THOUGHTS @ END OF SCHOOL YEAR
My thoughts going into the new school year were that I no longer wanted to use Peaceful Press (as much as I loved it) because I found myself not using a whole lot of it and I wanted something a little more robust for certain subjects (history, science, geography). While I absolutely loved Playful Pioneers and Kind Kingdom, I wanted something new and I wanted something we could stick with for a long time. With my oldest entering 5th grade, I wanted something a little more challenging for her that would grow with our family for at least a few more years.
WHY I’M NOT USING AMBLESIDE
As someone surrounded by friends in real life (and online) who use and love Ambleside, I have printed out the schedules for three years now, trying to wrap my head around using it. While I know it’s an amazing resource because I’ve had many lengthy discussions with friends about it, I realized once again it just is not for us, at least in this season. I absolutely LOVE family-style homeschooling for as many subjects as possible. Not only does it make it easier on me to not have to teach completely different subjects to all my kids, but it also brings us together and opens up so much room for discussion, discovery, and exploration as a whole family. I know one of the great things about AO is that younger students get to read what their older siblings did which can also open up discussion, the problem with that is it takes years for that to start to happen. As someone juggling multiple streams of income every day, a new baby, a preschooler, a husband who works a lot with a varied schedule, and all the normal demands of motherhood, I also love that with a family-style curriculum it can streamline homeschooling for us a bit without sacrificing my children’s education. Plus, I love the idea of the one-room schoolhouse approach where there are main lessons but then the students branch off and build upon that learning at their level. I’m definitely not saying we will never use AO, and I do plan to take a few of their book choices and still use them next year, but it will not be our main curriculum choice.
WHAT I DECIDED ON
So, after months of researching and sampling so many different curricula, we decided to go with Simply Charlotte Mason as our main family-style curriculum spine for next year. I’m not using everything they offer, but we will be using it for a lot of the bigger subjects. What I love about SCM is that my kids will be learning about the same books of the bible, the same history, and the same geography, but my older daughter will have some more advanced additional readings than my younger daughter, who will also have some additional readings for her grade level. I’m excited to try out this approach and see how it works for our family!
Let’s break down all the different subjects!
BIBLE + HISTORY + GEOGRAPHY
I had a hard time deciding what historical time period to begin with for our first year with SCM, but because we had already spent a few years learning American history and focused on European history this year, I thought starting at the very beginning would be fun and something new for the kids. Plus, it just makes logical sense to start at the beginning, so that’s what we went with.
We will be using Genesis through Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt by Simply Charlotte Mason to guide these subjects. The way it works is that we have readings we do as a family and then we add on readings specific to each child. So, my second grader will have some books I’m reading with her and then my fifth grader will have some books she either will read on her own or I will read with her. They aren’t assigned separate readings every time at their level, but some lessons they will have them. I also ordered The Stuff They Left Behind from the Days of Ancient Egypt which I think my kids will really enjoy. The best part, if we stick with this curriculum, is that every 6 years we will repeat the history, but there will be different readings for my girls the second time through since they will be much older. So, a lot of the items I have bought I will use for my younger kids and the main spine and any add-ons I bought will be used again.
Along with the history, we will also be studying African geography using Visits to Africa. I am excited to learn about something other than America or Europe next year and to also learn some social studies along with it throughout the book selections. I really like the looks of the Visits to Africa workbooks and think my girls will really learn a lot about geography through this method.
I also purchased new Books of Centuries, one for each of my older girls so they can add to them over the years. I like the layout of the SCM version and love that the teacher guides include when and what to add to our Books of Centuries. This makes implementing a Charlotte Mason education much easier with a bunch of kids to keep track of at different levels!
THE RICHES
While it isn’t available yet (it will be later this year), we will be continuing Daily Riches with volume 2 next school year. I am SO excited! I am incredibly proud of this resource and it’s been our favorite from this current school year. We will be continuing to learn poetry, composer study, picture study, virtues, hymns, folk songs, Bible study, Scripture memory, handicraft, and copywork through this resource.
MORNING MENUS
We will be using our Morning Menus again next year. We have absolutely loved them! I'll be updating the calendars and may add some add-on packs for them but other than that, there are so many different sheets to choose from, we will get a lot of use out of these for many years to come, especially with two other little ones who aren't school-age yet.
LITERATURE
We are not using Simply Charlotte Mason for everything (we are using Daily Riches instead of their Enrichment Studies and because of that, I don’t see the point of adding in their Individual Studies), so I’m going to be pulling from the Ambleside Online list for our family read-alouds and any individual reading my older girls do next year. We have never chosen whatever books we wanted for literature the past four years, so I’m really excited to fit in some books I’ve been wanting to read with them but haven’t had the time when doing the other curricula book choices over the years.
We also will be learning Shakespeare using Simply Charlotte Mason’s Shakespeare in Three Steps. We have been reading the stories of Shakespeare this year but it will be fun to dive in and actually read/listen to the plays and watch a recorded version as well! We will be reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream!
NARRATION
Narration will not really change from what we have been doing this year. During every reading we do, I’ll stop to have my children narrate. Depending on the reading, if it’s a more challenging reading, I’ll stop every few paragraphs and ask for a narration, or if it’s an easier reading, I’ll have them narrate at the end of the reading. I also bought Narration Notecards for our main history book from SCM and am excited to put those into use! This gives me prompts for the students that make narration a little less boring and get their brains working in different ways! Then, like we did this past year, once a week we will do one illustrated/written narration. I may have my 5th grader do more than one, but at least to start, we will do one to practice their writing skills.
SCIENCE
I have not finalized science just yet, but I am planning to create our own science curriculum for next year. I have plans for a couple different science resources in the next year, very similar to my Seashore Science that still follows Charlotte Mason’s principles but in an open-and-go, easy-to-implement way. I can’t wait to share more!
NATURE STUDY/JOURNALING
This is one area I haven’t been great about doing. I am planning to have my kids go out into nature and observe something and study a little about it and journal about it in their nature journals once a week. Admittedly, there is SO much more to see in Minnesota from about April/May to October than there is during most of the school year, so we will be doing a lot in the warmer months when we aren’t technically “doing school.” But, doing it more during the warmer months makes me feel better when we slow down over the colder months.
ART
I also haven’t fully decided about art. We already do some kind of art or handicraft at our co-op every other week (this year it was watercolor). My kids also do a lot of crafting and creating just on their own. Plus, if we have time to implement the handicraft every week through Daily Riches, I think that is plenty, but I also really have loved Living Art Lessons from Masterbooks this year and we will definitely not finish it due to taking some breaks during my pregnancy and after having our new baby in January. So, we may finish that next year. Otherwise, I have been looking into different art subscription boxes or online art classes we could do every week or so to teach art since it’s not an area I’m very gifted at and I would love to learn with my kids as well!
HANDWRITING + TYPING
For my oldest, I will have her continue with her Cursive handwriting book a couple days a week to practice. She also will be doing copywork a few days a week which will help her practice her handwriting as well. My 2nd grader will continue with her Manuscript handwriting practice to continue honing her handwriting skills.
My 5th grader will continue with typingclub.com for typing practice four days a week. It’s been going really smoothly for her and is completely hands-off for me which is very welcome for subjects that she can start to learn on her own.
2ND GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS
My 2nd grader will continue with Explode the Code and will finish it probably by Christmas time which is so exciting! She’s grown so much as a 1st grader with her reading abilities using this program, and I can’t wait to watch her bloom even further next year! Once she finishes, I don’t plan to add anything additional except lots and lots of reading to me! We have tons of readers and early chapter books for her to read and practice her skills. One my oldest daughter got to that point, she just took off reading constantly, and I anticipate it will be the same for my second-born.
5TH GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS
We are switching once again this year to a new Language Arts program for my oldest. She started with The Good and the Beautiful, then we switched to Learning Language Arts through Literature this current year, and now we are switching to Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well through Simply Charlotte Mason for her 5th grade year. This is a big change and we will be fully adopting Charlotte Mason’s methodology in regards to learning grammar and spelling. I’ve read enough of Charlotte Mason’s teachings and talked to enough parents now that I feel confident over time that this will be a great way for her to learn.
As a former English teacher, this is one area that is hard for me, but I also know that just being surrounded by good language and seeing words in your mind (something that came very naturally to me as a kid) works super well. So, we will be continuing to learn grammar in a similar way that we did this year with Learning Language Arts through Literature, but for spelling, we will be relying on really visualizing and memorizing passages from literature and then using dictation to write them out until they are perfect. This will be a huge change for her and not something I think she will love right away, but I have seen what happens when kids struggle through a subject and then start to understand and excel. They gain confidence and what was once super hard becomes fun once they start to grasp it. I am hoping that will be the case at some point next year!
MATH
This will probably be our last year of using The Good and the Beautiful for math. While I truly do love the program, I no longer feel right supporting a Mormon company. I already didn’t feel great about it in the past, but because the math very rarely even mentioned God, I wasn’t too worried about it with math. But after a few friends and accounts on IG talked about how financially supporting them furthers their church spreading false teachings, it really convicted me. Unfortunately, I had already purchased the curriculum for next year and they are past their return policy window. So, we will use them this year and then will switch next year. As far as the actual program, I have really enjoyed it, even going through it a second time with my second daughter. My oldest will be doing level 5 and my second grader will be doing level 2.
PRESCHOOL
My 4 year old went to preschool this current school year mainly for the social aspect and also to have a fun, learning environment to go while I do some harder subjects with my older girls. However, all the preschools in our area have switched to 5 days a week models and that is WAY more than I was wanting her to go. So, because I don’t want to pay for 5 days when I only wanted her to go two, we will just be forgoing preschool for next year. She technically could start kindergarten lessons next year as her birthday is just a few days before September 1, but I am in no rush to push academics on her and want her to play and grow, so I will follow her lead. I have an Explode the code book for younger kids that we do every once in a while. She already knows her letters and sounds, her number, colors, shapes, etc. so I mainly plan to focus on hands-on activities, being out in nature, and reading to her a lot which we already do.
CO-OP
We will continue with co-op again next year. We absolutely love our co-op we created with friends and we will be going on year 4 next year! We haven’t finalized our plan for next year, but I’m expecting we will be learning the following subjects: hymns, folk songs, narration, handicraft, Swedish drill (or something in its place), composer study, nature study, and recitation. The older students have done science, Plutarch, Shakespeare, and Latin as well, so eventually I’m sure we will get to those subjects at co-op as well. Our co-op group also hikes as well, so we will plan to do the hikes on our co-ops off weeks.
EXTRACURRICULARS
As far as extracurriculars, we will likely continue with what we did this year, but I have a couple things I’m considering. Our girls have done Awana all since they were 3 years old so we will continue with that. We absolutely love it! My oldest will continue with piano lessons and if my second daughter can get in, I will have her start as well. We may have her start learning with Hoffman Academy, but that may end up falling through the cracks if I’m being honest. The girls do a monthly craft class for 3 hours every month which they love, so we will continue that next year as well. We’ve been wanting to get them into gymnastics but classes have been really hard to find this past year. Something I wanted to try the past two years but it just didn’t work out the first year and then with a new baby on the way in the middle of this school year, we decided to wait. I would love to have the girls join American Heritage Girls and my son can join Trail Life when he is old enough. It’s such a hard balance not wanting to overload our schedules, especially in the evenings when my husband is home, but also wanting our kids to have lots of great experiences!
Whew! I’m tried writing that all out! All in all, I’m super excited about out next school year! In the meantime, we have just been enjoying the slightly warmer weather, reading our Narnia books, loving on our baby, and finishing out this school year!