2017-2018 School Year

I am so blessed to be teaching our kids at home. I love home schooling and it is a great fit for our family. 

Here's a glimpse into our plan for the year. My home school philosophy is greatly influenced by Charlotte Mason. I also love reading Jodi Mockabee's blog and have implemented several of her ideas. Books that have influenced me are: "For the Children's Sake", "Teaching from Rest", "Mere Motherhood" and Charlotte Mason's original six volume series.

I love having a plan and a rhythm to our days. This is generally the rhythm that we follow. We are very flexible, however, and I am happy to swap an at home learning day with a nature outing or a play date with friends. We have no lack of learning happening in these parts and I am fully convinced that learning happens when we are out and about just as much as it does at home.

Our schedule is working out so well for us this year. I have prayed over it, changed it several times, and this is what stuck for us. As I have prayed over our year God keeps pointing me to verses about peace. It is so important for me to not over schedule our lives and to really enjoy these years. When I am at peace I am able to love our littles so much better. This sometimes means doing less and trusting that this is enough.

We start every morning in prayer. We pray with our kids and use this method: "God Wow (adoration), God I'm sorry (confession), God Thank-You (thanks) and God Please (supplication)". 

For Bible this year we are using the Ergemeier's Bible Story Book. Spencer reads a Bible story to the kids at the breakfast table. We then read this same story in the evening but from our ESV Bibles. The kids take turns reading aloud from their Bibles. After reading the story Bible the kids take turns narrating back to us what they have read. We do this with most things we read aloud. It generates amazing discussions and it also really cements the ideas in the kids brains. They also listen more intently knowing they are going to tell us the story back in their own words. 

Peter adds very in-depth comments. An example of this is when we were reading the story of Abraham and Lot, every time Spencer said the name "Lot", Peter said "Lot, just like parking lot."

We then move onto morning chores. These include breakfast clean-up (each girls has their own job for clean-up), making beds, brushing teeth, etc. When chores are done on a typical school day we head downstairs for math. They are all doing amazingly well with math and are able to work quite independently. I am there with them guiding when they have questions and also playing legos on the floor with the boys.

After math, the girls do copy work. They copy either a poem, a verse, a passage of literature, or part of a hymn we are learning into their copy work books. This is to help them with their penmanship. After math and copy work it is morning time.

Morning time is my favorite.  We gather around on the rug with a basket of books. We snuggle up and read. We always start with a seasonal poem and talk about what time of year it is. We then read a picture book. This is usually seasonal as well, but not always. All the kids are present for this (even the boys). Next up is Pilgrim's Progress. We are going through this book very slowly - about 2 pages a day.  The boys are usually playing cars on the other carpet at this point. But sometimes they stay. The discussions the girls and I have been having have been so amazing. I love this book. This is my first read through as well. Next we read a nature book (currently Fall of the Year by Sharp), a history book (currently Story of Canada by Brown), a geography book (currently St Lawrence Seaway of North America). While I read the girls often sew, crochet, draw, play with blocks, or just sit and listen. Again, these books are narrated back to me after I read a section. Depending on the day we also do picture study (we are studying Rembrandt this term) or composer study (Vivaldi).

After morning time the kids go outside and play while I prepare a snack. I have them go outside rain or shine. They come in after about 20 minutes and we do snack time collective. Snack time collective is where we recite things we are working on memorizing (scripture and poetry), we also read poems from our poet of the term (Robert Louis Stevenson), and then we sing (hymns, folk songs, and, or French songs).

I have several people ask me how I teach so many different ages. How do I home school with a baby and a toddler? Our olders love reading picture books and poetry geared towards the youngers. They also get so much reading practice by reading to their younger siblings. The youngers also pick up so much more than I thought they ever would by simply being in the same room when I am reading something way above their age level. Oddly enough, Peter loves listening to me read "Heidi". Whenever I say "Fraulein Rottenmeier" he says "that Rottenmeier is so rotten." And if you have read the book you will know that this comment is very fitting ;)

Spencer is not usually home during this time, but Karis gets excited about our poem book and likes to show him things when he gets home from work.

Depending on the day we now do a baking lesson, or a sewing lesson. The girls have been loving sewing and their favorite project so far has been making their dolls new skirts from an old sheet that I used when I was a little girl.

Next up we ride our bikes to the park to observe nature and go for a run. We love observing nature at our local park. We often see herons, bullfrogs, hummingbirds, and there is a family of beavers living at the pond. Our local park is truly a blessing to our family. We have met so many people on the bridge who have shared their story or some knowledge of nature with us. The conversations on the bridge are precious to me. 

We then run a loop of the park. It is a 700 meter loop. The girls like me to time them and they try to beat their old times. Sometimes they love running, sometimes they complain about it. I get them to do it anyways because I am convinced that doing hard things builds character. 

Then it is home for lunch. After lunch we drink tea and I read a fun read aloud book to them. No narrating, just listening and drinking tea.

After lunch, I put Silas down for nap and the rest kids clean up while I spend some 1 on 1 time with whomever's special day it is (the kids just rotate through). This usually involves reading and praying together.

Then it is rest and read for everybody. This lasts about 45 minutes. Then the kids practice piano and go downstairs to do their notebooking or nature journals. Notebooking is something new that we have added. The kids write about the favorite thing we read from that day and illustrate it. We do this twice a week. At the end of the year they will have a beautiful portfolio of the things we have learned and read. 

And that is the basic rhythm of our days. Well, that is the ideal rhythm of our days. Before I put anybody under the illusion that our days usually run smoothly, they do not. We stop to correct bad attitudes, meltdowns, and big messes. We also stop to apologize and to forgive. But the mess is part of it and the mess is also what makes it beautiful. We are learning through all of this and our hope and prayer is that we are bringing God glory in the process.