It's Exam Week! We just finished our first term -- and it really did fly by. That doesn't mean it was all smooth sailing, though. Emilia is still a sporadic napper and also started walking a few weeks ago, so much of my term was spent troubleshooting her routine and keeping her happily occupied. We had small hurdles here and there among the school-aged kids as well. But I consider all of that just part of life in a large homeschooling family! Looking back, we have encountered such a feast this term, and although sometimes managing seven formal students and dozens of subjects per Form can be a challenge, I would not have it any other way. I feel more each day how "the whole hangs together" in the Mason program, and I'm so glad to be learning alongside my kids!
With that in mind, I thought I would collect here some happy moments in the homeschool from the past weeks...
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| family century charts |
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| Form 1 history |
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| Bible + copywork |
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| needle felting (more on this soon!) |
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| dictation for two Form 2 kids: one uses the book and one the tablet! |
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| grammar lessons using nursery rhymes |
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| more high school science (yep, dissections!) |
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| copywork - he loves writing football teams :) |
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| Form 2 natural history |
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| chalk drawing - inspired by native americans reading |
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| Form 1 natural history |
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| Fesole Club work |
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| Form 2 mapwork |
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| Form 1 sand tray geography |
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| chalkboard sketch maps for Form 1 |
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| brush drawing |
You are incredible Celeste. Truly you are.
ReplyDeleteI'm only teaching 3 kids and so much has been pared back from our schedule to maintain my sanity (e.g. our weekly Italian has turned into...every 6 weeks...🤦🏼♀️ Makes me so sad. What are you using for Italian?)
I wish I could do it all like you do...rich, rich education, immaculate house, organised routines, clean and neat children...
I hope your children know how lucky they are.
God bless and thank you for being a continual source of inspiration and help.
Hi there -- I think we all go through seasons like that, though, for one reason or another! The key for me is to acknowledge it's a season and not just accept that it will be the way it always is, which makes me frustrated or discouraged. I think there is a natural ebb and flow to homeschooling (and life, really) that is healthy and natural, but that Mason's "broad and balanced" vision always help me keep growing. There are so many elements of our days this year that I would not be doing were it not for encouragement and accountability from fellow homeschooling moms -- but they end up being the parts that really bring our school days to life. <3 And I hope it doesn't seem that my house is immaculate! It is tidy, but certainly not anything fancy or special. :)
DeleteFor Italian, I have the kids broken into two groups now. The Form 1 and 2 kids work through the old materials with me that I used with the older ones when they were small. The older two are doing stories + narration, poetry, and a grammar program with a weekly online discussion through CyberItalian for high school. I am still using italki as well for live lessons, but we haven't had any in a few months because our tutor stopped teaching during COVID and I haven't had time to find a new one. :/ Things are going well without that resource, but I did really enjoy having it for my Form 2 and 4 studnets as part of their school week, so I hope to add it back in soon. :)
I would love to know more about the sand trays. It seems a great way to teach the more physical side of geography!
ReplyDeleteYes, the sand trays are just wonderful -- we use them for all kinds of geography work now. The younger kids learn landforms using them and use them for narrating geography stories along with other little props they find (building the landscape, then adding in the kinds of houses the people live in, the animals of the area, etc.). My students of all ages use them to build the countries we are learning about, both from the map and from memory. It helps so much with topographical understanding and is such a good supplement for map sketching and drawing. :)
DeleteI will have to try it out next term with my lot. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou are so amazing! I like the map folder. I'm assuming it's full of all the maps related to the current year? Good idea! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, that folder has all of the maps for our geographical reader (we are doing South America this year). The book itself has smaller maps inside, so the CMEC scanned them and offers them as a printable so you can have larger ones to work with. I made a folder for each student who is using the book. Very handy!
DeleteThese review posts of yours are always so inspiring, Celeste...and they remind me to take more photos of my kids when they're doing school work! I almost never do that. Although truthfully, we don't do as many photo-worthy things as you do (art projects especially).
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