Reading... and rambling...

I have been reading that is. Since our Disneyland adventure, and settling back into a routine (with the new job and all), I have been devouring Charlotte Mason's Home Education. Somehow, although it may be considered "old fashioned", it totally strikes a chord within me.

One of the problems I have always had with a CM education is the formation of good habits - Waldorf methods are also big on establishing a sense of rhythm/routine. Since my schedule as a grocery clerk changed on a weekly basis, I have been unable to develop a firm bedtime for myself, or the children, a regular homeschooling schedule, etc. When you work from 7 am to 3 pm one day, and 5 pm to 11 pm the next, habit/rhythm/routine can be a difficult thing. But, in just our first week on a real schedule, I am already noticing differences. The kids are up at 7 every morning now, instead of some time between eight and ten thirty. Of course this is because they have to get up to spend the morning at my mom's, doing arts and crafts, baking, sewing, and more, but then bedtime is so much easier! Now we have a regular time to get up, a regular time for dinner, a regular time for bed... next week I'll tackle regular times for housework and homeschooling!

I also plan to start enforcing chores again, and be more regular with making sure Cyrus is doing his piano practice. I find I am sliding into habits too... I read at bedtime instead of collapsing in front of the TV. I am drinking herbal tea while reading instead of mindlessly munching who knows what while glued to the tube. I do brisk walking on my break at work, and next week we'll start walking or maybe the Couch Potato to 5K running program 3 late afternoons a week (if walking, we'll aim for every day). I have tried that running program before by myself, but now I'll be doing it with the kids. In just 3 days, I have lost 2 pounds. I am also not absolutely exhausted at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Amazing what regular sleep can do!

Anyhow, back to Home Education... so much of it fits effortlessly with what we are already doing. I'd like to add in picture studies beyond what they do in Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons, and I would like to add geography. Miss Mason recommended reading good travel books for this subject, and in my research I found this... Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels. I am getting it through the library first, before investing in it! But from the reviews I have read, it sounds like an exciting (and yes, somewhat outdated) introduction to world geography. For grammar, which I hope to add in after winter break, I am looking at combining The Sentence Family with Grammar-Land. Beyond that, Charlotte Mason methods call for reading good "living" books (which we do plenty of), a wholesome diet and plenty of fresh air, hands-on math, immersion in nature, regular activity, hands-on real crafts, and a sense of respect, as children are people too.

I have made my decision about 4H. I feel that my kids and I need some time at home, days where, besides my work, we don't have to go places and do things. I hope to reserve most afternoons for homeschooling and family life. We will be continuing with Spiral Scouts - I spoke to our circle leader today, and we're going to meet once every 6 or 8 weeks for an awards ceremony, rather than monthly. The rest of the time, we will be choosing and doing the projects on our own, which is fine with me! Another mom at Park Day today was telling me that she feels children need more time at home than out with other kids. They don't need to be involved in too many outside activities/classes, which is how I am feeling these days too. They certainly don't need to be insulated from the world but they don't need daily outings either! I'm likely stepping on someone's toes saying that, but then I am relatively sure at least a few people agree with me.

I especially focused on reading more about CM reading methods, and am going to work more with Cassia on these. We've been making good use of the whiteboard lately, with a book of word families at our side, and a multitude of dry erase markers in various colors. Cassia is retaining all the word families we cover, even when I throw in "challenge" words... for example, we worked on "cash", "bash", "mash" and "rash", so I added "crash" and "smash", which she was able to read as well. I know phonics are not, per se, part of the CM method, but using them in conjunction with her methods is working. She did do work with word families as well, giving specific examples in the book.

I started out my year with lots of solid seeming plans for homeschooling. As usual, I am finding that they shift as we go, the flexibility being one of the beauties of homeschooling. I am still not solid on science... should I go with BFSU or the human anatomy that fascinates my kids in addition to our nature studies? I figure at least this year we're doing more than we did last year!