So what have we done in 12 weeks?! This is my girls kindergarten year and we're following the Charlotte Mason philosophy, as outlined by Ambleside Online, Mater Amabilis (because we are Catholic), and Karen Andreola's book, A Charlotte Mason Companion. I also created an easy CM schedule to follow & check off what we do! Plus lots of great ideas from some of my favorite books and blogs. This community is so rich and incredible. I'm very thankful to be able to read about how other moms have done it. I'm also in a few facebook groups - those have also helped at times too.
This once per term blog is a great way for me to keep track of what we've done. Be excited about what we've accomplished and not worry about what we haven't! I'm excited for my girls to have this to look back on one day as well.
Here's What We've Done
Bible
We've continued on with our prayer board. We've been reading bible stories, listening to our hymns, and praying. We started using the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism, and I found the Angel Food books on Librivox to accompany that book. This idea was from Jennifer over at Wildflowers and Marbles. She put together a fantastic chart to align the Angel Food books with the Baltimore catechism book.
Play, outdoor time, and nature study (science)
The kids all play outside, freely, as much as the day allows. PLAY PLAY PLAY is so important to me!! Research proves there's no better way to learn than through play. We also have more structured outdoor time by taking walks and learning plant, tree, flower, and animal identification. We're part of a CM co-op where we take group walks together, the girls learn about painting, and then paint in their journals. We've even done a bunny sculpting project recently! Very cool. Nature study and handicraft all in one.
Learning About
Leaves
Here's What We've Done
Bible
We've continued on with our prayer board. We've been reading bible stories, listening to our hymns, and praying. We started using the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism, and I found the Angel Food books on Librivox to accompany that book. This idea was from Jennifer over at Wildflowers and Marbles. She put together a fantastic chart to align the Angel Food books with the Baltimore catechism book.
The kids all play outside, freely, as much as the day allows. PLAY PLAY PLAY is so important to me!! Research proves there's no better way to learn than through play. We also have more structured outdoor time by taking walks and learning plant, tree, flower, and animal identification. We're part of a CM co-op where we take group walks together, the girls learn about painting, and then paint in their journals. We've even done a bunny sculpting project recently! Very cool. Nature study and handicraft all in one.
Learning About
Leaves
Trees
Bunnies!!
Habits
When it comes to habits we're doing about the same. They have a morning routine that they follow very well. They get up brush teeth, make beds, pick up their room, and get dressed. They come to me with their brush and pony tail. Then we're all ready for breakfast followed by bible and prayer time. Daily, I continue to focus on attention, helpfulness, and kindness.
Children's Literature
The next most important part of our homeschool...lots of good stories! So what have we read this term?
I'm so excited to finish all of these books this reading with the girls in 12 weeks. We've also been learning to read and they are both making lots of progress! It's so exciting to witness this. I'm not pushing learning to read, we just do a little each day. I use early readers like Bob Books, Dick and Jane, and The Primer combined with Alpha Phonics. We still do lots of review of letters and their sounds. I'm introducing blends as they come up in our reading, naturally. I point them out and we repeat them together a few times. Their little brains are making the obvious reading connections, almost like magic. It's beautiful!
Copywork
We use the pages form Alpha Phonics that we are working on, poems, and prayers for our copy work (handwriting). We write letters and the girls copy all kinds of cards and things they find around the house. We do just a little each day, and I don't stress about handwriting right now.
We've also done some memorizing this term:
Poems
Bed In Summer
Habits
When it comes to habits we're doing about the same. They have a morning routine that they follow very well. They get up brush teeth, make beds, pick up their room, and get dressed. They come to me with their brush and pony tail. Then we're all ready for breakfast followed by bible and prayer time. Daily, I continue to focus on attention, helpfulness, and kindness.
Children's Literature
The next most important part of our homeschool...lots of good stories! So what have we read this term?
Paddington Bear
We have friends in Norway who gave us the suggestion.
This is one of their favorite books for children, and I must say my girls have
enjoyed it so much!!
Christmas Stories - At Advent
Advent Storybook - About 2 pages per day during advent.
We loved this book it has become a family favorite.
Silas
I've started reading through the Potter books with Silas. He's about to turn 3 and
will sit still long enough for a book here and there. He can also count to 10! I'm sure he is
absorbing more than I know when I'm teaching his sisters too. Other
than that he spends lots of time outside and pretends all the time.
We loved this book it has become a family favorite.
Silas
I've started reading through the Potter books with Silas. He's about to turn 3 and
will sit still long enough for a book here and there. He can also count to 10! I'm sure he is
absorbing more than I know when I'm teaching his sisters too. Other
than that he spends lots of time outside and pretends all the time.
I'm so excited to finish all of these books this reading with the girls in 12 weeks. We've also been learning to read and they are both making lots of progress! It's so exciting to witness this. I'm not pushing learning to read, we just do a little each day. I use early readers like Bob Books, Dick and Jane, and The Primer combined with Alpha Phonics. We still do lots of review of letters and their sounds. I'm introducing blends as they come up in our reading, naturally. I point them out and we repeat them together a few times. Their little brains are making the obvious reading connections, almost like magic. It's beautiful!
Copywork
We use the pages form Alpha Phonics that we are working on, poems, and prayers for our copy work (handwriting). We write letters and the girls copy all kinds of cards and things they find around the house. We do just a little each day, and I don't stress about handwriting right now.
We've also done some memorizing this term:
Poems
Bed In Summer
System
We've done some Geography:
Continued reading through the books, "We Learn About Other Children" and "Children Just Like Me" and watched some kids travel shows on Netflix!
Program wise, we've stuck with using MEP math and I've just added Math Mammoth. We also just discuss the basic concepts of math, numbers, counting, addition/subtraction as often as possible. We work through word problems I make up mentally, play math games, cook, and just do lots of natural every day learning with it comes to math. Right now they love MATH, it's really fun and hands on. It's a nice break between reading. I'm still reading Arithmetic For Parents by Ron Aharoni and I love it! He's a mathematician and his book is awesome. Great guide to teaching elementary math based on research, history, and the foundations of math.
Handicrafts / Crafts / Projects
Beaded Necklaces
Baby Jesus Manger (co-op)
Giraffes for NICU babies and Bundles - The girls help me with my nonprofit work and at meetings!
Sculpted Bunnies
Composer, Artist, and Poetry During Our Tea Time
Schubert
We've done some Geography:
Continued reading through the books, "We Learn About Other Children" and "Children Just Like Me" and watched some kids travel shows on Netflix!
Math
Handicrafts / Crafts / Projects
Beaded Necklaces
Baby Jesus Manger (co-op)
Giraffes for NICU babies and Bundles - The girls help me with my nonprofit work and at meetings!
Sculpted Bunnies
Composer, Artist, and Poetry During Our Tea Time
Schubert
Renoir
Now...
Georgia O'Keeffe
History
We're still reading SLOWLY through Stories Of Great Americans and just talk about history.
Other
Spanish class
Dance class
Tumbling class
1 day a week they are a part of full day catholic co-op
Also part of a bi-monthly CM nature co-op
Amazing Life Experiences
Amazing Life Experiences
Our friends from Norway were down for a whole week during Thanksgiving break. We very much enjoyed spending time with them. All of our little ones are becoming close and the experience of them all being together is wonderful. We are very blessed to have each other. They were even a part of celebrating the girls 6th birthday!
Advent and Christmas. We put a lot of effort into advent and it was a beautiful season. I've read lots of blogs about how special advent time each day really slows down the busy Christmas season and it sure did! I will even focus more on this next year.
Ainsley's beautiful baptism!
Field Trip to Houston Museum Of Natural Science with Mema, Mom, Kendl, and Holy Trinity co-op.
They got a new fish! A beta named Nemo. We also got our catepillars in so that we can grow our butterflies for our last term!! So exciting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coming to grips with the fact that we're a homeschooling family and we have the freedom to make education work for us in our way and that it's OK is hard. I battle with how it is supposed to look, especially since I don't come from a homeschooling background. But I'm learning that it's all OK! That it's not supposed to look a certain way, it's supposed to be OUR way. After all we are on a journey together. Education is an atmosphere, a life.... . Some very smart lady said that right?!
This term we attended our co-ops and obligations, so I taught my children about fidelity. We spent a lot of time with family, so I taught my children about love, giving, and the value of family. We are living our virtue lessons and this past term has given us ample opportunities. But, with more going comes less seat work and less checking off of my schedule. First, I'll cheers to myself because we did not let our reading time slip at all! We read a lot this term! The Bible, Thanksgiving stories, wonderful Christmas and advent stories, sweet Padington Bear, and a new family favorite When The Robbers Came to Cardamom Town! That time was such a joy, In the hustle and bustle. We did less of everything else!! We did manage to have one beautiful tea party. They got a new tea set from me for Christmas. We put it to use a while listening to Shubert looking at our Renoir and reading some beautiful poetry. It was so lovely. I'm going to try to get this in 1x a week this last term, it's a goal!!
So am I upset that we didn't do history as much as we should? No, I'm not! Because we just did it in different ways. When learning about Jesus' birth all though December they were learning history. Geography?! Our friends from Norway visited for a week. The girls were immersed in their culture, language, and friendships. What about math? Well we finished 15 lessons in MEP, maybe that was less than I hoped for, but I made sure that when we cooked all of those special Christmas dishes they measured with me. We worked on time a lot as well since we were coming and going so much, and we are always counting. So even if we didn't sit down every day to "do math" they were learning. :)
It almost took us all of January to get back into our normal routine, but it looks like we are all settled back in for our last term and it feels good. Each season is going to look and feel different and I want to be okay with that! I want to let myself find comfort in that. I've never been one to do the same thing for too long, so switching things up some each term should be a good thing!
What do I want term 3 to look like? They will never have "kindergarten" again.They will never have this time to be little again. They will never have the imaginations they do coupled with their sweet child like innocence again, and let me just say it's beautiful! To watch them play brings me the most joy. To watch them taking care of their little brother Silas, teaching him, playing with him is beautiful. To watch the bond of those three grow and develop in very deep ways is blessed. My best friend is my sister. Again, family. So to be a part of watching their relationships grow and strengthen with all of the time they are gifted together is an answered prayer. I want more than anything for those three to grow up being best friends and am providing them a slow growing time at home to do so. I want more of that this term. I want this term to be lots of fun too. Spring is coming!! Lots of nature study! Lots of time outside. Time in the sand pit time in the sun. I want it to be fun and memorable, but I also want it to be orderly and slower. So that part is on me! I do want to check more boxes this term, but I won't stress as much either when they don't get checked. Especially after reflecting on the true beauty of term 2. I went through it so fast that I did miss some of the beauty, not all, just some! I pray for the Holy Spirit to guide me and lead me this term to make it exactly what He wants and to give me the grace to lead when I need to and relax when I need to.
~ Amber
I came over from the CM Blog Carnival...I enjoyed reading your post! :)
ReplyDelete