Homeschool Musings of a Charlotte Mason Mom

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Can't Get Away From Charlotte Mason



In Our Homeschool This Week:
     When we began our school year this year I wanted our year to be a bit more formal than what we were accustomed to. So I decided we were going to use more text books this year. Off our year began and we've been moving right along, BUT something just wasn't quite right. We've kept trudging through our books, accomplishing things, but just not receiving what we have received in the past with our studies. What was wrong with us? Sometimes we would even have a lot of tension between teacher and student. I asked my children what was wrong. Immediately they told me, "We want to dive deeper in to our studies like we were doing when we were doing Charlotte Mason style of education. So this week we made a trip to the library & grabbed some books to reinforce what we have been studying in Science and pulled a book off of our shelf for history that they had been wanting to do. The tension has lifted & our week has been fun & refreshing.
What's Working:
    We've decided that we will keep our Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science (which wasn't giving us a problem, & we love), but would slow it down and also add in library books along side of it. This just means that we won't finish this book this year & will carry it over in to next year.
    Our library book we used for Science this week was: The Atom By Elizabeth R. Cregan


    A very interesting book, filled with information. My DH grabbed this book in hopes of reinforcing our study on atoms. The book covers atoms pretty good, but has a lot of info on radium, radiation, & cancer. My children seemed to be more excited over the things they learned about them than they were the atoms. Like how they used radium in paint to paint the numbers on watches, getting some of the paint in their mouth due to the method they used to paint, not knowing that that the radium would begin to destroy their cells & cause cancer. A very interesting book. Here's a pic of my children drawing a model of an atom.
    For our history this week (& will go in to next week) they wanted to learn about the buried city of Pompeii. My DS had gotten a book from a thrift store about Pompeii so we began a study on it this week. My DS has had to do most of the reading in our book due to some nudity for their bath ceremonies. Other than that we have enjoyed the book & have looked at some pics on Internet this week. The book we are using is: The Buried City of Pompeii By Shelley Tanaka.



    Three math lessons were accomplished in our Saxon 8/7 math this week. We are getting in to Perimeter, Area, & Exponents. We have worked on this some in the past. My DS enjoys the square root part of the exponents.
Helpful Homeschool Tip:

  To pull in some English/Grammar this week I pulled out a handbook I had bought several years back and just picked out a rule for a particular type of verb & that is what we worked on this week. I chose Active & Passive verbs.



    We read the rule from the handbook, along with its examples & then worked on our dry erase board making our own sentences. Today the children had to write me three Active verb sentences then three Passive verb sentences that would accompany their Active verb sentences. That was English for the week. Here's a couple of pics of the handbook I had purchased.


     It's not very thick, but jam packed with info. It covers just the rules & gives examples in a very basic way. Easy enough that my children can take it down & find the rule they would like to use by themselves. I got it from a used book store for a dollar, great investment.
    We are still reading through Pilgrim's Progress for Literature & On the Banks of Plum Creek for a Library Read Aloud. I'm not sure if I put a pic of the version of Pilgrim's Progress we are using on here or not, but we are using a children's version. Here's a pic of it.



    Other than my children spending a lot of time outside after our studies, I think that about concludes our week. Here's a pic of my DC having P.E. this week.



     Kris usually has the Weekly Wrap Up on her blog, but she had a close friend pass away and left behind are her husband and five girls. Kris said that she will not be blogging for a few days. I'm not sure if she will have her Weekly Wrap Up this week. I encourage you to visit Kris's blog and give her a nice comment in her time of grieving. I am so sorry Kris for your loss and hope the best for your friend's family and we will be praying.
     I am also linking up with The Homeschool Mother's Journal this week. Drop over & check out what everyone has been up to this week. I'm sure you will be encouraged.

     By the way I will be starting a Give-a-Way tomorrow that is going to be continuing for a while. I have lots of books & workbooks for all ages. So get the word around, I'm sure you'll be blessed & encouraged.

7 comments:

Michelle said...

Hi there!! I did get your email. I have to find her address again. I needed time to email you back, which I haven't seemed to have.

I think we may do more stuff for science than we've been doing. History has been good with books, but I need some more activities. Our first break is next week when my mom is here, so I'll take a little time and plan out some activities for us.

Angel said...

Loved reading how you are back to a more "CM" way of school! Sounds like the kids have their curiosity back. I'll be back to read more when I have time!
Thanks for stopping by my blog too.

Unknown said...

How nice that you were able to change school up enough to make things more interesting for the kids while still continuing with some of the books you were working on! Very creative! It's one of the things I love about homeschoooling so much - flexibility!

Try this link for Rock Candy (as it also explains some Science behind it): http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/recipe-rockcandy.html. Now we didn't use string; we rolled wooden skewers in sugar and then stuck them into the solution jars. And we added green food coloring and mint extract. Have fun!

Thanks for stopping in!

Debbie said...

Charlotte Mason is a great method. I find sometimes we fall into this area ourselves. One thing I love about homeschooling is that we do have the freedom to switch from what isn't working to what is working with no worries.

Lisa Boyle said...

I love how you have found a way to make the textbooks more interesting for your kids! Awesome!

The creativity of so many moms I have met online continues to inspire me!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and for your kind comments.

Many blessings,
Lisa

Charlotte Mason in the City said...

Your kids are wise in being able to articulate what they were missing from their studies...and you are wise in knowing how to respond! Kudos all around.

My husband once illustrated the cover of a book about the radium watch painters. I'm not sure if the book was ever published, however; it was many years ago.

You had a very productive week!

Dawn said...

My kids love Charlotte Mason Style too. They are hands on learners and love picture books.
Blessings,
Dawn

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