Virtual Convention

You have heard me rave about the Well Planned Day planners before. They constantly impress me and once again I am excited to share with you another of their great ideas!

Virtual Homeschool Convention

And the best part…it is FREE! Yup I said FREE!

So right from the comforts of your own home, you can pour a cup of tea/coffee and start browsing the convention hall. There are five different halls that you can browse through.

1. Main hall
2. Family/TV media
3. Homeschool 101
4. Explore curriculum
5. Exhibit hall

You can experience vendor workshops, homeschooling workshops with guests like Ken Ham & Dr. Jay Wile, and vendor booths. The workshops start April 2nd so there is still time to register.

This experience has great features as well. As you browse through the vendor hall you can add booths to your agenda. You can chat with friends online, chat with product reps, and of course…shop.

The idea of saving my feet from pure exhaustion is very appealing!

What do you think about using the online forum for homeschool conventions? Will you be walking the halls of your local conventions?

This is How We Roll…

This week we are schooling “on the road.” Since my husband travels for work, we get to tag along on some of the trips. This week I will get to visit my cousin and her beautiful family in south Florida AND do some school.

Did I mention how the kids are thrilled about that?

School on the go can be a daunting task. So I thought I would share what we do. Maybe it will spark some ideas of your own next time you have to pack it up and take it on the road. The first thing I do is plan how much time we will actually spend doing school. Since my husband is working during the day, we are spending our mornings doing work. This leaves our afternoons and evenings open for fun. Once I have the big picture, then I start packing!

My bag is filled with teacher books, reading material, colored pencils, stories on CD, my Well-Planned Day calendar and even a scrapbooking project I want to get started on. I also have a 3-ring binder that is not in the picture. I packed up my teacher notes from Tapestry of Grace and my lessons plans.

And that, ladies, is how we roll!

Well Planned Day Organizers...

 A few years ago, I stumbled upon my now favorite planners. Since then they have expanded their product line and right now Home Educating Family has some of those items on sale. Yippee!!

If you know me at all, you know that I love two things (aside from the obvious friends & family). Organizing and pretty designs. When I saw how functional and beautiful these planners were I knew they were a perfect match for me. If you haven't taken a peek, check out Home Educating Family and you will quickly see why I love their stuff!

For the homeschool mom, this planner has everything from meal planning to budget planning in addition to weekly school planning.

For my high school student, we purchase the 4 year planner. It is almost like a spiral bound guidance counselor in addition to a school planner. It has been a great organizer as well as a resource.

I have to tell you that the Uber-Nerd in me is anxiously awaiting the unveiling of the Well Planned Day software. It syncs with my Google calender?? Enough said!

I will be honest and tell you that I have not used this planner. I find that between the homeschool planner and my phone, I have not needed something like this but thought I would share anyhow. It is so pretty!

You can see for yourself why they are a favorite!

The Edible Cell Project

IIn trying to keep with the more hands-on biology, we recently finished the Incredible Edible Cell project and had a lot of fun creating & sampling our hard work.

Armed with all kinds of goodies, we began constructing our plant & animal cells.



Such a great student!



 

The finished projects

She Blinded Me with Science...

And you thought I was going to sing? Nope! Instead I feel like talking about science. This is just not a subject I am strong in. If given the opportunity I will farm this one out to any willing body (usually in the form of co-op). However this year we have chosen not to participate in a co-op and so I must trudge through.

First off what what we use:


Apologia Biology



Biology 101 DVD

Handbook of Nature Study

 I wanted the girls to build a biology notebook over the course of the year so we put our work in a sketch book. In here is a place to write down our narrations and vocabulary as well as draw. We have progressed slowly but I was still looking for more. Over the Christmas break, I found just what I was looking for.

Marty at Homeschooler's Resources has done a fantastic job at breaking down each module and offering extra materials to help understanding, including links to videos and an easy to read explanation. I have also used this as a quick teacher-prep resource to help me review the module and prepare the girls for the test. She has also linked to two other great resource blogs.

♦ Michelle at Applie's Place
♦ Julie at Mindful Ramblings
♦ Loretta at Books 'n Other Stuff

With her help and a little bit of perseverance, I think we will do alright.


Grammarland

Grammar land Chapter 2

We finished listening to chapter 2 of Grammar land today. Last week we read about Mr. Noun and had fun continuing the conversation throughout the week. After much begging, we read chapter 2 today...while driving home from lunch. He did his narrating in the van as we pulled in to the neighborhood and came home ready to put it all down on paper.

This week we are discussing the tiny little article, a and the. So far this has been a review of grammar lessons he has learned but since he enjoys it so much we will continue on. I could definitely see this for 1st or 2nd grade. Books like these make me want to be a school teacher in a small schoolhouse with my little friends exploring the world God has given us.

Can't wait for chapter 3!

A-Ha Moment

We have read much about exposing our children to living books. If you are like me you have probably googled the term "living books" and perused book lists for guidance. If you are like me you may have even had emails or conversations with Charlotte Mason mentors looking for living books.

In our school-house we have been making the transition from traditional school philosphy to one of living ideas like Mason's ideas. There are days when I feel like I have it all under control and then there are days when I am just hanging on for dear life. Both scenerios present great learning opportunities. After all we learn from our mistakes. There are seasons in our school-house when I am uncertain why Mason taught the way she did and it is not until I have one of those a-ha moments that it all comes togther. Last week, I had such an a-ha moment and thought I would share.

For a while now we have been reading living books for history and for literature. We have enjoyed them but I will confess I have wondered how my children were going to make connections or if they were going to make connections. I have seen glimpses of it but I don't think I ever experienced it quite the way I did while with my sisters in Savannah for our FSO Weekend. I dubbed the acronym FSO...Fun Sisters Only.

Mercer House

For a few months we had been planning a little trip to Savannah for my sisters and I and (for the first time) my now 18 year old daughter. My sisters and I decided that we would read the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil prior to the trip. While the book focuses on an alleged murder in the Mercer House, the author spends quite a bit of time allowing you to get acquainted with the people and the history of Savannah. Stories of Sherman's march towards Savannah and the music of Johnny Mercer are just a few of tales he told. I can remember reading one afternoon and feeling like I truly knew the layout of Savannah. He wrote of the beautiful squares and I could envision magnificent trees sprawled throughout the squares. I was craving the slow southern lifestyle of Savannah and began to look forward to our trip. We had chosen a bed and breakfast across the street from the Mercer House. Three sisters from three states were about to converge upon this neighborhood.

We met on Sunday and started our weekend with lunch on the patio. After a brief rest from our road trip we headed out to explore the historic district. Our first stop was the Mercher House and so began my living history moment. I recalled in the book that the owner of the home, an antique dealer, hung a flag over his balcony to annoy a movie crew that was disturbing the peace of his street. As we walked around the outside we tried to determine which balcony this occured from.

We crossed the street and found ourselves wandering through the first square. Again, we recalled a scene from the book and tried to imagine how it played out. We continued walking towards the riverfront not really sure what we wanted to do but enjoying the conversation and the scenery. At one point we saw a horse and carriage and decided this would be a great way to acquaint ourselves with the city and enjoy the atmosphere of old Savannah. We climbed in and began to listen as the guide narrated her way through town. This is where I had my a-ha moment. As she shared the stories of Savannah, I realized that I had heard bits and pieces of them from our book. I listened intently and asked questions and found my mind wandering as we continued. I had built a relationship with this city before I had even seen it. I was acquainted with its history.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. THIS is what Mason spoke of when she said to read living books. THIS is what she referred to when she spoke of building relationships with history. THIS is what education should feel like. I was not labored by the trip or bored as we spent time there. I didn't feel like reading the book or even walking through the historic homes were a chore. I remembered the history of Savannah because I was enjoying the journey. I even came home and voluntarily created two narrations.This being one of the two! My challenge is to take this new understanding and implement it further in our own studies here at home.

First Week of School...

The Best Laid Plans...

This week I have opened up my calendar and have begun the process of seeking a vision for our school year. I have already chosen my core curriculum so now it is time to sit down and think about how I will implement my year. Ironically, Pinterest has been a real help for me as I try and figure it all out.

Homeschool Board

One of the first things I wanted to do was envision the "end product." What do I hope to accomplish with my children? Our family is entering a new phase. I am 50% done educating my children! Can I get a Woo Hoo? I know that I will never achieve perfection but I do find myself pondering what I could have done better with the older two. This is also my second and even third go-around teaching some of these subjects. That is a strange feeling. When I first started out, I quickly realized how little I knew and invested a tremendous amount of time myself reading, researching, and just enjoying the journey. So here I sit ready to enter this new phase.

As I go through this week, I will be preparing lesson plans, but more importantly I will praying for vision, revisiting my goals for my children, and yes getting organized!

So what's on my board? Well...

• Teaching Natures through the Sciences - This one came to me through A Holy Experience. What appealed to me was the idea of my 3rd grader making his own nature calendar. A thought I have is to find some kind of collection-shelf-thingy (and yes that is the technical term for it) hung on his wall and post the original next to it. Then he can display his treasures for the month.
• Sketchbooks - Each year I end up using these more and more. I love the idea of each child creating their own "textbook" for different subjects. I have done this in the past and have loved the outcome. This year my high schooler will be making a Book of Centuries, but we will be using the Century chart as our timeline.
• I would also like to use a sketchbook to make a biology notebook for my 9th grader. A few years back I dabbled with this idea with my 2nd child. There is definitely a learning curve. Things I liked about it was the ownership of carefully recreating drawings and labeling items. We chose a couple of different spines to help us stay on course and never really loved any of our choices.
• Biology 101 DVD by Wes Olsen  - We are going to try a different approach for our spine and will be adding this to my ever growing arsenal of biology curriculum. I will have to get back to you on my opinions. ;-)
• A Commonplace book - This idea has intrigued me for a very long time. As I look over my own bookshelf I realize that I have several of these and honestly, isn't blogging a virtual form of a Commonplace book? With that said, I would like to introduce the idea to my two remaining students. For now, it will be simple. Mostly just about creating a habit and hopefully this will evolve as our school year progresses. On a side note, child #2 started a Commonplace book without any nudging or introduction from me. She didn't have a name for it but when sharing with me one day I realized that yes indeed that is what she had started.
• The Well-Planned Day and The Well-Guided High Schooler - What can I say about my favorite planners that I already haven't said before? They truly are a blessing at helping me keep our home and school organized. I love the articles. I love the perforated shopping list, I love the meal planner, and I love the scriptures & catechism questions but mostly I love that it is all neatly bound up and looks so pretty I just can't wait to open it and work in it. (yes I am an organizing nerd)
• School pictures - This is an area that I am neglectful. At the end of each year, I do collect the best photos of the year and digitally scrapbook our family. I even take the time to journal our year in review. In previous years, I scrapbooked yearbooks for my older children so that they would have tangible memories. This was a compromise since we would not have yearbooks. I like the idea of taking the photo and adding fun facts about the child on the photo itself. This will be a fun challenge but I do plan to start.

Overachievers Anonymous...

"Hi my name is Shelley and I am an overachiever."


"Hi Shelley."

Yes it is so true. School comes to an end and the lazy days of summer begin. My mind fills with all the projects I have postponed because time has not permitted me to be creative. Soon I am up to my eyeballs in half-completed projects and then I feel the pangs of frustration.

Surely I am not alone in this homeschool mom epidemic! There must be more like me. So I thought I would (in an effort to prioritize) put my delusions of grandeur down for all to see.

1. Scrapbook newspaper clippings of my father. I saw a container at my mother's and wanted to help her with this project. Sadly this has been in my possession for 2 years. Scrapbook purchased but stalled out at the thought of preserving the clippings first or just scrapbooking them.

2. Make movie of my parent's wedding. This year for Mother's Day we had their wedding audio restored. I have scanned the wedding album and even have it laid out in the software. The song track has been selected. It is an instrumental version of "Unforgettable" performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra. I have stalled out as I take audio clips from the wedding and overlay that with the music. Once I motivate myself to finish this task I will get back to editing the pictures with the audio.

3. Remove wire shelving from pantry and finish pantry update.

4. Organize storage closet to appease my OCD and to make life easier when I have to venture in to the pit of despair.

5. Finish my decorating my daughter's bedroom. The room was painted over July 4th weekend. Now we have to repurpose (AKA spray paint) an old curtain rod. Then we will be finishing up the fabric headboard and deciding the best plan of attack for curtains. Also, repaint gold mirror for a more shabby chic feel. Once all that is done we can start hanging pictures and placing furniture.

6. Learn to make whole wheat sourdough bread and then decide if this will be a regular family menu item or continue to buy store-bought bread.

7.  Find an overnight business trip of my husband's so that I can tag along with my school supplies in tow. Spend the day he is working, reading and preparing for the new school year.

8. Read several books for fun that have been sitting on my bookshelf patiently waiting.

Even as I type this, I find myself exhausted and feeling defeated before I even really begin. Too many times, I am in a hurry to see the end result and I forget to enjoy the journey. As I look back over this list, I am reminded that I should be enjoying the journey and spend some time in each task searching for the joy.

1. Walk down memory lane and ask my children to join me as we revisit memories of my father. Share my childhood stories as the newspaper clippings remind me of them. Let my children know their grandfather.

2. Remind myself of an incredible example set before by my parents living out "till death do us part." Create a way for my mom to remember one of the happiest days of her life.

3. Spend time with my daughter and create a kitchen that she can enjoy cooking in.

4. Ok not much here that I can think of other than just to enjoy the vision becoming reality!

5.  Quality time with my daughter as we explore our creative side and finish up her room.

6.  I am happy to report that today I did check this item off the list and was even more thrilled when my husband said it was actually good. :-) Creating my starter from scratch and then working in the ktichen with my budding chef was well worth it!

7. This one has been a bit more difficult than expected. There is no doubt that my husband has an abundance of trips. Unfortunately none of them are short over nights. Still praying on this one because it has been such a blessing to me in the past. I typically take some school items, my Bible, journal and my Well-Planned Day calendar. It is during this time that I begin to get a vision of how my school day will flow and often I find my verse for each child.

8. This particular enjoyment has eluded me lately. I find myself just too tired to sit and read. No worries, I am positive I will recover in this area.

So what about you? What are your summer projects? Do you too suffer from Overachieveritis?

TOG: Training in Liberty...

Tapestry of Grace | Training in Liberty from Tapestry of Grace on Vimeo.

TOG: Spiritual Encouragement for Moms

Tapestry of Grace | Spiritual Encouragment for Homeschooling from Tapestry of Grace on Vimeo.

Building a Relationship with Spelling...

Spell to Write & Read

Recently, I shared my opinions on teaching spelling using Spell to Write & Read. In that post, I said I would revisit the topic and share how we merged Charlotte Mason's views on spelling in to this curriculum.

Before I could even digest how CM would conquer teaching spelling I myself had to actually understand it. I had to learn what the difference between whole language and phonics. I had to know what was meant by such fancy words as diphthong and phonogram. You see, I could spell. I don't remember ever learning phonics. I'm sure I learned something when I was little but I had no memory of it. I am the type of speller who can "see" the word and knows if it's right or wrong. So you can imagine my frustration when my then 6th grader (fresh home from public school) could not spell to save her life.
I clearly remember asking her, "Don't you see the word?" Her response was a resounding no!

What? How can this be? Everyone sees the word, right? Ah one of the first true lessons in becoming a teacher to my children. And so I began my spelling journey. In order to be a better teacher, I was going to have to immerse myself in spelling. I was going to have to become a better communicator. I was going to have to meet her where she was at. It didn't take long for me to find a curriculum that would help become my guide on this journey. I didn't want her to just be able to memorize words. We had been down that road and it wasn't working. She could get a list on Monday, test perfectly on Friday, and never remember how to spell it. We had to take drastic measures.

The first two years she and I both were learning side by side. I was finally understanding why we changed y to i when making a word plural. I learned why we have a silent final E at the end of the word little. A whole new world was opening up to me and I realized that the English language did indeed make sense and I could truly teach this subject. My confidence grew and I was ready to take on more.

We had spent time building a foundation. Now it was time to add another layer. First we began with accountability. When misspelling words we began to keep track of these words.

Our notebook:

1. One page per phonogram. If the phonogram had more than one sound we had a colomn for each sound on the page.
2. One page per spelling rule. We used the Chart Masters to help create this section.
3. Each time we had a misspelled word we went to the notebook and she would put it in under the phonogram or spelling rule that she had missed.

This idea came from modifying the Spelling Word Bank idea.

From here we began to incorporate Charlotte Mason's method of dictation. I asked her to choose a book that she loved. She chose Pride & Prejudice. Each week, I would select a passage and she would copy it in to a composition notebook. We discussed the words that we thought might be difficult to spell and analyzed them using the SWR method. Tuesdays and Wednesdays were her responsibility to study the passage and the words. On Thursday she and I would sit down for dictation. I would read the passage and she would write them down in her notebook. When the passage was completed, I gave her a moment to look over her work and punctuate where needed.

Then she was asked to check her dictation. The original copy and a highlighter were given to her to accomplish this task. When she came to a misspelled word or an incorrect punctuation she was asked to highlight it. On Fridays, she logged these words in to her notebook and we verbally went over the grammar errors.

Soon we began to see several rewards. First we went from, "Mom how do you spell...?" to "Mom, do you spell it this way...?" to "Never mind, I know it." This was a huge thing. She was finally seeing the word! Secondly we were able to isolate what phonetic sounds, spelling rules, etc. were giving her a hard time. This gave us a clearer picture of what to work on.

One of the big takeaways I got from reading Charlotte's work is that children need to build relationships with the words and have a mental picture of it as well. By using a favorite story my daughter already had the relationship with the words. That left us just needing to build the image in her mind's eye.

I don't think we would have been successful if I too had not built a relationship with the subject we were teaching.

CM Geography

While searching for something online, I came across an intriguing little Charlotte Mason gem that I will be examing further over the summer. 

41 elementary geography lessons

My mind is already imagining a composition notebook filled with illustrations and narrations as we work our way through. I love when things like this happen. Now back to my original search...

 

From Refugee to Settler...

A while back a friend of mine shared an article by Chris Davis regarding the Homeschool movement. In it, he described the families as falling in to one of three categories: pioneers, settlers, or refugees. As I read through it I realized how our journey took us from refugee to settlers. So I thought I would share our reasons for homeschooling today. To be honest, this is a great time of year to revisit those reasons as the February Funk or March Madness occurs (While working at a homeschool bookstore, my friend and I coined the phrase to describe how we were all feeling during these months).

All three of our children were in public school. I served on the PTA board, helped out at the school, and attended as many functions as possible. We were involved in our children's education. Our oldest son, in middle school at the time, struggled desperately and when we reached out to the school system we were sent round and round. From severe bullying to a general struggle with keeping up (long story), we tirelessly tried to help him. At the end of the school year, he completed 8th grade and our daughters completed 5th grade and 1st grade respectively. We continued to keep our oldest son in school because he had Asperger's and quite honestly I did not think I was equipped to teach him. I believed the school system knew his needs better than I. But my husband asked me to bring our oldest daughter home fearing the choice of middle school and desiring to protect her innocence, he asked much of me.

I can remember sitting in church service one Wednesday night and vaguely registering what our lesson was on. I just kept pleading with God to release me from this incredible responsibility. I am so unworthy of such a task. He would not release me and after much prayer our family agreed that she would school with me...for her middle school years. I called friends who homeschooled and read anything I could get my hands on. We were refugees fleeing to a new land. Excited and scared at the same time.

We knew we were asking a lot of her as well and tried our best to plan for the adjustment. Sovereignly she had been reading a book series and don't you know the main character was going to be homeschooled in the next book which just happened to be the book we would be starting. :-) Love when that happens!

Settling in a new land

Our days were an adjustment. That first year we went on all kinds of field trips and struggled with what school looked like in our home. I must have cried a thousand times, "I quit! I give up!" and yet He would never release me from this great calling. That year I became intimate with my daughter's education and my daughter. I knew her deepest struggles, her greatest triumphs, and all the in betweens. She had insecurities about the fact that certain subjects didn't come naturally for her. She had silently carried the burden around feeling like she was the only one. How could this be? How could I have missed this?

As the year progressed, I realized that this is the land I wanted to settle in. I knew she would stay home for the rest of her years but I also knew that just as the Lord had showed me, He would do the same for her, in His time! Like any settler relishing in this new frontier, I sent for more of our family to come and settle with us in the land of homeschooling. My husband and I agreed we would bring home our other daughter. We chose to allow our oldest son to stay in school since he was in high school and knew this would be asking a lot of him. But God had other plans for him and I will share his story with you in another post.

Revisiting our reasons can give us a renewed focus on our journey. It can help us muddle through these final days of winter as we long to reaquaint ourselves with the sunshine and the great outdoors. It can help us evaluate our progress and put in to view our goals as we conclude our year. What are your reasons?

Teaching Reading and Spelling...

A while back, I wrote about spelling. I shared which curriculum I favor and some reasons why I like it. But how does that apply to a more Charlotte Mason approach of schooling?

Mason's belief of living ideas can still be implemented even when using a curriculum. It just requires an understanding of the curriculum and the freedom to begin stretching yourself. Let me first inform you that I am just a mom. I do not have a special teaching degree. I am just a mom who believes that this is where God has placed me and therefore I must be a good steward of this role. I also believe in self-education and living by example which means I take this very seriously. With all that said, I needed a curriculum that would teach me how to teach spelling. I did not want a workbook to do the job for me but I would need some help along the way.

Enter Spell to Write & Read

My first few years of using this curriculum taught me just as much as my children. We trudged through relying on grace as I wrapped my brain around this new concept of phonics. Eventually I began to understand and felt more liberty with the curriculum. I was learning the how's and why's of spelling and this knowledge would help me in the next phase of teaching.

At the same time I was reading Charlotte Mason's view on teaching spelling. She spoke of a child's first reading lesson and using a letterbox. My youngest at the time was in kindergarden and expressing interest in reading and spelling. (side note: I think one reason for our success is that I waited on him. I did not push him) I used magnet letters and basic flashcards to introduce the letters. During this time I taught him the sounds of the letters and we played short games throughout the day and before bed. It was an ejoyable experience for him. As time progressed I began to introduce multi-letter phonograms.

Teaching Spelling
"But the fact is, the gift of spelling depends upon the power the eye possesses to 'take' (in a photographic sense) a detailed picture of a word; and this is a power and habit which must be cultivated in children from the first." CM

I wish I had read this quote prior to trying to teach my then 6th grader. She could pass a spelling test but after that she could not remember how to spell the words. In frustation one afternoon I asked, "Can't you see the words?" She replied back, "NO!" That was an eye opener for me.

Not everyone learns how to spell the same way but there are some core principles that can be applied. I finally reached the decision that teaching phonics was the key and found that SWR met my goals of learning how to be a teacher as well as teaching phonics in a multi-sensory way. The first year, we just filled in the gaps and strengthened the foundation for my daughter. We were still struggling with "seeing the words" but I was patient. The following year we began to implement Charlotte Mason's dictation method. Over the summer, I attended a class on teaching spelling the CM way. Putting myself in the student's position helped me to see that this was not an easy task. It would require discipline and study. This would be the next layer in our journey. I will try to share specifics in a different post but for now, we used dictation to intentionally build her mind's eye. We progressed from "Mom, how do you spell...?" to "Mom, do you spell it...?" She was beginning to see it!

Illiterate spelling is usually a sign of sparse reading; but, sometimes, of hasty reading without the habit of seeing the words that are skimmed over." CM emphasis mine

 
Teaching Reading
One evening while his sister was at basketball practice he told me he wanted to learn to read. I had heard this before but procrastinated starting anything official. Quite truthfully because I felt like my plate was rather full at the time and I had a great fear of teaching this particular subject. That night he persisted and so I wrote down on a scrap piece of paper some simple words that used the phonograms he knew. I touched each letter as I made the sounds. I spoke slowly and then repeated it quickly. After understanding what I was doing, he took on the next few words alone. By the end of the night we had made a collection of words and I informed him that he was reading! :-) He was so proud and so I knew that it was time to introduce the next phase.

We began our first official SWR spelling lists and also began using our Pathway readers. The first book was a primer entitled First Steps. As learned in SWR, we "marked" the words that he did not know. Then we began reading about this little family and their adventures. He enjoyed the stories so much that he never thought of this as work. After a while I no longer needed to mark the words. He would get a pencil and do it himself. We progressed through the series and now he is reading chapter books and his Bible.

Organized Simplicity...the calendar

Words can not describe how much Organized Simplicity, has been rolling around in my mind. It seems like each week a new facet is brought forth for me to consider. This week it is the calendar.

With four kids we can easily spend much of our time in the car shuttling them here and there. There is no doubt that our life is filled with seasons and there are times when commitments overlap and it is necessary but overall we can over-schedule ourselves. For our family a compromise was to allow the children to play sports but only one child per season. This decision was brought about after a particular sports season where several nights of the week were spent at practices and Saturdays were spent criss-crossing town while mom and dad tag teamed which child's game they would watch. We were out and about more than we were in. As a result, we were all feeling the stress this stretched-thin calendar. I longed for peaceful evenings with my family and dinner around the table and so our compromise was reached.

Recently we again had to spend more time in the car than I would have liked driving the older children. As we finally emerge from this season I am reminded once again how precious the calendar truly is and how we should diligently guard it. Free time is valuable time for a child as well as a family. It is in these moments when we process the events and knowledge of the day. Charlotte Mason calls this materly inactivity.

'Masterly Inactivity.'––A blessed thing in our mental constitution is, that once we receive an idea, it will work itself out, in thought and act, without much after-effort on our part; and, if we admit the idea of 'masterly inactivity' as a factor in education, we shall find ourselves framing our dealings with children from this standpoint, without much conscious effort.
Charlotte Mason Volume 3 Chapter 3

Education is a Life...Mornings

As I continue to meditate on Organized Simplicity, I find myself seeking more intentional schooling. I can look back over the conferences I have attended, webinars I have participated in, and books I have read I see that this is what God has been preparing in me for a while...intentional schooling! With that said, I thought I would share the evolution of our typical school day.

This is mainly what the later half of our week looks like. On Monday we host a co-op here in our home and I try to stick to the idea of the schedule but am realistic enough to know that things happen and that my schedule is meant to be my guide not my dictator. On Tuesdays we are out of the home for a different co-op and after school activities.

Mornings:

We begin our morning with dictation.
I use the Well-Planned Day for our choices.
I do love that planner!
After dictating the selection, we read over it again and punctuate the sentence.
This is where we briefly discuss grammar. We will get more grammar during writing.

This is my youngest's handwriting book.
He copies an English proverb in cursive and then practices saying & writing phonograms.

In order to give our hands a break, we switch gears and read aloud a lesson.

After our Thinking Toolbox lesson, we pull out our respective math lessons and work quietly.

Sometimes I will turn on a Pandora playlist depending on our mood!

Then on to my favorite subjects.
Honestly I could spend hours here and try really hard not to be overwhelming.
I let Tapestry of Grace "drive" the subject.

We read a variety of books and work in our Century Charts or History notebooks.
In this picture, my youngest is reading Story of the World while listening to the CD

Once again, Tapestry of Grace is my resource for Literature study.
I find that the pace is a little ambitious for our family so we do slow things down a bit.
Planning helps in this area.
I have also been having great success with the Go!Chart and like pulling this out on occasion.


Afternoons:
One area of weakness I have is science.
Knowing this about me, we have chosen to seek co ops that offer the sciences.
During the week, each one works on the reading and labs and/or activities are done in co op.
This has been a great help

This is the core of our year. We have languages, music study, art study, etc. but these are not daily activities and so they are interspersed throughout the week.
We also have books we read and our Bible study time before school or in the evenings.

Each year our typical day looks a little different as our needs and schedules change. Only recently have I been able to turn over the responsibility of driving the older ones to their work and activities. This has certainly helped to keep the atmosphere of our day in order. I try very hard to guard our calendar and truly pray over our long-term commitments. Each year has different priorities and goals. I am enjoying our mornings quite a bit more but a huge part of that is being prepared myself. It is not enough to say you want to live simplistically. I think the other part of that must be organization. When things become crazy I still have a plan. I still have a system that I can rely on with minimal effort. I am truly enjoying seeing all the threads of my life weaving together and am finding great peace in knowing the God has been the one behind it all. I am finding great joy in my mornings!

Valentine's Day...McSteininurley Style

Very rarely do I have my act together but this Valentine's I wanted to bring the homemade back to the holiday. Inspired by the idea to live simply, we began our preparations over the weekend.

Making Red Velvet truffles

Over the weekend my youngest and I made Oreo truffles and Red Velvet truffles. We had a good time and even had a magical moment. I asked him to read the recipe as we went through the kitchen and pulled it out. He got to the Oreos and looked at me with a curious face. We don't buy a lot of sweets so he was thinking there would be none. I told him to close his eyes and we should wish together that there would be Oreos. He squeezed his eyes tightly as we chanted, "I wish we had some Oreos." Then we began searching. I let him discover the package I had hidden away and he was thrilled to see them appear! After putting all the cookies in the bowl and realizing he wanted some more, he tried chanting again. I told him only one wish for the day. :-)



We started off the morning with homemade Cinnamon Muffins made from my homemade Crock Pot Yogurt.
Can you see how proud I am? :D


 


We were wild about this Valentine craft from the Tip Junkie. The perfect place for our truffles.

 



This little lady stole the show!

We had an additional family with us and all the girls took turns playing with her,

reading to her, & even taking walks with her

Of course the day is not complete with out an edible craft!

This week we had a total of 4 families: 3 teachers, 6 girls, and 4 boys. We had preschool, elementary school, middle school and high school and even attacked some difficult subjects. I truly am thankful for my partners in crime. They make it look easy! 



20th Century Diner Project...

After some impromptu presentations of our 20th Century Diner History projects, I decided to put it all together in a little movie. Hope you enjoy!