The First Two Weeks :: 2021-2022 School Year

Two weeks in and we are back in the rhythm of lessons!

I am struck by the "joy in living" that the Mason feast brings. We have a full timetable but a varied and delightful one.

I think the photos express it better than words could...

first day fun

American history with Form 1A

Big Kids working on math, geography, and writing

first clay lesson of the year - brussels sprouts from the fridge! :)

Chemical History of a Candle for Form 2A and 3

group dictation - a paragraph for Form 2, a page for Form 3

brush drawing from the yard

sloyd with Form 1 and 2B

Da Vinci this term

noticing stem length and leaf arrangement with Buckley's Plant Life

islands and archipelagos in the sand tray

chromatography experiment for high schoolers

nature journaling -- finally a bit of cool weather!

Joyous lessons has always been my goal. Progress, peace, growth. and joy -- these motivate me to take up my homeschooling responsibilities as my profession, with diligence and regularity (as Mason says in Home Education).

A few notes about our year so far:

:: I switched to mostly-morning school from naptime school this year. We have done the bulk of our school during naptime for the past decade, so it was a big shift! But with the ages I have this year, it was good timing to try a new arrangement to our day. So far, so good! 

:: The high schoolers work roughly 9-3 (with a half hour break for lunch) four days a week. I work from 9-11:40 with the Form 1, 2, and 3 kids -- parts together, parts independently. At 11:40, we meet as a family for movement (dance or drill), singing, and recitations. After lunch (12-12:30), we have one subject together (art, handicraft, arist study, composer study), and then Form 1 (and sometimes Form 2) are finished. Two days a week we have one subject after that: Shakespeare or Plutarch and then Form 2B is finished. Form 2A and 3 have another reading to complete a couple days a week, and Latin homework and Italian copywork or grammar on the other days, but they are done by 1:30.

:: Fridays are light for everyone. The Form 1 and 2 kids don't have any scheduled lessons, Form 3 has two readings, and the high schoolers have math, Italian, grammar, and one of their science readings. This coming week we will start a every-other-Friday co-op which will make those Fridays a bit fuller but the rest of the days of those weeks a bit shorter.

:: I currently meet with my high schoolers twice daily: for five minutes at the beginning of each school day and for about ten minutes at the end of each school day. At our morning meeting, I give them any notes for the day and "seed thoughts" I want to offer for their lessons. At our afternoon meeting, I read three narrations from each of them: Bible, science, and history (all of which they write narrations for daily). This allows our Weekly Meeting, which we have on Friday afternoons, to be a bit shorter. I do roughly the same thing in the afternoons with my Form 3 student.

:: I still have a weekly prep session during which I set up my planner for the week and pre-read any books I didn't get to over the summer. It takes me about an hour. I pre-read our Bible reading on Sundays, which takes an additional half hour or so -- the older Forms have separate Bible reading from my younger kids, so each Sunday I am reading from Exodus, Mark, Ezra, Mason's Saviour of the World, and various commentaries.

:: The set-up for my timetable, planner, and logbook is the same as last year. I still love it! It is my brain on paper.

I'll share more practical bits later, but suffice it to say I am delighted with our start to the year! It has been such a rich couple weeks. There are challenges and it can be quite tiring to manage so much -- don't get me wrong. But what a gift to spend my life guiding small persons into large ones. And the "books and things"! Living ideas drive me as much as they do my students.

Have you started your school year? What is your favorite subject so far?

{This and That} :: Back to School!

Well, we are officially back to school!

I can't believe my oldest two are sophomores this year! I also have a middle schooler, four elementary students, a kindergartener, and two littles.

I hope to share throughout the year here about our schooling adventures! I'm going to try to get a post up in the next couple weeks with some early reflections, a peek at our timetable, and an update on plans and lessons.

You can also find more day-to-day snaps over on Instagram: @celeste_cruz. (My account is currently public, so even if you don't have an Instagram account, you can follow along. I think of it like a micro-blog. :))

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I got back a few weeks ago from a whirlwind trip to the East Coast with the CMEC. We hosted Summer Gatherings in three cities over four days: Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Washington DC!

My trip started off with a cross-country flight that was delayed twelve hours and became an unexpected red-eye. 

I got to Philadelphia early Wednesday morning, and our first event was that afternoon. Somehow I managed to give my talk and lead everyone through brush drawing on an hour's sleep -- it was so heartening to see friends and meet new moms that the adrenaline carried me through! And the team from The Mason Academy who hosted the event did a stellar job.

The next day, Amy and I drove to DC and flew to Atlanta. We were met at the airport by CMEC member Melissa, who hosted us at her beautiful home and acted as our driver. Wonderful Southern hospitality -- she was an absolute delight!

On Friday was our Atlanta event, hosted by our friend Heather. I first met Heather when she and her littlest flew out for a CM West retreat a few years ago. Now it was my turn to pay her a visit, and I was thrilled to be able to meet her husband and children too. Heather and her team ran an organized and inviting afternoon for families in the area, and the moms that were able to attend were so interesting and kind.

Her church had a lovely space for us to use, and her friend Brittny hosted us at her home for a delicious dinner. All the green I saw in Atlanta was a balm to my dried-out-Cali-summer soul!

Early the next morning, Amy and I flew back to DC for the event there that afternoon. This was our biggest event of the three -- the church was packed with mothers and babies!

The DC crowd had so much energy and lots of vibrant conversation. I got to meet some ladies I have known online for ages (which was the case at each event!).

Immediately after the DC event, we drove back to Philadelphia, arriving in the middle of a huge downpour. We don't often have lightning and thunder in California, so it was a fun treat for me! The next few days were spent in meetings, talking through all of our plans for the coming year -- so much easier to do in person than online like we usually work. 

I was never fully able to make up for the lost sleep of that first night and spent a good chunk of the week in a bit of a daze! But there were so many grace-filled meetings and moments.

Speaking of the CMEC: registration for the 2021-2022 School Year will be closing August 30th! We are excited about all the new families and groups who have joined us this year. There has been so much energy at our meetings this summer, and we have our big Kick-Off coming up August 16th.

If you're not yet on our contact list but would like to get updates on the CMEC, head over to sign up! And if you're interested in our offerings, request an Information Packet to see samples and video tours of our curriculum and our website.

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I mentioned this above and on social media but didn't get a chance to formally share here: Gianna finished her first novel, Four Red Banners!

This has been a big project for her over the past two years, and I'm so proud of her for seeing it through with such enthusiasm and dedication!

The first draft of the book was told to her younger sisters, night after night at bedtime. In the weeks following, she would write by hand each chapter. She spent months typing it up once written, and about a year editing, formatting, and designing the book. Writing is her passion, and the characters of Four Red Banners are so real to her and her siblings that they seem almost to be part of our family.

It's a story of civil war, treason, and intrigue with strong male friendships, a budding (and very wholesome) romance, and a mysterious bit of fantasy. I see so much influence from the many, many good books she has read over the years, from Alcott's Eight Cousins to Chesterton's The Ballad of the White Horse, to more modern favorites like Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Mara, Daughter of the Nile and Rosemary Sutcliff's Knight's Fee. Those little echoes have been so delightful and heartening to find.

We have gone back and forth about the age recommendation for this novel -- I think perhaps 10-13yo is the sweet spot for homeschool students, but my 8-9yos also love it, as did teen friends. She has been thrilled to get such great feedback so far!

Read more here.

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Speaking of writing: thanks to Gianna's inspiration over the past few years, my younger kids have become very dedicated storytellers as well. Here is Andrew's latest. If you are familiar with Four Red Banners, you may notice some sweet similarities!

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And because I can't resist, a couple cute (albeit blurry) baby pics. Emilia is 18 months old! Almost all of her pictures have this funny little smirk -- doesn't she just ooze adorable mischief?!

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I'll be back soon with an update on lessons and a little post I'm pulling together about summer routines.

When do you start back to school?

Catholic History and Religion :: 2021-2022 School Year

I meant to get this up earlier in the summer! But the break has been quite busy, and I'm just now getting the chance to sit down and complete my school plans -- including our Catholic reading for the 2021-2022 School Year.

This year, I will have seven formal students plus a kindergartener, in Form 5 (two 10th graders), Form 3 (7th grader), Form 2 (4th and 6th graders), Form 1 (2nd and 3rd graders). My two littles (ages 4 and 1) will be along for the ride! Once again, we will be using the CMEC mostly as written for all Forms.

I wrote up our plans for last year here: Catholic History and Religion :: 2020-2021 School Year.

Here, I'll be offering some specific suggestions for books that tie into the 1650-1800 time period we are studying this year in American, English, and world history, and some additional resources I am drawing on for our regular religion studies.

Bible

As I explained last year, the CMEC follows the PNEU in scheduling Paterson-Smyth's books as a complementary resource for Bible lessons, and I will be using them in my preparation as well.

I like to take his suggestions and combine with Catholic resources, so I rely on Knecht's A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture as well. This tome (it's a thick one!) provides a Catholic perspective on both Old and New Testaments, from historical background to theological and doctrinal connections to application. I have used it in various ways over the past few years and always with good results. It is a thorough but usable reference. 

This year's section on Moses and Exodus, which will be our Old Testament reading for Forms 1-3, also includes nice images and diagrams helpful for our Book of Centuries. 

I will also be using these two references in preparing to go through the Gospel of Mark with Form 1 and 2.

For my older kids' reading of the prophetic books, I am trying out a PNEU-recommended commentary for high school Bible that looks promising. I have already pulled the relevant sections from the Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent for them to reference as well.

For New Testament, my Form 3-5 students will read the gospel alongside Charlotte Mason's Saviour of the World, which I just love. 

They will also a study of Acts this year alongside The Acts of the Apostles by Ellen Knox. This PNEU book happens to be written by the aunt of Ronald Knox, author of The Creed in Slow Motion and The Mass in Slow Motion, two favorite books around here! Here's how my friend Kyndra explains the connection: 

Monsignor Knox' father was the Anglican Bishop of Manchester and a staunch evangelical (so staunch in fact that he cut his son out of his will upon his conversion to Catholicism). One of Monsignor Knox' brothers was an influential Anglo-Catholic priest who never could quite make the move to Rome. Both men were influenced by John Ruskin. Monsignor Knox was a friend of G.K.Chesterton and Frances Chesterton was the first secretary of Charlotte Mason's PNEU! Some of the best and brightest minds of late nineteeth/early twentieth century Britain and they all knew one another.....

In all of our lessons, we will be reading directly from our favorite translation, the Douay-Rheims. Each of my Upper Forms students has his or her own copy to use, and I use mine for the younger kids. 

We rely often on The Dore Bible Illustrations. I have used this volume for years and it so handy to have these scenes so reverently and beautifully illustrated all in one place!

As a side note: our TBG Songbooks from Riverbend Press include the Bible passages for the year in the King James Version, so I print ours in the Douay-Rheims and tape it in for our recitations. And for the terms that schedule a hymn we have already covered, we will work on reciting the additional verses of that hymn but also add in a Latin hymn to learn.

Catholic Historical Supplements

This coming year, we will be studying about 1650 through about 1780 (ending just before the French Revolution) along with the CMEC. Right now, I have the books listed below lined up on my shelves. I'll be spending the week ahead making final selections and getting them sorted by student and term!

Form 1

My Form 1 students will read a couple of the easier American saint biographies from the list below since they are only studying American history so far. When they come around to this period in Form 2 or 3, they will have the chance to read the others.

Form 2 and 3

Most of these are from the Vision series or the American Background Series newly being reprinted by Hillside Education. This isn't an exhaustive list -- just what we have on our shelves.

• Betz's Priest on Horseback: Father Farmer (1720-1786) (new to us this year)
• Heagney's De Tonti of the Iron Hand and the Exploration of the Mississippi (new to us this year)
• Lomask's Charles Carroll and the American Revolution (such a good biography of this Catholic signer)
• Steffan's Padre Kino and the Trail to the Pacific (scheduled as travelogue by the CMEC) and Clark's Father Kino: Priest to the Pimas (Father Kino's life was one of charity and adventure, and we love that he was in the West!)
• Sheehans' Pierre Toussaint: A Citizen of Old New York (scheduled by the CMEC -- a fabulous and heart-wrenching story)
• Boesch's The Cross in the West (a Western overview)
• Two books about St. Junipero Serra: Roos' The Royal Road and Demarest's The First Californian (unfortunately these are both out of print -- I used Demarest's book with my older kids)
• Hindman's Mathew Carey: Pamphleteer for Freedom (scheduled by the CMEC -- so inspiring and so many connections to other figures we are reading about this year)
• Connolly's Saint Philip of the Joyous Heart (my older kids read an adult bio of St. Philip last year and so enjoyed it -- what a great saint!)
• Windeatt's St. Louis de Montfort (among the longer Windeatt books)
• Sr. Osiek's St. Rose Philippine Duchesne: A Heart on Fire Across Frontiers (just ordered -- haven't read this year)

I just ordered these from Hillside to add to the options:

• Hopkins' Colonial Governor: Thomas Dongan
• Buchanan's Don Diego de Vargas: The Peaceful Conquistador
• Grant's Adventurous Lady: Margaret Brent of Maryland

And a few Vision books we read last year that would still make good choices for those who haven't:

• Derleth's Father Marquette and the Great Rivers
• Brown's Kateri Tekakwitha, Mohawk Maiden
• Lomask's Saint Isaac and the Indians

Form 4 & 5 (High School)

For the older kids, I have a bunch of books in various categories. Most of these will be for Sunday reading and leisure reading, with a few scheduled in the Catholic history block on their timetable. (As always, please preview before handing to your high schoolers.)

Spiritual classics written during the period:

• Blessed Claude Columbiere's Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence
• St. Louis de Monfort's True Devotion to Mary and The Secret of the Rosary
• St. Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life
• Jean-Pierre De Caussade's Abandonment to Divine Providence
• The Sermons of St. Alphonsus Ligouri for Every Sunday of the Year (to dip into all year)

Saints lives:

• The Autobiography of St. Margaret Mary
• Bolton's The Padre on Horseback (this is a short but more challenging book about Padre Kino)
• And I will have my high schoolers read the autobiographies of Pierre Toussaint and Mathew Carey listed above for sure, as well as any additional books from the Form 2 & 3 list that they would like to. They may also like Roos' Royal Road since it has been almost five years since they first read about Fr. Serra and if I remember right, that book weaves various issues of European politics into the narrative and is a bit more challenging than the Demarest.

During the Catholic history block on their timetable:

• Selections from Kevin Starr's Continental Ambitions and Continental Achievement
• Selections from Carroll's The Cleaving of Christendom and The Revolution Against Christendom
• And for reference: Vidmar's The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History and Lovasik's St. Joseph Church History.

Catholic historical fiction: I don't own much Catholic historical fiction written about this period for teens/adults. If you have any good recommendations, let me know! The CMEC has already scheduled Willa Cather's Shadows on the Rock, which is a personal favorite of mine.

Fun side note: this isn't a Catholic book, but Gianna liked Belloc's Characters of the Reformation so much last year that I knew we had to have some Belloc in the mix, so I picked up a used copy of his Six British Battles, most of which fall during this year's time period. Belloc's uniquely religious perspective on history is evident even when he is writing on secular topics, so I am hoping we will enjoy this supplement.

Other Notes on History

Arnold-Forster's A History of England and  H.E. Marshall's Our Island Story are both written from a British, Anglican perspective. I love the books and think they are certainly worth using! I can't really imagine our homeschool without them. However, I do edit here and there and supplement with Catholic reading as described above for a more balanced view. With this approach, I think my students get to understand how the viewpoint of the author colors his or her work.

Some chapters Catholic families may want to preview:

Our Island Story (for the chapters scheduled to coincide with this time period, not the chapters assigned to Form 2B by the CMEC this year): chapter 83 (I would question some of the arguments against King James), chapter 85 (I edit)

A History of England: chapter 61 (I would discuss these translations in relation to Catholic ones), chapter 64 (I edit sections of "Why King George Found a Welcome")

The CMEC's high school history texts, which are written from a secular perspective, are quite nuanced and well-balanced. If I'm being picky, the only issue I see in this year's selections from Medieval and Modern Times, for example, is that Robinson has the typical negative view of the Middle Ages and positive view of Voltaire and Rousseau. But he acknowledges diversity of opinion and I think the way he states his thoughts makes for good discussion and is a useful part of the students' intellectual development. Overall I really like his approach and it will be well-balanced with the Catholic history books we will be reading alongside.

Religion Reading

I always schedule religion reading in a few different categories:

• saints' lives (assigned by Form, listed above under history because they are also biographies)
• spiritual reading (assigned by Form)
• liturgical year reading (usually as a family, with additional for high schoolers)
• specific sacramental prep (as needed, assigned individually)

I'll start with that last category first...

Sacramental Prep

This year, I have just one preparing for First Holy Communion! You can read about my plans here and here.

I plan to spend a half hour with my Form 1 students every Sunday going over some of the basics: catechism, rosary, Mass, etc. We will be drawing on some favorite resources like Treasure and Tradition, Leading Little Ones to Mary, The Secret of Mary Explained to Children, and some of the books from my list last year (listed under "For My Younger Kids").

Liturgical Year

This year, we will be reading from From Advent to Epiphany and From Epiphany to Lent by Fr. Patrick Troadec at breakfast. We will also continue A Character Calendar, which has been a favorite with my younger students. And we're moving through our re-read of First Communion! (We are about two-thirds finished.)

Spiritual Reading

For Form 2 and 3

Cate's reading through Acts will take her some time on Sundays as well, I think, so I have scheduled my Form 2 kids to read Marigold Hunt's First Christians. Then all three of them will read Mother Loyola's Forgive Us Our Trespasses. (Last year they read Mother Loyola's Hail, Full of Grace and Marigold Hunt's A Book of Angels, so we are continuing with the same authors!) 

For the Older Kids

My older kids' spiritual reading is mostly covered above under history above; their spiritual reading and saint biographies will be tied to the historical period they are studying.

I'm also thinking about adding to their shelf a few other books for particular liturgical seasons. For example, my kids always enjoy some additional reading for Lent and Advent. Currently on the short list:

• Houselander's The Reed of God (for Advent)
• Father Patrignani's A Manual of Practical Devotion to St. Joseph (for Lent)
• Chesterton's Orthodoxy (the rest of the year -- one of my high schoolers specifically requested more Chesterton!)

I have a few others I thought about trying to fit in but think I will save them for next year. These are certainly meaty enough! ;)

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I hope this helps those studying the Revolutionary period with us this fall! I can't wait to dive in.

Any wonderful books I should add to the list above? Let me know in the comments!

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