2020-2021 planning

I'm starting to feel a peace that things are coming together for the year! I love planning but it takes a long time for me to feel like I have fit all the puzzle pieces together!

For those of you curious in our curriculum, I have taken Charlotte Mason principles from the Volumes and ideas at A Delectable Education to cultivate our education through living books! My spreadsheet is still a living document as I find the best ways to fit all the wonderful books into our three main topics of knowledge. I feel like a key cog in this machine is understanding how to work your curriculum into a history cycle. I LOVE this explanation and follow the principles in order to keep both my children in the same history rotation.

If you would like to see how I fit my subjects on a spreadsheet, here is a copy! Each page will hopefully print on one landscape orientation paper so I can keep it in a notebook as I plan each week for our readings!

All the book links are affiliate links that are helpful for me if you click and purchase on Amazon! The money goes right back into buying more books for our education!

Knowledge of God

We will read through the books of Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel and start on 1st and 2nd Kings in our Old Testament readings. For New Testament, we will read through the Gospel of Luke and start on John. We also will have scripture memory from Psalms and Proverbs as well as Catechism questions. You can read more on what is included in our Bible section of our Morning Basket Menus here!

I started with the KJV but we had trouble with really connecting with scripture. Last year I switched and bought all of us the same NiRV Bible so we can read at the same time on the same page as Eva Mae continues to develop reading fluency. It has made a world of difference and Bible reading has become even more special.

I also am excited to read through "Peril and Peace" with a map of the early church. We'll include stories from Missionary Stories with the Millers throughout the three terms. These are very short but have a great discussion opportunities as we talk about the men and women who follow God's calling on reaching all nations.

Part of our morning basket will also be listening to this audio retelling of John Bunyan's Holy War

Knowledge of Man

History is my favorite subject so narrowing down resources has been VEEERRRRY difficult! We're in American history together from 1800-1900. Have you ever really looked to see ALL that happened and went on in that 100 years? It's CRAZY! I'm pulling from several books and resources to cover these main topics: Mexican/American War and the Alamo, Oregon Trail and the Goldrush, Slavery and the Underground Railroad, Eerie Canal and Water transportation, Civil War, Transcontinental Railroad, and Women's Votes since this is the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Books like America First and This Country of Ours will be "spines" to guide us on this journey! I also love the book "Watchwords of American History" by Robert Lawson and "Golden Book of America."

In addition to the stories in these books that cover 1800-1900, I also have some Cornerstones of Freedom, D'Aulaire biographies, and some family read aloud books that we'll do like The Stout-Hearted Seven, By the Great Horn Spoon, Lizzie's War, Buffalo Bill, They Led the Way, and some personal historical fiction books that will be free reads for Christian. They Led the Way is an easy reader that will be for Eva Mae to read aloud to me. She also has a few other reader books in this period of history called Benjamin in the Woods and The Golly Sisters Go West.

I love the book From Sea to Shining Sea that is filled with American Folk tales and songs. This is kind of a literature, history crossover but we will have several stories scheduled throughout the year that enhance the learning of American life in the 1800s.

Although Eva Mae is probably old enough to be in Form 2, I'm still treating her as a Form 1A student regarding history. I will be giving Christian an ancient history text to read and narrate from throughout the year. RJ Unstead is an amazing author that has been used in the actual PNEU schools in England. I have the book "Looking at Ancient History" that will be an interesting read because of the illustrations and pictures throughout the book. Christian also has his Latin and Plutarch class that is not really considered "history" but they won't be able to help get some interesting historical facts in their group class that I'm teaching! The Citizenship resource I'm using is from Charlotte Mason Plenary. We're doing Julius Caesar but you can see what her Publicola guide is like from the link below. Before you start Plutarch, I do suggest the Beesly Stories from the History of Rome. We read them this year and they are really interesting (and violent so be aware.)

Geography is another one of my favorite subjects. Both mapwork and physical geography are included in this subject along with studies of children from other countries. We use my beloved A Child's World Volumes that I blogged about several years ago. This is our third year using them as a spine. This year, the resources for geography will be World and it's Wonders (Vol 4) Trick Geography, and two books from a collection of fiction stories about children in other countries (Mitz and Fritz of Germany and A Shepherd Boy in Australia.) I'm also going to work through the Occident from Halliburton. If Eva Mae can handle it I'll have her listen too. It might be something that Christian reads, narrates to Eva Mae and then we all watch a video! This blog has amazing Halliburton resources!

Literature is still a little bit of a work in progress. I want to wait and see what we have with our W+F group for book parties. This summer we're reading Robin Hood by Pyle. I know we'll finish up the Little House books (we have two left), we'll read Wind in the Willows again, We'll read 2-3 more Shakespeare stories and I'll hopefully make up another "Shakespeare for Stuffies" post! I want to do more poetry tea time and we will have a poem to recite every morning in our Morning Basket Menu!  I'll update as we go through the year with the classic literature we are reading during this school year!

I know that I also want to get Tanglewood Tales and some other myths on audio CD for the car. Both Christian and Eva Mae will benefit from more of these stories!

Grammar/Copywork/Handwriting/Latin/Foreign Language...

Whew! We will continue with our daily grammar and handwriting work that we've done through the years with just regular notebooks. Christian will do Latin in a class with 7 other boys. Eva Mae and Christian attend private Chinese lessons at a sweet family's house that we will continue through the year.

Drawing - this is also going to be done in a class. We'll have an art/music class in my home to work on skills but I also plan to implement the new John Muir Laws book with my children during our nature study! If you haven't heard, Let's Make Art has an awesome kid's subscription!

Music Study and Artist Study - my favorite! This post here has all our composer and artist information. This post here has all our folk song and hymn information. These sheets go in our Morning Basket Menu so we can look at them each day. Singing should be a daily occurrence! We also recite our hymn lyrics. The poetry is so moving and inspired! We'll do a recorder and ukulele class in my home to learn some instruments and music theory as well as continue piano lessons. If you need a free singing resource, Solfa Sofa has videos and printed booklets/flashcards. Composer Study Companion has everything you need for Composer study! And once I finish my recorder class I will work on creating a curriculum that you can do at home that will blend Solfa with playing recorder!

Physical Education and Handicraft - I'm going to try to incorporate both of these into our W+F lifestyle along with Wild Explorers. Working toward badges in the Wild Explorer program is so much fun and both handicrafts and physical work can be included in this program. We'll work out a schedule once school starts but I'm also going to include manners and habit training in this section of my curriculum as well. We have a manners book and the Laying Down the Rails and I'll be incorporating all of this (habits, physical education, handicrafts, Wild+Explorers) into our morning time on a rotation basis.

Knowledge of the Universe

Math - this one is easy because I can just open and go! We will use Beast Academy, Miquon, and Kahn Academy to work on math every day!

Natural History - I'm still teaching a nature journal class once a month that will be updated on our Nature page of Kind + Cultivated. We'll continue reading our Plants and Animals book from A Child's World as well as some amazing How and Why books! I love these old, colorful handbooks that are written well and are inspiring! I'll continue with our work in Enid Blyton's Book of the Year too! I always suggest the Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature for parents to read if they plan to lead any nature groups, or even just their children. It's like a "how to teach nature" handbook! So helpful!

And that's it!!! We'll of course have some field trips that we'll do with friends, garden classes at our community garden, and other amazing learning opportunities! I can't wait to start this year! And of course I have my own self education to look forward to with our Charlotte Mason mom book club each month! Learning is so much fun! Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have questions!

I do have a video where I show our Morning Basket Menus in case you're interested! Here it is!