2020/2021 School Year Update

Wow! The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind! Home educating with 5 children, 2 of whom are 2 years old and under, is a fun, busy, and at times challenging undertaking, but one worth every ounce of effort. I am thankful to be able to spend these years pouring my energies out for the good of these precious people. What a blessing it is to spend my days with them.

“No task is too trivial, no assignment too small. Educating our children is an offering of love we make to the God who is so gracious to bestow them upon us in the first place. Every moment of the daily grind in raising and teaching and loving on them is hallowed, because we do it for Him and because there would be no point of doing it without Him.”

Teaching from Rest, Sarah Mackenzie

Our first few weeks have flown by! We have enjoyed getting back into the routine of our school days. We’ve needed to adjust our schedule here and there. Life certainly isn’t stagnant, is it? For me, a schedule is a good starting point, but that’s pretty much it. Like training wheels, it gets me moving until I settle into a smooth and flexible routine. Once we find our rhythm, the training wheels come off.

I realized that I needed to plan meaningful connection time with my 2 and 4 year olds before the school day begins. They do join us for Morning Time, but are allowed to run off and play afterwards, and tend to be busy running in and out playing the rest of the morning. To be sure to connect before the flurry of activity begins, I’ve started reading to them a few picture books first thing in the morning. It seems to help their moods and behavior as well.

The littles looking at books under the table

Creating a salt dough map of China

Morning walks before the school day begins

Perler beads and popsicles while I read aloud

Our curriculum is working well for us, although we did have a pretty major change early on. When the winds of inspiration blow, I have learned to put up the sails. Wind is a gift to get you moving. Rest assured, there will be times ahead when the hard work of rowing will be required. I have learned to take advantage of the wind!

What is this change? As I’ve mentioned before, we love books! We pull from a variety of booklists and have enjoyed Ambleside Online’s book lists from the beginning, however Ambleside Online is much more than a list of books. It is a free Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool curriculum. This year I had fully intended to let the girls choose their own literature from the pre-selected books on our school shelves, knowing we’d read through plenty of good books this year in that fashion, but I had a last minute change of mind.

I decided instead to use the well crafted Ambleside Online literature schedule. We have the books, so why not? We jumped right into week 1 of the Year 1 and Year 3 Ambleside Online schedules for literature with my 1st and 3rd graders narrating each of these readings. (Narration is key to a Charlotte Mason education.)

I’ve been drawn to Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education from the beginning of our homeschool journey. I’ve learned little tidbits here and there over the years through books, blogs and podcasts, but the length (and depth) of her volumes intimidated me. Recently this changed. I came to the realization that without understanding the heart of her philosophy, I would never truly understand how to implement her methods, and my expression of a Charlotte Mason homeschool would be reduced to practices detached from profound principles, and would basically be just another form of checking off the boxes. But suddenly this school year I found myself unsatisfied with that and I decided to begin the hard work of understanding the heart of a Charlotte Mason education. The winds blew, my sails went up, and paper and pen in hand, I have been giving myself to my own education on this rich and beautiful philosophy of education.

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Current Family Studies

• Artist: Titian (Ambleside Online Schedule)
• Composer: Wagner (Ambleside Online Schedule)
• Folksong: Follow the Drinking Gourd (Ambleside Online Schedule)
• Hymn: How Firm a Foundation
• Poet: Emily Dickenson
• Country: China
• Family Read Aloud: The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis
• Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Theological Concept: Providence of God