Farewell Charlotte

After a long hard review of our learning and curriculum choices these last few years, I have decided that for this time in our learning journey we need something with more structure than we are getting from Charlotte Mason. I like many aspects of CM and was seduced by the thought of sitting reading books of wonderful literature to my children whilst snuggled up on the sofa, however in reality this is not what happened. We started out following a pretty full liberal arts schedule with history, art appreciation, music appreciation, geography, reading, maths etc.. I then realised pretty early on that I could not keep up with all of the subjects or the additional reading materials that were suggested on the Charlotte Mason Help site. So I modified it to suit our needs, we mainly school at the table and have quite a strong structure.  So we dropped loads of the additional history reading and only picked it up if Nuh showed a real interest in a certain period, we also added a craft activity to each history session. I found this really helped to make it stick in Nuh’s mind. We also had to use a different Geography method I could never get my head around CM geography I needed clearer guidance and a more structured plan (there’s that word again).  I think part of the problem is that all of the resources living books etc for Geography seem to be for USA  geography, I have literally scoured the Internet to find living book resources for the UK but could not find any.  It just did not make sense to me to start with a different country to the one we live in.  

Nuh resisted the whole narration thing massively and hated it, but we preserved on and even though he is not enamoured with this method of learning I plan on keeping narration as I think it is an invaluable skill.  We also discovered that you cannot teach spelling through copy work alone, you simply will not absorb the myriad spelling rules that are used in the English language ( see earlier post on ‘All About Spelling).  I also found that grammar which is a pretty important skill is also difficult to teach through copy work alone unless you have a clear plan on how to extract and exemplify the grammar rules as you work.  I know that CM does not recommend formal grammar lessons and does not even concern itself with grammar at all really until yr 4, I just felt that if I was to get really ill, which is a possibility given my current ailments then how would my children cope in school. CM does not correlate at all to anything that they do in UK primary schools; the history is way ahead as is the geography, but language studies would probably be behind.  That is because language skills are taught in a very unique way using CM and do not cover things such as plot analysis etc..

Owing to all this I felt that I would try another methodology, still within the confines of a classical education sphere.  Enter ‘A well trained Mind’ , this resource is phenomenal, the book lays everything out clearly with recommendations on which resources to buy and follow.  As we are in our Spring term, I thought that I would start out slow and transition over to this so that we are using mainly resources from a ‘A well trained Mind’ by year 4. I have bought and have been using now for a couple of weeks ‘First Language Lessons Level 2’  and ‘The complete Writer Level 2:  Writing with ease’. First language lessons’ includes lesson relating to grammar from nouns, pronouns verbs etc and the ‘Complete writer’  includes lessons that  will help your child develop essential writing skills such as how to dissect a story into its component parts and identifying central ideas. Both books accomplish this through dictation, copy work and discussion based on good literature, for instance in the Complete Writing book a lot of Aesop’s Fables are utilised these are printed in the book so you do not need to buy any additional books or hunt around for stories.  There is a lesson for each day, based on a four day week. These books are totally amazing and I feel will build such a strong foundation in both writing and grammar, it’s incredible.  I really cannot convey how impressed I am with these two books they are working brilliantly for us and I feel have really started to plug the gaps that Nuh had in these two subject areas.  I am so impressed that I have already ordered level 3 of both books for next year.  

Calendar Time

How we start our day


In our house we start our school day like many other families around the globe with Calendar Time. Calendar Time involves a number of small tasks that we do together as a family which centre around the learning of all things relating to the calendar and a lot more besides. It's a wonderful way to start the day together and sends a clear signal that learning time has begun, it also allows you to review concepts such as timetables and lots of other information as well. So this is our current set up:

I use an A1 sized cork board that I bought from Amazon. On the board currently is:

• The alphabet both upper and lower case, which runs along the top.
• Left hand side at the top: The year, this is wipeable, so I can change it
• Left hand side: The actual calendar with days and dates, this is wipeable I simply rewrite it every month. I know some people have one printed and laminated for each month but I do not want to have to store this.
• Underneath the calendar is the Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday task. This has been very useful with both of my children in helping them organise these concepts in  their minds.
• Lastly down the left hand side we have the season we are in, which is changed as needed.
• The middle section has the time at the top, this is wipeable and my oldest has to look at the actual clock and write the time.
• Underneath that is a montessori printable, I cannot remember where I got this from as I have had it for 3 years. It has all of the months on it in a sun, with a poem in the middle that explains how the earth goes around the sun and another year is done.
• On the right we have the weather chart with has 25 days on it, as we do not school on a weekend. 
• Underneath that is a wipeable Address and telephone number task, because we are learning these at the moment.
• Lastly at the bottom is a Nanny Countdown sheet for each of them, so that they can cross off each day until my Mum arrives from Spain.

Now that I have given you that massive list of what is on the calendar, this is how we use it.  When school starts a get out the board, Nuh has to get out his 'calendar notebook' and Zany gets her 'morning work folder' out.
The calendar notebook has all of the months in it, one to each page. Nuh has to fill in the dates and any important holidays that month, it also has sections for which season we are in and asks which order the month is in. I cannot give you this as it is not my creation and I do not know where I got it from it has no information on it, (I am planning on making my own though so watch this space, when I have I will give it as a freebie).
Zany's Morning Work folder has a selection of wipeable printables, one for each day where she has to trace the word for the day, colour in the date and then copy the date number and write the word for that number. She also has a sheet for each month with the dates on it that she has to trace over the month name and each date. She also has a weather tracker for each day on it. I got this from confessions of a homeschooler. It is perfect for her ability range and makes her feel included, whilst teaching her valuable skills about time.

So on with the calendar time, Nuh fills in his calendar notebook then fills out the time on the board, whilst Zany is tracing her day and colouring out her date in her folder. Then they both do the weather tracking, Nuh on the board and Zany on her monthly chart in her folder.
The Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday task is next, they take turns at this. Even though Nuh knows this he still likes to do it.
Nuh adds another pin to the Sun with the months on if appropriate whilst we read the poem, thus reinforcing the fact that a year is completed each time the earth orbits the sun. We change the season if needed at this point.
Next up is the memorisation of our Address and Telephone number, both of them do this.
Lastly at the moment we cross of a day on our Nanny Countdown.
Thats it folks, that's how we do calendar time, it takes approximately 10 minutes in all.

If you would like my Calendar Time printables you can get them by clicking on either the image or the link below:

Free Calendar Pack

Counting up to 10

Spring Counting Pack

I made a spring counting pack for Zany with lots of montessori based tasks, she really appreciates a bit of colour and prettiness. The pack has got about 5 activities in it all based on numbers one to 10. However some of the activities can be used in multiple ways such as the number cards and the flower making mats, which allows you to use pom poms, buttons or playdough. If you would like to purchse the pack you can head on over to my Teacher Pay Teachers store. Simply click on the widget:

 

There are number of different activities like sequencing, one to one correspondence a game and the Montessori Memory Game which is excellent for recall of numbers and amounts.

set up on tray

This is the number sequencing task, where you have to put the flowers in the correct order accorging to their number by glueing them on a strip.
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This is the completed task, with all of the flowers glued in the correct order.

The next task in the pack was to make a booklet of ladybirds with the nubers one to ten, zany had to add the correct amount of spots to each ladybird.