Charlotte Mason Planning Bash

Wow!  It is time for another great Charlotte Mason carnival hosted by Westward.  To see more great entries, go to Westward.  I am going to talk about the areas I am planning to change or improve in my homeschool for this post.  If you want to read about all of the subjects we are doing this year, go here to read the big teen's plans and here for the three little ones' plans.


There are several areas of a Charlotte Mason education that I want to improve in our home school this year.  First, I want to use many more living books for math.  There are so many wonderful living books out there for math now.  I plan on using at least two a month with the little ones.  I will read them and do a few lessons around each book.  I also plan on adding in more hands-on activities, such as measuring/weighing stuff, playing all kinds of time/clock games, and lots more measuring in the kitchen.  However, I was concerned about how I was going to add in living books for the big teen.  He is studying algebra this year.  I have found two literature-based books on algebra and so far they are going well.  They are The Journey of Al and Gebra to the Land of Algebra and A Gebra name Al.  My son is really enjoying doing literature instead of math.  LOL!  He doesn't even mind learning the terms and definitions that will help him so much when we crack open the algebra textbook.

The second area that I would like to spend more time on is drawing with the children.  I still have not gotten nature journals going because I have some kids that want to draw what they actually see, and their hands can't create it exactly.  We spend a lot of time out in nature, but they are never satisfied with their drawings.  So instead of being excited about drawing what they see, they complain.  The point of education is to learn and get joy in doing it.  So this year, I am going to work on teaching the kids to draw so that they will hopefully enjoy keeping nature journals next year. I am using the Draw Write Now series.  The kids really respond well to this series and are pleased with their drawings.  I hope to have all the books in the next few months.

The third area that I want to see the little ones improve in is narration and attention to task.  The main way that I will be working on these areas is by reading chapter books to the children.  This has been going okay in the past few months, but I am not completely pleased.  For one thing, they like to play on the floor while I read.  This always worked fine with my oldest, an only child at the time, but the littlest ones start playing with each other and forget about listening to me.  Also, I have one dd who is a visual learner and paying attention to me is very hard for her.  I try to pick chapter books that have a picture somewhere in each chapter but that is sometimes limiting.  I have decided to move chapter books to the afternoon and have a tea time where the kids can eat and drink tea or hot chocolate while I read.  No more playing while I am reading.  

As for narration, I am sure that will improve as they become more practiced.  I am still thinking about how I can help my visual learner concentrate better on chapter readings.  She is my flighty child, anyway, so this is an area that is very hard for her.  I plan on reading the little ones 12 to 15 chapter books this year.  We are currently on our second book, Jeremy the Tale of an Honest Bunny, by Jan Karon and will then move onto Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls.

Lastly, I will be working very hard on character training this year.  Most of my children just need a tune up, but my dd (7) needs an overhaul.  For those of you who follow this blog, you know that she has many issues, and although I understand that she is disabled, this does not excuse her constant disruptions in the home, disrespect to elders, and unkind attitude toward her siblings!  I have decided to take a "no tolerance" attitude toward her for the next few months and see if it will pull her around.  This does not mean that she will not be nurtured and have fun, but a lot more of her days are going to look like this until I see a shift in her attitude.

Thanks so much for coming by.  I hope we all gain lots of ideas from this great carnival.

Blessings, Dawn