A Review of Simply Charlotte Mason’s Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well
I have reviewed several of the Simply Charlotte Mason products because, truth is, I really love their resources. We are a pretty Charlotte Mason focused homeschool so I’ve made use of a ton of their plans, subject-based items, and podcasts, guides, and videos. I love how SCM keeps things very accessible but also challenging and pretty true to Mason. We have been using Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well for several years now and have quite enjoyed these two resources all around. (Our kids using these are 15, 13, 11 and they all enjoy them.) What is Dictation? Spelling Wisdom uses the idea of Prepared Written Dictation to accomplish…
A Review of ‘100+ Easy and Fun Creative Nature Walks’ and a coupon code just for you!
Cindy was very sweet to offer me a coupon code just for you guys – so, right now until June 15th , use coupon code “NATUREFUN” for 25% off absolutely everything in the shop at Our Journey Westard. Over the years we have had SO MUCH fun and created so many good memories with the amazing nature study units and resources from Our Journey Westward. (Click here to see the full review I wrote on NaturExplorers: Coping with the Cold.) Nature Study is one of the most enchanting and lasting ‘subjects’ we engage with in out homeschool. I’m not very…
The Truth about our Plans
We are wrapping up our eleventh year of homeschooling. My eldest, Simon, is 15 – my youngest, Sammy, is 8 months. Then there is 13 year old Audrey, 11 year old Alex, and 3 year old Kyle. It’s a full, busy, spirited, crazy and beautiful family life here these days. A couple days ago, I sent a lamenting (whining?) text to a dear friend. All she had to do was ask ‘how are things?’ and I fell apart into a homeschool Mom rant of how much we haven’t covered and how overwhelming this whole school year has been and how I’ve lost my motivation, and am so disappointed in…
Making the Most of Used Curriculum Sales, Book Fairs, and Conference Vendor Halls
Just recently, our local homeschool group organized a big Used Book and Curriculum Sale. This is when a whole bunch of homeschool Moms (and Dads!) get together and buy and sell with each other. It is seriously a whole room full of awesomeness, especially for us crazy book lovers. It is like a Homeschool Conference Curriculum Fair multiplied by 100 times the bliss. There are not only used books but also used curriculum, homeschool resources, and hard to find stuff that only other weird homeschoolers would ever have. And at a fraction of the cost. Seriously!? It’s pretty much one of my favorite places to be. Yep… put me…
Homeschooling Plans for 2017-2018
Hello, friends! So, it’s an exciting time of year for many homeschoolers as the Spring planning season is upon us. Catalogs and Vendor Halls and Conferences, OH MY! This year, I spent most of January and February praying, researching, and planning. This was mostly done while feeding a precious baby in the middle of the night. *wink* We had a beautiful baby boy join our family in December through adoption and it has been a wonderful whirlwind! I haven’t done babies for 8 years… but we are back in the swing. And loving it! I realized quite quickly, however, that I couldn’t possibly put together all my own plans…
Our Favorite Read-Aloud Books from this School Year.
As a Charlotte Mason-inspired, book-based homeschool, we try our hardest to read lots of high quality, living books in our home. I thought I’d share what we’ve read and enjoyed this year… Novels we all loved… Alright, I can’t possibly comment on every single book photographed (well, I could but it would take way too long…). I always try to pick a good selection of classics, award winners, historical fiction, comical, mystery, etc.Many of these we listened to on audio. Audio books are a life saver for me! Books we found on audio included: Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, Frindle, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Elijah of…
Hello from the Homefront! {Updates, Homeschool planning}
Hi! So, I thought I’d just write a very down-to-earth post sharing what’s been going on in our family for the past few months and what is whirling around in my mind as I ponder our year. I know, it’s been too long! This year, in so many ways has been quite different. To be honest, as I always warn, we have completed some but definitely not all of our ‘plan’. We started our walk through Modern History (using Simply Charlotte Mason’s family guide) and are still only at Lesson 36 of a 176 lesson program. *sigh* But, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been learning. I don’t know if any…
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Nature Studies for Spring and Summer Time with NaturExplorers
The NaturExplorers units from Our Journey Westward are some of my absolute favourite Charlotte Mason-friendly Nature Study resources. Not only is Cindy one of the nicest people in the homeschool blogging world, she’s amazingly talented at putting together easy to use, interesting, and fun units that bring life to our homeschool… There is SO much in these amazing unit studies – Cindy has packed the pages full of incredible ideas and inspirations to jump start all kinds of nature study as well as notebooking and nature journaling. The guides are easy to use and very well laid out. They are also good for quite the age range, with ideas to carry you…
A Review of Simply Charlotte Mason’s Visits To… Geography Series (Curriculum)
I’m happy to give my full review of the “Visits To…” Geography Series. So… Geography has always been a bit of a mish-mash for our family. When the kids were younger we covered most of our geography through Five in a Row. Now we read books that are specific to certain geographic areas and have basic discussions about them and find them on a map. Geography is also naturally covered in History read-alouds and discussions. We’ve also done Map-Drill, which I highly recommend for memorizing maps. The “Visits To…” series has 5 book or region options to choose from: Europe (what we have), North America, South/Central America and Australia,…
A Review of Simply Charlotte Mason’s Stories of the Nations and Stories of America
Our family uses many of the resources found over at Simply Charlotte Mason. I honestly love the friendly, easy to use materials and their affordability. Last year we worked through the Family Guide for Early Modern History and Epistles . This took us on a living books learning journey from 1550-1850 that centred around family learning and reading. I’m always adding to and changing the formal plan laid out in the guides but they are so affordable, it’s completely fine in my opinion even if you only use them as a springboard for era study. You can, mind you, use them as a well laid-out curriculum. This year…
