I did my first formal pre-reading session for the year on Saturday and it felt so good. There is something about getting a varied and generous helping of "worthy thoughts, well told" that refreshes and sustains me. Plus it just feels wonderful to be back to that fall routine.
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Speaking of the new school year, I want to share about a new project:
After working on retreats with the Charlotte Mason Educational Center for the past couple summers, I am excited to join their team as they offer their curriculum and community more widely this year! I have been working on website content, editing, research, support materials, and a bunch of other odds and ends. During the year, I'll be helping with the monthly meetings as well as the mother's education course and fall retreat -- all offered live online!
If you would like to learn more about the CMEC, check out our website, and please feel free to email info@thecmec.org if you would like more details. Our family will be using the CMEC in our homeschool this year, so you'll see peeks at the program here as well. :) I am so excited to see what this year and the years to come hold.
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It's only three weeks until CM West :: Retreat at Puget Sound. I just heard that they opened a few commuter spots, so if you are local and would like to come, there's some room!
I'm not quite done with my talks yet but am getting there. :) They have actually been very fun to work on as I think through some new insights into the three tools of education. It's wonderful how trying to present ideas to others helps me think so much more clearly about those ideas myself.
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Speaking of CM West, I have been trying to keep up with the "100 Days of Keeping" project leading up to the event by working each day in one of my notebooks -- you can see some of this summer's work above! I definitely haven't been 100% consistent (more like 80%?) but it has been such a good habit builder and a respite during a challenging summer.
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We are back to Nature Club meetings after six weeks off.
Midsummer nature walks can be tough here in California! The key for me is always getting our EARLY and looking harder than we do at other times of year. In a season where everything really just seems dead (ha!), there is still much to see when we are carefully observant.
(We're kicking off a special study of insects for fall, but I can never pass up a wildflower!)
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When are you starting school? Are you excited or intimidated? Are you doing a "soft start" and easing in or jumping in with both feet? I feel like every year I do it slightly differently!
Happy first day of school!! Wow, that sounds like a big change for you and your family, Celeste, to be jumping into CMEC! And quite a natural change, too, given your work with them over the past years! I hope the transition goes smoothly for you, and I look forward to a few peeks at the curriculum throughout the year!. :)
ReplyDeleteI spent the week homeschool planning and I'm starting to not dread the school year starting again. Last year was a hard one, with the littlest sleeping very poorly. I felt so burnt out by the time June rolled around that I closed our books and just ignored them all summer... even the o-so-delightful Robin Hood and Tanglewood Tales that I was hoping to finish over the summer. We'll probably aim for a soft start (doing the first week over two weeks) when we start in September.
I closed the books and ignored them all summer too -- even though I also had plans to do a bit of reading here and there. This pregnancy really just wiped me out! And I felt the same way after the school year when Damien was a newborn. It is SUCH a challenging year and I was so ready to be done at the end of it! I will pray that this year goes more smoothly for you all! <3
DeleteExciting changes! I know I already commented on your Instagram, but I am really looking forward to getting a peek at CMEC curriculum as you share over time.
ReplyDeleteI planned our first day to be the 19th. But I'm working with a charter school, and there was a mistake somewhere, meaning my materials just got ordered today. Or at least, SHOULD have been. I was told earlier this afternoon that they were going to do it today, so technically I don't know if any other bricks got thrown in the path to hold it off. I also intended a soft start. Not sure now whether we'll do that or not. We'll see. Probably still will.
ReplyDeleteOur charter is like that too -- I have to buy anything I need for the beginning of school the spring before to make sure it actually gets here in time! LOL I hope your stuff arrives in time for a soft start soon!
DeleteHiya!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have been working very hard!
I guess you won't be doing a post on your children's Year 7 books and what you used and how things went? I won't know what to do anymore without your helpful examples of your children's work and book substitutions etc!
I wish you all the best in your new venture.
God bless
Antonia
England
Hi Antonia! I fully intended to putting up my round-up post at the beginning of this summer, but the pregnancy nausea made it so challenging for me to be on a screen for a couple months. But it is sitting in drafts and I hope to finish it up this fall and post it then instead. I would still like to have my ongoing record on the blog, after all! :) And I still plan on posting our religion resources and pictures of our work in all subjects. Perhaps some of the CMEC books I post about here will end up making good substitutions for you when you need them. :)
DeleteYey!
DeleteThank you Celeste!
I know I have said this before and many people say it, but I really really appreciate all you share on your blog. Thank you for your time and effort.
It has been, and continues to be, a huge inspiration and genuine help to me. You have had a big impact on our family's homeschool.
I hope you are getting over the first trimester sickness. It's really tough. But hooray again for another little Cruz to join the gang!
God bless
Antonia
Ps- your keeping is absolutely gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteAntonia
Xxx
How exciting for another CM community with a curriculum! And your notebook-keeping is amazing and always an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteWe did a soft start on Thursday and Friday of last week with school. We did math, history, and read-aloud along with going over all of our books, what we will be doing for this year, and my daughter getting the first full week of school written in her planner and ready to go. She is learning how to break down weekly assignments into daily work. This is such a great way to work on time management skills! We started full swing yesterday. I always consider the first couple of weeks of school "tweak" time. It usually takes a week or two to put the planned work into practice and see if time tables, etc. need to be adjusted. ;)
Hope you all have a wonderful school year!
Karen
I do that for some subjects too -- a kind of "process meeting" as our first day instead of an actual assignment. It really does help for following weeks! I love the idea of her using her planner. Gianna is using hers for her outside assignments like Latin and Italian and there is something just so fun about using a planner. :) I will make my formal timetables this coming weekend after a full week's work, then probably adjust next weekend a bit more -- and then hopefully we'll be set for the term. :) I hope you guys are having a good "second" week!
DeleteAre you still using AO?
ReplyDeleteWe will be using mostly the CMEC curriculum this year. :)
DeleteHi Celeste. Thank you for always posting a peek into your school life! I've always greatly appreciated it - especially to see how you've integrated AO into your routines and age groups. Thank you for that! I wanted to know if you will be documenting the book titles you are using through the CMEC now? I'm interested in this program but it is very difficult to make a decision without being able to compare the book lists with AO. Furthermore, the cost of the CMEC program, although worthwhile and well-deserved, does make taking a risk on the program daunting, especially paying dollars in our South African rands. I look forward to seeing some peeks into the outworking of the program - it looks exciting (I have received the info pack from Amy). Thanks for your time!
ReplyDeleteHi Lauren! I will be sharing here and there about the curriculum. Some specific book titles and some more general instruction in how we're implementing the various Forms and subjects. Hopefully through the views you will get here and from other users on IG and such, you'll have a good sense of whether it would be a good fit for you for the future. :)
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