School ~ Week 1

Our first week of school was an unexpected success. I worried endlessly about pouring over and pulling together my own curriculum ... but I can happily say that I made the best choices for my family as we are today. I have learned to keep an open mind and to be willing to go with my heart and drop what isn't working (or what might not work) despite the fact that so many amazing homeschool families have found their niche with that very same thing.

This summer I read Pocketful of Pinecones and Lessons at Blackberry Inn by Karen Andreola and found myself again drawn more intensely to a Charlotte Mason education for my children. The simplicity (not to be confused with simple-mindedness), the beauty in everything, the living books, the faith in children as capable learners, and the shift of making connections within the child, not the curriculum, led me again to create my own curriculum and set the bulk of MFW Adventures aside.

I feel like I found this hidden gem with our history core. A Living History of Our World is everything that I have wanted for our family studies, and more. It is from a Christian worldview, inspired by Charlotte Mason, it pulls together the learning for both of my girls and meets them where they are at, it is age-appropriate without being watered down to the point of silliness, the lessons are just the right length and depth for this age, and the people and events it covers feels thorough while still sparking an insatiability for learning about the same period in US history in a few years.

I have also fallen in love with our Science studies. Simply Charlotte Mason has delivered a breadth of science lessons with 106 Days of Creation Studies that are Biblically-based, in keeping with the Charlotte Mason philosophy of living books and nature study, and intended to be studied as a family. Each day of creation is the "theme", if you will, though I use that term loosely, and the lessons illustrate God's wonderful works ... for instance, the lessons around Creation Day One highlight light, shadows, reflection, refraction, and color. It's a beautiful and simple and intentional way to use God's plan, living books, narration, notebooking, and hands-on learning to bring the wonder of science to life for my children. I'm grateful to have found this resource.

With that, aside from our 3R's ... Pathway Readers, Primary Language Lessons, Pictures in Cursive/Printing with Pictures, Language Lessons for Little Ones 3, copywork with George's Rules of Civility, and respective math curricula ... our history and science/nature studies give our days exactly the feel in execution, too, that I've been seeking all along. With each new week this first month I will be adding more Charlotte Mason studies ... picture, music, A Child's Geography, missions, and art.

To a blessed year ...