This year, we just jumped right in.
No trips to the store for the ceremonious "back-to-school" supplies; we've just been picking them up when we take our regular trips to the store for milk and Almond Joys. No huge order from Rainbow Resources, Timberdoodle or Alpha Omega, though there are a few things I'd still love to add to my collection. No sweating over curriculum--I actually continued using several things that have been working for us in the past and added a few things I saw when I went to the curriculum store for this year's Italic Handwriting books. No big "not going back to school" party and no big X number of days until returning to schoolwork countdown. Nothing.
We just...kind of...continued.
During the summer months, we do a lot of field trips, activities, family times, games, trips to the swimming pool, and we take every opportunity for learning that comes up. When the traditional "school year" starts, I get a little itch that tells me I'd like to be more organized, a bit more driven. In years past, that has meant setting a day for school, which was always the first Monday after Labor Day, taking a trip to Stuff*Mart to drool over the school supplies (do we really need to buy the Napoleon Dynamite Trapper Keeper?) and scrambling to find just the right math curriculum, just the right spelling program, and the absolute best art supplies.
But this year, I just got the itch to get started. On Tuesday, I had most of what I wanted to use to get back into our formal lessons, had made copies of some of the consumables I don't want consumed, checked stuff out of the library and printed stuff on the computer. So, with a swish of the chalk on the board, we were on our way. Just like that.
It's not a real big leap. We learn all year long anyway, so adding a few formal touches here and there really wasn't a huge change. I think the biggest changes are making a concrete list of goals for the day for each child which is posted on the chalkboard daily (we have done this before in different forms, but not through the summer) and cutting our formal lessons to fifteen minutes each as opposed to doing them until we're crying (which we actually did when we were using Ohio Virtual Academy). The fifteen minute guide is via Charlotte Mason. I bought each of the kids their own little kitchen timers (while I was at the store buying guinea pig food and kitty litter) so they can time themselves individually, and then we're incorporating Mason's suggestions of changing scenery often with a lot of outside time--jumping on the trampoline, sketching things from nature, reading poetry and just being outside together.
Fifteen-year-old Bard is following the Charlotte Mason Year 9 schedule and seems to really be thriving with it, pretty much directing her own education. I'm loosely following the Year 3 schedule with the boys, a differently-learning (aren't we all?) 14 year old and a very bright 10 year old. We started Latin, grammar, handwriting, copywork and reading/spelling and poetry--William Blake this trimester. I'm also assigning good quality books for the boys to read, like At The Back of the North Wind ("Is Diamond a boy or a horse? Well? WELL?"). They have a tendency to flounder between activities, so providing them with some quality literature and asking them to narrate to me is helpful for occupying their time and inspiring creativity.
With Sweetheart, who's six and a half, we're working on handwriting, lots and lots of play time and nature study, relaxed copywork, and Explode the Code because she really wants to learn to read. I don't push reading until I see the signs that they're ready to dive in. Bard read fluently at four, Houdin didn't care to read at all until twelve, Monet learned to read at 7, and now Sweetheart. As a result, they all enjoy reading as both a hobby and a learning tool.
This is my first year of dabbling in the Charlotte Mason curriculum. We've always been eclectic with a bent towards a kind of classical unschooling and a few formal lessons thrown in, but I recently decided to look more closely into Mason's methods for Sweetheart after recommending it to a friend who was asking about inexpensive curriculum options. I saw that they had courses up through Year 10, and now I see that they've just completed Year 11. After reading through the schedules and suggested reading lists, I realized that we have been very loosely following Mason's philosophies all along and that Bard, especially, would really appreciate Mason's education suggestions.
If you aren't familiar with Charlotte Mason or just have a basic knowledge, you can find out much more about approaching a classical-type education in a more relaxed way by checking out Ambleside Online, a free online curriculum created by parents who are using Charlotte Mason's learning methods. From the Ambleside site, you can access many books, including Charlotte Mason's original writings as well as many pieces of literature that are out-of-print and hard-to-find.
Over the next few days, I'll be sharing some of Mason's words that resounded with me as well as my thoughts about this approach and how it is working in our family.
I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.
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