Planning Our 2018-19 Charlotte Mason Year

We all love planning posts! They give us ideas and ideas give us a place to start. I've said it a million times, "Planning gives me purpose, and purpose gives me peace!"

In the 8 months since I last blogged we've finished Terms 2 and 3 of our 2017-18 school year, I completed a few of the CM Educator Courses offered by Charlotte Mason Soirée, have continued reading CM Volumes, even started reading a new CM book called "In Memoriam" and I started selling living books with my Mom in our FB group, "Media Moms Little Country Shop." Its been busy!

Well, now its time to start planning for 2018-19! It is our 4th year at home! My oldest moved up a form to Form III and my youngest moved up to Form IIb. Forms are groups that Miss Mason used to identify the ability (grade) of the student. The whole a/b thing used to confuse me until I realized b is for beginner and a is for advanced!

Pre-Planning Prep

My planning starts with review. A Delectable Education has created a handy tool that organizes all subjects for a particular Form into an outline. I added the particular episodes onto my printed copy and then check them off as I work my way through each subject, taking notes. I also reference the correlating chapters in Miss Mason's Volumes to ensure I'm getting my info "straight from the horse's mouth."

Last year I planned everything in accordance to my consult with A Delectable Education. My goal in learning to implement a Charlotte Mason education in our home is to be independent in doing so. Although, I did receive a consult this year, it was to mainly double check myself against what I had already planned. Moving up into new forms can present a challenge and I wanted reassurance before I just jumped in with both feet. Next year I hope to plan our entire year on my own, but we will see.

So, after I realized I was on the right track, I went ahead and filled in my Scope & Sequence outline with our plans. 

1. Scope & Sequence

I have found that having a S&S outline keeps me from forgetting subjects. I think it was last year or the year before that I completely left off history! I was only working with scheduling cards and I missed transferring history to our daily lesson plan. Thank goodness we were only 3 weeks in when I found my mistake. Plus, its just nice having an individual form for each child. It provides that "proof" you might need if a day ever comes when you're asked what you taught. 

Of course this form will vary with your own chosen subjects for your children but I will share what I'm doing this year. 

Bible

· Old Testament

· New Testament

History

· American

· spine

· biographies

· British

· spine

· biographies

· Ancient (only for my oldest)

· spine 

· biographies

· Book of Centuries

· Timeline

Geography

· Mid-West to Northwest USA

· reader

· map skills

· physical

Citizenship

· Plutarch's Lives 

· youngest is starting with Emily Beesly's

               Stories from the History of Rome  

Current Events

Literature

· Mythology

· Classics/Tales

· Poetry

· Shakespeare

Language Arts

· Copywork

· Narration

· Dictation

· Recitation

· Grammar

Foreign Language

Natural History/Sciences

· Nature Lore

· Science

· Nature Study

· Biographies

Maths

· Arithmetic

· Sloyd

· Geometry

· Pre-Algebra

Enrichment Studies

· Artist

· Composer

· Singing

· Drawing

· Handicrafts

· Instrument

Physical Education

Drill

2. Pulling Books

This step and the previous step work together. Who we cover in history in part depends on book availability. I have a general idea who and what we are covering and pencil that in first. I pull that from an old United States History text that provides a topical outline in the back. I will have to change that approach next year since it stops at 1900!

Then I start hunting books and if I can find a book I will permanently add it to our outline. I use a variety of resources to find books. I always pull from our own library first. This is why my history section is in chronological order, it makes it a lot easier to pull. Then I will check out online resources. 

A Few Book Finder Resources:

Ambleside Online 

SCM bookfinder app

Michelle Miller's TruthQuest books

Living Books Lady

Valerie's Living Library

3. Daily Schedule

Before I start work on our homeschool planner I hash out our daily schedule. I have found the easiest way to do this is with the scheduling cards from A Delectable Education. I print out the 2 different Forms on 2 separate colors. When the students share a subject I print that in white. 

I just work my way through the days of the week. It reminds me a lot of the game of Tetris. Each card is marked so you know how to alternate the subjects and to let you know how much teacher involvement is required. That's helpful when you're having to play round robin between multiple students. You really just have to move things around until you find what works for your family. Well worth the price!! Once I have them all laid out I snap a pic so they don't get blown away by someone opening the door, or stomped on by a playful dog! 

4. Planners

Now that the daily schedule is laid out, I use those pics to assemble my planner pages. I like to have a "weekly dashboard" in my planner so I can see what needs to be done for the week. 

Each week starts with an overview. Since our books change constantly I wanted a place to keep up with those. I also needed a spot to add in what to cover during the week's geography walk, a place for our nature study object lesson and our handicrafts for the week. This is just another accountability factor for me. These are the things I skipped most often because I hadn't prepared. Now, at the beginning of the week I fill this in and in doing so plan and prepare for what needs to be done.  

Each day is organized exactly like my scheduling cards. White sections are family subjects, darker shaded area is my Form 2 and lighter shaded area is my Form 3.  I add the length of time the subject requires, a bubble for checking off (which always makes my heart happy), and the afternoon occupations that need to be accomplished. I want them reading in the afternoon so I designate "subjects" for them. These are "free" reads so who/what they pick is entirely up to them but it has to be within that subject. I will write in what we actually read/completed on the lines below. This way I can keep up with page counts from week to week. Especially helpful for bookmarks that lose their spot! 

I tried adding anything that I tended to skip most. At the end of the week you will find spots for making sure we complete the timeline, book of centuries and calendar of firsts. There's plenty of space to add notes as we move through the week for supplies we might need next week or areas I need to focus on a little longer. 

I use Publisher and convert it all into a pdf that I will send off for printing and binding. But planner planning is enough for its own blog post. 

Charlotte Mason Exams

We just finished exams last week!! These were the first I've ever given in our 3 years of homeschooling and boy, oh boy! were they telling. I don't mind though, I certainly need an external way to hold myself accountable and these exams certainly fit the bill.

In order to prepare for exams I went back and listened to A Delectable Education's podcast number 64. Then I went on the hunt looking for exam questions to use as samples for my own. I also dug around the Ambleside Online site to see what they had to offer up. Some of the ones at Ambleside though didn't seem as "general" as the ones from PNEU. Ambleside Online is a great jumping off point, I just wouldn't want to use their questions verbatim. Oh! Ambleside did offer exam questions for Plutarch! Big plus there!!

The best source is the PNEUs Programmes with the examination questions behind them. I found a lot of Form I programs, and one Form II. I haven't dug much further than that to see what else is out there but I will provide links to what I found. I'm not quite proficient at searching the Charlotte Mason Digital Collection (CMDC) but they have a lot in there!

When I modeled the outline and questions that were in the Examination Programme I realized there were things I wasn't staying on top of. (ouch!) As we covered the questions during exams I definitely identified where I wasn't having them narrate like I should or when I wasn't scaffolding a lesson. Term 2 is going to be a game changer for us and I'm already excited about next terms exams just to see how we improved!

I found 39 exams HERE in the Internet Archive. I'm not sure if this archive is a duplicate of the individual 39 but there are10 volumes of PNEU Teaching Programmes and Examination, 1921-1968 at this link. 

Once I had all our exam questions typed out and organized I set it aside and gave myself a break. The kids were nervous because the only exams they had ever taken were through the public school system. After our first few questions though they weren't so nervous. They realized they were basically narrating like usual. They sure had a lot to say!! I typed nearly 5000 words that week! I kept our schedule the same and just asked each child their particular question in their timeslot. They had the same amount of time to answer their question as they would have for class. It took three days to answer 3 Bible questions, one question per day, per subject. It worked well for us.

I tried to type exactly what they were saying. I typed their errors and left questions blank that they couldn't begin to answer. I didn't "grade" our exams and I don't think the ADE ladies or Charlotte even recommend keeping them. But I'm going to file them away. I like keeping that stuff as mementos to smile over later in life.

Now we're on a week long break. We start back up next with refreshed minds and heart! My view is clear and motivation encouraged! Yes, definitely looking forward to next terms exams!!

Charlotte Mason Grammar & Composition

Most times, when something isn't working in our home its because the directions weren't followed. The same holds true for following Charlotte Mason. I'm constantly fighting my tendencies to return to and follow a system. Most recently I caught myself panicking about my daughters lack of composition skills. Her lack wasn't because of Charlotte's method though! It was my misunderstanding, my lack of knowledge, in how to implement language arts according to her method.

After digging in I've realized not only have I not been consistent in some important areas, I've also not been doing them correctly!! Here's my plan to correctly implement Miss Mason's method.  

As my daughter is in Form II, we will continue with her copywork, oral narrations after every reading, short grammar lessons, and more frequent written narrations. 

Oral narration teaches her to order her thoughts. It's basically a retelling of what she has read. She does this after all her readings. 

Copywork and dictation teaches spelling in context and sentence structure. We haven't done well in either of these areas. For copywork, I've always handed her the book and told her to copy a particular passage. She would look back and forth copying the passage down. That is not Charlotte Mason's idea of copywork! 

We are to train our children to look at the whole word or passage (depending on age and skill) and then practice viewing it with the minds eye (eyes shut). Once the child can visualize the word or passage, they write it in their copywork notebook from memory. This takes practice and should progress slowly beginning with words and building up to phrases. 

Dictation is the next step and usually started in Form II. I usually let my daughter pick the passage from one of her current lesson books, study it for punctuation and words she might misspell. When she felt ready I would select a sentence from the passage and dictate it. Again, not exactly what Charlotte had in mind. 

Liz, in the ADE podcast, suggested choosing a book that is below the child's ability to read for dictation. We will choose one that she is familiar with from a previous year. We will start over and begin with sentences, moving on to small paragraphs. Then multiple paragraphs and eventually selecting pages for dictation will happen in later years. 

We haven't been practicing visualization so we will start that training and I will have my daughter study the passage for punctuation and spelling issues. When she is ready, all study helps are put away and I will dictate the selection phrase by phrase, a few words at a time. We mustn't repeat and if there are three errors we will stop the dictation. Charlotte tells us not to allow the child to see the misspelled words. So I will turn the paper over and provide the correct spellings. Most importantly, I will let her know that dictation is not a test. 

Written narration is supposed to start around the same time as dictation. I recently found out that its in written narration she finds her own voice and learns the mechanics of composition. More on written narration in an upcoming post!

This entire process is a relaxed and natural progression. It has an end in sight. This is a part of Charlotte Mason's method of education.

Here, is a great visual video chart from Sonya Schafer that sums up and walks you through the way Charlotte Mason taught language arts as a natural progression.

I have found A Delectable Education's advice to be very true to Charlotte Mason's writings. They have a few podcasts that address Language Arts and I've found this one most helpful  Episode 48, "Writing: Copywork, Dictation & Written Narration". 

My Book Story

Books have always been a “thing” for me. I suppose it was learned behavior because my mother is a reader. Every evening (to this day) she sits in her chair after supper, while dad watches tv and reads a book. Some of my best memories as a child were our bimonthly trips to the library. I can remember visiting our bookmobile when we lived in the county, stepping up into that van and looking down the row of books. I can’t remember the driver but I remember the books!

As the library system grew, we visited a few of its branches. One in particular was my favorite. We (my sister and I) participated in the library reading programs there and they had the best books! One series has stuck with me all these years and until just recently I didn’t realize what the books were. They were on the bottom shelf, I’d sit on the floor and go through those light pink books with pictures of an animal that the story was written about. I read the whole series.

I’ve looked for those books everywhere. When I started homeschooling my children I found out those books where Thornton Burgess’ Bedtime Stories. I haven’t started collecting them… yet. I want to hold out for the books similar to the ones I read, if I can find them.

We as a family, all of us, my parents, my sister, my husband and his family…. we all tend to “collect” something. Dad collects RVs and automobiles, he also collects tools and other man stuff. My mom, it happens to be whatever hobby she is working on at present. Right now its quilting, the house is bursting with fabric. She doesn’t have a library but she does have an overstuffed bookcase. Most of them are paperbacks and center around history and Bible study. She reads a lot of crime drama too. I suppose that’s where my sister found her niche. She has a set of shelves her husband built overflowing with paperbacks of her favorite crime dramas.

Before I began homeschooling, my “library” consisted of a few collections I’d been reading. Just a variety of books such as historical romance, suspense, and some science fiction. There are quite a few non-fiction reads in there, Christian books, health books from working as a nurse, my husband’s confederate history books. Nothing really that labeled me as a book collector but oddly enough visitors would always remark, “Look at the books.”

Both my children have a bookshelf in their rooms, full of “twaddle”. As toddlers and preschoolers, I read to them a variety of books. I wanted them to grow up reading, and I knew the best way for that to happen was through modeling. As they grew their tastes developed and they started weaning their selections to make them their own. I noticed I had a hard time letting go of certain books. I had bought several of Robert McCloskey and Patricia Polacco’s books that I decided to add to the shelf in the living room. There were some other beautiful picture books I kept too. There was something of a “relationship” there. Reading and experiencing those books with the children, I couldn’t just let them go.

So, maybe my true collecting started with the birth of my children. Wanting only the best books for them, I started searching out which books were the best. My first book about books was, “Honey for a Child’s Heart” by Gladys Hunt. As I dug deeper, I stumbled across websites and blogs discussing Charlotte Mason’s living books. I studied all the booklists I could find at Charlotte Mason curriculum sites such as, Ambleside Online (I joined their very active forum as well), Read Aloud Revival (then known as Amongst the Lovely Things), Higher Up and Further In (no longer active but chock full), Simply Charlotte Mason, and many others. For the longest time those “lists” were my only resource.

When I learned of privately owned living books lending libraries my "collecting" took on a whole new meaning. I dreamed of having floor to ceiling bookcases with the little ladder to reach the top! Living Books Library has a video tour of their library and I've watched it as many times as a person would watch an old loved movie! I’ve since joined a few Facebook groups, met and made more experienced friends who have helped me discover this art of collecting children's books. 

Up to this point, the focus of our library has been about what the children will need to further their education and providing them the best in free reading. It’s definitely not a narrow scope but different than what I would think of as a “collector” of vintage children’s books. We have a purpose in mind with these books, its more than a hobby. As the library grows, I sometimes think of opening a lending library but I don’t know if I can handle the stress of “lending” out our books to those who might not love them like we do.

In my early days of “school book” gathering, I focused on building a “library” of Landmarks. I love the cloth bound covers, they look so handsome all lined up on a bookshelf. I have since placed them in chronological order with our other books, and have to fight the desire to line them all up constantly. The satisfaction and “warm fuzzy feeling” I get from seeing the collection grow is very addictive!

Since finding out about the Signature Series being appropriate for my son’s likes and reading level and that my daughter enjoys Messner’s I’ve been adding those to our shelves too. I’m constantly looking ahead so I can be familiar enough with titles to pick them up when I see them. You never know when you might come across it again. I’m trying to let go of this because I usually do come across the books again, eventually. It helps me to have a price point already in mind to avoid over spending.

In looking at our collection, it appears that we are history heavy, likely due to my collecting the series. If I’m forced to choose, my favorites are the natural history books, but I love science anyway. Illustrations always catch my eye and as a result I’ve found Jeanne Bendick and Glen Blough’s books pleasing to the eye. I like looking at the artwork in Jim Arnosky’s books too. As far as story, I really enjoy reading Jean George Craighead. My daughter likes her too. I recently acquired her Thirteen moon series and have yet to dive in but I’m excited. They have that vintage 60s appeal, detailed black and white illustrations and great stories to match. Brings back memories of reading Thornton Burgess’ bedtime stories. I suppose it just all goes back to the relationships we have with books, and if a book can bring to mind and heart those same “feelings” then it’s going to be a keeper.

I did have a series of books called “All About”. I enjoyed looking at them all lined up on the shelf but we weren’t ever going to read all of them so I picked a few to keep for “school” and once they are read will pass them on. They are informative books, well written and great for school but they don’t evoke that “warm fuzzy feeling” I mentioned earlier and I don’t feel a need to keep them. I find it strange and difficult to explain.

I suppose that feeling could be compared to an addict’s “high”. There seems to be a “drive” to find all the good books. The “drive” was really overwhelming when I had no idea what we might need later down the road. I had started selling books to fund my book buying but I was out shopping for books to sell more than I was home “schooling” my kids. It was consuming, so I closed up shop. My frequent trips hasn’t really changed all that much but now that I’m only shopping for me they seem more… concise. I get what I need (or what I think I need) and nothing else.

Our local libraries sell all their discards and donated items in their Friends of the Libraries bookshops. One, not to far from me, is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I will stop in there once or twice a week. I try to hit the other’s at least once a month, some are 30 minute drives and only open at certain times so it really just depends if I’m close by. We have some thrift stores that end up with donations that really just blow my mind. I’ve found vintage Hollings, vintage Genevieve Foster’s, and vintage Junior Science Books to name a few. My other go to stops are antique malls. I love antique malls. Its like a field trip for the kids and you just never know what you might find. We have one just down the road, several within a 45 minute drive. I frequent the local one monthly and the others when I can.

I once visited an older bookstore while on vacation out of state. That was amazing! I recently found out I missed a whole floor! Now, I want to go back! I also stopped on the way home from another vacation in Knoxville, TN at a warehouse called McKay’s. They carry used and new books, it’s a huge store. I didn’t have much time, my family didn’t want to stop but they graciously gave me an hour.  There’s another McKay’s in Chattanooga, I’m planning a trip there in the near future.

One never knows what they might find or where.

Charlotte Mason Planner

After my consult with A Delectable Education I started working on a new planner for our homeschool. I enjoyed the convenience of my BUJO, but there just wasn't enough space to record what we needed. I decided to make a spiral bound planner that I could just store at the end of the year. My youngest is in 3rd grade, so I will have 9 planners to store. Not a big loss of space and everything will be right at my fingerstips if I ever need it. 

I used a variety of resources in creating our school planner. Emily's printables at Tablelife Blog, free and paid for planner pages from Diana at My Humble Kitchen,  a few freebies scattered around the net, and a few I created.

I edited the cover to include our school name and Emily's free printable from TLB. Using cardstock to stiffen the front and back covers, I laminated them in 5 mil pouches.  

I trimmed the front and back cover's binding side, the top and bottom close to the cardstock without breaking the laminating seal. I left the other side as it was because it provides extra coverage over my tabs. 


The first section includes our personal schedule of our terms, academic calendar, attendance records, field trip log for the year, and monthly calendars. In between the sections I added a piece of cardstock and later added tab dividers to make it easier to locate our terms. 

Each term is laid out the same. They start with the Term Sheets and Book List pages (for each child) from My Humble Kitchen. 

Following are 11 copies of the weekly lesson plan I created. We work on 12 week terms but our 12th week is for exams. 

Each weekly plan includes a cover sheet. This is a place where I can record what we need for the week and what we are working on. 

I wanted to print these in color but 33 copies printed at Staples was crazy expensive, so I just went with black and white. I like color so I will add color through highlighters and colored ink. 

We use A Delectable Education scheduling cards and I added the minutes to my planner to keep up with time. Those minutes are what you see all scratched out. I highly recommend their cards for laying out your schedule. It makes planning so much easier, especially, when you're planning for more than one child. 

The main thing about ADE is that they plan according to time vs. page counts. When you review Charlotte Mason's PNEU schedules you will see her lessons are short and the times for each grade/subject are pretty consistent. When I followed a page count type schedule I found myself "pushing" the children to get their readings in. Which pretty much sucks the joy out of lessons. This works much better for us. I can write down notes for needed changes, and still keep track of what we've completed. Closing out each term is a page for exam questions for each child.

In the back of the planner is a section for each child's scope and sequence. I basically used my consult from ADE as an outline. Then behind those is my actual consult, it includes our suggested book lists.  

Well, that's it in a nutshell! We are 3 weeks into our first term and right now the planner is perfect for our homeschool. Hope you find what works for you! Happy planning!

A Delectable Education Consult!

I had my consult yesterday evening! A Delectable Education offers consulting services to help families with their Charlotte Mason Education. I so enjoyed talking with Liz. She has 32 years of homeschool experience under her belt and has a good feel for what moms are going through.

I had my list of questions ready to go, I was so worried I would forget to ask something vital. Liz had it covered though. We opened with general conversation and her asking questions about the kids and where we were at in our journey. Then she got right into the nuts and bolts of things. She apparently had an outline to follow and we discussed all things Charlotte Mason.

I learned a lot in that hour and a half. I realized I make things harder than they need be, that I'm not alone in my journey, and that I need to really work on my own habits!

Liz then passes her notes on to Emily. Emily pulls books and brings all suggestions together into a document, which in turn, is emailed to me. I am so excited! I have no idea how long it will take to get that email, maybe a couple of weeks.

Oh, and another suggestion came in way of scheduling. Liz suggested that we don't school year round. Even Charlotte Mason took breaks. She suggested we school in three 12 week terms and take 4 weeks off between each term! It seems like alot, but it really works out well if you think about it. 36 weeks of school, 12 weeks of breaks and an extra 4 weeks to use during holidays. Brilliant!

www.adelectableeducation.com/consulting/

Whole Hog!

Here we are! Our third year of home educating the children! We almost didn't make it. I'm so thankful to our merciful Lord who graciously kept us with in His will for our family.

After much prayer we decided to make some changes this year. Until now, we've only felt a need to  incorporate bits and pieces of Charlotte Mason's ideas into our home education program. Her ideas about living books, nature study and narrations were a good fit. But as I've started reading more of Miss Mason's words for myself I've come to realize there's no room, or time, for just sticking my toe in the water. We are going whole hog!

Whole hog is more a mind set or a journey than a destination. As I continue to learn the why, we are also working at implementing the how, in all subjects. It takes time, the learning curve is steep, but with God all things are possible.

Resources

Websites
Charlotte Mason Soiree
A Delectable Education

Facebook
Charlotte Mason Soiree
Charlotte Mason Math Together