Officially Started School Today

July 30 has started our schooling. We sent Daddy off to work and got started around 12 noon. Not bad for a first day! We didn't go exactly in the order I had planned out but that's okay. I wanted Sister to be excited about her day and to feel like she had some control over it. 

After our family devotional, her and her brother were jumping up and down begging to start with Spanish. Today isn't even an official Spanish day but I couldn't deny them. We started off with Salsa, added some phrases afterward and practiced all day. Our phrases we learned today were, "Buenos dias, buenos tardes, and buenos noches." We reviewed "hola, hasta luego, grande, and pequeno." I think they had great fun!

Charlotte Mason recommends scheduling courses in such a way that your not repeating to many things in row. So, after the movie we moved into World History and read Chapter One from a "Child's History of the World" (CHOW). We began at the beginning with creation and Sister narrated the chapter back after I finished reading. 

Next, she practiced writing the letter L today. No more than 10 minutes for this exercise so perfection is expected. She did beautifully. When she tried to write in other things her writing left a lot to be desired, so this will take lots of practice.

We read a poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson while we ate soup for lunch. Afterward, we moved into a phonics review of short vowels. We flipped through the pages of her workbook and I asked her to say the word for the picture and to identify the short vowel missing from the word. She did well, missing only 2 of the vowels.

After phonics I was to read "The Sword of Damocles" but I was worried about mutilating the language so we listened to that one on the computer through a wonderful website called Libvox. Once that was done I read Aesop's Fables, "The Wolf and the Kid." I didn't require narration after either one of these. However, they did come up in conversation on the way to the library later in the day and over at Mommew's (grandma's) house.

I'm not sure if I will let her color during the readings anymore. It seems the stories where she only listened were better remembered than the ones where she colored while I read. So tomorrow we will just try a different approach with the readings and make sure there are no other distractions.

We wrapped everything up with Math and outside play. I was surprised she did so well with her math but very thankful at the same time. It was about 3:30 when we finally finished with everything. I give the glory to God and continue to ask that He fills in the gaps that I missed.





     

Our Calling

I've always felt it but had tried so many times to ignore it. You know, that feeling you're supposed to be doing something but you don't really want to.

When Sister was born, my first thought was to enjoy the first few years at home with her and then head back into the workforce once she started school. I actually did work for a little while there, and she actually made it through PreK and K in a public school. I had made many plans before I finally started listening to the Holy Spirit.

My husband and I prayed and prayed. Finally, at the end of Sister's Kindergarten year we believed it was time to keep her home. We might have actually let her stay another couple of years had it not been for all the drastic changes our school system put into place. Praise God, He has a way of getting us to where we need to be no matter which out of the way route we tend to take.

With the decision made now we had to choose curriculum. I thought I wanted something all laid out for me, neat and tidy, lesson plans, activities--a boxed curriculum. That was perfect! Or so I thought. Once I got it and started "reviewing" it that little feeling came back again. I just wasn't at peace. I didn't understand, it was exactly what I had wanted all along. Well, at least it didn't take me 5 years this time to figure out God had other plans.

And that brings us to where we are today. The Lord has been so good to us. He put into our hands AmblesideOnline. It's a free curriculum, rich with literature and history. Of course, we have made a couple of changes. Trial and Triumph was a bit much for our young, newly saved 6 year old. We also changed the history just a tad. In place of Our Island Story, we will use the Bible, and A Child's History of the World. We want our children to understand history is exactly that, HIStory.

I will post our exact curriculum over the next few posts. 

Ultimately, we want to encourage their hunger for learning while building a solid foundation for their faith. This blog will log our journey. It will be a place for us to store our ideas, curriculum, successes and even our failures. Failures are only steps toward success.