A Major Changes for This Year

My oldest two children are 19 months apart. Both boys. So I've tried to school them together as much as I can. Last year, when my seven year old son was a first grader and the baby was a baby, that seemed to work. But this year it was not working. For starters, the baby is two. She is mobile and into everything! I was also dissatisfied with the amount of work I was doing to keep them together. I'll admit it, I love to tweak, but there are only so many hours in a day! We follow a less-is-more, The Latin-Centered Curriculum philosophy. And for the nitty-gritty, we look to Charlotte Mason. So I kept looking for an easy, laid out solution, but the only multi-year curriculum I could find that I liked was Simply Charlotte Mason. A fine package, but after pouring over AO's booklist, SCM seemed light. Why read "Detectives in Togas" when in AO they would read the "Tanglewood Tales" and then "The Heroes" by Charles Kingsley and then "The Age of Fable"? All by year six. Plus, AO actually has a LOT of classics built in: the previous books, Aesop's tales, Plutarch. Sure, I could just add to SCM, but that seemed like work as well. Especially when AO fits so nicely in my budget because of it's public domain, readily available books. SCM links to it's own bookfinder, where you can buy books if you need to. I also started to wonder how many copies of each book would I need? I would almost always have two kids reading the same books, possibly three. Did that mean I'd have to buy three copies of each book, buy everyone a Kindle, or else spend all my time scheduling who got what book? I started to question if I really wanted to keep the kids together or if I should separate them? Somehow, I stumbled back onto the Charlotte Mason Help website. I'd been to it before, back when it was Higher Up and Further In (HUFI). This time I really read the articles. And I read on the Ambleside email groups. Many people listed advantages to having kids in their own years, especially after they could read independently. I realized I wanted them to love learning, and to not be spoon-fed by me. Reading on HUFI, I also realized I was not challenging my eldest enough. Sure, he has problems with reading, but his comprehension is well-developed, and was being left stagnant. His reading is coming along, as is his seven year old brother's. I should have them both reading about half their own books by next year, barring a major incident. Which meant I would never be reading three years worth of curriculum aloud, even when my youngest son starts first grade next year. So I'm splitting them up, at least for the rest of this year. I can schedule one-on-one time with each boy, and I've noticed they pay more attention and narrate better. It's like another mom said: I'm a better tutor than a classroom manager. And an added bonus: whichever older boy I'm not working with can play with his two year old sister! Plus an extra special bonus: I already own almost all the books we need for HUFI in hard copy or in ebook format! So I put my 9 year old in year 4 of HUFI, substituting a quick round of American history for the 20th century history. We can skip the non Indo-european cultures in year 5 and do the 20th century then. I put my 7 year old in year 2 of HUFI, and the only change was that I subbed the Burgess Animal Book (we've read most of it) for year 1's natural history books. He loves James Herriot's Treasury for Children. And that's what we've been up to - swinging a bit the the Charlotte Mason side of the scale.

Nature Study: Nature Walk

After being sick half the week we finally made it out. We walked around a pond near our house. Total distance: about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. Total time: about 90 minutes. But we had fun. We saw the following:

• A robin.
  
• Several schools of bullfish - under 1" long
• One adult bullfish, apparently protecting the school (that's what I've been told)
• Other schools of minnows - trout or sunfish.
• Sunfish of various sizes - one to four or five inches. A good example of the big fish [trying to] eat the smaller fish.
  
• Cat tale reeds. Clovers.
  
• Places where others had littered (we will bring a bag next time).
• A small turtle (Mom)
• Rocks
• Driftwood (David liked this)
• Andrew says he saw an alligator, which was probably driftwood. There was actually an escaped pet alligator found in the pond several years ago, so its not impossible. He was warning David that the alligator would bite him.
  
• Butterflies: black and yellow.
• Thistles (most of the taller ones had been sprayed)
• Grasshopper (Jonathan and David)

To do next time:

• Bring a bag for trash.
• Bring a small pack with a bird book and maybe a magnifying glass or binoculars.
• Bring the camera.
• Try bringing a sketchbook and some pencils or watercolors.
  

Nature Hour Challenge #3

We stayed in the back yard this time. My kids are young, so instead of drawing we did some leaf rubbings, which they seemed to enjoy. The eldest and I also found a feather for a "feather rubbing". It turned out well on the tip, but the ... stem? ... center was to thick further down. I need to make sure we do out nature hour earlier next week.

Nature Hour Challenge #2

We have completed our second Nature Hour Challenge today. The challenge includes both being quiet and using words to observe. With the wind blowing and the _____ goat maaaa-ing constantly, I didn't hear much else. The kids said they heard a bird. Anyway, I'm not sure how this one went, but all the kids picked daisies to show their Dad, so I guess it went okay. "Quiet" is difficult when you have a 3 year old with you. Oh well, learning is cumulative anyway.

Nature Hour Challenge #1

At long last, we have completed a nature hour challenge! We walked over to a nearby pond and then followed the shoreline for a bit. I saw a bird grab a fish out of the water and fly off. Unfortunately the kids missed it, they were watching a horse. They did find several flowers and some "sticky plants" (thistles). Jonathan found a small earthworm. David found a cool stick / log that was white from being in the water. Andrew decided to do the farmer thing and stuck a grass blade out from his teeth. Overall we had a good time, and the kids were VERY observant.