The Charlotte Mason Girl

What do you want in a copy work book? I am working on creating some copy work e-books, and I need your help! Please tell me what YOU would like to see in a copy work book. Just leave a comment and tell me what subject you would like to see covered (bible, poetry, sports, character quotes, etc.), and what age level you would like addressed with the copy work. I'll be putting them in e-book format, and you will be able to download them from our sister website - www.ancientpathsweb.com . I'll also create hard copies, so those who come to hear me speak at a support group meeting, or see our booth at a Homeschool conference can pick up a copy and take it home!

So, I want some input! I want to know what you want! Please help me!

NEW Products at Notebooking Pages - Great for Copywork!

I'm so excited!  You've seen me talk about the great products that Debra has at NotebookingPages.com - well, for the first time in over a year, she has added new pages!  WoooooHooooo!  I love all the great pages she offers.  You can use them for specialized studies, or use one of her general templates for anything you are working on!  Click on her link to the left at the top to see all she has to offer right now!

Some of the specialized sets she offers are: States Study, Ancient History study, Geography pages, Latin and Greek word study, I could go on and on!  It's wonderful stuff!  She's recently added some sets of Simply Designed pages, that are great for those students who don't like pages that are overly decorative (like our boys!)  These can be used for your copywork, spelling, written narrations, or anything else you or your child can imagine!  I love to give my children these pages, as they can turn the most mundane task into something fun!  When our children have something pleasant to look at, it is more enjoyable for them to complete the task set before them.

Have I mentioned her prices!  Ridiculously low! I can't believe how inexpensive it is to provide something for my children that will just make school a more pleasant experience.  Her Simply Designed page sets are on sale right now for just $1.48!  This is for a whole set of pages with a simple format and more masculine designs on them.   Her set of Basic Notebooking pages has 200 pages, 100 designs in either primary or regular lined pages is currently on sale for just $6.48.  All of the sets are available for immediate download, and if you want it all on CD, Debra will create a custom CD for you with whatever sets you want on it!  You just can't beat this deal!  

I encourage you to hurry over to NotebookingPages.com, as this sale is good only until Monday.  Here is another reason to hurry - the discount amounts are going to change every couple of days from 50% off today thru Thursday, and by Sunday, it will be only 30% off.  Even those prices are great, but why not get it at the ridiculously low prices she has today?!

Please, take a few moments and go check out the products Debra has to offer!  Just click on that button to the left above, and you will see what all Debra and her pages can do to refresh your school!   

Where did My New Year's Resolutions go?

I was all determined to be organized once the calendar was turned over.  I forgot about all the busy times around the holiday season.  Oh, yeah - we had a few parties, shopping, special times with the children, AND we decided to add a new puppy to the family.  (The puppy was a last-minute decision for Hubby and I.  She came available, and so we went for it!)  Having a new puppy is close to having a new baby in the house.  Potty training is very time-consuming!  I'm hanging on to the hope that this will not take as long as it takes to get a newborn all the way to potty-trained!  

I have decided I'm going to give Sue Patrick's Workbox System a try.  I got the ebook, and I'm a little over half-way through it.  Sigh.  I wanted to be done reading, have all the supplies purchased and organized, and start using it the first day back to school!  I have a tendency to be an all-or nothing gal.  If things are good at this moment - I see life as being GREAT!  If, however, things are hard, I feel totally defeated!  As I was wallowing in misery for not being organized enough - STILL! - I thought back to our Christmas break.  We got to spend a lot of time together as a family.  Because of the way the holidays fell this year, my husband got a four-day weekend followed by a three day weekend.  We got a couple of new games for the family, and I spent a lot of time playing games with family.  Sometimes we were all together, and sometimes it was just a few of us.  But, we made it a point to take lots of time playing together as a family.  I also read about four fiction novels!  Reading is a pleasure for me, and I took advantage of the free time during the holidays to get extra reading in.  

So, how should I feel?  Have I failed at the CM way of education?  Have I come up short, again?  Are my children suffering because of my 'lack of organization'?  I think we'll all live through it.  We are continuing to limp along with my less-than organized method we have used so far this school year, and I'll be working on finishing that ebook and getting our workboxes set up.  THEN I'll be a good homeschooler!  Right?

2009 - OVER!

Can you believe that we are preparing to welcome a new year - AGAIN!?  I remember being told when I was 18 that the years go by faster and faster, but I didn't really get it.  Well, NOW I do!

This has been a year of hard work, change, trials, triumphs, and wonder for my family.  I am so glad to have gotten to live it!  My children are growing so fast, and I am working hard to treasure these days in my heart.

Rebekah has already gone through 1/2 of her first year of high school.  Benjamin is going to be more and more involved in our schooling, and so I will soon have five students!  

This is a good time to review goals that we set last summer, see where we are, and make adjustments, if necessary.  This fall has seen so much change for us, that I didn't make it nearly as far as I'd hoped on many of my goals - school or otherwise.  However, I'm praying for guidance as I look forward, and I can't wait to see what the new year will bring for us!

I pray that you will have many good memories to focus on from 2009, and that you will make many new memories in 2010!  

I am looking forward to sharing more encouragement and swapping ideas with you about how we can continue to educate our children in the ways of Charlotte Mason.  Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you next week, as we hit the ground running toward the prize! 

Merry Christmas!

Well, I thought I'd better stop now and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!  We are in the throws of the baking, cleaning, preparing for the Christmas celebrations to come this week.  I pray that you all are able to relax and enjoy time with your loved ones.  

Forget about your school responsibilities for a few days and just enjoy your children!  (I type right after having to break up a fight!)

Also, I thought I'd share an encouraging post with you I saw on Heavenly Homemaker.  It's titled "Will All of the Real Mom Please Stand up?"  You can read the post here.  She has had a great response to this post, and even did a follow up with a new post today.  

Have a great Christmas, and enjoy yourself!

A Charlotte Mason Homeschool Day

The next question I would like to address comes from a friend in Carbondale.  She asks,  "How do you work everything in before everyone is worn out?  After lunch we are so tired!"  

Wow!  I know what you are talking about! Motherhood, and teaching on top of it - is exhausting!  While I haven't gotten to the point that I sail through every day with tons of energy, I do have some words of wisdom to offer.

First, you must make sure you are doing all you can to make or keep yourself healthy.  Get as much rest as you can - I know, it's not always possible to get 8 hours when you have children, but do your best!  Eat as healthy as you can - eat more veggies!  (I don't like to admit it, but our moms were right.)  Get some kind of exercise in.  I do a 15 minute workout, myself.  I'm striving to get it in 5 days a week.  I figure I can do anything for 15 minutes!  Even go for a walk with the children.  Anything to get the blood flowing.

Now, I don't think it's possible to fly through every day full of energy when you are doing so much.  You are running a school, a family, a household, you are the cook, cleaner, trainer-of-character, laundry maid, and more (at least until your children can help with these tasks).  Once your children are old enough, you can start training them, but that now means you are the project foreman!  While you are always going to have energy-draining tasks throughout your day, the key is to figure out how to recover.

Next, don't race at trying to get all your things done before lunch.  Pace yourself.  Yes, Miss Mason's idea of morning-only school is appealing, but it doesn't always work when you have little ones and a home to tend to.  We have had seasons when I primarily taught school in the afternoon, while babies and toddlers were napping.  We now are back to morning school, but the little ones are not as little, anymore, and they often come along for the ride when I am teaching.

Lastly, put rest times in your day.  I still have quiet time in the afternoon for everyone.  We all take a little time to read, play on the computer, watch a video, or even sleep (my personal favorite on many days!).  I keep this time relatively short for all but the littlest one.  We spend 30 minutes, maybe one hour in this quiet time.  Otherwise, chaos rules!  

So, stay healthy, get rest, pace yourself, and allow for times of recovery for you and your children.  You will all benefit from it! 

How about Grammar?

Our next question comes from a sweet lady I met in Carbondale a few weeks ago.  She asks "Do you ever use any formal grammar?  If so, when?" 

We do not use formal grammar in the early years.  As our children do copywork and read excellent books, they begin to pick up on things like correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization.  It is amazing to me how much the children have retained just from the simple exercise of copywork!  You can read my post about that here.

Now, when the children get a little older, around 9 or so, I do use Simply Grammar.  I have found that this just re-inforces what they picked up on during previous copywork lessons, and helps them see why they use certain words in certain ways, and give names to what they have been using.  The lessons are very gentle, very short, and straightforward.  You feel like you are cheating!  When I used this program with my oldest child, I kept thinking, this is silly, she's not really learning anything.  It didn't feel like there was any meat to the lesson.  In fact, in lesson one, they learn that there are two parts to a sentence - that of which you speak, and what you say about it.  I didn't think my daughter would remember anything from the lesson, as it was just too simple!  However, we stuck with it.  I was pleasantly surprised when, several weeks later, she had remembered the two parts of a sentence!  I thought, wow, how'd she do that?!  I'd say the proof is in the pudding!

I recommend this resource whole-heartedly.  It's only a few dollars, and will serve you and your children well.  It's also wonderful because it's a open up and teach book.  You don't need anything else but a pencil and paper to teach your student their grammar lessons!  This is a very easy part of our day.   

Please share with me what you choose to do for grammar.  One of the things I love about a Charlotte Mason education is that it is not a one-size-fits all, and many people have come up with very creative ideas.  I love to learn about them!

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What Did You Do This Week?

I’m often asked about my schedule, or what my day or week looks like.  Well, I thought I’d give you a snapshot of a week in our homeschool.  I would imagine that we aren’t all that unique in that no two weeks are alike.  We have lots of things that cause our homeschooling schedule to be shaken up.  This past week, we took a rare family overnight trip.  For the first time in over 18 months, and the first successful time ever – we took all seven of us and stayed overnight at a lodge (not with family) and had a mini vacation!  We went to a winter rendezvous at Fort de Chartes in southern IL.  Our history lesson that day was seeing all the folks dressed in period costume (some prefer to say period dress), reading the plaques and posters in the museum, talking to the people we met about the French and Indian war, etc.  One lady visited with us for about half an hour and told us all about the correct dress for that period.  She even gave us some great websites to use for sewing patterns so we could make our own!  She told us she was a teacher for many years, and she has the gift of teaching!  She made it so interesting that we wanted to run home and get started!  They have a bigger rendezvous in June each year, and we are making plans to go back for it, and we are going to get our dresses made for the occasion!  Home Ec sewing class was planned for us this weekend! 

 

That was, without a doubt, a wonderful family vacation – and we had school at the same time!  I love homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way!

 

Daddy had the day off Tuesday, as well, so we accomplished some much needed shopping for the new home.  Wednesday was back to the routine of school and chores.  (I say that like we’ve actually accomplished it this year! HA!)  I guess I should say - it was back to the journey toward a good routine for school and chores!  We started our unit study around Thanksgiving.  I recognized immediately that the study is too young for the 14 yr – old, so she is on her own again doing her own study of the pilgrims in her history studies.

 

Thursday, it was off to the library.  We listened to Doug Phillips talk on Pilgrims vs. Indians.  It’s part of Vision Forum’s Christian Controversies in American History series.  The children and I had a great discussion about revisionist history and what the pilgrims did in their attempt to spread the gospel to the new world. 

We like the Family Vision library in St. Charles, MO.  It’s a privately owned public library.  There is no fee to get a card, and they have all Christian – or at least excellent – materials.  I can let my children freely roam the shelves, and not worry about what they might pull off the shelves!  It’s a bit of a drive, so we like to listen to good CDs as we drive.  OK, I admit, sometimes it’s just Patch the Pirate, but it’s innocent! 

 

Friday, we ran around like crazy, and ended the day with Family Activity Night, or FAN, as the children have dubbed it!  We watched a funny movie and laughed a lot. 

 

That was our unusual, somewhat typical week in our home.  See, homeschooling our children is about living life, not lesson plans and math lessons.  We do those things, but they are a surprisingly small part of our life.  Most of our learning doesn’t even take place during ‘school’!  We live together, run errands together, listen together, and work on good relationships with each other (more challenging on some days than others!)

 

How about you, what does your week look like?  Are you a mom who has a good schedule – and sticks to it?  Or are you a mom who likes to be a free spirit, and encourage the free spirit in your children?  How do you get school done, and live a life at the same time?  We’d love to hear how it works for you!

 

How to Start Homeschool?

When I was in Carbondale a few weeks ago, I was asked a number of questions, and I requested the ladies write down other questions they had.  I thought I would answer those questions here, and also recruit help from you to answer them, too!  There is no one size fits all to a CM education.

 

I thought I’d start at the beginning.  I have had times that I’ve been stopped in the store with my children by a mother who inquires whether we homeschool.  When I answer that yes, we do, the next question is often from her heart – she wants to know how to start homeschool with her own children.  She sees someone up close and personal who is doing it, and she wants to know how she can do it, too.  It’s a scary thought, but often times, mothers know there must be something better for their children than what they are currently doing, they just don’t know how to do it.  When they meet someone who has all (or most) of her marbles, even though she is doing something as monumental as educating her own children, they believe it might just be possible for them to do it, too!

 

Other times, another homeschooling mom is looking for something to make her life a little easier, and she will ask how she can start homeschool with the methods of Charlotte Mason. 

 

I always have to give a little disclaimer here.  I LOVE the CM method of education!  I can’t imagine doing our home schooling any other way!  I am passionate about helping homeschoolers find easier, better ways to educate their children!  The disclaimer is this – I do realize that other people do a fantastic job of educating their own children with some other method.  I know that Miss Mason’s methods aren’t the only methods that successfully educate children.  So, although I can’t imagine educating my children any other way – I know it’s not the only good way to educate children.  I don’t want anyone thinking that I feel that I’m superior in my homeschool because of our method. 

 

OK, back to the question from moms who want to know how to start homeschool in their own homes.  I feel that the best place to start is where your child is!  Do you have a child that loves to be read to?  Then living books is the place to start!  Get a great story book and start reading.  If your child is old enough (Over 6, at least!) start narration with this story.  Read a little and ask her to tell the story back to you in her own words.  You’ll know right away if the story connected with her imagination. 

 

Do you have a child who loves to be outdoors and enjoying the fresh air and open space?  Start with nature study!  Point out an interesting bug, plant, flower, squirrel, bird, snake, frog, caterpillar – whatever! – and encourage your child to stop and really look at it.  Ask your child to narrate your special find – to tell you what they see, in as much detail as they can.  (No pressure this time!)  Your child may even want to imitate what they are seeing – let him!  It’s his way of narrating.  Eventually, you will want to put a pencil and a piece of paper in their hand and ask them to draw the thing they see – or at least a portion of it.  (A whole tree may be too much to ask – start with a leaf from the tree.)

 

Do you have a child who loves to write?  Start with copywork!  If you start small enough, you can even use copywork to encourage your reluctant writer to love writing!  Some Charlotte Mason copywork suggestions are – scripture, poetry, songs, hymns, great quotes from great men and women, passages from great books, etc.  Just have your child copy something in about 10 minutes – and have them do it perfectly.  If they make mistakes, repeat the same lesson tomorrow.  Spend just 10 minutes a day to start – that’s all it takes.

 

Does your child love to create works of art?  OK, so maybe they won’t have a showing in the trendy art studios in New York any time soon, but everyone has to start somewhere!  Show your child great works of art.  If you live near an art museum, take them to see the art live and in person.  (You will need to exercise wisdom here – not all ‘art’ is good, you know!)  You can purchase an art book, or you can look at art online.  It’s not the same as seeing it in person, but it’s still exposure to great art.  Have your child try their hand at imitating what they see.  This will inspire your child to create more and better works of their own.

 

So, go ahead and try one of these things.  This is how to start homeschool in your home with the methods of Charlotte Mason.  You can start today!  (Or tomorrow, if you are reading this while your children are in bed!)

 

Please, share with me your stories of how you started out in your homeschooling.  I think those who haven’t yet taken the plunge would be encouraged to see that others have done it and lived to tell about it!  They want to know how to start homeschool in their homes, and they will benefit from your stories!