Digging Deeper

We love Ambleside Online. The curriculum itself is amazing. AO offers a well-rounded education with beautiful book lists. Their website is amazing, the forums offer great support, and it's all free! But they will be the first to tell you, all of that does not a Charlotte Mason education make.

I've read a few books here and there concerning Miss Mason's philosophies but I haven't really studied them. So now that I'm pretty comfortable with the scheduling aspect of Ambleside I'm going to dig a little deeper.

In the Ambleside Online forums, there is an ongoing study of Charlotte Mason's principles. I started the study but as life would have it, I have gotten behind. The way the study is set up you can start at any time, so I'm going to restart that one.

I've also discovered podcasts! These are so easy to listen to while completing chores. They definitely make folding laundry more bearable! Here's a few I've listened to as of late!

Cindy Rollins blogs at the Circe Institute and has a series of podcasts called The Mason Jar. As she states on her blog, "All Charlotte Mason, all the time." Thirty years and nine children make her an excellent mentor.



"A Delectable Education" is managed by Emily Kiser, Liz Cottrill, and Nicole Williams. They have a great ongoing series of podcasts but I'm particularly partial to their "Charlotte Mason 101" series.

The (Skoh-lay) Sisters include Pam Barnhill, Brandy Vencel, and Mystie Winkler. These ladies are seasoned homeschoolers, however, they tend to center their home education on a blend between CM and classical approach to education. Wondering the difference? Simply put, a classical education focuses more on presenting and memorizing facts whereas, CM focuses more on presenting the ideas. Still, there's lots of interesting stuff at Schole Sisters.

Pam Barnhill also has a blog with a few different podcasts. One of them being Your Morning Basket. I love these! As I'm trying to incorporate a morning time this next term, these podcasts really speak to me. Different topics are covered through interviews with some amazing people!

Pam's next set of podcasts at The Homeschool Snapshots Podcast offer a glimpse into other homeschooler's lives. It covers things we all worry about, and the things they are doing in their homes.




So those are the podcasts I've been frequenting as of late. As I find more I will add them! Happy listening!

Math

Math! It makes me want to pull my hair out. Even though I was worried about teaching my youngest to read, I never found it frustrating. I think part of the problem is the whole memorization thing. Memory work is cumbersome to me. However, one must remember the math facts in order to progress.

I was trying to teach table by table, rote memorization, but it just wasn't working. So, I needed a plan. After we memorize skip counting (Teaching Skip Counting) we will work on adding doubles.

Once doubles are memorized, we will learn the "Near Double Strategy." Hopefully, this will be an easier way for him to recall the facts that are "neighbors" with the doubles.

When working the facts out of order like this I do tend to get lost. So, in order to keep up with what has been learned, I've been using an Addition Fact chart that I made. I highlighted the facts he knows in yellow, the doubles facts he will learn in blue, the "neighbors" in purple, and the cumulative properties in orange. This chart provides me with the "big picture" and it just doesn't seem as overwhelming looking at it this way.

I don't want to get ahead of myself so I will stop planning there. Once we have these facts down I will figure a way to teach the rest. But that's for another post.

Teaching Multiplication with Skip Counting

Math is one of those subjects that we haven't really found our groove yet. We've been using Teaching Textbooks for my oldest and have switched to Ray's Arithmetic for my youngest. We've dabbled in Math-U-See, Living Math, Math Mammoth, used many supplements such as Xtra Math, Snap It Up and other math games.

I think math is hard for us because memorization is difficult. Maybe not for the kids but definitely for me!

It was suggested somewhere to learn skip counting first and then work your way through the fact tables. This has made an amazing difference for my oldest in learning multiplication facts. Being visual learners these really appeal to us.

You can print, laminate and hang up. You can also print and place in a three ring binder for your student.

Happy Counting!

Homeschool and Housekeeping Help

I'm not the worst housekeeper but I'm probably pretty close. Before I had kids life was different, the house was always clean and tidy. Well, a husband, two kids, and a few dogs later life isn't as "tidy."

I have found that if I have a plan in place it helps battle the procrastination and back burner battle. If something isn't urgent or deemed a priority for me I have no issue with putting it on the back burner where it will eventually simmer down to a burnt pot if I'm not careful.

Or there are seasons when I'm just completely overwhelmed and don't even know where to start. I tried Fly Lady for a while, which is a wonderful organizational tool, but I got overwhelmed between trying to "Fly" and trying to homeschool.

Finally, I settled on using a little chart that reminds me to do daily, weekly, and monthly chores. When I follow this guide I actually feel pretty good about the house because I know I'm focusing on those "back burners" at least once every five weeks.

I think it would be neat to have this printed up into a little note pad for ease of use. I could check the chores off as I finish them and once the sheet is done, rip it off and start fresh the very next day!  Oh, that would greatly appease my task oriented character!

Scope and Sequence at a Glance

I've mentioned in earlier posts how I've found it difficult to envision the big picture with Ambleside. In order to remedy that I started pulling together Scope and Sequence Sheets.

These sheets give me a good overview of our year. As you can see the ones above are personalized for us. We are still trying to decide which Holling C. Holling book we will be using in Y2 because my son has previously read the one required.

These were also created before I decided to combine our Shakespeare and poetry. I will likely choose Y3 poetry and Shakespeare readings to give a good middle of the road between the two students.

The other neat thing about these forms is they tell me which books I still need to purchase and which books we've completed reading at the end of the year. I will keep these forms in our end-of-year file along with each student's 36 week grids from the Ambleside, their attendance record and progress reports should I ever get "audited." Not that they do that in our state but it's still nice to keep up with and will help with transcripts in later years.

Daily Schedule

I live for checking things off my list. Its a part of my character that if I'm not careful can really hurt our Charlotte Mason directed homeschool culture.

Being task oriented is a tremendous asset in getting things done. On the flip side though, it can easily result in missing the beauty of CM. I have found those little boxes seem to get bigger and bigger the further behind one gets! At one point in our journey I was just plowing through because I believed if we worked harder and did more we would stay on track! No body was happy in that season!

While reading "Teaching from Rest" by Sarah Mackenzie I realized I had allowed my schedule to become my master. I also learned that if I don't have something to guide me I tend to lose sight of the big picture, skip subjects because of brain overload, and just because I'm a procrastinator. I know a procrastinator who loves check lists. Yes, I own that t-shirt that brags about being an "imperfect perfectionist!"

So I needed a guide, a check list with flexibility. Some love loop scheduling but I'm not sure I will ever feel comfortable with that. This list keeps me on track with everything we need to get done in the week. It has daily boxes I can mark as we go and blank lines for those things we don't get done and need to carry over.

I've built some margin into it as well. Usually we don't take two days to read certain books but its there if we need it. If I don't get something done I just write down the stopping point and can easily transpose it to the next week's schedule. This schedule follows along with our Year 2 schedule with Ambleside Online.

Prior to this format I had a bad habit of putting certain subjects on the back burner. This year we will start our days with a Power Hour. During Power Hour we are combining some subjects the kids were doing separately, such as poetry and Shakespeare. I want to stay within the framework of Ambleside Online as much as possible but desperately need to lessen the load between my beginning reader and not quite ready for independent Shakespeare Y4 reader.

We are definitely excited about starting our new school year and that alone is a success!

Below are pictures of our Y2 and Y4 schedules.

Early Reader Book List

Do you know how hard it is to find interesting readers for early readers?! I must have went through dozens at the library till I found some that fit the bill.

While at the library I found out about the AR BookFinder. The AR BookFinder site provides information about the AR level of the book, its word count and the ATOS book level. ATOS Book Levels (BL) take into account the readability of the text and apply it to a grade level. Their website explains it like this, 

For example, a book level of 4.5 means the text could likely be read independently by a student whose reading skills are at the level of a typical fourth grader during the fifth month of school.

Following is the list we will work through this summer and continue on into my son's 2nd grade year. It will be a growing list as I will continue to add books as I find them.

Emergent Readers

• The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree by Stan Berenstain rated 1.1 BL 206 words
• Scat, Cat! by Capucilli, Alyssa Satin rated 1.1 BL 226 words
• Going to the Firehouse  by Mercer Mayer rated 1.1 263 words 
• The Berenstain Bears: We Like Kites by Stan Berenstain rated 1.2 BL 127 words
• Drop It, Rocket! by Hills, Tad rated 1.2 BL 197 words
• This Is My Town by Mercer Mayer rated 1.2 BL 242 words
• What A Good Kitty Mercer Mayer rated 1.3 BL 269 words
• A Kiss for Little Bear by Else Minarik rated 1.4 BL 298 words
• Mr. Tiger Goes Wild  Brown, Peter rated 1.5 BL 191 words
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Bill Martin Jr. rated 1.5 BL 196 words
• Snow by Shulevitz, Uri rated 1.6 BL 156 words
• Chicken said, "Cluck!" Grant, Judyann rated 1.6 BL 179 words
• The Night World  by Gerstein, Mordicai rated 1.6 BL 310 words
• Wiggle by Doreen Cronin rated 1.7 BL 154 words
• Tap Tap Boom Boom by Bluemle, Elizabeth rated 1.7 BL 263 words
• King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Wood, Audrey rated 1.7 BL 282 words
• The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race by S. Berenstain rated 1.7 BL 414 words
• Inch by Inch by Lionni, Leo rated 1.8 BL 160 words
• Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping Peggy Parish rated 1.8 BL 1351 words
• Ducks in a Row Jackie Urbanovic rated 1.9 BL 423 words
• Play T-Ball Stan and Jan Berenstain rated 1.9 BL 450 words 
• Oliver by Syd Hoff rated 2.1 BL 767 words
• Captain Cat by Syd Hoff rated 2.2 BL 359 words
• Angus Lost by Margorie Flack rated 2.3 BL 339 words
• Little Bear's Visit by Else Minarik rated 2.3 BL 1428 words 
• Mouse Soup by Arnold Lobel rated 2.4 BL 1350 words
• Harry and the Lady Next Door by Gene Zion rated 2.6 BL 1237 words
• Uncle Elephant by Arnold Lobel rated 2.6 BL 1823 words
• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel rated 2.9 BL 1942 words