Charlotte Mason Geography Lesson

This year I decided to add Geography to our lessons. Yes, the kids get plenty of Geography from their history studies but I was looking for something a little more relevant for today especially since our time period we will be studying this year is from 30AD to 1799.

With my younger two students I chose to use Ambelside online's Charlotte Mason geography. It is available directly from their website and for Free! Can't beat this. It is a great introduction to Geography and so simple to use. Charlotte Mason breaks it down earth as a planet, days/nights, seasons, hemispheres, etc.

The lesson I will share with you today was from the section about how the earth revolves and rotates. I combined it with the next lesson on poles, axes and hemispheres too.

After reading this section with the kids and demonstrating the concept of rotating and revolving with the kids. I had each one role play the earth and the sun. Spinning around each other slowly.

Next I had them color a picture of our earth. By doing a google search I found a coloring page of the earth.

After they colored their earth pages I had them fold it in half and cut it along the fold. Once that was done. They pasted them onto a piece of construction paper.

From here Dancer who is in fourth grade this year needed to label north and south pole, equator and both hemispheres from her memory. Great way to practice her narration/memory skills. My youngest, Racer told me verbally and pointed while I wrote it for him.


Here is the finished example.


I hope you are able to use this for your homeschooling lessons. Enjoy!

Trouble with Latin

Over the past couple of years I have attempted each year to teach my kids Latin. Each year always facing the same struggle. Our main frustration was trying to find the right Latin curriculum to fit each child and for myself.

This year we set out again with high hopes with a new Latin curriculum....


You ask why teach Latin? You don't need to learn a dead language. Yes, Latin is not a language openly used today but it has roots in many languages used today. It is also found that those that study Latin improve their language proficiency scores and helps them learn other related languages. If your kids love Science or Charlotte Mason styled Nature Studies like mine than Latin becomes quite useful.

Fortunately, the past two curriculums didn't scare my kids away from wanting to. They still have the desire and motivation to learn Latin. I just pray that I can keep up with it and make it an enjoyable subject for them the best I can. Praying that our third try at this will be a charm.

Will keep you updated on our Latin study progress.

Camping in Lake Arrowhead

We had fun this past weekend camping with friends up in our local mountains. Our joining campsites with two other families was a huge child paradise this weekend. The kids had fun building forts, watching birds, grinding nuts for wild animals and using old trees as their playground. There was also plenty of food, laughter and campfire smores.

Charlotte Mason: Artist Tea

Over the past few years I have made a real effort to implement more Charlotte Mason style learning in our home. Here is just one I would like to share with you....

Every Tuesday in our home I host an artist tea. It is very simple and the kids look forward to this every week.

It can be as simple as cookies and tea or a full tea with fancy tea sandwiches, fruit, cookies and tea. I just use what food I have on hand here at home. This time it was taquitos that I cut in half, diced mangoes, carrots and apple juice. It was too warm for tea.

Yesterday, the artist that we discussed was Cimabue (Chee-ma-boo'ay). Cimabue lived in Florence, Italy. He had lived between (1240?-1302). He is considered an artist that helped shape the world. Cimabue is credited with resurrecting the art of painting by using live models, something that was unheard of at the time. He is most noted for having Giotto as his pupil.

This week we studied Madonna Enthroned (1285?).

They shared about the colors and lines. We discussed how painters used halos and why they did.

This painting is over 12 feet high. This was quite a stretch at the time since most were just painted on small canvases. This painting here followed the Byzantine style at the time but he was able to give his paintings a life like feel something that traditional Byzantine styles did not.

Next week we will continue to study Cimabue. I hope you will try to implement an artist tea into your homeschooling day. It is a real treat to any given day.

First Day of School Traditions 09-10 School year

Summer went way too fast again this year. Last week my kids were begging to start school again. Yes... I did say begging. Let me just say this is not always the case. Last week we were pretty much house bound out of choice. I just needed the free time to get things together for school to begin. Summer has been busy days filled with swimming, play dates, VBS, vacation and just leisure days. By God's grace I was able to accomplish all what I needed to finally begin our year.

Here is a brief description of our first day back to school and some traditions to share with all of you.....

We have a few back to school traditions that we do around here. Breakfast is one of them. Usually I make them a fancy breakfast. This year I opted for something different...new. I took them out to a local restaurant. They specialize in breakfast. In fact they serve just about any style of omelet, waffle, pancake or crepe. Absolute yummy! Definitely not a place to go if one is on a diet. The kids loved it and it was a great way to get them back into the routine of waking up early.

Once we got home from breakfast another tradition we have around here is that I take pictures of them with a sign of their current grade level.

I also make a point to measure their height and the kids love to jump on the scale to check how much they weigh. (They are still young...mind you. LOL).

Another neat tradition that we do in our home is to write an welcome letter to the new school year written especially for them. They get a big kick out of this and Daddy usually throws in a small gift.

I hope you had fun reading about our first day. May God bless you with a special school year.

Blessings,

Amy