Being Educated Through Reading

  I am so thankful that our family ran acrossth Miss Mason's method of education. If we had not, I would not be so familiar with using living books with my children. And, if  I was not familiar with living books this week we would be getting behind in our curriculum due to sickness. My sister had gotten sick so I had to take care of my two nephews, who are under the age of three. As soon as I had taken them back home, one of them got sick, and then the other. Of course us being exposed to the virus it was bound to come, so that's where we've been this week. Dealing with sickness.
   Due to all of this, school has been light. Great books have pulled us through though. We have still been able to school through read aloud. Everyone just laid around and the reading went on, the children picking up nuggets along the way. What a wonderful way to be educated.!
    We have also gotten some Narration, a bit of Copy Work, and some Simply Grammar done. My children and I are enjoying Simply Grammar being able to do it orally.
    In the past I would begin to feel so overwhelmed during times like this because we would be getting behind in our curriculum, feeling in blanks, etc. Writing doesn't go well when your tummy isn't feeling o.k. Simply Grammar has saved me from the stress and kept us moving along with our education this week.
   I look back on those days when we did just use curriculum and think how our days were so plain, no excitement, just our same old text books. Now that we have changed our method of educating, the children and I both look forward to our studies.
    I think the greatest thing about reading to get an education is that you can do it just about anywhere, home, yard, going down the road, park, etc. Time doesn't have to be wasted having to travel, etc. Another thing is our books have taken us all around the world. We are able to travel through time, through Space, sail on the waters, and trudge across the land within our own home. It's so great!
   Here I am again rambling. I'm sure you've gotten the idea now that we love to educate ourselves through reading. So until next time, EVERYONE HAVE A BLESSED AND HAPPY HOME SCHOOLING, Traci

Making Memories

     Well, we survived our wee getting back in to the groove of things. We didn't do all the subjects we try to cover n school, but we did make some accomplishments. We managed to get a few Math lessons in, along with a few chapters in our Literature selection, Narration (for one child), Copy Work (for the other child), & Writing Strands (one child) & Simply Grammar (the other child). That was enough for me to say we made progress.
     I suppose we just haven't gotten school work completely on our mind. Today we started our school work and then soon turned in to a restaurant. My daughter jumped right on board with helping me make home made chicken noodle soup that soon turned our table in to a restaurant area for her dad and brother to sit at with glasses of water with appetizers while awaiting their food arrival. She pulled out my soup bowl set, the cloth napkins, etc. She also had the candles and the soft music. She had everything real nice and we had our family lunch. It was lovely. I told them that our little restaurant meal was great, even down to the best music in the background (gospel). We couldn't have had a better time out somewhere. My daughter did a fabulous job serving and all. She gets an "A" in Home EC. for the day.
     Time for me to go, we are off to bowl for the night. We bowl some for part of our P.E. So got to get dressed to go. Hope you all have a BLESSED  and HAPPY  home schooling week. Traci

Weekly Wrap Up

     Our week has been a great week. My children have been exceptionally good students for the beginning of our new school year, (We'll see if that lasts for the year). My son wanted to lag around once or twice, but he soon got with the program and things moved on along. If they work the rest of our year like they have worked this week I will be one happy Mamma.
     I started my daughter this week in the Simply Grammar & my son in Writing Strands 3. Both seemed to have enjoyed their lesson. Next week we will switch the books around and they will work out of the opposite book from what they were working with this week. This will give them both an opportunity to learn grammar and increase their writing skills. I'm not real sure if this is more Grammar & Composition than what Charlotte Mason would have her students to do in one year, but I feel like my children are ready for this. So we will just take our time working through the books and if it becomes too much of a load then we'll change our game plan.
     I suppose I should blog about the highlight (or what my son would probably say was the highlight) of our week was. Our poet this term is Carl Sandburg. We are reading a biography on him,reading some of his poems, and Memmorizing one of them for recitation,along with analyzing that particular poem. When I say analyze, I mean we read it very carefully and then each of us give our interpretation of it. Then we look to see if there are any words that we aren't quite sure of the meaning. If so, we turn our papers over and write the word on the back of our poem. On another day we come back to those words and look them up in the dictionary.  We then read the poem again and discuss it since we've found out more insight on it. By this time we all are beginning to have a better understanding of what the poet was trying to portray. We are starting to recognize how he/she might have been feeling, noticing their surroundings, etc. I feel like that gives them a general idea of what the poem is about.
     Anyway, enough about how we do our poetry study, let me get back to my son's highlight of the week. If he doesn't learn anythingg about the poet, the poem, any definitions, etc. I'm sure he can tell me how to call pigs to the feed trough. In our biography it told how Carl Sandburg kept calling his cousins pigs to the feed trough just because he thought it was funny. He thought it was funny because he didn't have any food when he was calling them. It just told how the pigs kept coming and running, their tongues hanging out from exhaustion, but because he thought it was a funny sight he just kept on and on. I suppose my son could picture this in his mind because every time he would try to read again he would start chuckling all over again. I'm sure he learned how to call pigs this week. I can make a notation, he has learned something else.
    Oh my, I'm rambling on and on, you are home school Mammas. You have more to do than staying here reading my novel. So I'll go for now. More musings later. Have a happy home school week!