Schedule 2012

"The children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times--a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their story books." ~ Charlotte Mason
(Vol. 1 Part IV- , p.153)

Daily Instruction & Practice~

Language Arts~

Joshua AO4~

Phonics- Learn to Read, Write & Spell- Complete book 6

Writing Tales  (English, Grammar)

All about Spelling

Modern Cursive Handwriting- Book 5

McGuffey's Readers

Gracie AO2~

Phonics- Learn to Read, Write & Spell- finish book 3 start book 4

Copywork- Mother Goose

Modern cursive Handwriting- finish book 1 start book 2

McGuffey's Readers

Note: Both of my children love to write, so I have provided more writing practice than what a Charlotte Mason Education requires. Every family and child is different and that is what makes home schooling so exceptional.


MEP Maths~
Joshua to complete Yr 3A ready to begin Yr 3B
Gracie to complete Yr 1B ready to begin Yr 2A


Foreign Language~
We continue with Spanish by listening to a lot of Spanish music on our iPods, in the car, you tube and I have just installed some wonderful programs from the APP store for additional practice - very excited indeed.
I plan on introducing Latin slowly this year, hopefully 2-3 days a week.

Musical Instrument Practice~
Joshua to continue Violin and to start the basics for Acoustic guitar
Gracie to begin the basics for Acoustic guitar

Weekly Instruction or Practice~    
*= Term 1 **= Term 2  ***= Term 3


History Tales/ Biography~
*Squanto~ Joshua to read
* ** The Little Duke~ Together
*** Poor Richard~ Joshua


History~
Australasia's Story (All terms)
An Island Story (All terms)
** ***George Washington's World~  Joshua
Finish SOTW 1 and start A Child's History of the World ( All terms)
Use time lines as much as possible (that's my plan anyhow:D)

Geography~
Australasia's Story (All terms) we will follow on our maps
* Tree in the Trail
** Minn of the Mississippi 
I would like to cover Marco Polo sometime this year, I have a lovely book, but we'll see.

Natural History/Science
The Wonderland of Nature (All terms)
C.K Thompson' Australian Animal stories including~
Blackie the Brumby 
Wild Canary
Tiger Cat
Warrigal the Warrior
Red Emperor - Here is a little excerpt-

With gentle fingers, the rosy hand of dawn parted the curtains of night and then withdrew so that the glorious face of the rising sun could dart glances of the softest gold over the silent bushland. For one long instant the world was an open album, filled with priceless etchings and then, in a flash, the heavens were all aglow and the tired old earth, stirring restlessly for a moment, awakened to continue the daily round.

 

It Couldn't just happen

Science lab in a supermarket 

The Story book of Science

Poetry~
*The animals Noah forgot (Banjo Paterson)
** Walter de la Mare 
*** Emily Dickinson


Literature~
Joshua:

*The Jungle Book

**Robinson Crusoe

***Kidnapped

Gracie:

*The Wind in the Willows

**Seven little Australians

***Understood Betsy 

Art & Art Appreciation/ Composer
Finish Artistic Pursuits Book 1
Look at the works of:
*Frederick McCubbin (19th century Australian Artist)
**Emily Kngwarreye (Indigenous Artist)
***Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) 


We will follow Ambleside Online's selection of Composers
for each term. 
Listening to classical in our home and car is just a way of life, we all love this style of music.

Folksongs & Hymns
*Aiken Drum
**The Ash Grove
***The Lion Sleeps tonight
We also have a very large selection of Australian & Spanish folksongs that we play throughout our home, the car and on our iPods.
Everyday in our home we listen to a lot of praise music, I don't like to make it a subject, we follow Ephesians 5:19 -  "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart".

We will try to study one life from Plutarch and A Shakespeare play as Ambleside Online require for Joshua's AO4.


Additional free reading-

Gracie~

The Little Black Princess (Aussie Lit)
The Story of Kurri Kurri the Kookaburra (Aussie Lit)
Heidi
Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (currently reading)
Along Came a Dog
Mr. Poppers Penguins
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Around the World in Eighty Days
Pollyanna

Joshua~

Storm boy (Aussie Lit)
A little Bush Maid (Aussie Lit)
Lassie Come Home
Kidnapped
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
The Borrowers
Little House in the big Woods (Currently reading)
Farmer Boy
The Twits

A day in our homeschool...

One thing I love to read on other homeschooling blogs is what a day looks like in their homeschooling world.

So I thought I would have a go...

5:30am Dd (4) hops into bed next to me and wakes me up by singing and talking.

6:00am Dd & I get up together and first thing now is to give our puppy Zac a BIG cuddle. We then make porridge which we have been having everyday this week with honey and bottled pears from Dave's parents orchard. This week I have done well by emptying the dishwasher first thing ready to put breakfast dishes in.

Between 6 and 7am I usually find quite time to read and maybe watch the headline news. Ds(8) tends to fall out of bed in this time, he gets dressed and then most mornings cooks himself poached eggs (from his chickens).

7am-8am Time to make a latte, the computer goes on and I begin checking and answering enquiries for our B&B http://www.thewaveoasis.com.au/ , read some blogs, check personal emails and spend a few minutes on face book, longer if I am chatting to family and friends.

8am-9am Both Dd and Ds sometimes watch 'Friends and Heroes and God Rocks' on Smile of a child, the Ds goes and lets the chickens out and usually stays outside until I call him for school.
I Put washing on, clean up breakfast mess and prepare the table for this mornings school lessons. I print off any work I need. Oh yeah, this is when Dh usually falls out of bed and we get some time together to chat about the day ahead.

9am-10am We start lessons! First thing the children have blank paper and their lyra pencils and begin drawing whatever they imagine.
First memory verse, which both children LOVE, then we discuss what the memory verse means and how we can apply the words to our lives. Devotions next - we have started Annie's book of Etiquette and good manners, so far so good and the children are enjoying it.

This term Ds has started MEP maths and truly this program is much, much better than what I even imagined and Joshua is really enjoying it (well so far anyhow). Dd loves maths and does any book or pages I print for her.

10-11am We have a 10-15 min break after maths where both children go outside, have a drink and something to eat, I make another coffee and prepare for our next lesson.

After break we start off with Poetry memorization and learn 'ooey, gooey'...the kids love it! We then start Language arts, both Ds & Dd work on their phonics page in Read, Write & Spell and most days we do art & craft afterwards.

11am Read Aloud and narration, today it was ~ The Adventures of Robin Hood (only 3Ch to go)
Ds has a five min stretch before we start Fitzroy spelling. Ds then does a page in his Cursive book while Dd is playing on the floor or coloring in.

12pm Around this time we have lunch, which today was left over vegetable lasagna (which was a break from for me for I normally have fruit and greek yoghurt) from tea the night before...YUMMY!

After lunch the children are outside making up games with sticks and stones and giving the chicken a walk and a scratch. After tidying up lunch dishes, today the children had a cooking lesson, and requested by Ds was shortbread. Ds, under my instruction made the dough and both Ds and Dd roll out the dough and have a lot of fun using the cutters to form biscuits.

During the time of making the shortbread we were listening to Johann Sebastian Bach.

After cooking Ds has violin practise just for 5 min and leaves me once again shocked in how well he can play.

2pm-4pm The children play and I check emails again and do an aerobics workout for 55 min.

4pm-5:30pm Prepare and make tea, the children have their bath/shower and Dd goes to bed between 6 and 6:30pm and we read her choice of book. Ds follows usually around 7pm!

Time for Dh and I to talk together about what he has been busy building up stairs and any other things.

This was just one day this week in our lives, as you would know everyday is different and I make sure I am flexible for any changes that may occur.

From Spring through to April when the B&B is very busy, I usually clean in the mornings with Dh and the school lessons start anytime between 11am - 1pm.