A Year of (Homeschool) Planners

Here's the thing; I am not a big homeschool planner, I'll just say that right up front. I find rigid schedules a source of stress (what will I do when we inevitably fall behind? what if something that I've meticulously planned for does not go at the pace I've anticipated?) but I do like to have a rhythm to lean on, a spine to return to whenever we are able.

My plan though is fluid, flexible and I know up front, that the plan I make at the beginning of the year will not be the same as the plans I am making towards the end of the school year. And that is a-okay by me!

I start out by creating an overview of our year; on this I include birthdays, festivals and holidays, and some basic items that we want to look at each quarter, such as Artist Study, Composer Study and Shakespeare. (I use a basic composition book as my homeschool planner each year, which gives me so much freedom! I can create just the right planner for our needs, and can change it as and when our needs change. Perfect!)

I then create a monthly calendar, with the weeks numbered; this makes it easier for me to see, at a glance, how our curricula aligns with the month. Along the right hand edge I have a separate column for notes; here I include the basics we'll be covering, one off items and more sporadic items I want to make sure we get to.

Next is a two page spread for each week. I typically fill in the details for this each weekend for the week to come; on the left hand page I include our daily reading and items to cover, weekly reading items, and then specific chapters or lessons to do. And on the right hand page I make note of all the books we read. And yes! - I really do mean all the books. I often find myself returning to my old homeschool planners to look up books that we particularly enjoyed, to read again for a particular season or for my two younger children, Buttercup and Seal Pup.

And finally, I have a daily rhythm. This one aspect could be my biggest take away from the Waldorf method; to have a daily rhythm to lean on, rather than a schedule. My children find it very reassuring to know what is coming up next; to have a rhythm of our days. We don't follow this religiously, but like my other schedules, it is something for us to lean on.



I try to alternate busy periods with times of rest or unstructured time. We go for a walk most days, and have plenty of time for outings and fieldtrips. Also, we try really hard to finish off all our homeschool work by lunch time, to give ourselves the afternoons 'off' (although we all know that learning happens just as much, if not more, in those afternoons 'off' as it does during official homeschool time!)

And now you are probably wondering what we fill those days with! And how we fit it all in?! But enough for today; I'll share those details in another post or two!

Do you homeschool? What does your planner look like? 
Leave a comment and let me know; I'd love to hear from you 
Or leave a link back to your own blog post!

 

Little House in the Burbs

It's funny sometimes, the things that you wish for in your children. For me, one of my silent yearnings was for a child who had a love for the Little House books as deep as mine. I had always imagined that this love for LIW would come from a daughter, but I love that right now the child who is as passionate about all things Little House is seven year old Little Guy.

We are immersed in Laura and Pa and Baby Carrie and log cabins and sugaring and covered wagons and everything Little House. All day, everyday. And can I tell you that I am just loving it.

A few things we've been doing!

Although this is something that I do, I invited the children to help me make bread for the family, and then we made our own butter, which feels very very Ma. The Little Guy asked whether we would be shaving a carrot and adding a little boiled carrot juice to the butter so that it was a pretty yellow color as Laura describes Ma doing in Little House in the Big Woods; I replied that we wouldn't. Apparently Ma had a much greater need for 'pretty' than I do! (Here's a link to a post I did a while ago about making butter; it is so so easy, and the kiddos think it is just magical!)

We have been listening to a lot of early fiddle music, which has lead to lots of jigging-style dance parties and whooping in our home. Trust me, it is so much fun to spontaneously jig! I've got my eye on the Arkansas Traveler CD, but for now we are listening to the Pa's Fiddle station on Pandora.

We are working our way through listening to the Little House books on CD in the car; we have been completely enamored by the Cherry Jones narrations (here, here and here), and despite the dozens of times I've read the books, listening to these recordings has brought a new depth of understanding for me. The children have never been so eager to spend time in the car as they are these days - "just one more chapter? Pleeeeeease?"

We have been researching covered wagons, threshing, panning for gold, how to build a log cabin and breaking ponies. We have spent so much time researching these areas, that I think we will be making it official and be doing a Little House unit study this coming year as part of our homeschool curriculum. We'll be using The Prairie Primer by Margie Gray, which is out of print, but there often seem to be copies available on Amazon and eBay.

One last thought! I mentioned that I had often imagined it would be a daughter who would share my love of LIW; but chatting to The Little Guy about the books, he is convinced that Pa is the hero of the books. He is strong, capable, kind and generous of spirit. What more could we want in a hero figure for our young boys! (Check out what Cindy Rollins, a well known Classical homeschooling blogger, says about the Little House books in her post about Books for Cultivating Honorable Boys ... it's all the way down at the end, but the whole post is a good one!)

A Round Up of Books

We read. We read a lot.

Between my personal reading and reading aloud I do with the three kiddos, it constitutes a significant part of my day. More about my reading another though. Today - let's talk children's books!

Our homeschooling approach draws from lots of different influences, but I am particularly inspired by the Charlotte Mason approach, which has a large emphasis on 'living' books. (I really enjoyed this article's explanation on what makes a book a 'living' book). 

It's always fun to have a little look back at what we've been reading, so here's a quick look at a handful of children's books that we have been particularly enjoying just recently. 

Fiction Picture Books

The Treasure, by Uri Shulevitz
     Beautifully written and illustrated, a great moral tale set in Russia.

Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, by Edward Ardizzone
     Oh my goodness - this the first book in such a fun adventure series, perfect for early elementary adventurers. We have been reading our way steadily through these books and enjoying them greatly.

Thy Friend Obadiah, by Brinton Turkle
     I loves this book; the art, the story, the unexpected social lesson.

Old Henry, by Joan W. Blos
     I'll be honest, that when I started reading this book aloud to my three Little Ones, I was a little unsure about it. By the time I was half way through though, I was smitten. Later I went back and re-read it by myself, it was that good!
     Beautifully illustrated, a gentle story about accepting others.

Each Peach Pear Plum, by Janet and Allen Ahlberg
     Something for the Preschoolers, I remember this book from my own childhood, and was delighted to find that it had lost nothing in the intervening years. Fun rhymes, lovely illustrations and a fun i-spy through the nursery rhymes.

The Little Airplane, by Lois Lenski
   Another one for the younger set, this is part of series about Small and the different adventures he gets up (Cowboy Small, The Little Sailboat, etc). Very sweet, and gently informative.


Non-Fiction Picture Books

Sky Boys, by Deborah Hopkinson and James E. Ransome
     Stunning art, and a wonderful combination of fictionalized story and facts about the building of the Empire State Building, this book proved to be a wonderful springboard for all sorts of construction, architecture and demolition conversations.

Math For All Seasons: Mind-Stretching Math Riddles, by Greg Tang
     Can I just gush for a moment or two about Greg Tang's books?! They are wonderful! Fun and engaging, with math fun on every page; we adore these books. Great for early elementary children.

One Small Square: Cactus Desert, by Donald M. Silver
     We have now read several books in the One Small Square series, and they are all great. Really informative, great for zoology and geography studies. Each book studies a different geographical location, and shares such information as weather, animals that live there, annual life cycles, plants and habitats. Fabulous!

Wolves, by Gail Gibbons
   I found this book for my six year old Little Guy, feeding his current wolf obsession - but also, it's by Gail Gibbons which really is enough for me! If you aren't familiar with her books and you are homeschooling or parenting young ones, you must must check them out. Between the factual information and the illustrations, her books are winners. Run, don't walk!


Chapter Books and Audio Books

A Bear Named Paddington, by Michael Bond
   A recent audio book for car rides, this was a firm favorite with all three children; funny, silly fun with Paddington!

Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White
     Another book on CD for the car, I was a little hesitant that this might be a little too intense for my sensitive little ones, but they LOVED it! We finished this one about three weeks ago, and are still talking about Wilbur and Charlotte.
     Added bonus, I found an audi version read by the author himself, which was amazing - worth finding.

Olga da Polga, by Michael Bond
     Another one by the author of Paddington Bear, this was a firm favorite of mine as \a child, and we have been giggling and chortling our way through it. A sweet book about the funny tales a silly and sassy guinea pig - not to be missed.
   Although popular in the UK, this is harder to find in the States, but worth looking for. The original illustrations were done by Hans Helweg and are just wonderful!


What have you been reading with your children recently? 

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My Weekly Dashboard

So maybe it is just me, but I find it very difficult to live 'simply' when my life is disorganized.

Knowing what is coming up and how I am going to get things done, really gives me the confidence to let go of those aspects a little bit. If I have a plan, I don't have to THINK about it all!

Along with my monthly wall calendar where I keep track of the bulk of my day to day events (classes, meetings, trips, birthdays), and my smart phone calendar where I keep track of the day to day minutiae (library books due back, subscriptions and bills due) I also take time each weekend to create to plans for my upcoming week - one for meals and the other for our homeschool plan.

Before I go further I should add that I am not a natural planner. I don;t feel a strong need to map things out like this, but that doing so stops the daily panic of 'what ARE we going to eat tonight?' and 'WHAT did we do for school last week?!'

My meal plan is a really basic affair, and one that I received as part of a bundle from Waldorfish, but I really like the simple layout, and that there are blocks for breakfast, lunch and grazing platters (affectionately known in our home as monkey platters!) I've written before about how I tend to go about creating my menu plans, here. It's still working for us!

And before I go any further with my homeschool plan, I should add a humongous caveat.
Yes! - I make a plan each week.
No - I don't expect us to do this each week.

Again, I've found that if I make a plan, it frees up a little extra brain space for me. When we are ready for our next 'school' project, I can just check my book for inspiration. I'll write more on how we homeschool another time, because honestly that's a huge multi- post project all by itself.

After struggling to find a homeschool planner that I loved, that had the flexibility I wanted for our family's schooling needs, I created my own out of a 50 cent composition book. I used this post as my inspiration, but honestly my planner has evolved so much since I first started doing this at the beginning of the school year. But that's the beauty of it! - now it's my own creation,a nd it perfectly fits my needs. Joy!

And lastly, my To Do book. This is a newer addition for me, and was borne from the need for me to write out to do lists and random notes. Am I the only person who finds that physically writing something out with pen and paper helps me remember it better?!

This one is still a bit of a work in progress, and I know it will be evolving over the upcoming months, but it's good to have a collected place to jot everything down, and a beautiful book at that, rather than the countless scraps of paper.

I use a lovely Moleskine notebook for this; it had all the features I wanted; a ribbon for marking my place, an elastic strap for holding it closed, and a pocket int he back for any random scraps of paper that may just need to be contained (ahem).

A Nature Shelf! {September 2012, week 1}

We have always known that we wanted to homeschool our little ones ... it may not be for family, but it has just felt right for us.

But, once the decision has been made to homeschool, the next question is ... 'what kind of homeschooling'?! From unschooling, to strict 'school' type learning, we've bounced around a little finding, what we hope, is the right homeschooling fit for us.

Now, I'll admit that when I first stumbled across Waldorf as a fledgling Montessori teacher it seemed ... odd! Now that I have my own little brood, it seems nothing less than perfect; just the perfect way to learn and be allowed to develop and explore.

One of the aspects of Waldorf that really appeals to me is the aspect of bringing a little bit of nature closer to every day life ... a Nature Table!

Now, we live in a small house, with five people, a cat and lots and lots of stuff (although we are minimizing our stuff-load significantly!), and two of the people living in our house are ten month old 'littles' who are still trying to eat everything!  A table seemed too risky, and too much investment in terms of such a precious commodity - space!

So rather than a Nature Table, we are fashioning a Nature Shelf!

There are lots and lots of great articles and books on Nature Tables in the Waldorf tradition, and it's easy to be overwhelmed by how much time, money, effort and skill is put into them. If you're like me, one can be easily deterred when seeing how perfectly someone else seems to bake/decorate/educate/parent (fill in the blank!)

So this is my attempt to show just how easily it can be done, with little effort, time, money or skills! Hopefully!!

 And just in case you thought I might have been misleading you when I said it was a Nature Shelf, here is the shelf of the bookcase we are using! Junk on the top shelf (hmm ... this photo is inspiring me to take care of that - pronto!), homeschooling books on the next, and three bottom shelves of toys and playsilks are sandwiching our Nature Shelf! Nothing fancy here folks; but it's beautiful, and we're loving it!