Music Study of Handel (Charlotte Mason Method)

I joined a co-op that meets twice a week for two terms (a fall and spring term). Reuben and I are excited! One of the things that I liked about a co-op was the "doing it together" aspect. Our planning meeting is next week so I don't know what I will be teaching yet--but each one of the six moms will be picking a subject and teaching it throughout the terms, as well as providing lesson plans for the weeks we won't meet. Even through our kids are all different ages there are many subjects that can be combined. We will be picking from Natural History, Picture Study, Drawing, Recitation, Composer Study, Singing, Physical Exercise, and Handicrafts. Other subjects like Geography and Foreign Language may be able to be done together--but I am not sure. 

I made a list of three that I would enjoy teaching. Number one for me was Handicrafts, but I am sure that will be a popular one among the moms, so I am not holding my breath. Number two was Composer Study, even through I know nothing about historical composers I do know a bit about music having played the clarinet though high school and college. Number three on my list was geography, most specifically the geography of VA. I am going to make lesson plans to present to the others in my co-op and also for my own use! 

This is my lesson plan for term study on Handel using the Charlotte Mason Method. This lesson plan can easily be done by one family! The PDF can be downloaded here and explains everything inside. Let me know what you think, and come back and leave a comment if you use this in your homeschool. 

I hope I get one of my top three choices but I am nevertheless excited for our term to begin and to start schooling together. I am going to make lesson plans for the study of geography in VA and also for paper sloyd--would you like to see those when I am done?  

Have a great weekend, and God bless.

I am doing better

A lot of changes! I am changing A LOT after our first year of homeschooling. First, I read "Teaching from Rest" which is like a cool drink of water on a hot summer day. It was JUST what I needed and if you are homeschooling, go buy it now. It's not a thick book and can be easily finished in a week. Trust me, it is what you need. 

After reading it, and after thinking so much about our last year and what went "wrong," I started cutting things out. Next year will be homeschooling 2.0. Our motto will be peace, and our curriculum truth beauty and goodness. First I canceled my yoga. I can do yoga at home, outside in the spring/summer if I want to sweat. For those of you that don't know, I have been doing hot yoga at a hot yoga gym for the past two years to help me detox. It was wonderful and I love it and I will return, but right now I need to pare down and make our days simpler, and I don't have time to attend yoga 3x a week. It is what it is, and I am at peace with it. 

Next I looked critically at our week. We only have 5 days. I want two full stay at home days scheduled into our routine when we start school, and that leaves three days for outings. We have our co-op on one day and violin lessons on another, so those can be our go-out days. We can easily visit the park before violin or do a nature study after--this will have me going out less and leave more time to get things organized at home and cultivate our atmosphere. Well, that's four days---2 stay home, 1 co-op day and 1 violin lesson. That leaves one day for flexibility. I can either go out or stay home on this day, make it an errand day, or do whatever depending on what we need. 

I next fixed a loose schedule, with a morning time, our school (with a built in loop) all done before lunch. After lunch I have a quiet time for the kids planned where I can exercise, knit, or read before I have to start cooking dinner. This will help me not get burnt out. I don't know if we will stick to this schedule, but its helping me be organized. Anyone want a full post on our curriculum I have compiled? We were going to do Ambleside online, but Reuben isn't quite ready so we are waiting to start their "year 1" until next year. I'll write up a whole post about exactly what we are doing when if you want!

I feel better. Daily time with the Lord is healing to my soul. My lyme is in remission again and I am working on my fridge problems daily. My heart feels full and my cup runneth over. God has been so good this season, and summer so relaxing. 

Last week we had Reuben in his first day camp!! I really loved the camp when I read their website. It is all outdoors, nature style camp on 47 acres. However, I was shocked when the camp e-mailed that they would be requiring masks at all times except when eating, drinking, or in the pool. I thought it was a joke. It isn't. Reuben is 5, and in our state the mask mandate started at 10 and up, then was lowered to 5 and up sometime later (I can't remember exactly) but since May the mask mandate was dropped in our state. Throughout the whole pandemic I have never made him wear a mask. He tried it once or twice and hated it, so he was very stressed at the idea of wearing one at camp. I told him he didn't have to, but he is such a peacemaker he cannot fathom not following the rules (my other child is not so obliging) anyway, he has been going and made to wear a mask and I just felt awful about it. He said he had fun, except for the time they made him do yoga (hahaha) and he doesn't like the mask. His poor mask gets all wet because he's five and chews on it. And it has been in the 90s all week and I can't imagine how that has been for him. By the way, when I registered him for camp they had no mask mandate in our state so I didn't even think to worry about it!! I checked their website and there was nothing about wearing masks. The e-mail with the info about masks came two days before he was required to attend. I still think it's crazy. 

Becky and I got to spend a relaxing low key week together when Reuben was at camp, and I even had a few hours to myself when a friend watched her for me. It was wonderful and healing and I need to do it again next year.

I am thinking of cutting off all my hair. Should I? I don't know. Well, that is an update on my life. How are you?

Reuben's Kindergarten (age 5 years) Recap Post

I feel like everything revolves around my chronic illness. I didn't want to start of this post talking about MY illness when it's about Reuben's school, but you can't have one without the other. We finished our first year of official homeschooling! During a pandemic! With chronic lyme disease! I deserve a metal or at least some chocolate (okay I treat myself to chocolate weekly and I honestly don't want a metal I'm a minimalist) but seriously. WOW. I can't believe it. 

I learned so much. I learned I tend to rush through school with him because I want to get to what we are doing next or because I need to cook lunch...I learned I need to slow down and make school the focus of the day. School is meant to be slow and isn't an afterthought. It needs my full attention!  

I learned I hate doing the same thing every day but my son LOVES it. He thrives (at least right now) on structure!! When I would want to skip math he would HOUND me until I would do it with him because he expected it. He is amazing. He has a lazy sick mama. Bahahaaaha.

Honestly, we did about 1-2 weeks of school with 1-2 weeks off, because of my illness, and repeat. And still he learned so much because life teaches him so much!!! We did the curriculum I designed in 2019. I designed this before I was sick with lyme (I got sick May of 2020) and did a bunch of it!! Oh, back when I had energy and dreams...we also did the delightful reading level one from SCM, their bible memorization kit and three math curriculums. One, we liked and finished, one we didn't, and the master books 1st grade math book that is half completed and we are still working on now. We also got outside as much as possible and are learning names of flowers/herbs. We read LOTS of books from the year zero Ambleside list and joined a wonderful co-op that will hopefully continue next year. It was a wonderfully hard year. Writing down the list of what we did makes me feel less guilty, I feel so guilty for all the time I spent sick with lyme and unable to get out of bed. 

I'm so thankful to be in remission!!!!

We will be doing another year of kindergarten before starting year 1 Ambleside. This next year (2021-2022) we will be focusing on teaching him to read, doing more math from Masterbooks, ordering the delightful reading level two kit, playing more violin, memorizing more verses, reading more of the Bible and...because I am so sick, instead of creating my own curriculum we will be doing Exploring Nature with Children as our core. Since I am in remission now, we plan to start as soon as everything arrives in the mail, which should be July 1st. I'm so excited! 

I did think of putting him in school. But I would miss him. And I really want to homeschool, illness or no illness. Isn't he big? He's growing up so much.