Posted in Nature Studies
On May 15 I took some pictures of Joshua outside in our yard. I took this picture of one of our Banana trees. Well Friday afternoon while I was outside taking pictures of Joshua and Abigail playing in the yard I noticed that same tree full of green bananas.
Here is the Picture from May 15
Here is the picture taken on May 29th.
Can't wait to eat these sweet bananas.
Posted in Nature Studies
I came out the back door on Friday to see Miss Abigail sitting in a puddle of water in the yard. I thought she was outside chasing kitties (that is her usual interest) but no. Here is what I caught on film when I quietly ran back into the house and came out again.
They had such a great time playing in the water!
I wish I had a video recording so you could hear her talking and having such a great time.
I think they enjoy living in the rainforest during the rainy season !!
They are enjoying nature!! This was a fun afternoon!!
Posted in Homeschooling
Since I did not start homeschooling until February we only had about 12 weeks of school. After trying to decide what to do in this short amount of time I decided to do the first Term of Ambelside year 4. We are so excited that we finished this term last Friday and also finished some of our books this week. We finished Poor Richard and Robinson Crusoe. We have all our books for Term 2 & 3 and we will take a couple of weeks off and then start back with our core subjects, Language Arts and Marth and Science. Sarah will be joining us after she finishes this next week, her last week at the International School.
Rebekah is determined to make up the year she lost by going to School (They held her back at the International School). Her reading has improved so much this school year. She has been reading her 7th grade Literature book to me out loud these last two weeks and she is doing great. I am very proud of her accomplishment. We have a schedule to complete all her work by the end of January and then we will start her 8th grade work.
Posted in Curriculum
Please read below about an exciting new product from Apologia.
Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available. You can see samples on the Apologia website here:
These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.
Each of the notebooking journals include:
- A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
- Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
- Review Questions
- Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
- Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
- An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
- Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
- A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.
See the sample pages here:
Botany: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=128
and
Astronomy: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=127
Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com
I am excited about trying the notebooking journals out. We will be doing Botany this fall!! So the journals are out just in time for us!!
Posted in Nature Studies
For the last few weeks we have had at least one or two sick children. So we have not been outside to do our nature study. An additional challenge is that this is at the end of our rainy season and some days we have rain all day.
On Mother's Day we had a nice sunny afternoon and I got outside and took pictures of the kids in the yard. I realized that I had said in an earlier post that I would post a picture of this plant when it was in full bloom. This is my favorite plant in the yard. I love it when it is in full bloom.
We have plans on Friday to do Challenge number 3 so I will post that when we finish it.
Enjoy the picture.
Posted in Homeschooling
When I first started Homeschooling in 1999 the first book I read was Sally Clarkson´s
Understanding the Wholehearted Child. I loved the book. She quoted Charlotte Mason´s writings a lot in this book. This made me eager to read Charlotte´s book. This started my journey toward a Charlotte Mason Education for my children. In 2003 our Mom´s group in Shelbyville started a reading group on Karen Andreola´s
A Charlotte Mason Companion. So I started reading that book and even though the reading group dissolved before we finished the book, I went ahead and finished the book and I loved her ideas and philosophy of education.
In 2006, I was looking for a way to homeschool closer to the way Charlotte Mason taught and I came across Amblesideonline. While looking through the files I found the original Charlotte Mason
Home Education. I started reading it back then but I never finished it. I picked it up a few months ago and I have started reading it again.
This is such a meaty book. This is a quote from Charlotte Mason's book
Home Education. Here she is talking about a mother:
"She must ask herself seriously,
Why must the children learn at all? What should they learn? And, How should they learn it? If she take the trouble to find a definite and thoughtful answer to each of these three queries, she will be in a position to direct her children's studies; and will, at the same time, be surprised to find that three-fourths of the time and labour ordinarily spent by the child at his lessons is lost time and wasted energy."
In some way I have asked my self these questions many times. I have changed some of my answers over time. When I started out home educating I followed the advise of a seasoned homeschooler in choosing my curiculum. Over time I have abandoned most of those book and moved to a more pure Charlotte Mason style with living books. The tried and true books have stayed. For us it has been the Making Math Meaningful curiculum and Getty Dubay Handwriting. We have continued to read living books which we began when Rachel started school.
We have such a long way to go to be 100% Charlotte Mason but we are so much closer now than we were when we started 10 years ago. Since starting Ambelside we have add nature study, artist and composure studies and hymn and folk songs studies. We were doing artist studies before but we were not focusing on one particular artist.
I am really excited about starting our new school year in July. I think this will be our best school year yet. I think the girls are looking forward to it also. All our books are purchased and have arrived (with only a few that will be brought this summer.). We are ready to go!
Posted in Homeschooling
Since Joshua is turning 5 later this month I have started thinking about what direction to go with his formal education. I have always thought and believed that I would not start his Kindergarten year until he is 6. But lately I have been reading a lot about what Charlotte Mason taught about what to do with children in the years before formal education begins at at age 6.
I have decided to do some work with him each day. It will probably only be about 45 minutes to 1 hour and then he will be doing a lot outside. He is already learning a lot. He has learned to count in English and Portuguese (1-10) and he knows his colors in both languages. I want him to continue to learn in both Languages. He likes to sit down and do some craft work and he like to build things with our tanagrams and counting bears and a small set of wooden blocks.
So this is my plan.
- For Math I am going to use Saxon K and take it slow
- For Pre- reading we will be learning the letters and their sounds in English and maybe in Portuguese ( I'm not sure how that will work). We will use Color sheets and letter tiles and as I continue to read Charlotte Mason I may come up with more Ideas.
- For Handwriting we will do some simple activities but not a formal curriculum.
- For Bible we will continue to work on his AWANA Cubbies book and memorize verses.
- For Art we will be doing that with Sarah and Rebekah (Rebekah may be leading this for me)
- For Nature study we will continue the One Hour Challenge. I also will be giving him some outdoor activities so he can spend time exploring outside not just playing with the cat and kittens all the time.
Slowing increasing things with him will probably work best. He is one that does not like change. So gradually adding activities will be good for him. If his interest are stronger in one area over another we may concentrate in that area. I will keep you updated in what we are doing and how things are working.
Well that is the plan right now. I like to start planning in advance because sometimes my schedule changes 4 or 5 times before school begins. We are planning to start the middle of July.
Posted in Homeschooling
Since we school when my children in the International School have classes April has been a light month. Actually we only went one full week in all of April (that was the last two days of March and 3 days of April. Then we were off for Good Friday then the week after Easter and then two days the following week This last Friday was Brazilian Labor day so we did not have school.
Next week we dive in for four weeks straight(with no breaks). We are finishing school on Monday June 1st. My girls in the international school will not be finished until June 5th but they will be having half days most of the week.
So even though we will wind down the First of June we will only take a short break and start up again. Sarah will join us then. I´m counting the days.
