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…
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…
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…
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 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…
The Value of Play (what Charlotte Mason had to say…)
“There is a danger in these days of much educational effort that children’s play should be crowded out [or what is the same thing] should be prescribed for and arranged until there is no more freedom of choice about play than about work. We do not say a word against the educational value of games (such as football, basketball, etc.) … but organized games are not play in the sense we have in view. Boys and girls must have time to invent episodes, carry on adventures, live heroic lives, lay sieges and carry forts, even if the fortress be an old armchair; and in these affairs the elders must neither…
Review of Simply Charlotte Mason’s Family Study Handbooks
I’m super happy to review Modern Times, Epistles, and Revelation from Simply Charlotte Mason for you. *smile* I love SimplyCharlotteMason.com and have blogged extensively about how we implement Charlotte Mason inspired plans with the help of much of the SCM resources If you ever use Simply Charlotte Mason’s free curriculum guide you will be directed to choose a history time period to study together as a family. These guides, arranged by time period, by Sonya Shafer, act as the backbone of the Simply Charlotte Mason ‘curriculum’. They are central to carrying out the SCM program in your family.There are six guides for six different time periods flowing…
The difference between a Schedule and a Rhythm (and how Rhythm brought Rest to our Homeschool)
Schedule A. a plan for carrying out a process or procedure, giving lists of intended events and times. B. to arrange or plan events to take place at a particular time. Rhythm A. a strong, regular pattern of movement or sound. B. a repeated pattern of events marked by natural flow and regular reoccurrence of certain activities. When I first started my Homeschooling journey, I tried desperately to create (and re-create) very specific Homeschool Schedules I wanted us to follow. These comprised of many boxes and many little increments of time, all filled in with exactly what we would do every second…
Our Choices for Individual Studies / Morning Rotation
So, last week I posted about our Morning Time and Family Loop plans for this year, Term 1. If you haven’t read that post and are genuinely interested in how our year ( or a creatively put-together, Charlotte Mason-inspired year ) looks like, I’d definitely start there. A huge part of our learning is covered in our Morning Time and Family Loop . Once we finish up Morning Time, the kids move into their Morning Rotations (Individual Work). This is where they are covering their Language Arts, Math, Notebooking, and Reading. This year Simon is our 6th grader (oh, my goodness!), Audrey is in 4th grade, and Alex…
Morning Time and Family Learning Plans
I’m super excited to share our plans for Morning Time and our Family Learning (which we are calling our Family Loop this year). It has been about 2 months now that I’ve been really in the reflecting, thinking, and planning process for the upcoming year. It is a lot of fun, but, as many of you know – a lot of hard work! I think I’m on information and decision making overload… but I’ll recover. *wink* I’m thankful to God for His guidance and the undeserved grace He continues to pour on me as I plan. I feel I have a good vision for the upcoming year and I’m…
