I changed my template.  I really liked the floating flower but overall it was just too purple...

Tomorrow we finish up our 5th week of a total Carlotte Mason approach and we are loving it!  Truly, it is night and day from where we were at just 3 short months ago.  Thank you, Krisanne, for telling me about this and thank you Lord for brining her into our lives to tell us!

Here is what I am doing:

We pray, sing a hymn, and read a poem before sitting to eat, and we listen to our classical selection during breakfast.

After eating comes My First Catholic Bible and Saints for Young Readers read in chronological rather than liturgical order.  Then he does a few lines of cursive.  I have 30 minutes scheduled for this.

Next, 4 days of the week we were doing Total Language Plus Courage of Sarah Noble, but this was really much too much work at this age (I'll use it when he's older, and I'll post a full review later.)  I've ordered Language of God and Catholic Speller from Catholic Heritage Curriculum to replace this.  Then we do Math-U-See.  40 minutes total for both, then a 20 minute break.

Next we spend 40 minutes together doing Ambleside reading and activities as follows:

• Monday--History and timeline
• Tuesday--Nature Study reading and journal
• Wednesday--Geography and map work
• Thursday (afternoon after co-op)--Composer and Artist biography and study
• Friday--Literature

This is followed by another 20 minute break.

Finally, 4 days of the week we spend doing Prima Latina and Noeo Chemistry I for 20 minutes each.  We sing a folk song before lunch, and practice Italian for Children at tea time.  He does his free reading at bedtime, narrating to me in the morning.

So generally by noon we are done.  The lessons are bit-sized and managable for him, yet challenging.  The afternoons are free to play outside, work on projects, field trips, or just hang out.  He is so much happier than he was with 5 workbooks for 45 minutes each, and he is learning so much more.  His learning is not cramming trivia but rather understanding concepts, and thinking deeper.

On Thursdays we have co-op, and our family is there from 9:30 to 1:00.  Sam (7) is doing Art (in which I assist), Junior First Lego League (I am his team leader per his request, since our co-op put together 3 teams!), and Italian using the Italian for Children program (which I lead, though I am far from being proficient in Italian!)  Zack (5) has an art class and a science class; Aaron (3) joins Zack for art but not science.  Theoretically all of the kids are in Italian class, though Sam is really the only one that participates.

Of course not every day is smooth.  And I have not started anything regualr with my other two.  For now, they are allowed to play on the computer (educational software only, of course) and otherwise play upstairs where we also do our school work.  Soon enough those 20 minute breaks for the oldest will be 20 minutes of reading for my 5 year old, or some activity with my 3 year old.  I'm getting there--I guess it's not bad for starting everything from scratch!