Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Grace and Truth Learning Academy Advent 2016 Curriculum Guide


Grace & Truth Learning Academy
Advent 2016

Curriculum Guide, Resources, and Song Lists

...following the Charlotte Mason method of homeschool, but great for any family wanting to incorporate Christmas themed enrichment subjects into their homeschool or afterschool learning

nativity 1davinci.jpg
DaVinci, Nativity


For homeschooling ideas all year long visit: www.chalbond.blogspot.com or www.spreadthefeast.weebly.com


From my Home to Yours- Merry Christmas from Chalise Bondurant




Advent Curriculum Guide for 2016

Hymn Study: review-- Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and Joy to the World. NEW-- Little Drummer Boy (Carol), Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Picture Study: The Nativity by Geraldine Elschner with pictures by Giotto, and selected pictures from Carl Larsson, & DaVinci Nativity

Music Study: Bach Christmas Oratorio & other classical Christmas music

Folk Song Study: The Friendly Beasts, Mary Had a Baby

Poetry Study: Christmas Bells by Longfellow, A Christmas Folk Song by Reese, Christ’s Nativity by Vaughan, A Christmas Carol by Chesterton (one for recitation)

Handicrafts: baking, homemade gifts and cards


Service: cards to neighbors, Christmas caroling, praying for countries as learning about Christmas traditions for countries we cover in geography, Operation Christmas Child, $ to charities

Bible/Devotional: http://www.storywarren.com/store/family-advent-art-and-reading-guide/ using Jesus Storybook Bible or Catherine Vos’ Story Bible, or ESV Holy Bible

Literature: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, quality Picture Books, Classic Christmas Stories & Tales

Scripture Memory:  Luke 2:8-14, Isaiah 9:6-7 (also for recitation)

 FULL PDF packet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nSd8fccin_YzlwaWl0b0NJbGs/view?usp=sharing



Advent Curriculum Resources


Music Playlists:





Scheduling Plans for December 1st- January 6th

Daily: Scripture Memory, Literature, Bible/Devotional

Once- Two Times a Week: Poetry, Picture Study, Hymn Study, Folk Song Study, Music Study

Spontaneous, As Able: Nature Study, Service, Handicrafts

(Try to continue regular schedule of math, reading, copywork, science, foreign language, and history/geography, but plan to have a “light” schedule the week of Christmas and following Christmas. Also, we consider our bible readings part of history.)

Example of a weekly Advent Schedule*

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Weekend
Morning
Scripture

Geography

Bible/Devo

Math, Reading, Copywork
Science
Scripture & Recitation

Bible/Devo

Math, Reading, Copywork
Foreign Language
Scripture
Bible/Devo


Math, Reading, Copywork
Science


Scripture & Recitation

Bible/Devo

Math, Reading, Copywork
Foreign Language
Scripture
Bible/Devo

Math, Reading, Copywork

Nature Study
Scripture
Bible/Devo
Afternoon
Literature
Poetry
Literature
Music Study
Literature
Folk Song Study
Literature
Handicrafts
Literature
Picture Study
Service
Evening
Devotional or Literature
Hymn Study

Hymn Study
Devotional or Literature
Hymn Study & Family Devo
*Remember most subjects should be no longer than 10-15 minutes in length


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Saturday, January 31, 2015

My Favorite Charlotte Mason resources so far... January 2015

I am desperately trying to remember where I first heard about the Charlotte Mason method but I am drawing a blank. It may have been a neighbor that loaned me the book, For the Children's Sake, or it may have been through my friend Lacy, or it may have been through Sally Clarkson's ministry. It was probably one of those, so thank you to those mentioned above. :)

 Since finding out about Charlotte Mason I have found some of my favorite websites and resources to teach me and guide me as I learn and develop as a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. 

​Charlotte Mason Resources:

Getting Started with CM
Transitioning to CM
Curriculum options that follow/support the Charlotte Mason method
Helpful Websites
Recommended Books:
Podcasts:
Facebook Groups
CM Early Years (preschool/kindergarten  Year 0, Year .5)

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A Week in the Life of our Charlotte Mason preschool




My previous post was about the resources and tools we are using for each "subject" in our kindergarten, so you can start there if you like. 

 As a bit of a disclaimer: Charlotte Mason didn't begin formal training or advocate for beginning formal schooling until age 6. She did offer suggestions for earlier ages though and I have based our schooling off of that. 

 Here is what a week of our home school looks like right now. 

 We only do school about 2-3 days a week total. My 2 oldest go to their grandparents' house twice a week and my oldest goes to a literature class one morning a week. That leaves us about 2-2.5 days a week, and we also do a few things on the weekends sometimes. Home schooling is just becoming part of the rhythm of our life so it doesn't even always feel like "school." Actually most of the time it doesn't feel like "school" because it is so natural and enjoyable. 
  • Morning 1
    • Start off with the calendar and weather. 
    • Bible story
    • Review Catechism, review Songs for Sapplings verses
    • Introduce new S for S song and verse and corresponding letter of the alphabet. We listen to the song, talk about the verse, then color the sheet and letter that goes with it. We sometimes talk about words that start with that letter and review the sounds that letter makes. 
    • We find a country to pray for that begins with our letter and if I have any corresponding missions material for that country we may read that as well. We find our country on the map. We pray. 
    • If either of them is still interested (the 2 year old usually is in and out or completely done by now or earlier) we will read some living books on a variety of subjects. We also try to do some preschool books or toys with the 2 year old to help her with colors, numbers, shapes, etc. The older one may sometimes pick out several books and sometimes pick out zero. We're done when they decide we're done. 
  • Afternoon 1 (during 2 year old's nap time)
    • We do our Language Lessons for Little One and our Math Lessons for a Living Education. We alternate which one we do first. We spend no longer than 15 minutes on each and sometimes shorter, depending on my 4 year old's attention. Sometimes she wants to do more so we do a bit more on some days. 
    • We end with a story from one of our read alouds, which is currently our Treasury of Children's Literature
  • Morning 2
    • start off with calendar and weather
    • Bible story
    • review Catechism and verse
    • Coloring the Classics (composer study)
    • Art study 
    • Living books/playful learning, etc. 
  • Afternoon 2 (same as afternoon 1)
  • Afternoon 3-- Tea Time (currently during 2 year old's nap)
    • I want to try to have a habit of tea time once a week with my kiddos. It is a lost art form that I want to learn more about and serve tea properly. :)
    • During tea time we read poetry, do our devotion (For Such a Time as This), and end with reading from a read aloud. We are reading through 20th Century Children's Book Treasury during this time currently. 
  • Weekends
    • I try to do something fun during one of the weekend afternoons, like math and reading board games, or play cards. We also go over the Habit we are working on during the weekend so daddy can talk about it too. 
    • This is also a good time for my oldest to do art, nature study, or a handicraft. 
    • We do our family devotions on Sunday nights currently, and we do our hymn study, catechism, and will soon be introducing a missions moment. 
  • Afternoons: We will do Little Pim Spanish in the afternoons once or twice a week after the toddler naps. 
(Disclaimer: a lot of our "extra" schooling comes from the wonderful folks at PBS. I have a 6 month old right now so...you know how that it!)

That's it! It's pretty simple right now and we are all enjoying it! 

The morning school time takes about 30-45 minutes total. I should mention we try to do this time outside as much as possible so on the days that we are outside we will throw in a nature study as well.
The afternoon school takes about 30-45 minutes as well. So we are only doing about 1-1.5 hours of structured school time each day. Of course throughout the day we may be listening to our hymn or playing math games or talking about nature and God's creation as well, going on a walk, etc. We often listen to folk music or classical music while we eat or play. Then we get outside whenever possible to play and explore nature. 

Co-Ops: 
  • We are part of a Charlotte Mason of Memphis facebook group that is talking about getting a co-op together. 
  • I also have a good buddy that I have walked the mothering journey and now am walking the homeschooling journey with. We hope to get together and do nature studies and maybe some other subjects as well. 
  • Classical Conversations. Before you alert the firing squad, I know! CC is not Charlotte Mason. I will go ahead and tell you now I am not a CM Purist, I am a "whatever meets the needs of my family"-ist. CM resonates most with me so we will be using CM at home, but I personally think that CC can be a good co-op for us to join that has many similarities to CM. We won't be emphasizing memorization and we will stick to CM as for how we teach and implement things. We may use some CC or classical resources, but we will use them in a CM way or in whatever way meets the needs of my children the best. We will evaluate each year if CC is still a good supplement for us. It is one morning a week so it will basically replace the literature class my oldest is currently in. 
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You can feel free to follow any of my Spotify playlists.  Music is a big part of our day! We often break out in dance as well and grab instruments to play with! :)

For more ideas on what a Charlotte Mason preschool/kindergarten can look like you can check out my pinterest board. 

Hope some of that helps!!! Check back for my next post on general Charlotte Mason resources that have been helpful to me, or get a sneak peak by looking at my pinterest board. 

Actually, I have several CM boards on pinterest so feel free to check all of them out. 
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Our "Charlotte Mason" Preschool/Kindergarten Resources


For More on the Charlotte Mason method and philosophy check out my first post here.

 Now for a bit of a disclaimer first. Charlotte Mason did not recommend any formal schooling until the age of six, but there were a few things she thought were important in the early years. I will share some of the books and resources we are using, as well as a few "extras".  My oldest will be five in May and we just started doing a more structured home school this past January.


  1.  Charlotte wanted little ones to be outside as much as possible and to explore God's creation. 
    1. We try to get outside as much as possible and I just let the kids play and observe. We try to do a super short nature study with the oldest (4.5) once or twice a month. She has a blank nature journal where she draws what she observes and then I label it and date it. Right now she just uses colored pencils, but I would like to try water colors or dry brushing in the future. We have a nature guide called Fun with Nature, and I hope to purchase Handbook of Nature Study soon.
    2. They received lots of fun science toys for Christmas like magnifying glasses, binoculars, excavation tools, etc. We use these as they have interest. 
    3. We have done a few nature projects, like a caterpillar to butterfly kit, as well as having bird feeders on our windows so we can bird watch. We have bird houses on our windows that we hope have nests built in them this spring. 
    4. There are lots of great living nature books for preschool age. We have the Outdoor Secrets book that we are reading through now. For younger kids Ruth Heller has lots of great living science/nature books that we love. For my oldest I also want to get the Burgess Bird Book for Children, and Animal Book to read through next. Another on my list is Jame's Herriot's Treasury for Children.
  2. Bible
    1. Charlotte read directly from the Bible, which is what she recommends for any age, young or old. 
    2. BUT, Charlotte didn't have some of the amazing storybook Bibles that we do now, so I tend to prefer some quality storybook Bibles for young ones. We love Jesus Storybook Bible, which is what we are using now. I plan to check out the Gospel Storybook Bible next, and hopefully use Catherine Vos's Bible for Children by first grade (or possibly kindergarten). 
    3. For Scripture Memory we are using Songs for Sapplings with a corresponding curriculum from a free online homeschooling curriculum.  It also has alphabet introduction in it that is fun for my littlest (2) and my oldest for review. 
    4. Devotion: I found this beautiful one that I think Charlotte Mason would love by Angie Smith called For Such a Time As This. It is recommended for ages 7 and up but my 4.5 year old really loves it. 
  3. Habits
    1. As a disclaimer: I have found it so hard to find any habit training that is grace based and truly Christ centered. I like to teach habits by pointing to Jesus who has perfect character in my place because I can't. Then I like to tell my children about the "habit" and we pray that Christ will help them develop this. I do not expect perfection in them because I do not have it myself, nor will I ever. So keep that in mind as I make recommendations. 
    2. We are currently using the Simply Charlotte Mason habits curriculum. You can find the parent handbook here and the exercises to correspond here. 
    3. I have also looked at Sally Clarkson's 24 family ways and it looks good.
    4. You will also find that by just reading through a storybook bible you can find character qualities to pull out and discuss. 
    5. Always, always, always point each habit/character/virtue back to Jesus please!!! Don't raise a Pharisee.  
  4. Read Alouds
    1. I am a bit of a book hoarder so.... Charlotte Mason homeschooling is perfect for me! Or dangerous for me, not sure which!!! We are reading through A Treasury of Children's Literature and a 20th Century Children's Literature Treasury right now. We also love Beatrix Potter, A.A. Milne and several others. Think "classics" and you've got an idea of what kind of living books to pick. For some ideas you can look at my amazon lists (but don't purchase from here or it will disappear and I will forget to buy it)
      1. Toddler/Board Book Lists
      2. Preschool/ Early Read Aloud
      3. For more book lists for preschoolers just google" Charlotte Mason preschool book lists" or something like that. 
  5. Music, Poetry, Art, Handicrafts
    1. I haven't really dove into handicrafts yet. I am not crafty at all. I plan on using my husband to teach a lot of the things, like woodworking. He takes the girls to the free workshops at Home Depot where they build and paint and hammer all sorts of useful things. My mom and step mom are also very handy and I hope they will teach my girls all sorts of skills like needlework, sewing, basket weaving, knitting, etc. Also, my dad is an amazing carpenter. If we depend on the skills of the "village" handiworks should be covered. :)
    2. Music. We are using Coloring the Classics right now. They have beautiful pictures about life scenes from famous composers that they color while we listen to 3-4 or their pieces. There is also short biographical information that corresponds with the pictures. It is just the right pace for my kiddos. You can use Spotify to create all sorts of playlists to listen to throughout the day of whichever composer you want to expose your children to.
    3. Art. My oldest loves art but I seriously am lacking in this area. I bought her tons of art supplies that I never help her use. Mommy fail!! I plan to at least start making water color painting a priority soon. As far as art study I have several beautiful pieces of art displayed in their play room and we have several art books for kids that we use. Usborne Child's Book of Art, the Come Look with Me Series, and Baby Einstein's Alphabet Art Book.  We simply look at the picture and study it and then I see if they want to say anything about it. For living books about art we love the Katie series by James Mayhew.
    4. Poetry. We are reading through A Children's Garden of Verses right now. We also have Favorite Poems Old and New that could last for our entire homeschooling career. I would like to do some Mother Goose with the younger ones but I always forget to pull it out. 
  6. Reading, Writing, Math
    1. For language arts we are using Queen's Homeschool Langauge Lessons for Little Ones. It is a very gentle introduction to a lot of Charlotte Mason concepts. It includes handwriting, poetry, picture study, narration, letter recognition. There are several different levels to choose from as well.  After we work through a couple of those books we plan to use Delightful Reading and Delightful Handwriting by Simply Charlotte Mason. 
    2. My kid loves Math more than anything. During the early years we have done a lot of math through play. Numbers are all around us, we simply need to be aware of them and use creative ways to make math fun. We have lots of shape and color toys and lots of blocks. You can find math manipulatives online or at parent teacher tools stores. Also, Duplo blocks and Legos are great as manipulatives! We have an abacus and sorting bears, as well as dice that are fun to use. Calendars and clocks are great concepts to introduce as well. We just started the Math Lessons for a Living Education by Queen's homeschool and we love it. It tells a story about two kids on a farm and there are math exercises built in.
  7. Other
    1. We watch Little Pim for Spanish (free on Amazon Prime) and sometimes we watch Baby Signing Time or Signing Time (Netflix) for sign language. 
    2. We do Hymn Study during our family devotions on Sunday nights. You can check out my posts on Hymn Study here.
    3. We do Catechism during family devotions as well and we are using the New City Catechism.
    4. We hope to start our oldest in classical ballet in the fall. 
    5. I would love to start basic piano or music class with them, but I am waiting until they show more of an interest. I have looked at Music for Little Mozarts for this. 
  8. Cultures/Geography
    1. I will need to write a separate post on this in the future, but I just recently found some amazing resources for missions study that I will share soon. This isn't necessarily Charlotte Mason but I assume she incorporated it into her geography, bible, and history lessons.  Look for that post coming soon....
    2. We will be doing our missions moment during family devotions, but we also pray for a country that corresponds with whatever letter we are doing for the week with our Songs for Sapplings. 
That may seem like a lot, but in my next post I will share what our week looks like. :)



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