Charlotte Mason, kids, love, life and faith...
This is the last blog at wordpress.com. We have moved and launched our blog at www.goldenacornhomeschool.com.
We will really miss you if you don’t stop by, so please update blog readers, bookmarks, and blog rolls. The site is still under a little maintenance, but after days of nail biting, hair pulling and general chaos…I successfully managed to launch my own blog. Woo hoo!
I have been playing with my new fonts tonight and made up copywork pages for all of the kids. Tee hee. I am a huge dork, I know it. Leave me alone with my nerdiness. 
For Super-boy I chose a poem by Walter de la Mare, which we will be reading tomorrow. This will also be his dictation for this week and next: the-horseman
For Diva I went with a famous nursery rhyme: hey-diddle
Monkey gets some lower-case “a” pratice: a-practice-2
I can’t wait for tomorrow. Today was so amazing. They were happy and motivated and we just breezed right through it all. I think we all missed a little more routine to our days even though the relaxed summer was nice and probably just what we needed. This is going to be a great year, I can tell!
Welcome Back!
Morning Walk.
Artist Study
Math
History
Woo hoo! Day 1 of, how many?? 
I missed pictures of a lot of other things we did today. I was busy teaching! Oh well, maybe another day?
PS – DO NOT go to bed at night with wet hair. Eee Gad!
Well folks, I am in full swing. We are almost ready to start and things are busy, busy, busy for this mama! I am putting books & music on hold at the library, ordering a few books through paperback swap and amazon, perusing the internet for resources related to our topics, and just generally in a planning frenzy! I am getting all those final details pulled together to begin a fresh new school year.
I picked up new markers, glue sticks, and composition books from Walmart the other day. I also bought this white board/calendar to help Diva learn the the months and days of the year. Plus, it makes a perfect place to display our artist prints, and any other little notes I might need for school. Less than $10!
I popped over to Michael’s last night and bought the kids’ lap desks. They were such a good price (2 for $10) and now they will be able to move book work around the house rather than be forced to sit at the kitchen table all the time. They are thrilled and have been drawing all morning and moving from room to room. I think they might be happy. 
I updated the side bar with our studies for Term 1, and I included most of the links to the books or resources we are using. I chose to link books to amazon since it is easy and the site gives plenty of info, as well as reviews. I buy them wherever they are cheapest!
I do have a nice youtube video lined up for our first hymn as well: All the Way my Savior Leads Me.
I am ready to get started and I can’t wait for next Tuesday. I decided to move up our start date from the 8th so I can add in a few field trips without falling behind before the Christmas break. Besides, the kids are asking me every day when we can start school. Hooray!
PS – A big “thank you” shout out to Jacquie for sending us awesome materials from the NOAA and the NIEHS.
PPS – The new blog should be launched VERY soon. Stay tuned!
I am making some changes to my blog. Obviously, the name for one. I am in the process of hosting my blog myself, and unfortunately, homesweethomeschool.com is not available, even though no one is using it. 
Besides, the actual name of our school is Golden Acorn Homeschool. So it’s only appropriate to have that as the name of the blog. Stick with me as a make these changes and hopefully launch the new blog soon!
Peace out!
Becky
I have been contemplating spending $40 to order the Startwrite Software. We do use Handwriting without Tears workbooks for most of our handwriting needs, but the reality is, my kids always need more practice on some letters than these books allow for. Also, in keeping with the Charlotte Mason method, I would prefer them to practice their handwriting skills on sentences from great literature; lines from amazing poems, or from the stories we read on a daily basis. I figured Startwrite would be perfect as it would allow me to make custom handwriting sheets.
Still, deciding to spend $40 (for a homeschooling family on a tight budget), is something that needs to be carefully considered. Do I really need to spend that money? The answer, to my own disappointment, is a resounding no! But it is so tempting to want to buy education things we think we “need.”
So, my dear husband, knowing what I was looking for, decided to help me out. He began an internet search and found these free handwriting fonts: Cursive and Manuscript. And, AND they have the lines!!! This is very important. Kudos to Donna Young for finding and posting them to her site!
Now I can use Word to make as many sheets as I like, and have the kids copy the great literature I was hoping for. All for free! You can’t beat that.
It’s been quite a week. I am in full planning and organizing mode for our upcoming homeschool year, but it is also the last week of my math and English college courses (for the moment, a new composition class starts Monday) and the workload for this last week is pretty heavy. I am definitely not doubling up on my classes again. Whew! I feel like so many crucial things were neglected while I wrestled with geometry and other nasty math concepts. I am really just not a math person.
Beyond the school stuff though, is another interesting conundrum. My dear husband was offered a job at Walt Disney World on Wednesday for The American Idol Experience show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios park. I guess it was the former MGM Studio park. The pay is not stellar, but the opportunity to get into Disney and show them what he’s got is pretty remarkable. They tell him there is tons of room for growth not just in Florida, but the entire Disney company. The benefits are good, we would finally be in a place of our own, (albeit, an apartment), and the cost of living in Florida is considerably less. Did I mention we get unlimited access to all the parks and studios? Yeah, there’s that too.
The move would be entirely up to us, and I am not sure we can swing it right now. It’s all sudden and a lot to think about. *sigh* I covet any prayers and advice anyone has to offer as we crunch numbers and think about this.
I have been busy working this past weekend on our weekly schedule. I use excel and break down the weekly AO readings for each child and add daily Bible, poetry, penmanship (copywork), phonics and math, and then rotate out the other subjects on different days. I do all 36 weeks this way. This year, since I have a 3rd grader doing Year 2 of Ambleside Online, and a kindergartner doing Year 0, I have a lot more to juggle!
I have been moving and rearranging things for a couple of days and now I think I have a schedule I can work with! Thanks goodness, right? September is really creeping up on me!
Here is a screen shot of my excel schedule (click to enlarge).
The lighter colors correspond with Diva (aka Sydni), my 5 year old. The darker colors are for Super-boy (aka Cole), my 8 year old. Purple blocks are AO readings. Blue is math and so on. For Diva, readings with page numbers are from the book “For the Children’s Hour” and the other readings are Beatrix Potter, or selections from the Year 0 book list. Narration is included with the reading selections as we do it immediately after each reading.
Music is hymns, folk songs and recorder practice, alternating as needed. We fit composer study seamlessly into the day, whether it’s in the car, or while we eat, etc. Circle time, as noted, includes Bible together as a family, poetry and we look at our current art print/artists. Sometimes we read a small part of a book about the artist or composer if one is available.
Once I have the basic layout in place, it is very simple to go in and add the AO readings as needed. I don’t label chapters for math since we move at the kids’ pace. I will probably go in and specify nature study topics at a later date, but this is our bare bones schedule and we stick to it pretty well. Each child has time to work with me one-on-one and also have break time while I work with the other.
Bach is our first composer for this upcoming school year, and the wise ladies at Ambleside Online are planning this hymn (by Bach, of course!) for October. I may have to do it in September because it is so beautiful I can hardly stand it.
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”
Jesu, joy of man’s desiring
Holy wisdom, love most bright
Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring
Soar to uncreated light
Word of God, our flesh that fashioned
With the fire of life impassioned
Striving still to truth unknown
Soaring, dying round Thy throne
Additional lyrics:
Through the way where hope is guiding
Hark, what peaceful music rings
Where the flock, in Thee confiding
Drink of joy from deathless springs
Theirs is beauty’s fairest pleasure
Theirs is wisdom’s holiest treasure
Thou dost ever lead Thine own
In the love of joys unknown
If you haven’t yet, mosey your way on over to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival being hosted at Life and Love in Rose Cottage. Lots of great stuff to read!
Also, consider submitting something to the upcoming CM Blog Carnival being hosted at On Our Journey Westward. It’s a “back to school” planning bash on August 19th. YAY for blog carnivals!
