Five Fun Additions to Our School Year

Hi there! It's hard to believe, but we have just a few short weeks left until we begin a fresh year of homeschooling. Before we do, I thought I would share a few fun highlights from last year! In no particular order...

Family Century Charts

Because we are all studying the same time period in history, we chose to do a large-scale collaborative century chart for Forms 1-4 this past year! This was in addition to the various other history tools my students were keeping, depending on age: timeline, Book of Centuries, small century charts, etc.

We used some large colored sheets we had on hand (different colors for each century), but I think posterboard would be perfect for this project! Another option would be to use a roll of butcher paper and do the centuries on one long sheet (which is what we will try this coming year, I think!).

I assigned entries weekly by Form. I had two students in Form 1, two in Form 2, and two in Form 4 last year. Each Form made an entry each week, switching between the older student in the Form and the younger student in the Form. So each week, three entries were made on the charts. My students were free to choose whatever they wanted to add from that week's reading -- usually history, but sometimes literature, composer study, picture study, biography, religion, etc. (Occasionally, my Form 1 kids did not have any new events or people to add since we spent several weeks on the same story at times. So it wasn't a hard-and-fast rule.) 

It was neat to see how the different ages chose to represent their selected people and subjects.

Art, Art, and More Art

Thanks to the support of the CMEC, we had a blast in art this year! It was the focus of our Fall Mini-Retreat, so we took it up in earnest. We dove into chalk drawing, brush drawing, and clay modeling. We loved the variety and the calm, delightful process of working through these lessons week by week.

One of the best things about the PNEU's approach to art instruction is that the assignments are free enough that students of various ages can all work to their ability. This is so helpful in a large family -- or in a co-op setting, where we plan to do some art lessons this coming year. I can't wait for continued work in each medium!

Weekly Paintings

Speaking of art, this was our fourth year keeping small painted narrations weekly using Artist Trading Cards. (I have written about this more here: Our Weekly Paintings.) We had to start a new binder to house them all, and soon I will need to give each student his or her own binder because our collection is growing as the years pass and as I add more students!

A few pages from this year's studies...

These are a real joy to look through at the end of the year. Each student's particular interests and style shows through so clearly. And we get to see year-by-year growth in their artistic abilities as well!

The Kitchen Arts

My older girls (and my older sons too) have lots of practical experience in the kitchen and have been helping with family meals for years. But their repertoire has been mostly limited to our regular family rotation of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and desserts.

My older girls have been especially motivated to learn some new skills and recipes as they have gotten older. It is so nice for them to gain not just experience, but also independence in the kitchen!

We decided to get them this cookbook for Christmas. I like America's Test Kitchen's approach, but more than that, I was looking for a comprehensive cookbook that included recipes for all the basics. So many cookbooks feature specialty ingredients and fussy methods on every page that make them challenging to scale up for a crowd (and with a family of 12, we always have a crowd!). This one has a nice balance of new and classic options. I previewed it from the library before grabbing a copy to gift them. (This one is out of print, but ATK has other basic options that have great reviews.)

Since then, they have been cooking quite a lot! They have handled all the birthday desserts so far this year and have added several delicious dinners to their rotation.

I also got each of them a set of recipe cards and a pretty recipe box. They have been adding recipes as they master them for easy access -- a different way of keeping an Enquire Within Notebook, if you have read The Living Page. Hoping this fun addition to handicrafts/life skills continues into the new year! 

And my second son requested his own recipe box this summer! I opted for a regular 4x6 index card box for a boy-friendly version. ;)

Handicrafts From the Stash

For handicrafts work, I have always aimed for (1) progress in skills we already have and (2) development of new skills or work in new media.

This year, we took up paper modeling and needle felting in Term 1 and paper modeling and raffia in Term 2 (CMEC video resources). 

For Term 3, I decided to have them work from our stash. So everyone had a chance to dig through their bins for...

:: kits and projects waiting to be completed

:: materials for new plans they wanted to try out

:: ongoing work they could take up week after week

This led to lots of handicrafted gifts for winter and spring birthdays! For example, here is what my littlest, Emilia, received for her January birthday, all crafted by siblings. I love seeing how creative they can be when given the tools and the time.

And gifts from the middles for Mother's Day (left) and Father's Day (right):

So much worthwhile work in so many different crafts...

My kids are constantly doing some handicraft or another in their free time, but there was something about having a scheduled afternoon block for this work that really invigorated everyone, including my high schoolers. And everyone had the time during the block to organize and cull old supplies too, which was great for us all. I may make this a Term 3 practice every year! 

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The real life in our homeschool comes from living materials and living methods -- these are my tried-and-true and make the biggest difference to "joy in living" in our home! But we always seem to have a couple experiments or unexpected additions that blow fresh air into our days.

As you look back at the past school year and plan for the next, what were some of the fun additions that brought joy to your homeschool?

My Planning Tools for 2020-2021 :: Logbooks and Timetables

I have had some requests on Instagram to share a closer look at my logbook, so I thought I'd hop over here and pull together a post about my process this year. This is one of those topics it is much easier to blog about than to answer DMs about!

In the past, I have used different ways of organizing my plans, managing my days, and pre-reading. I have blogged about those strategies as well.

Here I'm going to share about what is working for us this year. Over the past couple years, I have changed my approach quite a bit -- and for the better! I have a few different tools I am using that have been very successful for us, even with seven students in three Forms and lots of littles alongside.

LOGBOOK

But for the past couple years, I have adopted the practice of a logbook, which is an idea straight from the PNEU that I have adapted for our family. Amy was the one who introduced me to the logbook -- she and I discussed the topic briefly over at Charlotte Mason Coast to Coast a couple years ago. (If you are a CMEC member, we went into logbooks in more depth during this year's Summer Planning Mini-Retreat, and we have plenty of examples on the Logbooks and Timetables page under Resources.)

Simply put, the logbook offers me a place to LOG the work we do in each lesson block and my reflections on that work (as needed).

This year, I am using two-page spreads for each 5-week session (half-term -- we do 10-week terms). Last year I tried to fit a full term on one spread and I didn't have enough room for notes, but the half-term seems to be just right.

I have spreads for Form 1 and 2 readings, Form 2 readings and work, Form 1 students, and family studies. This grid format allows me to see several weeks at a glance so that I can notice patterns, ongoing problems, and progress.

Here are a few filled-in examples from earlier this year:

I have my logbook open during the day so I can jot down notes as we go!

SCHOOL PLANNER

I also use my logbook for planning. I write up a weekly grid to work from based on each day's timetable, then sit down weekly to think through my plans for each slot.

blank and ready to go!

filled in for the week  (except special study -- I jot my plans there over the weekend)

I am doing less weekly pre-reading this year since I did so much over the summer. So I get out my pre-reading notebook to reference during this prep session, adding any important notes I have for myself and marking with a post-it any discussion points I want to bring up with my older kids during the week. (I just pull out my pre-reading notebook and work from there in those moments.)

My weekly prep time takes about an hour this year. I also do some related bedtime reading: the high school literature books, biographies, and religion reading that I didn't get to over the break.

At the end of each day, I look back over my plans and see what didn't get covered -- and I circle it. Sometimes I think we'll have time for an activity that we don't actually fit in the block. Sometimes we read a little less (or more!) than I had planned. I circle those things to remind me to consider them when I am making the next week's plans or to cover at Weekly Meeting, depending on what it is. (Sometimes I have a discussion point or side note I wanted to bring up with my high schoolers but forgot. That kind of thing I bring to Weekly Meeting on Friday to discuss there.)

This weekly grid is my brain during the week! I use it to direct my lessons for every Form, every day.

PRE-READING NOTEBOOK

I mentioned my pre-reading notebook above. I have shared about various ways I have kept my notes before.

This year, I had much more reading to do with the older kids in high school, so I decided to simplify my notebook practices. Instead of drawing and painting in my pre-reading commonplace and keeping another notebook with more logistical notes, I am just keeping one lined notebook this year for all of my notes. 

The first half has my book notes - main ideas, discussion points, ideas for lessons. 

The second half is a simple commonplace book -- just quotes.

I filled up most of this notebook over the summer, but there is still room for me to add for the books I am reading week by week or term by term.

This is now my reference book that I pull out weekly (at Weekly Meeting and my weekly planning time), whereas my logbook is my working notebook that I use daily.

In the past, my pre-reading notebook has been a creative project for me. But this year, I wanted to focus on commonplace-keeping and working in my Book of Centuries, so that is where I have been putting my reading-related notebook time.

LOGBOOKS FOR HIGH SCHOOLERS

My high school kids are actually keeping their own logbooks this year, so although I do keep my plans for them in my weekly spread, I do not log their work daily. I bought planners from Target that are set up with blank categories so that they could dedicate a column to each day of the week and just work down their timetable of subjects in order. I have them make note of Afternoon Occupations at the bottom of each column, and they have space on the side for them to make note of things they want to discuss at Weekly Meeting, goals for themselves, notes for online classes, etc. They have this logbook, their timetable, and their program, and they work through their days very independently! It has worked so smoothly for us.

Any notes that I want to keep about my high schoolers go right on my weekly spread (that right column has room for my general reflections). Or if there is an issue I need to troubleshoot, I just turn the page and brainstorm there! The notebook is set up like a bullet journal in that I don't have it all laid out in advance. This allows me a lot of flexibility in my record-keeping.

FAMILY TIMETABLES

I used to schedule our days to be very flexible, just carving out school blocks and fitting in whatever fit on a given day. I felt like that worked very well for the season I was in at the beginning, with more littles than school-aged kids. It also fit my personality -- I am one that tends to push too hard rather than not hard enough, so even though I didn't have a strict line-up for the day, we were always getting it all done. It was a good system for us.

But the past two years I have worked with a formal timetable for our lessons time and I LOVE it. I don't think I could school this many kids, have this many good conversations, hit all the "books and things," and still keep my sanity without it! I put a lot of thought into what our schedule should look like during the summer and then just follow it week by week. If I need to make a change -- if something isn't working or we want to try something new -- I just adjust it, print a new one, and go from there. I also review the timetable after each five weeks to see if it needs a refresh.

Since I have multiple Forms, I have a family timetable for each weekday. The stack is hung on the fridge and we flip to the right day each morning. 

My high schoolers each have their own timetable in their notebook. Their timetables are personal to them because they share books, so I often have them flip-flop subjects to accommodate that. But I still have them on our family chart so that I know roughly where they are in their day at any given time. And they join us for afternoon lessons, so I can see at a glance what time that will happen on any given day.

All that said, we do not always follow this exactly as scheduled. Right now, Emilia is napping in the morning and late afternoon and Damien naps mid-afternoon. So occasionally, I will swap the Form 1 and 2 kids' lesson block (12:30-3pm) and outside time -- we begin their line-up of lessons whenever she goes out and work straight for two hours. Then we pick back up when the older kids are scheduled to join us at around 2pm for our last few family subjects each day. But even when we change our beginning time, we still follow the order and length of these lessons, which keeps us all on track and ensures we have variety and balance!

The timetable takes away the effort of decision, holds me accountable, gives me peace in the moment, and helps our days with multiple students run smoothly. I don't have to think through whether one of my students will need a book while another student is already using it, or if I'll be available to hear a narration. All of that has been accommodated! And I can adjust during my reflection time when needed.

So that's a tour through my tools this year. Have you tried a logbook? Where do you like to keep your notes and thoughts for lessons, or your reflections on the day/term/year? I'd love to hear what methods work for you. :)

(And because I know you are going to ask: the robin's egg blue and navy notebooks below are hardcover XL classic moleskines in lined for the pre-reading notebook and dot grid for the logbook. I use my very favorite mechanical pencil, a black ballpoint, and a set of Staedtler Triplus Fineliners in these notebooks. There is some ghosting with the markers, but since I only use those to draw my grids (and opt for light colors anyway), I am fine with that. Pencil and ballpoint work fine on these thin pages, though. The thinness of the pages allows for a LOT of pages in just one small notebook, which I really like for this purpose. Links above are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!)