** 2011 - 2012 Curriculum **

I'm so excited for this years curriculum! I've had lots of time to look over (&over) tons of resources and have spent some time thinking & praying. I'm so thankful for all the resources available and the work that is made ready for me!

Chris ~ Grade 1: I basically followed the CM Curriculum Guide (i seriously love that site btw) while changing up some things.

• He will have 3 Montessori based trays.
• Math - Math U See Alpha
• Copywork - A Reason for Handwriting
• Science - 106 Days of Creation Study
• Personal Development - Learning to Get Along Series I'm so excited about this find!! ~ incorporating Laying Down the Rails
• History, Geography, Reading, Read A Louds, Bible - Core B with Grade 3 Readers
• Poetry - Montessori Style Poem of the Month
• Nature Study - I Love Dirt!
• Picture Study - We have 3 Come Look With Me books that we will be working through the year
• Art - Drawing With Children. I also have lots of left over art supplies we didn't use this past year due to home circumstances that I will be delighted to use with them this year!

It's a lot and that's why I left out quite a few subjects suggested on CM. We had such a lackadaisical curriculum last year that I didn't want to throw us in shock and accomplish nothing! The Poetry, Nature Study, and Picture Study will be weekly. The Science is 3 days a week.

I still have quite a few ideas spinning around in me head and I'm trying to figure out if they will work or not!

Zack ~ Preschool:

• 6 Montessori based Trays
• Raising Rock Stars Preschool - we will being joining to have access to the power points as well
• Reading Time each day
• Joining Chris for Poetry, Nature Study, and Art
• His own Personal Development program using the same resources I'm using with Chris

Nate ~ Toddler: ohhhhh how I don't like the thought that he will be a toddler during this school year! He's still a baby in my head so squishy, juicy, and lovey! And I know he still will be all those things, I just really like the idea of him being a baby cake!

• Some form of Tot School mixed with some CM & Montessori applications

I'm working on a schedule and trying to figure out how we can work everything with as much ease, comfort, and fun as possible.

~ Sneak Peek # 3 ~

~ Sneak Peek # 2 ~

~ Sneak Peek # 1 ~

Box 1 of our 2011 - 2012 curriculum:

Looking forward to posting on our First Grade curriculum!

A Charlotte Mason Education

I ordered this book last year off Amazon. I was so excited to receive it in the mail. Who doesn't love packages in the mail especially ones with books?! I must say I was disappointed when I read this. This book has 20 chapters and each chapter is 1 or 2 pages long! The introduction is great. The book is basically an overview (broad overview) of what your school day would look like using the Charlotte Mason Method and without any of the depth and meaning behind it. (which makes a huge difference) I personally did not come across anything in this book that can not be found at Simply Charlotte Mason. In addition, I have not referenced the book once! Simply Charlotte Mason is a wonderful site loaded with tons of free information and more at decent prices. I would recommend the Simply Charlotte Mason website for a broad overview of what a "CM" day would look like. Next, I recommend For the Children's Sake (<-links to my review of this book) and then A Charlotte Mason Companion. Of course slowly working on reading Mason's own six volume set isn't a bad idea either!

WoW! So when I went to get the link for Charlotte Mason's Homeschooling series, I seen that you can get the books individually for $1.99 on your kindle!! Score!!! I'm soooo excited! (I got a kindle as my Christmas present from my husband)

*The above picture is linked to Amazon as well as all links except For the Children's Sake. On Amazon you can view inside all books.

**This is my personal opinion about A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison.

For The Children's Sake

This book came with My Father's World Kindergarten Deluxe Package. I originally did not plan on reading it. I had many other books to read that I bought at the convention that I preferred. While I was flipping through this book and so many paragraphs caught my attention that I decided to read it. WoW! It was good! I started this book at the beginning of July and just finished it last week. It is only 158 pages but sometimes one page was so full that I wanted to stop, pray, and take it in. I have 31 pages of notes in my notebook! As hard as it is I'm picking out two points that stuck out the most to me from each chapter.

Chapter 1: was an introduction mainly. So I'm applying my points for that one to another chapter. :)

Chapter 2:

• Respect children. Don't see them as something o prune, form, or mold. They are individuals who think, act, and feel. They are separate human beings whose strength lie in who they are, not who they will become.
• Our generation is prone to watching a brief program or reading a few paragraphs on a subject and then thinking we "know" about that subject. All we are doing is amusing our interest. This is not education.

Chapter 3:

• Do not smash your children. Lead them. Just as a Shepard leads his sheep. The pasture itself has boundaries but there is freedom within the pasture.
• Children will treat others as they should when they are used to consideration, time, and care themselves.

Chapter 4:

• A child flourishes in an atmosphere where they are liked as a person. Their ideas and choices count.
• Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.

Chapter 5: the most filled chapter

• No division between secular and christian. The whole of reality is God's reality.
• Let the child, God, and His Word work out their own relationship together.
• Time must be unhurried and TV free to encourage the gentle art of learning.
• A part of life is learning how to regulate one's time, responsibilities, and one's limits.

Chapter 6:

• We hinder the child's worth ("just as I am") when we set up artificial development schedules which they must learn grade by grade. We push the "slow", bore the "quick", and ignore the living mind.
• Don't feel guilty about enjoying the whole of life. God created this world and all that's in it for us. Learn to balance each area of your life and enjoy each part of it whole. Whether it's work, sex, eating, reading, watching the sunset, playing a game, etc. It's yours.

There is so much and I've already started applying some things and planning on how to apply others! I strongly recommend this book to all teachers. It's not just for homeschool teachers. Most of the book she referring to how a specific school was ran. You can view inside this book on Amazon here.

July Habits

I purchased this book at the homeschool convention this year and love it! I plan on using this book throughout the first years for all our children.

Charlotte Mason says that decency and propriety habits are the habits that in a sense make us. They are the habits that we do without thinking. Also, they are the habits that people judge us by. The ones that she elaborated the most on are: Cleanliness, Courtesy, Kindness, Manners, Modesty and Purity, Neatness, Order, Regularity. Others include: Candor, Courage, Diligence, Fortitude, Generosity, Gentleness, Meekness, Patience, Respect for Other People, Temperance, and Thrift. I would have to agree with her. In general when someone says "so what did you think about so & so" I tend to think back on things like how they acted when I was with them (their friendliness, manners, in all how they presented themselves).

The other habits I want to work this year are moral habits. Which are: Integrity, Obedience, Personal Initiative, Reverence, Self-Control, Even Temper, Truthfulness, and Usefulness. These moral habits are so important to me and I want these buried as deep as possible inside of our children. I feel that these are the habits that will help them to be open to hear and be used by God, a good husband, and a good father.

I decided to divide them up and concentrate on two a month. The book gives application for each. We will be using that and I will be checking out books from library and/or using what we have to reinforce and give different perspectives on each habit. In addition, our whole family will be concentrating on how where we can improve in each of these habits.

Our two for July that we have started on are Cleanliness & Integrity. I will be posting at the end of the month on what we did and how it went.