Monday morning...

It is a beautiful, sunny Monday morning. A fresh start, the beginning of a whole week. The kids slept in, since they stayed up too late last night after all the Easter excitement. I have fresh brewed coffee at my side, and a fresh batch of Freckle Bread (thank you Cindie!) warm from the oven. I was thinking yesterday, browsing through the recipes on Cindie's blog, that I used to bake more. I made yummy muffins or quick breads, full of fruit and whole wheat flour, nuts and flax, honey and spices, and then I got into a rut where I wasn't baking. So I feel freshly inspired, and I have to say, the Freckle Bread is delicious!

Last night I found myself wondering, because of Oak Meadow talk on a message board, how far off my plans are for next year from a Waldorf curriculum, so I just looked around a bit and found that 5th graders do focus on ancient times, and according to several sources, 3rd graders focus on stories from ancient cultures. How funny is that? I didn't intentionally line those up - it just so happens that in classical education, a la The Well Trained Mind (WTM), 5th grade is ancient times, and Cassia was "tagging along." I don't really adhere to any one particular homeschooling method, but instead take all the bits and pieces that fit us best. Plus, it is time for my annual lusting after Oak Meadow, which never works for us anyway. So I look, I drool, and then I don't buy.

I am still considering History Odyssey Ancients level 2 for Cyrus (unsure if I'd use A Little History of the World OR The Story of Mankind with this), and have Cassia just listen along. I am also putting together a book list for Cassia, of fairy tales and myths from ancient cultures. Cyrus can listen in on those too. I think, after years of patching things together myself, I could use a year with things outlined for me, although I'd still probably make alterations here and there!

My other sticking spot is, as usual, science. I am half tempted to follow WTM biology suggestions, or to buy a biology program, and half tempted to simply finish reading through The Story Book of Science and then move into Madame How & Lady Why (over the summer maybe?), followed by The Secret Life of Everyday Things, adding in fun (and unrelated) projects from The Totally Irresponsible Book of Science once or twice a month. I think if we used simply the books I mentioned, I would have each child keep a nature journal/science notebook, with drawings, pictures of related crafts, notes about what they have learned, and so forth, much like the history notebook Cyrus will be keeping.

I do know that I would at some point like to add in The Story of Science as a read aloud to compliment history.

This week we will start our introduction to prehistory. We are going to cover the formation of the earth, the Big Bang, and things of that sort this week, and then move into fossils and archeology the following week. Don't tell my kids, but I have added a week to our schooling schedule, so we officially have eight weeks left instead of only seven, giving us a little more flexibility in our prehistory studies. We're also going to finish reading about ants in The Story Book of Science, work on spelling (Cyrus), reading (Cassia), finish up units on multiplication (Cyrus) and place value (Cassia), read a book about colonial times in America (Mondays are our American history days), and hopefully get a nature walk in.

Hope you all have a good week!