God was gracious to us in allowing us to finish our schooling for the term before our fourth baby joined us, despite many distractions and interruptions. We started our second year of school on July 12, very quickly after having finished our first year on July 1, because we knew we would be welcoming this baby in mid October. I am glad that we had the option and ability to push through, because at this point of the pregnancy I am certainly not feeling up to any extra amount of work for...anything! We are relieved and enjoying a different pace of our days, now, as we prepare and wait for our little one's arrival.
If you want more background on how we chose to homeschool, and what guides some of our decisions and methods, feel free to read a more detailed explanation here. Before the term started, I made sure to get out the Curriculum Template I had purchased last year from A Delectable Education. I read through each subject listed and read or listened to the additional resources they provided, and then made a list of what books I needed to purchase or find at my library. This document is saved on my laptop and one of the best parts is, I can use the same template for 3 years before needing to purchase another one. In addition to what I save on my computer, I also bought a simple planner in which I wrote down each day what we accomplished or how our schedule played out. I liked this one better than what I had last year as it had more room to write down notes, reminders and to-do lists in addition to the weekly layout. I can only make use of a planner like this with the help of the Scheduling Cards I bought last year and used once again. Before each term, I lay them out all over my table and arrange them to help me visualize our week. Then I take a picture on my phone so I can make sure we are getting every subject in as directed. I could not imagine scheduling our days without these; they take something that can be so overwhelming and make it seem so simple!
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| Her first day of school for her second grade year! |
Below, I will break down subject by subject what we covered this term. I enjoy doing this for my own benefit: I can step back and see how much progress we have made over the past 12 weeks, AND I can come back to this post in future years to prepare for my other children's education. If you enjoy reading the long, detailed, report, I am happy to share it with you, too :) Reading similar blogs is what originally helped me understand how to find books and approach each subject.
Bible-Most days of the week, we start our school time by reading our Bible and discussing it together. This year, we are working through the books of Exodus and Mark, alternating days between the Old and New Testament. This term we read through Exodus 1-12, and Mark 1-9. Each day, one of us would read the passage aloud and then Naya would try to summarize our reading with as many details as she could remember. I enjoyed adding a new component to our Bible time this year: we occasionally looked at a beautiful painting based on our reading and discussed what we noticed in the painting and how it correlated to our passage. To decide which pieces to use, I referenced the lists provided by Simply Charlotte Mason, but instead of ordering them, we simply viewed them on our laptop after we had completed that reading.
To help me prepare as the "teacher" I had purchased J. Patterson Smyth's commentaries for these two books, but to be honest I did not use them much at all this term. I did listen to the "Help Me Teach the Bible" podcast episodes that discuss Exodus and Mark, and I found Kevin DeYoung's sermon series on Exodus to be particularly helpful. I also bought Jen Wilkin's Ten Words to Live By and have been slowly reading it to prepare for when we get to the Ten Commandments portion. For our time in Mark, I learned a lot by listening to the Faith Improvised Podcast series on the "un-gospel" of Mark. Naya sometimes listened to God's Big Story when it applied to Exodus and she loved the DVD's of What's In the Bible, too.
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| Naya reading out loud for our Bible class, as her younger sisters listen in. |
Math-At the end of our final term last year, we had not quite finished Book One from Simply Charlotte Mason. So, we began right where we had left off, and spent the first three weeks of this term finishing up last year's book. I purchased Book Two, and we began as soon as we were ready, continuing to use the same Gridded Notebook we had from last year. I will admit, it felt like a rough transition to progress from working on numbers in the 90's and 100's to beginning with simple addition and subtraction tables of 1-10. I will not say that Naya had them all perfectly memorized, but it really frustrated her to be moving so slowly and dealing with such simple problems compared to what she had been working on before. After about a week of frustration and attitudes, I was able to modify the book to suite our needs a little better. We moved very quickly through the tables, only taking a few problems from each section while still incorporating one or two double digit addition or subtraction problems for her to work on her markerboard. When we drove to appointments with our midwife, I printed a few money worksheets and she really enjoyed the change of pace. At the end of our first term, Naya was learning numbers up to 1,000 and how to add and subtract with dollars and cents.
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| Once this term, she decided how many apples we could pick with the money we brought, and how much change we should get back. |
Drawing- We used this time each week as another form of narration. I would ask her to draw a picture of something from a specific subject (ie: "Draw something we read about in our history time this week.") She mainly used plain paper and colored pencils or markers, but sometimes drew on the chalkboard. Then, at the end of the allotted class time, she explained why she included certain details, and we displayed her drawing for the rest of the week. I think this exercise helped Naya recall information from further back in the week and think critically about how she could represent it, since oftentimes she had only heard me read about it and had not seen a picture to represent the information.
Physical Education- This term, we did not have much structure for our Physical Education time. Often, Naya spent this time biking outside, jogging for 1-2 minutes at a time, and practicing skills such as hitting when pitched to and throwing/catching different sizes of balls. Sometimes we used it as time to go on a longer family walk. Once or twice she even got to go swimming at her Mimi and Bumpa's house :)
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| Enjoying a bike ride! |
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| We went to our local reservoir and hiked a one mile loop while her sisters napped at home with Dad. |
Singing- We learned to sing The Star Spangled Banner and She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain this term, in addition to the hymns we practiced as a family: Not What My Hands Have Done and Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder. We always value the direction that Happy Hymnody provides for free (schedules, printable words and music, a little bit of background on the author and a video to sing along with), but this time we especially enjoyed buying the Fall Hymn Guide and benefitting from the deeper lessons on vocabulary, the biography of the authors, and the Scripture and family devotions that corresponded so well to the theme of the hymns. I really enjoy making a Spotify Playlist of ALL the songs we are learning for the term, not just in our singing time, but also our composer study and any songs that echo things we are learning in other subjects and then playing that during the afternoons, on drives, as we draw together, or whenever we have time to listen.
Literature- This subject took a slight adjustment this year as compared with last. We began reading Pilgrim's Progress, very slowly, once a week and discussing it together. As shocking as this may be, I don't think I had ever read it before, so it was a lot of fun to read it alongside Naya and learn with her. The language is particularly difficult; I made sure to practice reading aloud before each of these lessons. Yet, Naya has surprised me with how much she has understood the overall storyline. Again, after each reading she summarizes what she understood back to me. This practice of narration really helps her solidify her memory of the episode and recall it much later. We also began reading Tales of Troy and Greece, but this term we only worked on the very first story. I opted to then read one fairy tale from our Blue Fairy Book we purchased last year: Snow White and Rose Red. Naya always LOVED these fairy tales last year, and I wanted her to still have that deep enjoyment, even if it was just one story this time. Another change from last year is that we dropped our formal reading lessons this year, and instead Naya had the responsibility of reading from one of our other subjects each day. I attempted to alternate this between Bible, history, geography, and natural history, depending on what was most appropriate.
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| Sometimes, Naya read aloud as we waited at a doctor's appointment. |
History- This year we are attempting to cover from 1607-1800, though I'm fairly certain we will stop before the Revolutionary War. Our overall spine for this term was Exploration and Conquest by Betsy Maestro, which was a beautiful, well done book I was happy to purchase. As this book introduced other topics such as the slave trade, the life and impact of Pocahontas and the influx of the pilgrims from England and other areas, we took small breaks to read other books that expanded on those topics more. So, our history time also included portions of Circle Unbroken, Bound for America, Building a New Land, The True Story of Pocahontas, and Meet the Pilgrim Fathers. We also enjoyed watching Disney's Pocahontas movie after we had read about her and discussing what parts of the story seemed accurate, and what parts seemed invented, based on what we had read from our other books.
Geography- This subject also had an added level of difficulty this year. In addition to reading lessons 18-20 from Elementary Geography, we added more of an emphasis on maps this term. We focused on the continent of North America: from Canada moving southward to Central America. So, I printed multiple blank copies of a map of North America, as well as a map that was labeled with the countries and seas. Then, I printed blank maps of each country/region in North America, zoomed in for easier viewing. We spent some time reading books from each region, and then each week we would focus on 3-4 specific details from the labeled map to add to our blank map of that region. We read Discover the Continents, Carson Crosses Canada, Canada, and a few excerpts out of Hungry Planet that specifically addressed families in the United States (all of which we checked out thanks to our local library!) We didn't get to Mexico and Central America long enough to read books from those places, so we are now checking out as many as we can and continuing to read and learn on our break. Every two weeks or so, I would hand her a totally blank map of the entire continent, with a word bank I made, and ask her to fill it in as much as she could remember. Nearly every week, we were also doing some basic "map questions." These were 6 questions I wrote and asked her BEFORE our reading, such as "which country borders Alaska?" or "what countries are south of Mexico?" She would answer them looking at the labeled map in front of her. I noticed these questions helped focus her attention more on certain details, and often those were the places she remembered when it was time for her to label her maps.
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| Some of the books we used this term for Geography. |
Spanish- This year, we have the opportunity to use the curriculum from Charlotte Mason Simple Languages, as I am helping to test/review the Spanish and French curriculum as they develop it. It has made SUCH a huge difference in the structure, consistency and variety of our Spanish class. Naya truly loved learning Spanish this term, and her biggest accomplishment was in her ability to produce much of the language, with beautiful pronunciation, on her own. Last year I could not have said that! We took extra time on each unit (there are SO MANY things to cover in each one!) and so this term Naya finished Units 1-3. She learned a poem, Bible verse, song, challenge phrase, vocabulary about nature, and action phrases with motions for each unit AND she completed the book ¿En Qué Trabajan? This book was a beautiful addition to our home library; we loved the flaps that folded out and how the pictures helped guide us to be able to say so many things in Spanish! The curriculum comes as a link to a Google Drive, so you can print all the materials at your house, as you need them. The QR codes for each part are also very helpful, as you are able to listen to all the audios quickly without having to search for the links each time. I would highly recommend any family that is homeschooling to consider this curriculum, even if you aren't adhering to other Charlotte Mason methods.
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| Some of our Spanish materials for this term! |
Play- Three times a week, she enjoyed a short free play break with her sisters. Sometimes I would specify that this was to be outside, but other times they played Barbies or with their baby dolls or used their imagination. I set a timer so that Naya came back to the school table on her own, without me having to go get her and interrupt the fun :) I intentionally kept this part flexible in our schedule, looking to her cues as to when she needed to get up and move and using it as a reward earlier in her schedule if she had given a lot of focus to a difficult task.
Natural History- Our main spine for this subject was Birds of the Air, and we finished chapters 1-11 this term. At the end of each short chapter it gave us a simple idea of something we could watch for, listen for, or do to learn more about the birds around us. We ended up buying A Nest is Noisy and An Egg is Quiet and reading those as the topics came up in our main text. The books in this series are absolutely stunning. I think every single one is worth buying! Even though they are a quick read (1-2 lessons for us, typically), the incredible illustrations and the added details provide us with a lot of rich ideas to come back to later. I also really enjoyed using a lesson idea from A Delectable Education to have Naya observe and predict how bird's beaks relate to their food and environment. Besides our focus on birds, we spent our other science lessons during the week learning about our garden. We read Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons (quickly becoming one of my favorite science authors!), A Tree is a Plant, and The Dandelion Seed, among others, thanks to our local library's resources. We did a few experiments and observations with how seeds grow and how water travels up the roots of the plant to the leaves, but to be honest none of them quite turned out how we hoped. We spent a day at the apple orchard, and then compared the varieties of apples in their color and size and ranked them on levels of sweetness, tartness and crispiness, before choosing our overall favorites. We tried to spend time outside enjoying nature, observing what was around us, and connecting what we were learning in our books to what we saw and heard on walks. This is a subject I have SO MUCH to learn about, but it truly brings us both a lot of joy when we prioritize it.
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| Working on creating nature patterns from items we collected in our yard. |
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| Naya's finished nature pattern. |
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| On a creek walk with cousins. |
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| Comparing and contrasting three varieties of apples we picked at the orchard. |
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| She trapped a bee in a jar and spent A LOT of time observing it. She wrote down 2 pages of notes! |
Handicraft- Naya's main project for this term was learning to crochet. She's been asking for a while, and I love to crochet, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to teach her how to do it from the most basic beginning steps. These videos became very helpful to both of us, as I (right-handed) tried to teach my daughter (left-handed). I felt like I was learning it all over again, too! This term she mastered maintaining proper tension, the slip knot, chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet and how to turn. She really enjoys it and has all kinds of ideas of what projects she can do in the future. A day or two a week we also spent this time baking breakfast for the next morning, helping with laundry, or doing other projects around the house.
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| Naya's very first successful chain. She made one as long as our couch! |
Brush Drawing- We finally began nature journals this term! They are nothing magnificent, but we set aside some intentional time to paint birds we saw, wildflowers we found on walks, or vegetables/leaves from our garden. This is a subject that I know we could use some more help in mastering, as I have very little understanding of how to improve our watercolor technique. I plan to purchase a video course of some sort in the future, but for this year I am trying to discipline myself to have the habit and consistency of sitting down and dedicating time to this subject, when often I would rather avoid it due to how incompetent I feel. Naya enjoys it, but also gets easily frustrated when she makes a mistake, so I know she would benefit from an instructor with more tips for her to improve.
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| Painting the different shapes and colors of the leaves of various vegetable plants. |
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| Adding the cardinal she observed in our backyard to her nature journal. |
Poetry- We read 1-3 poems aloud most days, purely for enjoyment. I purchased A Children's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, and we liked the variety it offered, although I preferred the book we purchased last year, personally. We also checked out a few different anthologies from our library, such as a book of poems all about reflections. Naya enjoyed being the one to choose the poems we read, although occasionally I picked out one that was related to the weather or season or another topic we were discussing that day.
Picture Study- According to the schedule from Ambleside Online, we enjoyed observing the paintings of Jan Van Eyck this term. I print them at our local UPS store, thanks to the resources provided by A Humble Place, and we look at one painting a week. Naya points out details she notices, describes the people and animals and setting, and then tries to describe the painting to me without looking at it, relying on her memory. We displayed the painting throughout the week and then spent time reviewing it before moving on to a new one. Her favorite painting this term was Van Eyck's Crucifixion.
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| Comparing three of Van Eyck's pieces she has studied so far. |
Recitation- I start preparing for this subject by looking at this document from A Delectable Education and choosing passages based on what we were reading in our Bible lessons this term. I also selected a Psalm I thought was appropriate and a hymn we had never learned to sing before. Then, two weeks into the term, I asked Naya to choose a poem she wanted to practice reciting. Each day she rotated between reciting Exodus 3:1-6, Mark 1:21-28, Psalm 103:1-7, "At the Seaside," by Robert Luis Stevenson and four verses of God of the Ages. Our Spanish curriculum also prepared her to recite an entire poem in Spanish this term! The overall goal of this subject is for Naya to practice not just reading robotically from a paper, but rather reciting with emotion, emphasis, eye contact and gestures. It is still challenging for her to vary the tone of her voice or change something once she has practiced it a certain way, but I can tell she is improving on her pace and trying to communicate the meaning of the words she is saying.
Composer Study- Ambleside Online provides a rotation for this subject, too, which we follow for now. This term, we listened to compositions by Camille Saint-Saens. I compiled all the selections on our Spotify playlist and each week we spent time enjoying one of them. Often we tried to make our body mimic the sound and emotion of the music or identify the instruments we heard. Then, throughout the week we would have that music on in the background of our brush drawing or handicraft time.
Writing- Each day, Naya spent time copying down a passage of Scripture, a few lines from a poem or part of the hymn we were learning. This year, we added an extra layer of difficulty: once a week we did what Charlotte Mason referred to as "dictation." I chose 8 words from her writing sample for the week and said them aloud to her, and she tried to write them correctly from memory. From the beginning, this subject has been trying to get her to observe words carefully, picture them in her mind and copy them down without having to check back at the example every other letter. So, in dictation, we evaluate whether the student has paid careful attention to the spelling of the word. She is not told which words I will ask her to write, so she is motivated to go slowly on her writing and give extra effort to words she thinks are difficult.
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| Fresh haircut, toothy smile, and seeming older all the time. What a gift to learn with her. |
We had a full term! There were a few weeks where we only did school 4 days of the week, so there were other weeks where we did school on Saturday to balance it out. We had lots of appointments to travel to (me seeing a midwife and chiropractor and my husband still working through physical therapy) so our school day had to be flexible around those things. Many weeks, we spent Friday mornings taking her younger sisters to library story time so they got to enjoy something targeted more to their age. In early September, Naya was able to begin Bible Study Fellowship alongside myself and her sisters, where she is reading and studying through the book of Matthew this year with other students of her same level. She is responsible for reading and answering questions throughout the week, and we commute about 2 hours round-trip to make that happen. Dad and Mom each had days this term where we were sick and unable to do our normal responsibilities, so Naya had to manage more of her school work independently at times. We have noticed a lot of growth in her so far this school year and although we know the adjustment will be rough at first, we look forward to continuing to educate her at home after her youngest sibling joins us! For now, she is newly 7, on a huge Lego kick, reading chapter books more quickly than I can produce them for her, and enjoying sending mail to lots of friends and family :)
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| We thank God for the way He continues to teach and grow us all. And we thank Him for Naya <3 |
