A Little School Check-in
Hello, I thought I’d pop in here with a little home education update. We’ve been back at our learning since the beginning of August, and it has been a wonderful start of the year. I only have 3 students for the first time in a very long time! I started with my 3 oldests when my very oldest was just about 3 years old. The main thing we did back then was… to read picture books, lol! So not much has changed in our home education routine.
Beatrix Potter
We started the year with a deep dive into Beatrix Potter, mycology and herbology. Everyone had a wonderful time! The Beatrix Potter unit that we followed was a combination of both my Forages in Beatrix Potter’s life: Discovering the World of Beatrix Potter, best suited for the Littlest One who is 4, and Beatrix Potter: a Forage for my oldest two who are 10 and 12. With the added Harbor and Sprout Mycology and Herbology unit it made for a pretty serious beginning of the year. We learned so much about fungi that we didn’t know, it was truly fascinating. Herbology was a hit as well, but everything was already so dried up here that we were not able to do a lot of the experiments and that was disappointing. But we saved them for next spring!
Handicrafts
We explored book binding and junk journaling. Playing with paper is so wonderful! I love making pretty things and so do the girls, we had a blast! I think junk journaling is so fun to make but I have yet to find a practical use for a finished junk journal… And I will, I just haven’t had a chance to really think about it. But the girls are talking about some people receiving one for Christmas. We found that My Porch Prints had great tutorials and easy to download and print inspiration. But my highschooler started working at Hobby Lobby around the same time, so… we’ve spent a lot of time in the Hobby Lobby paper section! So fun! And what a great skill to learn, to make your own journal! Sometimes I am very jealous of my children’s education and I wish I had received the same. It drives me crazy that they don’t realize how blessed they are… But I know they will, some day.
Faith
So far we have read a biography of Saint Dominic, and the life of the saint of the day. We have also started a very small but powerful book: An Easy Way to Become a Saint by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan. Very short and sweet, following the advice of St. Therese of Lisieux to do small things with great love. So simple, it sounds so easy but yet so powerful and not as easy as it seems. I still have a lot of work to do…
A Daily Picture Book
And of course we round things up with A Daily Picture Book. Wow, if I may toot my own horn, we have explored quite a few things through this. Once again it reaffirms my belief that a picture book read and explored every day ends creating an amazing education. Some of our favorites have been Lucille Ball, William Wallace, Tasha Tudor, Anna Comstock, Romare Bearden, Constitution Day, Jean Lafitte, Malian’s Song and Earle Dickson. We have learned so much and been able to understand the different time periods better as well as explore much art and adventure.
Geography
We have been working on our map of the USA, almost daily, we keep forgetting about it, lol! We started from scratch with Draw the USA by Kristin J. Draeger and are continuing with Draw the Natural Wonders of the USA: Rivers, lakes, Mountains, Deserts, Seas, Flora, Fauna and More, also by Kristin Draeger. This second one is really fun, engaging and helpful with all the hints and ways to draw different things. I taught the girls how to create a map’s key and all my orienteering knowledge is coming back. We might have to go orienteering after we are done and create a map of our area with key and everything. I know that they would really enjoy that.
Science
After Beatrix Potter we launched ourselves into Oceanography. We are using Ocean Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the World under the Sea by Julia Rothman, illustrated by John Niekrasz as our main spine. We went all out and got the accompanying Activity Book and Sticker Book. The girls have absolutely loved it! They have been so creative with their illustrations and have done a good job deep diving for more details than what the book offered. We hope to explore wildlife in general next. How did I end up with such animal lovers? I really don’t like animals, but my kids love them, it just makes me chuckle and I can see God’s sense of humor in it.
Read Alouds
So far we have read The Fairy Caravan by Beatrix Potter. It is such a sweet book, all about animals, again, lol!Sweet, whimsical and endearing, this one is a winner, especially with the younger children. Very well written and, of course, beautifully illustrated. Next we’ve picked up A World Full of Dickens Stories: 8 best-loved classic tales retold for children by Angela McAllister, illustrated by Jannicke Hansen. I find Dickens a little long winded for kids (he was paid by the word after all) and so this is the perfect compromise. The illustrations, which are not my favorites, are a perfect match for Dickens’ gloomy atmosphere and then the rejoicing. Each story is well summarized and very enjoyable.
Personal work
We continue on with Saxon for math. Both girls are working on The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Level 4, but there is still room for improvement. My 12yo has been on a Ralph Moody binge and has read the whole Little Britches series, Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier, Geronimo, Wolf on the War Path and The Riders of the Pony Express. Quite the meaty western reading list, I’m so proud of her!
As for my 10you, she is improving greatly with her reading and has been reading out loud to me Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace. We are also working our way through All About Spelling, finishing Level 1.
We might pick up grammar after Christmas, I have not decided quite yet.
And again for everything else: art, poetry, music, history, geography and social sciences we rely on A DAily Picture Book.
Conclusion
All in all I would say we have had great success the beginning of this school year and have been able to stay on track fairly well. We have taken days off here and there but so far have maintained a good pace. I do love our 4 days a week schedule that allows us to use Friday for field trips, church events, etc.. as well as home education involving house cleaning and laundry. Because I am a nice mom that way…
How is your school year going? Any major changes this year? Any surprises?
Love,
Mattie
