We FINALLY finished our third term, and thus our first full year of homeschooling! Our final day was much later in the year than we planned, but it was a term filled with learning and growth for both the student and the teacher.
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| Fruit pizza to celebrate the end of the school year! |
If you want to read about our first or second terms this year, I would encourage you to do so as it helps give more context for why we did what we did this term. We continued with all the same subjects as before, with each subject having different durations and frequencies throughout the week. Charlotte Mason believed it was important to provide even the youngest of students with a "wide feast" of topics to learn from, so we tried to cover many very different things. This ended up being both one of my favorite aspects of our year, and one that caused the most frustration/effort. To help me plan out what each day looked like, I purchased the Scheduling Cards from a Delectable Education at the beginning of our year. They were only $5 and they were a great fit for what I needed. This term I decided to keep our weekly schedule consistent (as opposed to the "A" and "B" weeks I tried last term) but one key difference was that we often skipped a day of school during the "school week" and chose to make it up on Saturdays. This flexibility allowed us to meet up with friends, enjoy time outside in the mornings and have more of Dad's help distracting younger siblings during school time.
As I've mentioned before, I purchased and would recommend the Curriculum Template for Form I from A Delectable Education. It helped me track which books we needed for each subject and what other resources I had found all in one place. Then I used this simple planner to scribble down my daily/weekly notes, and often I simply recorded AFTER we finished our school day, what we had completed. In the following paragraphs I am going to record in detail what we covered in each of our subjects this term. This will help me plan for future years/children, but if anyone else wants to read my very long summary they are certainly welcome to do so :)
Bible- This was generally the first subject of our day. We finished the books of Genesis (CH 37-50) and Matthew (CH 21-28) this term, alternating which days we read each one. I started our time by making 1-2 statements about our previous reading and asking her what she remembered from last time. Then, I would simply read out of my ESV Bible to her, stopping periodically to ask her to tell me what she understood. To help check her comprehension, and because she just really loved doing it, we would spend one day a week doing the Level 1 Bible Study Fellowship questions on the book of Genesis during her reading time. I know this sounds almost too simple, but we both learned SO MUCH through our discussions together, and it really felt like a big deal that she listened to and talked about two large books of the Bible this year. She REALLY wanted the Genesis story to keep going...so I'm excited to start on Exodus together, soon!
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| A common occurrence: finding Naya reading ahead in her Bible, among a heap of other books. |
Math- We continued using the Simply Charlotte Mason Level 1 Math Book and Grid Notebook that we have been using all year. We really love the method this book uses, but this term I found we didn't need all the problems in each section to master the concept. She works slowly and gets distracted often by younger sisters, and then feels very discouraged when we haven't moved on from one page/set of numbers. So, I intentionally selected a few problems from each section and made sure she answered those before moving on. Days that she worked more quickly, we went back and finished the whole page. Even with less problems, it was very obvious to me if she was understanding the concept and ready to move on, or not. She much preferred to work with money, so we did that more often this term. She had already made it part way through the 40's last term, so we started there and progressed through just introducing the 90's before the term was over. Next year, we will start where we left off in this book and then begin the Year 2 book whenever we are ready for it. Additionally, she completed many pages from a first grade subtraction math workbook her aunt got her from Target at the beginning of the year. This was more for "fun" or on days when she did math with other people for whatever reason.
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| Sometimes, math class just needs to be outside in the sunshine. |
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| A very typical math time: using coins, writing equations on the markerboard. |
Physical Education- The biggest accomplishment of our exercise time this term was that Naya learned to ride her bike! It brought hours of fun and was such a confidence boost for her as she tackled something she has been scared of for a while. We spent many days riding in the church parking lot, at Mimi and Bumpa's house, exploring nearby trails or just up and down our road. Besides that, our other main focus for PE was expanding her knowledge of Swedish Drill from last term. She became more precise in her movements and did them more confidently without me modeling them for her. In addition, we did some calisthenics, and continued to work on jumping jacks, balance, hitting a ball pitched to her, and a few fun yoga videos throughout the term, too.
Singing- This continues to be one of Naya's favorite subjects (and mine!) This term we learned the hymns "Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me," and "This is My Father's World" thanks to Happy Hymnody's schedule and resources. She also learned to sing "America the Beautiful" and "Polly Wolly Doodle" and really enjoyed them both. Generally, we just print the lyrics out, repeat them at first and then slowly sing a Capella together. Sometimes I would learn the hymns on the piano and try to accompany us, or to switch up our practice time we would find a video and sing along that way. It was helpful to create a Spotify playlist of all Naya's songs for the term, including MANY different versions of each one, and then shuffle that during our handicraft, drawing, or writing time.
Reading- By the time children can read confidently, according to the Charlotte Mason philosophy, formal reading lessons are dropped and the student instead reads from another school book each day as their practice. I think Naya would have been ready to do this at the start of our third term, but I opted to give her a little more practice and make that jump next year. We started this term by picking picture books from the library that complimented what we were learning in our Natural History time (often about a particular animal or habitat.) She simply read aloud to me from something that she had not listened to before. Each Friday, she spent this time reading aloud and answering comprehension questions from Genesis that I referenced in her Bible Class. Later in the term, she was introduced to the wonderful world of chapter books, and our house has never been the same! She loves Junie B. Jones, and Cam Jansen books, but she is also enjoying many other series. It became common to hear, "Mom, remember that book I started yesterday? I just finished it!" Her excitement and independence in reading is a true joy to witness...she even sleeps with a chapter book by her pillow to sneak in some morning reading time before her sisters wake up :)
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| Very invested in her new chapter book from the library. |
History- We spent our history time this term alternating between finishing our Columbus biography (p.33-end) and finishing Meet the North American Indians (CH 2-3, 7-9, 13-15). We really enjoyed both books and how they helped these people seem more "real" and relatable. Naya especially benefitted from the map in the front of Payne's book that shows where each people group lived. Her mind really latched on to that and used it as a reference point for other discussions this term. When we finished "Meet the North American Indians" before the term was up, we went back to a previous book: "Children of the Longhouse." We only got through the end of Chapter 3, with lots of additional review since it had been so long since we had stopped reading it. We both want to continue and finish this book eventually, but I'm not sure if we will fit it in to school time or simply use it as a family read aloud. I tried to balance our history time with important details about the European people who traveled here as explorers, and the Native people who were living here already with a well established community, culture and way of life. We often got out a simple map or globe to show where these different people were coming from and the paths they took.
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| It was a fun coincidence that the day we read about "Strawberry Thanksgiving" in the book "Children of the Longhouse" we had just gotten back from our trip to pick strawberries! |
Spanish- We practiced Spanish everyday for a short amount of time, with a different focus each day of the week. Generally, on Mondays, we read through the book "Mi Papi Tiene Una Moto." This book tells the story of a little girl who always looks forward to time with her dad, riding on his motorcycle throughout their city. She reflects on all she sees, hears, and smells as they pass various people and locations. It was definitely above my daughter's comprehension, but the beautiful pictures, emphasis on family relationships, and some additional scaffolding from me helped her glean some understanding from it overall. We bought this book, and I'm thankful we will have it in our home library for future discussions as she progresses in her Spanish. Another day of the week we would specifically practice some vocabulary from the book, often with motions. One day a week we read through poems and nursery rhymes from our book, "Pío Peep." She definitely favored a few poems and even came very close to memorizing a few that we read frequently. Another day of the week, I tried to focus on her conversational use of Spanish in some way. This was the hardest for both of us. We played "Pesca" (like "Go Fish" in English) so she could practice a few key phrases, we used UNO cards to answer questions about colors and numbers, or I tried to get her to generate some more vocabulary phrases without my help. I could have planned a lot better in this area, and it sometimes felt scattered for her and I, both. The final day of the week we spent practicing songs in Spanish. This term she learned "Los Pollitos Dicen" (3 verses) and "Dios Bueno Es" (4 very short verses). For the first song we used the YouTube video often to help us sing along, but with the second song, I decided to translate my own lyrics for verses 2-4, using the English verses to help me. We sang "Él me cuida," "siempre me oye," and "amo al Señor" for those verses. I have a new plan for our Spanish time next year and I'm SO EXCITED to try it out and share it!!
Natural History- Our main two books for our science time this term were "By Pond and River" (which we purchased) and "African Critters" (which we checked out at our library), alternating days. We finished both books, and although I would use them both again in the future, Naya particularly LOVED "African Critters" and the vibrant, real life pictures and stories it contained. I also purchased this Spring Journal, and while it is STUNNING and very well done, we did not make the most of it this term. I will consider purchasing more products from her in the future and reusing this journal when it fits with our reading. Instead, we spent time observing and discussing the sparrows that nested on our back porch. We tried to imitate them, paint them, and notice their different sounds/personalities, but we never were able to see the hatchlings. One of my favorite additions to our study of nature was to incorporate supporting books into our Reading Time, like I mentioned previously. Some of our favorites that complimented our pond/river study were "On Duck Pond," "Soar High, Dragonfly," and "Over and Under the Pond." During Reading Time she also read "How Do Birds Find Their Way?" which helped us review the concepts of migration we learned last term in Natural History. One day this term, we also spent time at a friend's house exploring around their pond and noticing the different plants and animals that lived there and how they reminded us of things we had studied.
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| Naya following Ms. Diane around her property to explore the pond and creek. |
Tales- This time is spent reading fairy tales, unabridged, and also some of Aesop's fables. We both really enjoy the beautiful literature that we experience during this class! We had already purchased the Blue Fairy Book, and this term she listened to The White Cat, Cinderella, and Felicia and the Pot of Pinks. She LOVED each of these stories and really remembered the details well when asked to recite them later. She also learned about the following fables: The Bear and the Bees, The Wolf and the Kid, and The Wolf and the Ass. As during Bible time, we simply read the stories aloud and then I ask her to tell me what she heard in her own words. The more she recites in the moment, the more she tends to remember later.
Geography- We based our geography time off of CH 12-17 of Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography. This is a book that Miss Mason intended to be spread over the first 3 years of school, so we will read more in the future. The overall emphasis was on how Earth's tilt gives us four seasons, depending on where you live. We checked out additional books from our library, like The Reason for Seasons by Gail Gibbons, to help solidify the concepts we were learning. We often got out our globe to help her visualize what we were talking about. This term she learned about the poles, the equator, the hemispheres, the axis, and learned to locate many different countries based on our reading and the conversations it brought up. Miss Mason's book also gives many object lessons to help the student understand the concepts. We utilized a stuffed animal (Earth) and a can of spray paint (the Sun) to show how the Earth moves around the Sun and how its tilt affects the seasons. On our other day of geography each week, we finished up Paddle to the Sea that we had begun last term. While I definitely would recommend this book for its detailed account of traveling through the Great Lakes and the surrounding cities, in the future I will likely wait until my student is older to work through this one. We did print out a blank map of the Great Lakes and the surrounding states/countries and practice some basic questions about what states she knew, the names and shapes of the lakes, and how to describe things with cardinal directions.
Handwriting- This time each day was spent copying a few lines of a song, a poem or a psalm. Her objective was always to take enough time focusing on the word she was looking at, that when she went to copy it down she could do so from her visualization of the word, without having to look back and forth to check the spelling. I could tell this term that she made great progress in this area, and often could do multiple words at a time this way. I think this paper was still very helpful for her to practice her letters clearly, but in the future I like the idea of having a notebook where she could keep her whole year's worth of writing together. I liked to play the pieces from our composer for the week during this time quietly in the background as she worked.
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| Here, she is working to copy a poem from our library book. |
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| She is copying down a psalm from my Bible while her sisters play outside. Sunshine helps us all :) |
Poetry- Most days of the week we read 2-3 poems from the anthology we purchased at the beginning of the year or one of the anthologies we checked out of our local library. Naya really enjoyed this quick, light hearted part of our day. Some days I had pre-read and selected ones that were seasonally or topically appropriate, and other days I let her pick whichever ones looked interesting to her.
Handicraft- This was another subject that I felt like I did not prepare well for this term. We continued working on origami (which she really liked most days) based on the videos from Gary Easy Origami or Red Ted Art. Her favorite project was learning to make "corner bookmarks" into the shapes of different animals and then gifting them to friends and family members (and using plenty of them in her own reading!) We also tried to spend a day or two a week doing household projects like laundry, helping bake, or work in the garden. Lastly, we spent some of this time writing birthday cards or notes of encouragement to the families we support through Samaritan Ministries. I hope to have more concrete and intentional plans for this time next year, as I know Naya really enjoys learning new skills with her hands and seeing her projects come to fruition.
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| She learned to help Dad blow off the driveway and pump up tires on the cars. |
Brush Drawing- This time was not utilized as often as it was scheduled to be, nor was it as enriching as I know it could have been. We practiced based off the practice videos from Bestowing the Brush, and then we simply used this time to "draw" (with a paint brush) the things we had seen outside, something we were reading about, or an item we sat on the table. It was really hard for both of us, and we got frustrated when we couldn't make something look the way we wanted to. Naya really enjoyed experimenting with the water colors, and I could tell she looked forward to this time. I have considered buying the course from Bestowing the Brush to spur me along in my learning, but I think next year we will try to set more goals of things to learn to paint and practice more intentionally on our own, first.
Recitation- I prepared for this subject by looking at this document, organized by A Delectable Education, and selecting Bible passages that corresponded with what we read this term in our Bible time. Instead of simply reading or memorizing these passages, however, the goal of recitation is to learn to pronounce the words clearly and beautifully and read in a way that others can understand and enjoy. She would stand tall, and recite in a clear, loud voice, as if giving a presentation to a group. This term, since she was reading confidently, I printed her recitation passages for her and she practiced using the paper as a reference but continuing to make eye contact with me as she spoke. This term she practiced reciting the following selections: The Church of Christ in Every Age (a hymn new to us), Psalm 150, Genesis 37:18-24, Matthew 22:34-40 and a poem she selected called, "The Rain."
Composer Study- We loved listening to works by George Frideric Handel this term, thanks to the rotation prepared by Ambleside Online. We played his music and listened intently for different instruments and tried to mimic the mood of the music with our movements. After spending one day intentionally listening to his music without other distractions, we often played these pieces in the background as we worked on other subjects (handicraft, brush drawing, handwriting, etc.) throughout the week.
Drawing- This time was spent often with paper and crayons or colored pencils, simply allowing Naya to draw something she was thinking about from any of our reading. It was interesting to see what had stuck out to her each week that she wanted to try to recreate. At the conclusion of her time, I would ask her to explain to me what she drew and then we would post it somewhere we could look at it throughout the week. Essentially, this is another version of narrating her learning and thus cementing it into her memory.
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| The top picture is a practice session for brush drawing. The bottom two show her drawing from her reading: a dragonfly from Nature History and the orbit of the Earth around the Sun from Geography. |
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| Practicing drawing in chalk, from some flowers and grasses we found outside. |
Picture Study- Our artist to study this term was Rembrandt van Rijn, as suggested by Ambleside Online's rotation. I love that Rebecca from A Humble Place regularly makes picture study aids that correspond with Ambleside's rotation, so once again I printed her material out at our local UPS store. I so value the thought and care that she puts into the simple explanations of each painting and the background information on the artist. Each week, we looked at one painting, observing the colors, characters, surrounding items/scenery and predicted what was going on in the painting. Then, I would share a few details from Rebecca's study aid to supplement Naya's observations. For the paintings that had to do with biblical scenes, we looked up the corresponding verses and had Naya read them aloud to help give her additional background information. When our time was up, we displayed the week's painting where we could see it often throughout our school day.
We were so glad to have made it all the way through our first year of homeschooling together. When asked if she would prefer to try public school next year or continue this way, Naya emphatically chose homeschooling. I am growing more and more convinced that it is something we will be doing long term with each of our children, but my husband and I both are open to changing our minds and adjusting our plans, as the Lord wills. This term began late due to about a month of EXTREME morning sickness (ugghhh) as we found out we are expecting our fourth child (YAY!!) We started back very gradually with just a few subjects at a time, and eventually worked up to our full schedule, as I was able. We also had more appointments out of town for our younger daughter to further investigate her eczema and food allergies. We enjoyed lots of visits from family that live out of town or out of state, and we prioritized more time outside as the weather got nicer. Late in the term, Daddy tore his Achille's tendon, needed surgery, and has continued to have appointments and physical therapy from that point forward. All of these things factored in to how and when we were able to do our school time. One thing that we continued to learn and remind each other is that our world does not revolve around any one person or thing. Our family has to work together to do what is best for ALL of us, whenever someone needs us. And in the midst of hard transitions and physically demanding days, our God is in control and able to sustain and help us as we work hard to faithfully follow Him.
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| Wanting to have a "work set-up" like Dad (note all the origami on display on the mantel, ha). |
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| I wanted to remember a very average school morning: cold coffee, stacks of books, Naya half standing to complete her math, and younger sisters working on puzzles nearby. |
We are thankful for the unique student and human being that our oldest daughter is, and we have LOVED seeing her growth and learning this year. We give God all the glory and we depend on him for all her future holds.
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| Lost another tooth on this walk waiting for Dad to meet with the surgeon! Naya Renee, you are such a leader and caretaker. We love you. |
