We Are Back! Sorry for the Delay!

Sorry for the delay in posting, but lets be real August was fast. I mean did it even really happen??

I did a soft back to homeschool week in August introducing the girls to their math curriculums.

I also had a homeschool expo I was at for my enrichment program, so it has been BUSY!

Our first week back we did just a math lesson each day and a short read aloud. I did a post about what curriculum I chose, you can go back to read about that here. We are using the free Charlotte Mason curriculum from Ambleside Online. However, for math my second grader is using Masterbooks and my kindergartener is using The Good and the Beautiful.

My oldest daughter is familiar with Masterbooks, we did that last year for first grade and she did really well. She caught on to concepts like telling time so quickly, I was shocked but I loved the method for which they broke those ideas down, and they made it easy for me to explain and teach her.

Now, my youngest daughter Mia, is LOVING The Good and the Beautiful. She begs me to do another lesson, so we have done more in her binder than what we should be doing at this stage in the season. However, if she enjoys it who am I to say we must stop math lessons for today. You will never hear me tell my girls we need to stop lessons, if they are enjoying a particular activity I will let them continue because that is the joy of homeschool. I can change the schedule another day, to accommodate the longer lesson in the moment.

The rest of AO is broken down into a graph like chart and it is organized by terms, and then broken down into weeks. We took two weeks to complete week one, because it was so new to all of us. I didn't want to rush through the readings and we are new to narration. I have read a few books about children narrations, listened to several podcasts on the subject as well. Which if I am honest, I will need to revisit those because it is difficult. I want to change their answers, or prompt them and that is not what narration should be.

I could do an entire post on narration quiet honestly, and I probably will! I just find that it is hard to get my daughter to focus because she likes to draw what I am reading in a notebook and then she narrates about the picture. Now, I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, but it is not the traditional method that Charlotte describes in her books. Which...I have also read by the way.

I spent the bulk of my summer months reading Charlotte Mason's Home Education and A Philosophy of Education. Those we both very helpful in planning for this new journey. I have always wanted to try AO but the idea seemed out of reach, yet here we are! Those books elaborate on narration and how the student should narrate after every. single. reading. Even after artists study, composer study, hymns, and folk songs. It is hard at times, but I think we will grow stronger the more we do it, like riding a bike.

Now for AO my oldest is a Y2, and we are enjoying it. We have read The Little Duke, Little Pilgrims Progress, This Country of Ours, and the Tree in the Trail this week. My daughter has already make the connection that Little Duke and TCOO are during the same period of time. She has enjoyed learning about history and the knights and dukes, and her pictures have shown me men on horse back in their suits of armor going to take back the crown of England. She said, "I don't think this will end well for Harold". It really made me laugh to see how her little mind made that connection all on it's own, and she is excited to finish the next half of The Little Duke this upcoming week.

We are reading the book of Exodus in the bible as well. She has learned about Moses being born, and how the Egyptians wanted all baby boys thrown into the Nile River. We looked at photos of the Nile, and she was shocked to think anyone would throw a little baby in there. She was happy that the Pharaoh's daughter was the one to rescue and raise Moses as her own child.

Listening to the music for the week we do in the car together and all the girls discuss how that song made them feel, or if it is slow and quick paced. My three year old always knows the composer because she has realized there are no words, just the music. I love the folk songs and hymns personally the best, they are not enjoying them as much but are willing to listen.

The last item I wanted to discuss was copy work. I made a post on the AO Facebook page because this is the thorn in my side. Sophia is hating copy work. Every time I bring out the note book, cue the eye rolls, and attitude. I got a mixture of advice, one woman said "you are the authority and you choose what needs to get done". Another mom said to take strips from the folk songs, bible verses, poems, and such, place them in a jar. Then, she picks one strip a day and writes it down. I loved that idea, and I think I will work on that for this week. I ended the lesson with copy work on Thursday and she cried, but completed the stanza from her poem I selected. It was four short lines, not an essay.

I did explain that the reason we do this is so she has practice with her letter formation, and punctuation. She thinks her writing is already great, but she writes in all capital letters, and flips her b's and d's around, same with her numbers. That is why copy work is vital and needs to be done daily, which I understand I just did not realize it would be such a headache to get her to do it.

So, for next week I will try the jar method, and see if she gets more excited. Again, I hope the more we do this exercise of copy work the more she will get comfortable with it. Practice makes perfect!

Well, that is it for now. I will update you next week, but we have a family wedding to attend so it may have to wait until Sunday! Enjoy your homeschool week, and drop a comment with how it is going for you!

God Bless!