Nature Journaling

A big part of the Charlotte Mason education is nature walks and nature journaling. It's simple really: go outside, experience and be curious about God's Creation, research it, and draw and record it in a nature journal. That's it. 

Anytime we go on a nature walk, we take ziploc baggies to collect "treasures". Which could include pine cones, acorns, sticks shaped like letters, flowers to be dried, interesting rocks. If there is something interesting and worth remembering but not really "collectable", we'll take a picture of it instead of collecting it. Spider webs and poisonous mushrooms are good examples of what NOT to bring home.

Then we go home and draw our treasures and label it. The CM suggestion is to also record the Latin name, which I do in my journal, but do not make the boys do at this age. Baby steps, right? I also record the date of the event, location, and any memorable moments we had during the trip.

So here are some journaling results from our trip we took this past weekend. 

Mine is on the left, JK's on the right.

I have a childhood born passion to draw and paint and had many years of being under the tutelage of a talented teacher and mentor, who has since become a dear friend. But I haven't touched it seriously for a VERY long time and am VERY out of practice. So I have found my journaling to be a fun way to brush up on my rusty artistic skills and learn about Nature at the same time. It's also a great way to model nature journals for my boys. They're young and we keep it simple for now, but at some point, I see them taking a deeper interest in the Latin names and more detailed drawings or recordings.

I would say this is likely my favorite thing about homeschooling right now! Being outdoors with my boys, appreciating God's Creation. We get as much outdoor time as we possibly can.

Nature's Surprises

Yesterday we were heathens and skipped church to take a day trip to a local state park. :-P With a packed lunch and baggies to collect our "treasures", we set of to commune with our Creator. Nothing like worshipping Him in the middle of His creation! We found lots of beautiful reminders of how amazingly Generous our Father is. So many things He gifts us just for the sake of gifting. How awesome is He?

Sorry for out of focus of a later purple aster (aster patens).



We saw this EVERYWHERE! Snailseed vines (cocculus carolinus). It grows wild in our yard at home...it's quite aggressive and will take over even in the hardest to grow areas of your property.

A little pond by the entrance of the state park with lily pads and minnows.

This was quite the find! Some beautiful orange Jack-o-Lantern fungus (omphalotus illudens). So glad I made the boys give it some space...came home and looked it up: it's VERY poisonous!



That's a very tiny out of focus spiderweb. Hard to capture the daintiness of it.


 
So we came home late, exhausted, and we crashed for the night. Today we skipped our geography reading so we'd have extra time to draw and record all of fun treasures in Nature Journals. And there was a little unexpected bonus in our baggy...

Grace

Yesterday afternoon my youngest had a long overdue play date with a friend. Which meant I had the rare afternoon alone with my firstborn.So we had lunch at a local eatery where we can safely navigate our numerous food intolerances and allergies.

Except somehow I was contaminated with SOMETHING and today I feel pretty terrible. Aching joints, massive headache, skin sensitivity, and the classic moodiness and brain fog. I feel like I've got the flu mixed with one too many margaritas mixed with a hangover. No bueno.

Grace. One of the things that's truly awesome about homeschooling. If the teacher is down for a bit, it means the students get a looser schedule and additional free play time. Which, at this age, is never a bad thing, IMO.

Today is one of those days. The lessons were completely discombobulated and out of order and I couldn't focus to save my life. We managed to muddle through, but the day was schizophrantic and I'm glad it's over. This afternoon's Picasso lesson is going to be put off until next week and the boys will get an extra long recess or quiet time. Today has been the hardest day of homeschool so far this year. I'm focusing on leaning into the Holy Spirit to help strengthen me and give me Joy. I'm at the end of myself today. Only He can fill the gaps.

Trimesters Are Not Just For Pregnancies

For those of you that don't know, our school year is not on a traditional schedule like the public schools. Instead of two semesters with a large summer break, we are broken up into trimesters with three smaller breaks. Three months on, one month off, with a stray week or day(s) for additional holidays. Basically, three 12 week terms beginning the day after Labor Day. This approach is a recommendation of the Charlotte Mason curriculum and teaching principles that our household follows. While it was different than anything I was comfortable with, I saw many more benefits than challenges. 

First, retention. I have many public school teacher friends and almost all of them say that the first month of a school year is basically spent reviewing last year's information and getting the students into a new routine. As the newbie homeschool teacher, I found this disheartening. I did not want to spend all this time and energy educating my boys only to have to spend a big chunk of time reviewing at the beginning of the year! With a three months on, one month off schedule, we are allowing for a decent rest three times a year and still it not being too large of a break where retention was impeded.

Second, burn out. I remember being a kid and just not being able to wait until Christmas vacation or summer vacation. Or the stray day or two off here or there for some odd holiday. Sometimes as kids we just needed a BREAK! The adults too, for that matter. It just seemed like the district holidays were too short and never often enough. I've read so many testimonies of Charlotte Mason taught families that a trimester approach keeps attentions fresh and burn out at bay.

Third, advent. I really wanted to do everything possible to take the entire month of December off schoolwork and focus on the spirit of Christmas. Typically, December is full of shopping and travel and juggling parties and concerts and school schedules (gah!) that the spirit of what we are celebrating is completely lost. January comes and I sit exhausted, feeling completely defeated...again. I struggle with it every single year. It seems I can never get out of the holiday rat race. So this year, I really want to spend time with the boys and give them a good understanding of what Christmas is about. I hope having an entire month off from schoolwork will allow us to remove ourselves from that hamster wheel and still be educational!

The benefit to homeschooling in general, whether one uses Charlotte Mason's program or another, is that Momma is the teacher, principal, and superintendent. I am in control of the curriculum and the environment and the schedule. While at one time, having control of those three things completely overwhelmed me, I have since embraced the freedom that comes with it. Work hard Monday - Thursday to get the week's work done so Friday can be a field trip day? Sure! Take Spring Break during a non-high-tourist time? Sure! Take a day off because it's your firstborn's birthday? Sure! It's gorgeous outside after weeks of desert-like temps, so you want to play outdoors instead of school at the kitchen table? Sure! This flexibility has been one of the biggest blessings. While we haven't had to institute many differences scheduling-wise YET, I know it's there if I need it. It's nice to know that since I'm in charge, if we needed to make school up on a Saturday, we could!

One Month In...

Today we wrapped up our first full month of home school. I just cannot believe how fast time has flown! With the exception of a few tough moments, it has been uneventfully smooth, fun, and incredibly rewarding. I hate to sound like I had low expectations, as I truly didn't, but it's been surprising on all levels how joyful this has been for all of us.

We mixed poetry with art this day.

This was a picture narration of Abram leaving Ur upon God's command. Since we're from Texas, it should be no surprise that we imagine the move to include camels AND longhorns.

We used Legos in our geography lesson to create our own pyramids.

I am in the process of tweaking some scheduling challenges and reminded of one of the things about homeschooling that so appealed to me: the flexibility. If something isn't working, change it! So I'm working on that. I had hoped to have the new schedule written out by the time we start Week 5 next week, but not sure that's going to happen. And you know what? It's okay. The boys have been very content for me to just dictate what's next on the daily agenda and they will be none the wiser when an official change is made, whenever I get to it. The Lord has blessed me with two boys that have been happy no matter what we do...they are just happy to be HOME!

A couple surprises in our journey thus far:

B's willingness to sit and do our daily writing. Bless him. His older brother has had incredible fine motor control from a very young age. So when B was 4 1/2 and still not able to scratch out his name very legibly, of course I worried like crazy. So on the advice of a friend in the early childhood development world, we lazily worked on fine motor exercises for a few months. And I was shocked at how quickly he made progress. We always did fun things like beading or sorting or clay or lacing. But he never enjoyed it for more than 4 or 5 minutes at a time. It made me a little nervous about school. So fast forward to a month ago: everyday we would sit and write our letters or practice sums and he has never ever complained! Even when I have doubled up on some lessons, he hasn't complained. He just sits at the table and buckles down and does his work. Talk about shocking my socks off! Today he complained about table work for the first time. But it was me asking him to free form copy Picasso's "The Weeping Woman" in quadrants and I think it overwhelmed him. And after me sitting with him, guiding him, he did much better. For my noisy, chatty, bouncy, theatrical, listen-to-story-time-upside-down-on-the-couch Tigger...this amazed me!

The second thing that has surprised me has been how much more bonded my firstborn and I have become. We are a LOT alike. In the good ways and not-quite-as-charming ways. One thing we have in common is physical touch is not our primary love language. But I think all the cuddling on the couch reading together is changing that. He consistently approaches me to offer or receive hugs and kisses. He often asks me to cuddle at bedtime. He willingly lets me hold his hand at random times. Its been pretty awesome! When I asked him not to long ago what he liked best about homeschooling so far, his enthusiastic answer was, "I get to see you SO much more!" Wow. Um, yeah. I'll take that! :-)

So Far So Good

Week 1 of homeschooling was successful! And so was week 2. Not just successful, but a joy! We've had a few bumpy moments, but they were nothing more than that - moments. I've generally worked very hard to make sure our home has a sense of learning and fun throughout the day, not just during school hours. Sometimes we don't get done with all of our lessons by lunch, so it goes into the afternoon schedule or onto Friday, our "leftover day". It's worked so far!

Some successes and funnies thus far:

• As the boys are working on some color-by-number worksheets as part of their math today. (JK's are math problem color-by-number.) I explain they need to go slow and be careful, to not rush through, as I was checking their work when they were done.

B: Fail you must not. 

(Thinking we watch too much Star Wars at night.)

• We took a Nature Walk over the weekend with Daddy. We had been outside hiking for about an hour and finally crawled down into a ravine with a creek. There was a small pebble beach where we chose to picnic. My youngest (5 yo), always with a flair for the dramatic, raised his arms to some passersby far above us on the trail and proceeded to loudly recite some of the previous day's reading from "Trumpet of the Swan"."Welcome to  the pond! Welcome to the sunlight and water!" I was overtaken in a fit of giggles and shock that he remembered the story at all. He's usually my bouncy fidgety one that is somersaulting off the couch inattentively.

• Several times during some of our readings, JK has very specifically caught "foreshadowing", which I find so interesting! I never understood that until high school, but his little spidey-senses detect upcoming story lines and sub-plots incredibly well for his age. Watching those little light bulb moments and moments of furrowed brow as he attempts to comprehend have been so amazing! These are the very moments I would have missed had he gone to public again this year.

There HAVE been moments of frustration and irritation on my part. After the heat of the moment is gone, I realize it is almost always rooted in my own stress about not completing the day in a timely manner. We don't HAVE to finish by lunch. But that's my goal. And when my goal looks like it's going to fail, then I get irritable. Which does wonders for the joyful learning environment I'm trying to create for these little men. 

Please read that with the sarcasm intended.

I know this journey is a marathon. I know it'll be exhausting, but I'm glad it's not a sprint. These guys are growing up way too fast. I want to be able to savor it!

First Day of School!

Today was our first official day of school. And it was GREAT! *whew* Haha!

I went into the day wanting it to move as organically as possible. Charlotte Mason recommends that you not spend more than 20 minutes at a time on a subject. I love this! Theoretically, boredom just never happens, frustration on a particular subject cannot get too tiresome, and you get plenty to eat from in a small time frame. So while our daily goal is to have most of our school day completed by lunch, it is still a very rigorous schedule of "educational food". Our day today, with each bullet consisting of 20 minutes, consisted of the following:

• Morning Meeting (The Pledge, Calendar Work, Weather Graph, Agenda, Scripture Memory, Hymn, and Prayer)
• Math
• Bible Reading
• Science
• Recess (40 minutes)
• Literature
• Copywork (10 minutes)
• Hymn Study
• Spanish (10 minutes)

That's a full morning! BUT...Momma was smart and utilized Daddy since he was home on holiday from work. 

He helped with our science lesson and conducting PE during recess. It was pretty wonderful! My in-laws just happened to be in town too, so while I worried that would be a distraction, it was not. It added to the excitement of a new routine and it ended up being a lovely day.

Just for record's sake, here is our official schedule.

Now, what I'm trying to keep in mind is that this is our schedule in "theory". While I've based it off several well-received templates of other Charlotte Mason households, it's yet to be seen in action outside of today in OUR home. But one of the beautiful things about homeschooling that excites me the most? If it doesn't work, change it! So awesome. Hopefully soon, I'll have an update on how it's going.