Bridget joined the officially-schooling crew as a Year 1 student, so this year I have Years 7, 4, 3, 1 and a kinder (little Clara there in the middle).
We celebrated the first day of school with some goodies:
My Form III kids each got a copy of the first volume of Ourselves from Riverbend Press. I am so looking forward to reading it with them this year! I also got them each a small EcoQua notebook as a commonplace specifically for this book.
And my Year 1 student got a "Book of Masterpieces" (aka blank photo album in which to store her artist print). Below that are some packages of scrapbook paper, which we are using for paper sloyd this term.
Ivanhoe is on the Big Kids' free read shelf for this term, Autumn was a snag for my kinder daughter (I have the other seasons waiting for her too!), the Rand McNally Atlas of World History was a recommendation from a friend, and I think The Golden Book of America will be a great addition for my Year 4 student this year. That Outlines of Shakespeare's Plays will be on the reference shelf too for my older kids.
The Form I kids got their own Prismacolor sets, and my kinder girl got some special markers. She begs to do lettering but I don't let her use the Tombows and Pitt brush pens that I have for myself and the older girls. These are washable. ;)
Also: post-it flags! Each child has their own color for marking passages for their copywork.
We started Weekly Meetings up again! This year I have one session with my Form III kids and a short session with my Form II student immediately afterward on Friday afternoons.
And of course I am back to my Weekly Pre-Reading + Planning Session.
Bridget and Xavier are together in Form I. Favorites so far: math and Paddle to the Sea!
I always kind of forget how much those first few weeks take out of me! I have to be so much more hands-on and talk so much more than I usually do since we are adjusting to new books and a new schedule. I have finished every day tired in the best way but without any extra energy for chit chat or even focused work.
But this week I am starting to feel like I can maybe hop back into project mode. Which is great, because I have so much to share here! I figured I would do an all-around update today, and then I'm hoping to share some of our recent nature adventures later this week. I also have a retreat recap scheduled for next week as well. (Psst: we're almost ready to offer the audio package from the Philly retreat for sale! So look for that very soon.)
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We had some birthdays since I was last here, my oldest and my youngest:
Vincent turned twelve...
And Damien turned one!
Birthday books will be shared in the next {What We're Reading} post!
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Last week I hosted @charlottemasonirl all about the "things" of a Mason education.
Here's my intro post, and you can read what was shared through the week here. (I also linked to a relevant old post of mine hosted by Afterthoughts: Myth: Charlotte Mason isn't hands on like other curricula.)
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Our Charlotte Mason study group just started back up again as well -- first meeting was last night. We recently finished Know and Tell and are beginning a read-through of In Memoriam, which I am excited about. Have you ever read that book with a group? We are spreading it over five or so months. Have you ever considered what Meyers-Briggs type Miss Mason was? I don't know the answer, but I think it's in In Memoriam!
We are also almost finished with our study of Volume 5 with the monthly CM West videochat. I am liking that volume so much more than I thought I would!
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Speaking of CM West, last month we had a chance to visit an exhibit at the Monterey Museum of Art for the artist we used for our retreat picture study at CM West :: Conference in Old San Juan back in February. The museum had a whole area dedicated to E. Charlton Fortune's work, from her early impressionistic work to her religious art. The space was arranged so thoughtfully.
We only stayed an hour since we had all the littles along (and docents breathing down our necks! :/) but it was an enjoyable afternoon.
Back with more another time. Hope you are having a great week!
So good to see you back here Celeste! Looking forward to hearing the audio from the Philadelphia retreat.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lucy! :)
DeleteI'm so excited about this school year! I'm a little more knowledgeable and definitely more comfortable with a CM education, and using Amblesideonline.
ReplyDeleteI have two students this year, years 1 & 2. I've combined them with a couple minor tweaks to the F1B schedule laid out by AO.
Last year was more of an introductory year, and not exactly knowing what I was doing and feeling a tiny bit overwhelmed, I gave myself grace to do parts of the AO curriculum and temporarily leave out some things I intended to look further into. I feel a lot more comfortable with most of this stuff this year, but we have finished 3 weeks of AO F1B (although haven't yet added all of the things we skipped last year - but I'm feeling confident about adding them in one or two at a time), and I'm finding myself with this question I hadn't previously thought of.
What sort of Keeping should I expect from my Year 1, Year 2, and myself? We didn't actually do any Keeping last year, and I don't know how much to expect, or how often, or what subjects should and shouldn't be Kept. I don't want to overtax any of us, and I also don't want to set the bar way too low.
If you could just comment me an answer... or maybe even do a whole post on the topic of Keeping in the early years... I would love it! I'll be checking back here!
Hi Sabriena!
DeleteFor Form I, I usually focus on a bit of mapping (alongside the geography reading, like Marco Polo or Paddle to the Sea), consistent nature journaling, and maybe one other thing weekly. Sometimes that has meant drawing the bird we read about each week in Burgess Animal Book, or a drawn narration for each chapter of Pagoo. This sets the stage for written narration later on because the students are already primed to express their narration on paper, even if it is just in a sketch. :)
You can see some examples of items my Form I kids have kept here:
http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-school-year-kept.html (scroll down to Form I)
http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/2018/06/form-i-in-our-home-2017-2018-in-review.html
I hope that helps! I would love to do a post on Keeping in the early years! I can't promise it will happen soon, but thank you for the idea. :)
Thank you for the input! I kind of thought something like that seemed reasonable in our home, but I was doubtful about my instinct. It takes a lot of pressure off me to have this doable plan confirmed by a seasoned Keeper. :-)
DeleteI also appreciate the examples you linked to. Thank you!
DeleteYay! You’re back!
ReplyDeleteThanks, friend! <3
DeleteYay! Glad you are back to your school year and I'm looking forward to what you are reading post! :) Have you ever seen the Lavender Blue nursery rhyme book? It's beautiful! I'm contemplating making that my gift to nieces and nephews for Christmas. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I love that book! It has a permanent place on our Morning Basket shelf. :) And thanks, Amy!
DeleteGood to see you back! One thing I love about your sharing here is how you keep your own needs and those of your family prioritized over your "audience."
ReplyDeleteI'm curious, do you get much time to yourself during those pre-year planning weeks?
Those two planning weeks this year were very intense. I had a lot to think through and a lot of logistics to work out -- moving up a Form, figuring out some combining, adding yet another student, etc. But I had spent the rest of the summer working on talks and such, so I felt like I was in a good place to be able to do that kind of work. I am getting more time to myself now that we have actually started school somehow. LOL
DeleteAnd thanks for your encouragement and understanding. This blog (and everything I do in person or online, really) has always been and can only be an overflow. Things at home have to be handled first! Thankfully this kind of writing really refreshes me, so I am happy to fit it in where I can. :)
Nice to see you back. You are doing a great job
ReplyDeleteAlexa
Hi Celeste,
ReplyDeleteHow do you schedule things like Book of Centuries, physical geography, map marking, instrument practice, etc.?
Kindly,
Randi TImmons
Hi Randi! I will have to share this year's schedules on the blog at some point. :) But BoC and map marking happen during the accompanying lesson, with extra time spent on that kind of thing in the afternoons. Instrument practice is in the afternoons as well. Physical geography is scheduled during their outside time in the mornings, once a week. On the other days, they may do an earth science experiment or a special study outdoors. I have one outdoor activity scheduled for each day of the week. Hope that makes sense!
DeleteHi Celeste,
ReplyDeleteI was just hopping over here to visit your blog and see if you had posted about Year 7 yet. I'm curious to know how it is going. Have you had to make any changes or substitutions in the history at all? I was wondering if you've added any Catholic resources to supplement?
Hope you're having a wonderful 12 Days of Christmas!
Karen
Hi Karen! I plan on posting about Year 7 after we have finished with it. It seems like it makes more sense to do it that way. :) I did make some changes to Year 7 history... We are using the alternate option, Arnold-Forster, instead, and we're loving it! I also moved In Freedom's Cause and Daughter of Time to free reads. I have found that the books we are reading have done a good job of presenting a Catholic view of the Middle Ages so far, so I haven't added a focused historical supplement for the year. (I think that will be much more of an issue next year, when we cover the Renaissance.) However, they do have catechetical/spiritual reading alongside, of course!
Delete