Week One in Pictures: 2014/2015

I won't be updating weekly. I will have a ton of enthusiasm for a few weeks as the new year starts and by January I will have forgotten I have a blog. That's just the way it is. Hopefully, I will do better at journaling the more interesting things we do throughout the year.

We've had a fun week though. Here are a few of the highlights.

Our first day of school! Christian appears happy, right?

 

Anna is doing some preschool work. This is making our days go much smoother. We work in a Rod & Staff workbook, About Three, and read a book or work a puzzle. She gets my time first and this seems to make things smoother.

JJ is blowing through Math-U-See Primer. We're already on Lesson 3 and everyday he wants to do more math problems!

Our current read-alouds

I love this wooden crate I found at Wal-Mart to keep our current curriculum, books, and field guides in.

I've been so excited about Paddle-to-the Sea!

We're labeling a blank map as we go through the book one chapter a week.

 

Lily and JJ made canoes this week. Lily named her canoe "Paddle-to-America" and JJ's is "Tennessee."

Week Two Review: Still Tweaking

This week I continued to tweak my original plan a bit. I notice as the days go by I become more and more relaxed and remember that one of the reasons we want to homeschool is flexibility. I’m gradually doing away with a firm schedule of subjects to cover on particular days and flowing more with what the day allows depending on the circumstances. I am also realizing the importance of getting into Charlotte’s actual books more on my own to understand her philosophy better.

During week 2 we covered math (writing numbers 0-20), a reading lesson (word building with –ug, -it and review), handwriting, and catechism daily. Along with our catechism we are memorizing the Nicene Creed. Which we are all still working on...except Lily, who I’m quite sure could memorize the entire Constitution and Amendments if it was read to her a few times. We also sang our hymn before, during, or after breakfast. I found this version I like particularly well.

 

 

Piano is also an every day “must-do.” She is continuing to pick it up quickly and I can see her confidence building.

For our arts studies, we looked at a couple of pictures in Come Look with Me by Gladys Blizzard. I highly recommend this book and will probably buy it.  We listened to The Carnival of Animals on Friday before rest time and read pieces of My First Book of the Orchestra by Peter Smith. (Which I can't find a link to on Amazon and makes me even more thankful for our living books library!)

I ditched Little Pilgrims History because it seemed too text-booky...yes, I know that is not a word. We read two chapters out of Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans and enjoyed this book more than LPH.

Geography has been X-ed out temporarily. I was kind of just flopping around aimlessly and have decided to just do it briefly along beside history pointing out different places in our readings. I hope to combine Lily and JJ next year and do Paddle to the Sea and a more AO-like geography.

In Science we are on Day One of Creation and are studying light. We spent a day tracing our shadows on the driveway at different times to see how they changed as the sun moved across the sky. Lily then drew a picture for her Creation Notebook. We are continuing our study of the moon phases this month and have located the North Star. We also got to spend a couple of days playing in the creek and that’s just Nature Study disguised as fun!

 

Lily only did the Spanish app a couple of days this week. I hope to find some way to get foreign language in because I think this is the best time to learn a new language. However, it is not a priority or a necessity in our life.

We will finish up All of a Kind Family this upcoming week. With our literature readings and our other readings, I’m holding off on narration. Lily is only five and the CM approach would say wait until they are six. Even when she turns six I plan to only do one a day or even every other day and gradually work her into it. I can tell what we read is settling on her little brain by her comments on the book when we pick it up the next day or the questions she asks when we are reading a new chapter.

And that I believe was our week! (Other than art, which I will post about later.) JJ is doing great keeping himself occupied with his “school only” Playmobil(r) Roman Coliseum and Anna is just meandering aimlessly around prayerfully staying out of things. She has school activities to keep her busy, she just can’t manage to pay attention for five minutes or not dump them out everywhere. She is doing MUCH better than the first week though.

Kindergarten- Week 1: Our First

We have officially finished our first week of school. Truth be told, we had a very rough start. The two year old wasn’t having it. When attempting “room time” she knocked the baby gate down twice trying to get out. The pipe cleaner and bead activity I had for her resulted in dumped out beads and beads in the mouth. She lost her privileges needless to say. Each day got a little easier along the way and before I knew it, I praised my sweet two year old for how well she did during school that day. I say we still have some rough days ahead but all is well and it is all worth it.

Through the first week, I noticed things that I needed to do differently or leave out. I’ve noticed on most days my daily check off list is not completely finished and I’m actually OK with that. I could see Lily getting considerably tired through the afternoons and realized I needed to back up and ease in a little. She even took over a two-hour nap on Thursday and skipped drawing. That’s big because art was for sure going to be her favorite part. (Actually much to my surprise, building things with science is going to be her favorite part. I’ve even considered dropping everything and just building stuff. She asks every day!)

Lily, 5, playing with her baby doll after school

We managed to do scripture memory and catechism, math, a reading lesson (word building with –at, -en), handwriting, and literature reading every day. She made a 100 on her first math test, which is great! We did place value and that just seems hard for her little brain.

 For science she started her creation notebook for 106 Days of Creation and read Yellow and Pink. After reading we talked about evolution.

For history we began reading History for Little Pilgrims. We didn’t finish the chapter as I only have it scheduled for one day a week. I’m considering dropping it and just reading a chapter from Stories of Great American for Little Americans once a week. If I do this, that chapter will replace our literature reading for the day.

We also did a quick geography lesson by completing a floor puzzle of the United States and reviewed what a compass was and direction.

We met Edouard Manet and listened to Peter and the Wolf. We also read Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes (I keep catching JJ staring at Concert in the Tuileries that is hanging on the fridge. :) ) I introduced our hymn of the month, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. They all loved having their own sheet music and sang loud and proud during breakfast! We also managed to read poetry three days during lunch.

Lily played with an app on my phone for Spanish a few days. I actually let her do this on her own so she doesn’t feel so pressured. I really do see how her little brain is trying to grasp all this change of schedule and want to give her room to breath.

Lily had her first piano lesson this week! She was very excited and has picked it up very well. I’m not sure she thinks so and had a little “break down” on me yesterday during practice about how hard it was. We were able to have a discussion about not giving up and that it’s fine to mess up as long as we pick back up and try again.

We hope to do some observation of the night sky starting tonight for nature study. We’re going to record the moon phases and find the North Star.

I have been most impressed by Lily and JJ’s morning chores routine. They’ve been working on getting dressed, making their beds, and cleaning their room all before breakfast. After breakfast, they’re clearing the table, brushing their teeth, and each have an assigned chore to complete. They have really been doing an exceptional job at this. Habit training is a very necessary part of a Charlotte Mason education and we have much needed work in this area! We are also continuing work on the habit of obedience.

 

Although we had a rocky start, I’m very pleased with our first week. Getting it all recorded makes me realize how much we actually accomplished. My goal is to give my children a feast of ideas to make their own relations with the world around them. I believe God has given us a good start and my prayer is the Holy Spirit will plant the seeds of knowledge in their minds and hearts!