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Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program
Since autumn is officially here and we have started back to our lessons, I thought I would do something really different! I am actually posting about homeschooling! I know that most of you know that I am a homeschooling mom and that I use Charlotte Mason's methods. A lot of you may know me from the various incarnations of the Ambleside Online e-mail loop. Up until now, though, I haven't really talked too much about this part of my life here on my blog.
We are going into our tenth year of homeschooling and I tend to forget that this may be a topic of interest to others. It has become such a normal part of our family life that it always seems to me to be a bit uninteresting to have to talk about it to others. Almost as if I were to try to describe our household chores. I get great satisfaction from our lifestyle, but it just seems so everyday to me. I forget that there are others just beginning their homeschooling journey and everything is new and sometimes intimidating. That homeschooling is not always as intergrated in others' lives as it is ours. That someone out there might want a peek into my life as a homeschooling mom.
This school year, Lily is beginning high school and Clara is in sixth grade. Since I don't see education as a race to some preconceived finish line, we don't really follow any particular program exclusively. We modify things to suit our family. Last year, we somehow found ourselves hopelessly striving to finish each of the Ambleside years the girls were in. By the end of May, I decided that it was sufficient that we had finished Term 2 in Years 3 and 7. It was the first time I decided to do that, but I see God's wisdom in it now. We ended up having an unusually busy summer with serious illness in the family. It would have been impossible to do lessons through the summer. So, as we begin our new year, Lily is using a combination of Term 3 in Year 7 for most of her readings and Term 1 in Year 9 for her science and math. You'll find an example of Lily's weekly schedule here. Clara has started in with Term 3 in Year 3 for her readings. Here's an example of Clara's weekly schedule.
We interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program for this important message: I just wanted to let you all know that the book Lily is using for Bible study, Exploring the Gospel of John is by Lester Bauman and is a Rod and Staff publication. I noticed that there is another book available with this title, but I know nothing about it. We really like a lot of the Rod and Staff nature study books for children and this series of Bible study books Lily is beginning to read.
I may have the girls continue with their readings through next summer so that they will be able to begin Term 1 of their respective years next fall. I have also been thinking of using Missey Gray's "condensed version of Years 5 and 6 that can be completed by an older student in one year" with Clara next school year. You can find it here. If I do this, Clara will start Year 7 as she is going into eighth grade. This is preferable to me since it would put Clara on the same schedule that Lily has been on. Clara needed more help with her reading when she was young, so I had to spend more time with her in her early years of schooling. Clara now reads everything in sight and narrates everything back to me whether I asked for it or not. She could easily handle Missey's version of Pre-Year 7 next year.
Children are so different and things are always changing. I can't imagine forcing my child into some cookie-cutter curriculum. It's so important to know your child and know that he or she is always changing. Don't ever hold your children up to or limit them by someone else's expectations. Not even your own. Seek out God's expectations for your family. Look for his plan for each of your children. There you will find the perfect curriculum.
I hope to write more about our homeschooling efforts in the future. Along with the usual photos, poems, puppies and ponderings, of course. I would love to help anyone along the way. If you would like to read other homeschoolers' posts, check out the Carnival of Homeschooling hosted this week at HomeSchoolBuzz.com.
