I've never really posted "education-y" plans before......probably because I wasn't quite sure WHAT I was doing! LOL! I'm still not. But here it goes anyway.
We use two of the Charlotte Mason curriculums as a framework, and adjust as needed. Ambleside Online - (Year 1- 3rd Term, beginning Year 2) and Mater Amabilis (Level 1A) and I also gather ideas from Mother of Divine Grace, Montessori, reading lists from Sonlight, Tanglewood Education, Simply Charlotte Mason, Catholic Heritage Curricula, and a few other places. We love living the Liturgical Year and the Seasonal Year....and plan our year around both of them.
Autumn is a beautiful time of year in the Pacific Northwest, so September and October are full of outside time and activities before the rain sets in for the next 7 months. :(
This year, I've divided our "terms" (12 weeks) into: Fall Term (Sept-Nov), Winter Term (Jan-Mar), Spring Term (Apr-June) and Summer (June-Aug). We take December off for Advent & Christmas. And, there are extra weeks in there too. We take lots of random days off.
Dorothy Jo will be going to half-day Kindergarten this year, so a big consideration in how our days flow are the priorities for when Dorothy is home in the afternoon:
- Outdoor nature things
- Liturgical year activities
- Picture books
- Lots of free time w/ all those crazy sisters!
We'll use the morning for the toddler (1.5) and preschooler(3.5) and for Madeleine (8.5)and Erika's (7) work. Dorothy Jo gets home at 11:15, we'll have lunch, quiet-time and then afternoon time with a few of the above-mentioned things: outdoor nature walks/activities, liturgical year/prayer, picture books, and play time.
So, here are our 2nd - 3rd grade plans. The 7 and 8.5 year old pretty much do the same "work." They have both taken off with their reading the past year and so the transition last term was how to organize their independent work & reading, and the "meatier" books that are read aloud by me, Pete or audio books.
Here's the subject breakdown:
Religion:
**Erika ~ (2nd grader) will be doing her First Holy Communion Notebook this year. Download FHC Notebook Outline She has a list of independent reading, read alouds, projects and notebook pages that she's working on. She's been working on it already and is loving it! Also...... **Madeleine ~ (3rd grader):
The above, combined with the following, help to live out the year fully immersed in the beauty of the Catholic Church!
- Celebrating liturgical year: Catholic Mosaic, Mondays with Mary , and other fun liturgical celebration books!
- Reading about the Saints
- Lots of Catholic Stories, Picture Books, Bible Stories, and books to encourage virtue development, etc.
- Scripture and Prayer Memorization
- Home Catechesis Manuals 3-5 and 6-9
- Sunday Mass Prep on Fridays -- go through Sunday readings, Sunday Sticker books, and Psalm copy work
- I also wanted to make time for Helen's Saintly Supplements for Children this year.
- Celebrating the Year for Priests
Math: Both girls are in the middle of Math-U-See, Beta, and really like it. We use lots of board/math games, cooking and living math books.
Language Arts ~ Handwriting: Copy work is incorporated into other subjects we do. The girls write in a lined notebook and also make lots of notebook pages. They do cursive copy work a couple times a week, with me printing out selections to practice with Start Write software to help them if they want it. Spelling: Lots of reading and copy work comprises "spelling" right now. Later in the year we'll do a bit of dictation. They both like their CHC Spellers, and do them "for fun." Grammar: We talk informally about the parts of speech and punctuation while they read or write. Writing: Nothing required, except copy work. Reading/Phonics - We started to "backtrack" a bit with Sound Beginnings last year, but it got to be "too work-y" and "forced" for us. I'm not sure it's necessary, so I don't think we'll continue. Both girls learned how to read informally with no real program, so I was just thinking maybe this would make up for the lack of formal phonics. For now, I'm using this as my guide: Ambleside's Scope and Sequence for Language Arts.
History: I don't really plan American History, as it sort of just happens naturally around here for now. We read tons of American historical picture books (of which there are many!), which spark interest, which leads me to find a good read aloud or two, and a couple of books for independent reading. Sometimes there's a good movie that they watch parts of to see clothing, characters, etc. Play-ettes take place and maybe we do a notebook page, if we're motivated. Last year was lots of Colonial and Revolutionary America. Right now, we're reading about Lewis and Clark. Everything is always about the Pioneer Days around here :) Pete is pretty involved in this too...he reads many of the picture books in the evening and sometime the read alouds after dinner. We find locations on the map.
We've been reading An Island Story. One chapter a week. We listen to it on Librivox, find anything on the map, copy work the main character's name on a running list that we have, and write it in our Book of Centuries. I printed off a new-and-improved-timeline that we keep in a 3-ring-binder. We mark down anything we've read about with any notes or picture. When the girls get older, they'll each have their own, but for now, this works well.
Finish up Fifty Famous Stories.
Winter and Spring Term we'll dive into the Middle-Ages reading list. But I'm only supposed to be talking about Fall right now!
We also use all of the illustrated Children's Book of Virtues books by William Bennett. We read them aloud or now they read one a week by themselves, narrate, find on map and timeline. We love these books!
Nature / Science:
- Nature Walk to our nearby pond weekly until the rain sets in. Continue with Nature Journals.
- I really love Barb's Outdoor Hour Challenges. They are completely do-able. We try to do 2 of these per month.
- Burgess Bird Book and Burgess Animal Book and other nature folklore.
- Zoo, Aquarium, Hiking Trips on various weekends
- Tons of Picture Books from the Library
- Time set aside every week to peruse our collection of Nature Books and Journals.
- Discussion and Activities from Kids' Nature Book-daily by self.
- 1-2-3 Science & Science 2 for Little Folks (CHC) 2/month. I have this, and want to try it for a couple months.
- Finish up James Herriott Stories.
Geography
Literature:
- Classic Myths to Read Aloud (N)
- Tales - Blue Fairy Book, Russian Fairy Tales
- Parables of Nature, Among the Forest People, and finish up Outdoor Secrets
- Free Reading options: Pinocchio, White Stallion of Lipizza, Wind in the Willows, Five Little Peppers, Brighty of the Grand Canyon
Languages:
Composer: Haydn. Read aloud: The Merry Little Peasant, by Opal Wheeler and Farewell Symphony. We listen to various pieces during morning and lunch. Watch a couple DVDs from the library of a performance. Watch a couple performances on YouTube.
Poet: Walter de la Mare.
Rhymes and Verses,
Songs of Childhood and the
Ambleside Online collection has lots of good ones that will keep us busy. Madeleine and Erika read through these on their own, and we read one together during breakfast. They'll also pick a couple favorites and do copy work. We'll read a bit about his life, and maybe do a
notebook page. I also pick a random seasonal poem-at-a-time and read it once each day for a week or two.
Artist / Picture Study: I haven't chosen an artist for this term yet, but I will! Picture Study, Picture books about the artist, possible DVD and notebook page.
Shakespeare play:
Much Ado About Nothing. We'll read the
Nesbitt version of the play, along with the
Shakespeare Can Be Fun! book; the girls really like this series of books. They also usually do a notebook page with an illustration, copy work of a famous line, perhaps a list of characters.
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Here is how I've started managing this, now that they are a bit older and doing some work on their own:
This is what they do "DAILY" on their own, usually in the morning, M-Th:
- Read Poem by Walter de la Mare
- Check Weather, Moon Phase, etc. and enter in Weather Scrapbook
- States & Capitals Flash Cards
- Latin Flash Cards
- Devotion Book
- Complete 1 page of Math (or watch new MUS lesson)
- Put in Haydn Music
- Practice Piano
- Memorize Prayer if not done at breakfast
- Read Kids' Nature Book entry for that day
- Saints for Young Readers Every Day
**this is about 30-45 minutes of work.
Then I give them each a "Weekly List" of Readings / Things-to-Do. They complete these things anytime throughout the week. I print it out on Sunday and put it in their book-basket. It's florescent colored paper :) It's things on "the plan" but also things that I just find or think of, similar to the Workbox-concept, but I just list it for them. If I think of something for the following week, I make a little notation on the back of the current week's list.
Download M-Weekly.
Reading Aloud
From the Ambleside FAQ: "It is not necessary that the child be able to read all the books himself. In fact, it is assumed that the parent will probably be reading the books to the child at least in years 1-3; gradually, as his reading level increases, the task of reading the books will be handed over to the student. Limiting early texts to those a child can read himself sacrifices literary quality, and the early years are the prime time for exposure to well-spoken language, which isn't found in early graded readers with limited vocabulary. Ideally, by Year 4 he should be able to read them himself, but this is the ideal and there are many situations and circumstances where this won't be the case." To keep ME on track with the meatier readings that they aren't quite ready to do independently,
Ambleside writes it out week-by-week, but I like the term-at-a-glance concept. We do some of the readings in the morning or throughout the day, but lots of these need to be done in the evening after the little ones go to bed. The two older girls stay up about an hour longer than the other three and lots of times, we're reading and narrating in our bed! I do need it planned ahead of time, so if there is a "good time" during the day (ie: littles are occupied, no one is screaming, and I'm not drowning in messes), I need to be able to go to the spreadsheet, look at the week and just DO IT....no thinking required. It also reminds me that "slow-and-steady-wins-the-race." (IYKWIM?)
Madeleine wants to learn more about Cooking, so I've got
some books lined up for her and some time in the afternoon when she can experiment in the kitchen. She is also learning how to type and will continue with her knitting and maybe learn how to crochet this year.
Erika is a voracious reader, and is very busy with all her outdoor experiments, drawing, and her First Communion Notebook.
Caroline is three-and-a-half and will be having a little "preschool time" with Mommy and Jacqueline (15 months) in the morning. Then, working on all her "fun tuff" and following along with whatever craziness we have going on for the day!
