HOMESCHOOL

OUR HOME SCHOOL DETAILS-
We follow the Charlotte Mason approach with our home school education.  
We use Ambleside Online curriculum to guide our learning and covering all areas of learning.

I will continue to add to and develop this page.  Sharing the parts of our homeschooling that we love!  I have included links to resources and books.  If interested in purchasing the book, don't be afraid to buy used as you will save a lot of money.  There are many homeschool buy/sell groups for books on facebook, where you can support individuals in their book selling.   This is my favorite facebook group for buying/selling, as there are over 13,000 members, Charlotte Mason/ Ambleside Online buy/sell.  

MATH- 
Math Lessons for a Living Education

READING-
We use McGuffey Ecclectic Readers and Pathway Readers to learn and practice reading.  McGuffey has short lessons with words to focus on.  Pathway Readers is a progressive chapter book that has a story that continues on through each of the books.  We alternate books and read from each, 2 times each week.  My daughter prefers the Pathway Readers because it feels less like a reading lesson, and she loves the story.  

GEOGRAPHY-
Paddle to the Sea- We absolutely LOVE this book for learning about the Great Lakes of North America

COPY WORK/ DICTATION-
We do copy work every day.  At the beginning of the week I select a quote or short piece.  I write it out the writing tablet lines, with an empty line below my writing.  On Mondays, child copies the piece.  On Tuesdays, child copies my cursive.  On Wednesdays, I dictate each word/ letter of same piece, while she says the letters as she writes them (to hear the spelling of the word).  On Thursdays, child then writes out the piece from memory, and works on words she doesn't know how to spell well.

TIME LINE-

Visited the Harriet Tubman House in Auburn, NY March 2020

Learning and remembering history is enhanced by keeping a time line.  Currently we only add the people we learn about to our time line.  Because our studies connect people to events in history, those events are automatically part of the time line just by association (ie... Abraham Lincoln- Civil War...).  Many people keep a Book of Centuries, starting in the mid-elementary years.  We currently keep our time line as picture cards hanging on our wall (picture to come)

POETRY-
Currently we incorporate poetry during breakfast time or tea time.  We have a few poetry books for children with a compilation of different poets.  Each child picks a number, and then we read the poem on that page number.  They like the surprise of not knowing which poem they will get.  Next year we will move onto spending a term on 1 poet.


HYMN STUDY-
I select 3 different hymns for each term.  We usually start our day with our hymn.  I introduce the hymn at breakfast by reading the back story behind the hymn from Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan.   For a couple mornings, we listen to different versions of the song on YouTube to get familiar with the tune.  Then we will spend a week on each verse and discuss the phrases and words we don't know, in order to get a fuller understanding of the song.  I pick songs that we sing in our fellowship.  Eventually we will branch out to songs we don't know and follow the Ambleside Online Hymn schedule.

PICTURE/ ARTIST STUDY-
* Ansel Adams (2020 term 3)


FOLK SONGS-  (Ambleside Online Folk Song Schedule)
Why Learn Folk Songs?- Some background for why Folk songs are enrichment for education.
* GEN FOLK SONGS- our YouTube channel
* folksandhymns- Another Ambleside YouTube channel
* Tenting Tonight- January 2020
* Little Brown Dog (Autumn to May)- April 2020
* Health to the Company- March 2020


TEA TIME-
This is a time my children really look forward to.  Not only do they get a special snack and drink (tea, cocoa with whipped cream...), we usually do fun readings and learn our folk songs.
Aesop's Fables for Children by Milo Winter
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit-  we act out the plays with lego figures

HANDICRAFTS-
Hobbies are a wonderful thing to foster in our children.  People with hobbies rarely grow bored in life, because there is always something to do or learn.  We are currently learning the art of knot tying- Macrame.  
YouTube is a great resource for learning a new hobby or skill, along with blogs.  

NATURE STUDY-
* 1000 Hours Outside/ 1000 Hours Tracker Sheet
* Burgess Bird Book for Children- WE LOVE THIS BOOK for getting to know the different birds in our region.  Listen for FREE on Librivox.  Whenever we see a new bird in our feeder, we will read the associated chapter.  We will also draw or watercolor the bird and add to our nature journals, and listen to the bird song/call.

* The PHENOLOGY WHEEL- Observing & documenting the cyclical changes in nature around us.  A 12 month activity.  Can also be done to track the phases of the moon.  Any medium can be used- we are using watercolors.  Crayon, marker, colored pencils also turn out beautiful.

ARN age 4.5 yrs.

GEN age 6.5 yrs.

lady of Redwoodshire age 37 yrs.