{Hi friends!}
This year was MUCH easier to figure out since I'm not technically a newbie at this anymore :) I knew I definitely wanted to stay with Simply Charlotte Mason for all of my curriculum needs {www.simplycharlottemason.com}, so that made it super easy. Below is our daily schedule--hope it helps any of you that are wanting a sample schedule of how a homeschool day works!
A Day in the Schoolroom
8:30 - 9:00 Isaiah: Math-U-See Gamma {we also use the MUS Songbook for skip counting}
Elijah: Math-U-See Alpha
9:00 - 9:30 Bible/History/Geography
9:30 - 10:00 Enrichment Studies
{Mon: artist study, Wed: composer study, Thurs: poetry study}
10:00 - 10:30 Read Aloud Time with both boys
{We're on the sixth book in the Little House Series--Little Town on the Prairie}
10:30 - 11:00 Isaiah: Copywork {Mon & Wed}
Spelling {Tues & Thurs}
20 minutes of silent reading
Elijah: Copywork and Reading Practice
Read aloud time {he chooses the book}
*** Science is done on Tuesday's & Thursdays. Tuesday's we read out of a wonderful little book called Among the Pond People from 9:30 - 9:45 and Thursdays we do our Animal Notebooks. The boys get to choose any animal they'd like and we fill in our "notebook" pages in our Animal Notebooks. Sample below :0)
Here are some books/resources that we're using this year:
www.simplycharlottemason.com is still my favorite resource for curriculum. LOVE it!
For Bible/History/Geography we're using Joshua-Malachi & Ancient Greece by Simply Charlotte Mason. Along with it, we're using additional resources recommended.
Great living book on the life of several young Spartan boys and their journey in becoming respectable Spartan soldiers!
Story of the Greeks is an interesting look at the Greeks starting with Mythology then to Homer and onto Greek history--so interesting. I've learned so much too--but I think I still need help pronouncing some names--ouch!
Love, love, love this resource! As we're learning and reading about Greece, different lessons will ask us to take out this resource, find the picture of what we're reading about and display and discuss after lesson. It really helps the boys see something tangible to history.
For our Enrichment Studies, we use these resources to learn about our artist, poet and composer. Again, I love Simply Charlotte Mason for making it so easy! It's all right there for you, organized and ready to go :)
We study one artist every twelve weeks. Our first artist this year was Turner. You choose one picture to study every two weeks. Briefly talk about it and then display it in the house for the children to look at at their pleasure. This portfolio also contains a biography of Turner and insight on each painting.
This is actually our second year to study Robert Louis Stevenson. The boys love his poetry so I thought we'd hover on him for a while! This resource provides a biography as well as well as lots of poems to read and suggestions for memorization.
Along with the other two resources this also comes with a biography of Chopin. You can order the packet with CD's or just choose the option to download and print the material on our own without the CD's....that's what we do. We save $20 and use Spotify for free :o) With the music study, we talk about Chopin once a week and listen to his music for 15-20 minutes a couple times a week. That's it!
The next three resources are for Elijah {our first grader}
To practice handwriting using poetry and other quality literature...
Delightful Reading. A gentle and easy approach to reading. It's definitely not the traditional way to learn how to read, but that's why I love it!
And lastly, Elijah's Word Book. We write and draw new words we've learned in the book and review them on occasion. He loves this and it's so fun to see him remember the words because of his own pictures. So cute :)
These next two resources are for Isaiah {our 3rd grader}
Spelling Wisdom is really gentle. No spelling lists here! I read small excerpts from quality poetry and literature and he writes the sentence word for word as I read it. Any words that he gets wrong he copies a few times, looks at them carefully and continues to study them until he's got the word right.
Isaiah's Copybook Reader. He copies just a few lines twice a week--doing his best handwriting all while reading and learning beautiful hymns.
One of our science books...
This living book is one of the best we've read. Like with most living books, not only are the boys learning about all sorts of animals and creatures that live in the pond through fun stories, but also character building through the stories and lives of the animals. So precious.
And last but not least, our Animal Notebook pages!
I found this resource last year and have been using it ever since. You can print the notebooking pages from www.ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com. The boys LOVE this. And letting them choose the animal they'd like to learn about that day makes it fun for them as well :)
And that's it, friends! Our short school day in a nutshell :) I can't tell you what a joy the Charlotte Mason method has been for our family. At the very least, I know that the boys are reading and listening to quality literature that will stick with them a lifetime.
Here's to another blessed and fruitful homeschool year!
Blessings,
Becca
