending first reads of Agatha Christie, but I feel like the Marple books capture a lot of Christie’s talent.  (The Tommy and Tuppence books are my very favorites.)  The books develop everyday characters and places well.

Co-op
We had our third day of class.  I really enjoy helping in my son’s storytelling class.  During this class the kids were broken into two groups.  Individually they were given specific topics/things to draw on a little paper.  The group got together to put these into the “pool” to create a beginning, middle, and end.  (This is all from Show Me a Story by Emily Neuburger.)  It was fun mixing up all the elements that the boys and girls created.

Fourth Grade Highlight
We’ve already hit a groove in this semester that I feel like there’s nothing fun to talk about.  My son did finish reading Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare and then we watched the movie.  I also ended up buying my son his own copy of As You Like It to make it easier for him to follow along reading aloud. Oh, and he had engineering with grandpa.  They made a fan of some kind…

Kindergarten Highlight
My daughter is doing well with phonics.  While she doesn’t feel confident in what she’s doing (since it’s a challenge), I think she’s doing really well.  She’s getting quite a variety of the short vowel sounds in her sentences.  She still looks to me a lot for reassurance, but I’m encouraging independence where I can. She is also obsessed with watching Super Why DVDs from the library.

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!

Semester 1, Week 14

What I’m Reading: Last December/January, I read Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry.  I had heard of WB for some time but was hesitant to read his books thinking they might be too poetically descriptive. I was surprised to like Jayber Crow as much as I did.  I think it really helped with the timing of my read being well matched to a road trip to Kentucky and Tennessee.  I soon added Hannah Coulter to my wish list seeing that it is also on the Ambleside free read list for one of the high school years. (I’ve been trying to read several books a year from the Ambleside free reads list knowing that I will most likely like the selections and to give me a head start on pre-reading.) Anyway, I received a copy of the book for Christmas and began reading it in January.  I liked it.  I liked the themes of place, community, individual personhood, and the influence (or lack of) of one generation upon another.  I also really liked the handling of grief and the cycle of life. I most definitely recommend this book.    

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  I am finally all caught up on my summer drawings.  I was looking through my journal and have a few other little drawings to add, but then I am ready to start on my monthly observations again.

Fourth Grade Highlight

The end of the semester is in sight.  It was halted again this time by me being sick.  We did our best to stay on track doing school when I had energy and me handing over independent work where I could.  We are seeing the difficulty in getting back in a routine and resetting our expectations. 

Kindergarten Highlight

We had one very hard lesson in phonics this week.  However, I really like the way my daughter handled it.  When I said the lesson was over, she went to her room to regroup, to think about the words we were learning.  She came to me later saying she was ready to work on her words again.  The next day she was eager for her lesson and far more patient with herself.

Mom Highlight

I started reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to the kids this week.  I fell in love with Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Amelia Bedelia in third grade.  My teacher would bring in a basket of books from the town’s public library for us to check out. (Our school was new that year, so they were still building up the library.  At some point, I did check out books from the school library – mainly the Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood.)  I started with Amelia Bedelia, read through as much of the series that was available and then moved onto all the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books.  I guess that was the beginning of my love for books about old ladies. 

Semester 1, Week 13

What I’m Reading: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year, my husband and I listened to Dracula and the accompanying podcasts by The Literary Life Podcast.  This is most definitely a book I would NOT have read of my own choosing.  Sometime last year, we (my husband and I) had a lengthy discussion about his reading/education of Frankenstein in high school versus my recent reading/education of the book.  Wow, what a difference.  This sparked interest in Dracula as we repeated this conversation.  We both decided to set aside our perception of the book to read it together.  We were changed by this tale of the dragon, the princess, and the hero. We had lively discussions and praiseworthy revelation. You should read the book, but you should also listen to the podcast.

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  Friends, it’s cold outside.  We did walk in the cold, but I didn’t write a single thing down about it my nature journal! I felt like we had neglected our insect portion of our journals this semester, so I had the kids find an insect from a book to copy into their books. I was excited that my son read through a lot of the insect book as he chose what to draw; usually he’s rushing through his nature journal assignment.  I had plans to do the same, but again, I didn’t write in my journal.  I guess I need to pick up my resolve.

Travel: We do not have co-op this month (minus a mom meeting), so we are filling our time with travel and appointments (and another illness…).  We have traveled around the southern states.  It’s been cold.  It’s been beautiful.  It’s been great getting home to snuggle in the warmth. We especially liked our extended stay in North Carolina as we visited the mountains.  The kids enjoyed the toy stores.  I enjoyed the Battery Book Exchange in Asheville and bought some lovely editions of Penrod by Booth Tarkington, The Dean’s Watch by Elizabeth Goudge, and The Santa Fe Trail by Samuel Hopkins Adams (we just finished up one of his other Landmark books, The Erie Canal).  I was happy to find all three.  I have an original of Penrod and Sam that was my husband’s grandfather’s book.  Finding a hardback edition of Penrod was a special find for me even though it wasn’t a first edition (I’m only into collecting for reading’s sake). I bought the Elizabeth Goudge book since I have a new interest in her.  I read checked out The Rosemary Tree from the library a couple years ago after several podcasts mentioned it.  I was so moved by the book that I ended up buying one on my Kindle so that I could take my time reading it.  Her writing is so perfect as a before bed read.  I’m trying to shift over to more physical copies of books this year that this was my favorite find of the day.  I waivered in buying The Santa Fe Trail.  Now that we have access to all the Landmark books through our living library, I’ve been holding off on some of my book buying.  I have already read The Tree in the Trail with my son.  It’s such a great book for explaining the Santa Fe Trail that we don’t need to read anything else.  However, I was thinking I may read the book for myself when it’s time for me to read The Tree in the Trail with her in a couple of years.  Even though the Landmark books are written for older children to teens, I find that many of the stories are captivating, far less dry than history books written for adults, and tell very compelling stories.  I was more convinced to buy this edition since it was in perfect condition, had a dust jacket, and was a good price. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

We finished The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams. His grandfather helped build part of the canal, so he had firsthand access to stories and letters and did other research to write the book.  Parts of the book were rather dry.  I read the highlights of the book aloud to my son so that he would get a general overview of who, what, why, and how.  We read this because my history plan of choosing Discovery biographies from our living library was thwarted during an extended illness.  We’ll go back to my original plan during the next semester as we will have full access to the library again. I do have a small pile of TBR Landmark books in my son’s TBR, so we may still pick one of those up before the end of the school year.

We finished reading Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge and then watched the movie.  I always have my son draw a picture of his free reads for his notebook.  He mixed in a little Star Wars delivering the silver skates as the prize.  Definitely not a true rendering.

We’ve started The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.  It is so good so far.  I read this book in college, but I don’t remember anything about it.  I do think it’s one that took me a long time to read the first time because I didn’t find it interesting.  Total opposite this time!

Kindergarten Highlight

We finished reading the first Betsy-Tacy book. I’m enjoying this series.  It’s fun having a chapter book series to read with my daughter.  When my son was this age, we read the robot in the wilderness series and the Ralph mouse series.

Charlotte Mason Arithmetic is going slowly and I’m not sure how well but still on track as we haven’t given up. Phonics has picked up a little as my daughter is recognizing certain words as we’re driving and from a book she checked out at the library this week. She also received some kindergarten workbooks for Christmas to keep her busy when she’s asking for school but I’m working with her brother.  The scissor skills book is especially nice as she colors, cuts and then creates new art work with the glitter glue and stapler she also received.

Mom Highlight

We’re almost there, folks. I can almost see the end of our semester.  I’m about to plan out our exam questions and need to print out our second semester family folder.  If we take zero breaks we’ll finish school before Memorial Day.  I know that won’t happen, so I’m feeling more positive (as in happy and in full knowledge) that our completion in June won’t be so bad afterall.

Semester 1, Week 12

What I’m Reading: The Living Year by Richard Headstrom

I spent a day or two of each month in 2023 reading a chapter from this book.  I looked forward to reading it each month and imagining myself out in nature.  I also became more aware of what to look for myself as we went on our daily walks.  Such a good read, and I’m still in a bit of disbelief that I’m enjoying nature so much. 

Co-op

Half of week 12 happened in December and the other half in January.  The kids wrapped up the first half of co-op with a Christmas party.  They had an ice cream party and made Christmas ornaments.  My children are basically self-sufficient now at parties, so I was helping out at the hot glue station.  I did have to step away for a little while to get my daughter settled, but otherwise, I was giving myself glue blisters.

Fourth Grade Highlight

We finished reading The Christmas Compass and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  I ended up adding in Hans Brinker in hopes that we would finish it before our Christmas break giving us time to watch the movie.  My hope didn’t become a reality, so now we’ll be finishing up the book next week and hoping to still have the movie in our possession (we checked it out from the library).  We had a Chronicles of Narnia movie marathon with all the versions.  Super fun way to wrap up 2023.  My husband also bought us a special box of Turkish delight as a Christmas gift.

Needs Improvement

Now that I know how far we got (or didn’t get, rather), I’m able to gauge where we’ll end our school year.  So that it’s not going way into the summer, I condensed our week 16 exam week into 2-3 days.  I also completely removed week 16 of the second semester.  I also removed history for the last two weeks of this semester (this provides margin and lines up better with when we can visit our living library again).

I have some final plans that need to be made (or printed) for next semester.  I’ve also pulled up all the books I have for first and fifth grades to start planning next year.  Its hard to find a balance between high expectations and the reality of wanting to fill our days with experiences, people, and real life hands on fun and work.

Kindergarten Highlight

Once again I’m seeing a lot of interest from my daughter in learning but also that growth in her brain where she has to decide if she’s okay with stretching in harder things. She made some connections in phonics over Christmas but had some dread in doing her lesson when we sat down for school after the new year.  She received the next several books in the Betsy Tacy series, so I like to hear her excitement in listening to a chapter book.  She’s also building in excitement in performing piano and ballet.

Needs Improvement

Splitting up the school week was good on one hand because it let us ease back into a routine with what was leftover needing to be done.  On the other hand, I feel like my thoughts in the wrap up are far more scattered, and I know I’m forgetting things I wanted to mull over.  I think I’m mostly wondering how we’re only on week 12 and have 18-19 weeks left.  I do remain hopeful that we can finish this semester by the end of January.  Can we do it without cutting back on all the things?

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.